Well, I had a feeling this was coming. Gears of War 3 has been officially delayed to Fall 2011, and not for any legit reason. Microsoft had this to say:

“Gears of War 3 promises to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2011,” the Microsoft statement reads. “The teams at Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games have done great work thus far readying the title for release in the Spring of 2011. However, we’ve elected to move the launch of Gears of War 3 until Fall 2011 to make it the marquee title for the holiday season.”

If the game needed more time for development, sure. But just because you’re missing an A-list title for the holiday season? The first half of the year is usually pretty dull, as far as game releases go (though that trend seems to be on its way out, what with so many games being pushed back to early 2011), so it was nice to see a company willing to release a big-name title sometime other than the fall. But, it couldn’t last. Microsoft saw how great Reach was selling, and decided that GoW 3 needed to be in that slot for 2011. Am I disappointed? Sure. Hopefully this gives Epic time to improve some stuff, which is always nice.

But really, I’m just bummed that I have to wait another half-year to find out whether Clayton Carmine will live or die. Ah well, c’est la vie.

Source: IGN