Alpha Protocol - More Delay Signs?

If you recall, most online retailers quietly shifted Alpha Protocol to late October a couple of weeks ago. Kotaku has noticed a couple of them have shifted again…8 months, this time. Gamestop, for example, now list June 2010. It's not official until it's official, of course.
More information.

That would be worrying, especially given Obsidian's less-than-stellar record regarding technical quality. It'll also screw up their marketing, since they've been clearly ramping up the hype for release some time around now.

They seem to have been startng to gear down in terms of marketing … so hopefully this delay will work ok for them. I'd rather wait for a solid game then get crap now.

I'm surprised that the delay is this long, but it's all right. It might be a smart business decision. I personally would not have bought the game new on 10/27, but I might buy it new if it releases during the early summer slump of next year.

Fortunately there are other RPGs to keep me busy until then.

I think that moving to Q2 is smart because so many games have been pushed to Q1 '10.

Oh, I'd much rather have a solid game then than crap now, it's not like there's nothing coming out right now. It's just that late-stage delays are usually bad news in most ways — budget, marketing, quality.

I think these delays stem from the console version. Because 'release the game patch later' policy do not fit well to the consoles. The delay of Risen and Divinity 2's Xbox 360 versions also show this to us.

Another 8 months? This game was originally supposed to be shipped in February 2009! The graphics is already massively outdated, it certainly won't look better in summer 2010. Obsidian has some bad luck with the Sega projects.

A 8 month delay? First Dragon Age and now Alpha Protocol. I'm used to a few month delay, but 8 months?

Still, I guess they couldn't of done it during a better year. There will be plenty of games out there to tide people over while they fix the problems.

Originally Posted by srabuseen
Another 8 months? This game was originally supposed to be shipped in February 2009! The graphics is already massively outdated, it certainly won't look better in summer 2010. Obsidian has some bad luck with the Sega projects.

Last February? I didn't know it was originally supposed to be released that early. Still, I would rather have a polished game later than a buggy game sooner.

Makes me wonder if the preview/reviews might have been correct, not RPG'y enough. Could explain why the dev team reacted to quickly to the statements made then a week later, delay.

Ya, if this is true, we all will have a lot more time to dissect Risen, Divinity 2 and Dragon Age. I'd be disappointed otherwise.

Not a good sign. Probably best business decision if the product is not solid but this delay and the Aliens RPG cancellation sounds like bad times for obsidian. I really only had my eye on DA:O but was willing to pick this up if reviews were moderately good. Anyway I hope they pull it together, put out a good game and get to work on the next big thing.

I don't know if I would trust gamestop since they pretty much arbitrarily choose release dates and change release dates and have seen this kind of thing before where they change the release date and then it comes out on the original release date.

PS. I think it would be a bad move to release it so late since that is around the time or not long before they are planning to release Fallout: New Vegas and it is bad to compete with yourself.

Originally Posted by Acleacius
Makes me wonder if the preview/reviews might have been correct, not RPG'y enough. Could explain why the dev team reacted to quickly to the statements made then a week later, delay.

Can you point you point me to these previews/reviews? I post a lot of them here and I don't remember that accusation - quite the opposite; I could point you to dozens of previews discussing the choices and consequences. Unless you mean the one sentence from a Sony tester with completely unknown context.

I'm not suggesting the delay is a good sign of the game's current condition but "not RPG'y" enough doesn't seem the likely cause to me.

Originally Posted by guenthar
I don't know if I would trust gamestop since they pretty much arbitrarily choose release dates and change release dates and have seen this kind of thing before where they change the release date and then it comes out on the original release date.

PS. I think it would be a bad move to release it so late since that is around the time or not long before they are planning to release Fallout: New Vegas and it is bad to compete with yourself.

I disagree. Retailers make dates up a long way from release but as you get closer, they usually work off official publisher and distie lists/information. When I had my store, I could look directly online at the stock of the distribution centre for Interplay, for example. I'm sure mistakes are made on both sides but Gamestop want to encourage pre-orders - they generally aren't going to move to 8 months out just for the heck of it; it's not good for business.

And why assume New Vegas has any sort of reliable date when we haven't even seen the first screen yet?

Dhruin: I believe this is the news bit about that Acleacius was referring to.

I am upset with this possible development. But given the fact that the publisher is Sega, I am not overly shocked…

Originally Posted by leth
Dhruin: I believe this is the news bit about that Acleacius was referring to.

I am upset with this possible development. But given the fact that the publisher is Sega, I am not overly shocked…

The link will stop working in a day or two. Is it so hard to use the permalink at the bottom right of the newsbit? For whatever reason nobody does.

Because only after you mentioned it, did I noticed the Permanent link for the first time
I fixed the link. Thanks for pointing that out.

Originally Posted by leth
Dhruin: I believe this is the news bit about that Acleacius was referring to.

Isn't that exactly what I said? One sentence from a Sony tester does not constitute previews and reviews.