EA whacks The Godfather II release plans, delays game

EA has revealed that The Godfather II won't be making its release later this month, stating that the game will instead arrive at retail during the company's Q1 fiscal period, between April and June '09. While curiously missing a press release announcing the delay (unlike the similarly delayed Sims 3 and Dragon Age), EA CEO John Riccitiello explained that the reason for Godfather II's delay was to generate more excitement about the title, and exercise the company's new focus on longer lead marketing.

It wasn't all marketing, however; the lingering effects of an unusually busy holiday season are also to blame. Says Riccitiello: "To be honest with you, we looked at the title, title feels very solid It will appeal to its audience well and it was likely to ship, as we had originally planned it, into a very cluttered, price reduced excess inventory channel both in North America and Europe in a heavy competitive environment. We didn't think it would get its best shot at success in [fiscal] Q4."

Let's hope the extra time spent marketing the game will give the devs at Redwood Shores some extra time to make the game as buzzworthy as EA is going tell us it is. More on this as it develops.

Reader Comments (35)

Hmm, the game did come out of nowhere. Hopefully the delay gives it some polish, but only time will tell.

I'll translate the delay for you...

EA Guy: "we ain't releasing anything at the same time as KILLZONE2"

lol

This isn't an issue for me as I'm not really planing on getting this, but that does suck for those who are.

@el serpiente:

Whenever I fart, it smells like undigested eggs eaten by a dead skunk. Your point is?

That's 3 delays i've heard of today :/

As long as it doesn't dissopoint, no point generating hype if the game doesn't meet that hype. Would be a wasted year, so heres to the Godfather II :D

hm, this was one of the only games on my buy list. neat I get to keep monies this year!

and no, i'm not too sad about it getting pushed back, I think games don't get enough development time nowadays, so it always makes me happy when they get pushed back really far.

Yeah I also wanted this game, the ps2 version was awesome imo and I couldnt wait to try out the don's view, too bad, but i guess more development time the better it will be

God, are all EA games being delayed or what???

not EA sports, in fact, most the '10 games are ready to ship, numbers on the box art has changed and everything!

Dang I was going to get this because the first one was one of my favorite PS2 games. I understand pushing the game back a little but 2010 is just stupid. I'm glad that I did not pre order. Let's just face it EA just pushed back because of Killzone 2.

It is not pushed back to 2010, read it again:

"EA has revealed that The Godfather II won't be making its release later this month, stating that the game will instead arrive at retail during the company's Q1 fiscal period, between April and June '09. "

My guess is that EA is trying to position themselves for a summer release schedule, just like Capcom is releasing many of theire games in January and February.

How can you read this as anything other than "hey this game (in it's current state) isn't so good"? Either they fix it or they're just going to delay the release so they can pump money into marketing.

I call shinanegans.....they don't want to compete with Halo Wars

That's a long delay for a game that was about to go gold. Well, I think the delay sucks, but, BUT, the fact that they cared enough about their work (and reputation) for a change instead of rushing a product out the door for the sake of the bottom line is heartening.

Having said that, if the game still sucks...

I agree that this sucks to know that a game that must have been near finished is delayed for marketing reasons, however... The same thing happened with Killzone 2, and look at it now! None of us would want to admit it, but I think tne delay really did help the hype.

Now, maybe I'd be much more upset if it was, well, a game I cared more about, but still...

Killzone 1 was a pretty solid game that delivered, and Killzone 2 has been hyped as the next best thing in terms of shooters, and one of the top exclusives of this generation. Godfather 1 was forgettable and mediocre... Godfather 2 looks *more* mediocre. We'll see if the hype helps... I hope the game is decent, I've been looking forward to a mob game.

SPeaking of which, when is Mafia 2 coming out?

EA is not going to wait until the 2010 calander year but until EA's 2010 fiscal year. I believe EA's year-end date is March 31st (if someone knows for sure, please update for me as I am not 100% sure of the date) but it is for sure not December 31, 2009 so I would expect this to come out sometime after April 1 this year.

How much does this have to do with layoffs @ ea?

Mafia 2 is still going to kill this game..

Is EA taking some of Denis Dyack's advice on how games should be marketed?

I never understood why they were making a sequel in the first place. The first one was all right, but after you saw the inside of one bakery or night club it got pretty dam repetitive. Here's hoping that EA does something productive with the game while they sit on it for the next 7 months...

games should be pushed because game play not hype... i mean really the game is coming out this month shouldn't they have come to this point a while back not weeks before. i was looking forward to this too. PSN- boomanchu

I was anticipating this game, but from what I could tell, it probably wouldn't be something to write home about. They're probably shelving it so they can fix a lot of the problems in it, and have a better game out for 2010.

Good. They put virtually no promotion into this, and it looks like it could be a good game.

Delays all around! Well, hopefully some of it is for the better!

At least they confirmed Mass Effect 2!

Still not excited for this game.

Kind of disappointed but oh well, I'll still get it when it comes out.

Can't get excited for this game even though I like the genre of open-worldish games, I love the mob story line, Godfather is my favorite movie, etc., etc... but the game just looks uninspired, empty, and dull. The remake of Miami, or what is supposed to be some miami-like-city, pales in scope to even GTA:Vice City, which came out... what... five years ago?

Everything looks pretty cookie cutter and dull. I'm hoping for a game that'll come out of nowhere and deliver a solid B from fans and reviewers, because I might even like the game more than that... being in the genre and style. But, everything in this just strikes of "meh," especially the reason for the delay ... to hype the game.

"EA has revealed that The Godfather II won't be making its release later this month, stating that the game will instead arrive at retail during the company's Q1 fiscal period, between April and June '09. "

Translation: We didn't want to get raped by RE5 and Killzone 2, so we're going to release the game later when we might have a slight chance of success.

LOL! My thoughts exactly.

This is a shame, although I'll have killzone to keep me busy soon anyway.
Can't complain about them putting some extra work into this one.

The first one rocked my world, I cannot wait to play the sequel.

kinda glad it's going to skip this release "flood" and get the attention it deserves.

EA whacks The Godfather II release plans, delays game

Reader Comments (35)

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