Surprise: Max Payne 3 Delayed Until May

Given Max Payne 3's development cycle thus far, this announcement was about as predictable as the sun going down in the evening: Rockstar Games has announced that it has delayed Max Payne 3 until May

by Sammy Barker Tue 17th Jan 2012

Rockstar's confirmed that Max Payne 3 is set to hang out in the shadows a little longer.

The game was originally due out in March.

The new launch window — without a specific date, we should clarify — puts Rockstar back into familiar territory, where it has enjoyed great success with Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire over the past couple of years.

For business types though, the news is bad. The delay means that Take Two now expects to make a net loss for the fiscal year ending March 31st.

We do not take changes to our release schedule lightly, and this short delay will ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest quality, groundbreaking entertainment experience that is expected from our company, said Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

Max Payne 3 promises to be one of our most exciting releases to date, and we are confident that consumers will once again be amazed by Rockstars ability to take interactive entertainment to another level.

Are we allowed to say that we're kind of glad that Max Payne 3's been delayed? Don't get us wrong, we're looking forward to the game — but there's so many other titles coming out in February and March, we're happy to get a bit of space between the big releases.

Update @ 15:01PM GMT: Rockstar's just confirmed that Max Payne 3 will release on May 15th in North America and May 18th in Europe.