Update: Well, that took all of five minutes before a backer confirmed this news to us and provided us with the upcoming press release.

Project CARS has been delayed on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC until March 17th 2015 in the US and March 20th 2015 in the EU. Two reasons were given for the delay, that of moving away from a “competitive holiday scene dominated by household names” – I’m looking at you, Activision, Ubisoft and Rockstar – as well as giving themselves more time to polish the game and deliver on everything they’re trying to achieve.

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As part of the press release, Head of Studio Ian Bell wrote the following:

Our goal has always been to deliver a landmark title that encompasses the wishes and desires of racing fans from all around the world; something with features and content powered by the community that provide a truly unforgettable and pioneering experience. Whilst a tough decision to make, the change in release date allows the game the greatest chance of success and visibility, and the opportunity to polish the game even further to the high standards that both ourselves and our community demand and expect. We’re eager for you all to see what we’ve been working on in just a few months.

The Wii U version was not mentioned, but has previously been pushed back to 2015 already. I wouldn’t expect it to arrive in March, though.

Our original post follows.

For fans of sim racers, Project CARS has long been a game they’ve looked forward to, particularly as the first of its breed on the PS4. It looks like you’ll have to wait a little while longer though, as news of a delay to the game has leaked out from their backer forum. Apparently, the game has been pushed back on all platforms until next year, which should gain it a little breathing room compared to its currently stated release date of November 18th, which is the heart of an incredibly busy looking month of game releases.

Open only to those that backed the project during its crowdfunding stages, we don’t actually have access to this forum so aren’t able to directly confirm this, but the news has spread to other sites and leaked out via Reddit this early this morning. A thread titled ‘Bad News‘ says for backers to check the WMD forums, before a couple of replies explain that the game has been delayed until March.

While we’ll treat this as a rumour for the time being, we have reached out to Bandai Namco, the game’s distributor, for comment and will update or confirm this when we hear more.

Source: Reddit, NowGamer, and thanks to community member Crazy_Del for the heads up.