Let’s do this, okay: When a new game first announces a release date, let’s just go ahead and ignore it. Wasn’t it Einstein who said the very definition of insanity was filling a balloon with kittens and then severing off your own leg? So it is that BioShock: Infinite has declared it won’t be with us this year at all. They’re now looking at February next year.

Despite still being over five months away, Levine has said that it wasn’t enough time to make the “specific tweaks and improvements” the game needs. The new date is set as the 26th February 2013, which is, by my estimation, ages away. Especially since I confidently predict another delay will be announced on January 14th to say it will be out in May.

Levine, in a pretend-personalised mass-mail-out attempts to garner empathy by pointing out they delayed the original BioShock for the same reasons,

“I won’t kid you: BioShock Infinite is a very big game, and we’re doing things that no one has ever done in a first-person shooter. We had a similar experience with the original BioShock, which was delayed several months as our original ship date drew near. Why? Because the Big Daddies weren’t the Big Daddies you’ve since come to know and love. Because Andrew Ryan’s golf club didn’t have exactly the right swing. Because Rapture needed one more coat of grimy Art Deco. The same principle now applies to BioShock Infinite.”

It also means it won’t be showing at E3 and GamesCom, which is surprising since they’ve shown off plenty of content previously. But Levine explains preparing for those takes time away from development. Something a lot of developers will sympathise with, and then punch someone when they realise their publisher wouldn’t let them get away with that excuse. It also means there’s no big show that will reveal anything new before the release date.