Far Cry 3: Should Release Delays Be Outlawed?

So yesterday it was announced that FarCry 3 originally due in September is delayed until 29th November this year for those in the EU and December 4th for the US. As a huge fan of the Far Cry games who was eagerly anticipating the newest instalment I was rather annoyed to hear of this delay to put it politely. This got me thinking though, should developers only announce games when they are near completion and therefore have no need to delay the game, or should there be a governing body in place to make sure release dates are met? As several Google searches have led me to believe that such a thing doesn€™t exist. Let€™s take a look at both options.

Option 1

So looking at the first option of company€™s only releasing games nearer to completion has an immediate con. It€™s the one piece information that gamers want to know the most. Whenever a title people want is announced everybody wants to know when they can get their hands on it. This then doesn€™t really solve our problem of having a date to look forward to and it also keeps us further in the dark. This is something that no one wants when it comes to their favourite titles. One pro this option has is that once an announcement date has been disclosed it would only really be a month or two before the games release and therefore people wouldn€™t have the antagonising wait for said release date that can seem to last an eternity.

Ever felt like something bad is going to happen?

Option 2

The second option sees a governing body overlook all advertised release dates and treat them the same as all other false advertisements cases. This once again brings some interesting pros and cons to the table so let€™s look at maybe the most obvious ones. A pro may be that these developers would create a more realistic date for a release target through fear of being penalised in some way and thus €˜front load€™ the delays meaning that we never even know they are there. The con to this is obviously this is a much more unfriendly way to go about the business and would mean that a game may be put out simply to avoid the penalty and therefore not be to the standard that not only we the consumer expect, but also the developers expect from their titles.

Would you tell this man his game's been delayed?

So with both of my ideas having good and bad points it seems that maybe there is an alternative waiting out there. An alternative that would please both the consumer who wants the best experience for their money but not to be strung along through delays as well as allowing the developers flexibility so that they may perfect their titles. What€™s your opinion? Are developers abusing release dates to drum up publicity? Should there be some kind of governance for these dates that are missed time and time again? Let us know in the comments below! You can follow all of our Far Cry 3 coverage by heading over to our dedicated Far Cry 3 hub-page, for information, features, media and more relating to the game.