Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance debuts Feb. 19

[UPDATE] A Konami press release confirms that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be out February 19, 2013, in North America, with a European release slated for February 21. Original story follows below.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be on store shelves in Europe on February 21, 2013. Konami announced the news today through its Facebook page, adding that information regarding the game's North American release date is forthcoming.

Previously, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was slated to arrive sometime in early 2013. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 action game is in development at Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Mad World), and its story has changed places in the Metal Gear timeline.

Originally, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was intended to take place before the events of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, showing how the character of Raiden made his transformation into the cyborg ninja of the 2007 PlayStation 3 hit. However, when Platinum Games was attached to the project, the time frame was moved to several years after Metal Gear Solid 4, to a time when cyborgs are becoming more commonplace in the world.

While Metal Gear Solid: Rising was originally intended to showcase a mix of stealth and action gameplay, Revengeance drops the stealth aspect to focus exclusively on action. Konami also dropped the "Solid" from the title to distance itself from the particular brand of stealth action people associate with the Metal Gear Solid series.

Gamers won't need to wait until February 2013 to play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, as a demo for the project is bundled with copies of the Zone of the Enders HD Collection, which is due out sometime later this year.

For more on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.