BioShock Infinite delayed to 2013

BioShock Infinite will not ship this October as previously announced. Take-Two Interactive today announced that Irrational Games' upcoming first-person shooter will now be released on February 26, 2013.

In a statement, Irrational Games creative director Ken Levine explained that the extra development time will afford the studio an opportunity to pursue new game ideas.

"When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing," he said. "Since then, we've uncovered opportunities to make Infinite into something even more extraordinary. Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need to deliver the best Infinite possible, we've decided to move the game's release to February."

In an update to the Irrational Games website, Levine also explained that BioShock Infinite will not be shown at this summer's Electronic Entertainment Expo and GamesCom.

"That way, the next time you see our game, it will be essentially the product we intend to put in the box," he explained. "Preparing for these events takes time away from development."

When BioShock Infinite does ship, it will do so with great sales expectations. In August 2011, one analyst suggested the game would be a significant financial boon for Take- Two, saying it could ship 4.9 million copies.

BioShock Infinite is set in Columbia, a flying city in an early alternate 20th century where utopian ideals have given way to chaos in a sea of weaponry, plasmid-like powers, and political upheaval. Into this mess steps the game's protagonist, Booker DeWitt, a former member of the feared Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which was America's largest security company in the late 19th century. According to GameSpot's latest preview, DeWitt will enter a world where steampunk robots have replaced horses and people, and where crazed citizens foment revolution with strange powers--and lots of guns.