Sony has delayed Motorstorm Apocalypse in Japan and is considering doing the same in Europe following the disaster in Japan.
Now it looks like the delay could be carried over to other regions, as an SCEE rep has told GameSpot UK that the game's Euro release is "under discussion at the moment."
The third game in the series is currently due to release in UK this Friday, and in US on April 12.
As reported earlier, Yakuza: Of the End has also been delayed along with Marvel Vs. Capcom 3's Jill and Shuma DLC, and publisher Irem has outright cancelled Disaster Report 4.
Comments
37 comments so far...
Imaduck on 14 Mar '11 said:
Japan - Understandable
Europe - Wtfbbq
slaney on 14 Mar '11 said:
I'd feel bad playing a game about cities being ripped apart, while the Japanese are actually experiencing it
my thoughts are with those in Japan.
flash501 on 14 Mar '11 said:
Christ, when I saw the headline I was wondering how the hell the game could get delayed this close to it's supposed release date. The link between the game and the disaster in Japan never even dawned on me until I read the article. I suppose it would be in pretty bad taste to release it so soon after it happened.
DAEDALUS79 on 14 Mar '11 said:
Didnt see the connection until I read the article, as has been previously said it seems pretty distasteful to release a game like that so close to an ongoing disaster
higgins78 on 14 Mar '11 said:
Whats to discuss? Cancel the game indefinitely! What are we talking about here, a crappy driving game! My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the tragedy currently happening in Japan.
rbt2 on 14 Mar '11 said:
My total sympathies go to the people of Japan but let's not start pandering to The Daily Mail readers of this world.
Somewhere right now a film is being screened depicting a natural disaster...One of the Sky movie channels is probably showing one now.
Games depicting war are released whilst our soldiers are losing their lives in the Afghan conflict.
How ever cruel it is, life goes on.
flash501 on 14 Mar '11 said:
True, I don't for one second think it should get a big delay but I have no problem with them delaying it for a month or two. Sony are a Japanese company after all, and I believe more than one of their factories has been damaged/destroyed in all of this.
djreplay on 14 Mar '11 said:
Well said. *Applauds*
gmcb007 on 14 Mar '11 said:
At first I was confused why it was delayed in europe and then I remembered what the theme of the game was. Anyone complaining about the delay can p*ss off and be grateful that they didn't have to go through the horrible things in Japan and have some respect for them.
gmcb007 on 14 Mar '11 said:
At first I was confused why it was delayed in europe and then I remembered what the theme of the game was. Anyone complaining about the delay can p*ss off and be grateful that they didn't have to go through the horrible things in Japan and have some respect for them.
pmantis on 14 Mar '11 said:
Couldn't have said it better myself. I don't think theres anyone who doesn't feel for the people of japan right now but life and commerce have to go on regardless of whats in the public eye.
rbt2 on 14 Mar '11 said:
A knee jerk reaction....made twice! Are you a Mail reader?
I'm sure the Japanese have enough on their plates without giving a s**t whether or not some poxy game is released the other side of the world.
Btw, I have no intention of buying this and I'm sure that the majority that will own this game, i.e kids, won't even be aware of the tragedy that's on-going.
gmcb007 on 14 Mar '11 said:
Huh what? I wasn't having a go at you I was just saying about anyone who is p**sed off at the delay and are complaining about it e.g like you said the unaware kids
L1NGARD on 14 Mar '11 said:
I can totally understand why they would do this. This is a terrible thing thats happened and i think its fair enough that Sony delay the release. I don't think the Japenese would think to highly of Sony if they went ahead and released it. Also there giving a fair amount of cash and aid away to help out so that would seem even more wrong. Sony are only thinkin about there people right now which i think we should respect them for. I'm sure alot of people who work for them have family etc where this tragidy hit the hardest. If this happened here i'm sure we as gamers would all feel the same in some way.
Wakamusha on 14 Mar '11 said:
Oh come on. This title is highly fictional, it's got no bearing on any disaster currently going on in the world. It would be like me not picking up a 3DS at launch because it was made in Japan. Just silly. There are much better ways people can focus their energy in order to help rather than delaying this title.
WingZeroSys on 15 Mar '11 said:
Are Sega going to delay Yakuza 4 seeing how it's set in japan? What about Okamiden?
Will there be any decent games out this week other than Homefront?
I truly feel for japan but now it seems like we're being affected because of the disaster, ok delay Motorstorm Apocalypse as it's about natural disasters, etc, but please don't delay every game that's due this week as I'm getting bored and need some new games until I can afford a pitbike.
Will Final Fantasy Dissidia 012 and the 3DS be delayed next week?
TheLastDodo on 15 Mar '11 said:
To be fair there are earthquakes in the game so it does relate to the disaster Japan is facing now, now I'm not gonna say Sony should postpone it or whatever, it is a very hard decision to make. If it was my decision I would probably delay it in Japan and leave it as it is everywhere else that was unaffected first hand by this disaster. Whether you like it or not, releasing the game in Japan at this point in time is pretty much rubbing their noses in it.
JamesAndTaxes on 15 Mar '11 said:
I'll just tell all those folks who enlisted to be in the Japanese earthquake that it's OK, life goes on then. Seriously next time you go and make a stupid comparison like that just stop, pull your head out of your arse and turn your internet off.
360_Fan on 15 Mar '11 said:
I hope sony are doing this for the right reasons, and not because they want to maximise sales.
craiglackenby on 15 Mar '11 said:
Release it and donate a small amount from each game sold to the cause
Ali_ on 15 Mar '11 said:
To 360_Fan, Sony can't win with people of that opinion. If they release it, they're being insensitive, if they don't, somehow you think they're trying to maximise sales? WTF? I'd imagine that large numbers of SCEJ employees have been affected directly by the weekend's events, some may even have lost their lives. Of course they're going to delay the launch of this. I hope they take the time to remove the unnecessary pedestrians that can be run over as well. This is Motorstorm, not Carmageddon.
rbt2 on 15 Mar '11 said:
So you're in the pile marked 'knee jerk overreactionnary' then?
The cynic in me would think that the game's maker is considering a delay not out of respect but to avoid sensationalist headlines in newspapers that people like you obviously read so as not to make any adverse publicity.
That's the thing with disasters like these. All the hand-wringing idiots come out of their hidey-holes and try to make an issue where there shouldn't be one.
@craiglackenby-great idea.
rbt2 on 15 Mar '11 said:
There have also been 2 horrific nuclear explosions in Japan due to the earthquake.
Are games with explosions being delayed?
gnokgnik on 15 Mar '11 said:
I bought this game on march 12th. The store obviously sold this title too early. Anyway, it rocks!
But I must admit it was a bit strange playing it while having the news from Japan all over the news. I've almost finished the Festival story part by now.
nuggit3000 on 15 Mar '11 said:
As a big fan of Motorstorm and a bigger fan of Pacific Rift, I read the headline and thought the devs have realised how s**t the 3rd game is and have taken it back to the drawing board.
I had never realised the comparison between the game and real life events, but its definately good taste to delay the game.
I only hope they'll us this time to make the game good and release a huge patch for copies of the game already oput there
rub_my_rhubarb69 on 15 Mar '11 said:
I understand them wanting to be sensitive to the issues in Japan, and it is a touchy subject releasing entertainment based on a natural disaster, when something similar is occuring/has occured at the time of its release.
Having said that, does this mean that there can be no war games set in the desert, when there are soldiers fighting in Afghanistan?
No fighter plane games when Libya is flying planes over to bomb its own people?
There's a fine line that needs to be walked between insensitive, and being overly sensitive.
wrightandrewjame on 15 Mar '11 said:
I'm not being nasty here because what happened in Japan was awful but there wasn't this consideration when people died in Christchurch just a little while ago was there? There are natural disasters everywhere and unfortunately they seem to be happening all the time. I can understand that it's not in good taste and a lot of games were delayed when the 9/11 terrorist attack happened, but surely one eye should be on their economy too. A lot of the games themselves will be produced outside of Japan so there would be no logistical reason to delay it, but of course I understand the sensitive nature of the game's content.
How soon is too soon though? When is it right to release this game? Who's to say there's not another major earthquake, this time actually where the game is set (on the west coast of the US) in a few months time heaven forbid? It's a rather tricky situation.
GunstarHeroX on 15 Mar '11 said:
It's a work of fiction. I see no reason why they shouldn't release this on time anywhere in the world.
sonic_uk on 15 Mar '11 said:
I was going to say something along those lines but you beat me to it friend.
I have nothing but sympathy for the poor Japanese people, but the game is set in a fictional city and has nothing to do with recent events. Maybe delay the game in Japan as there are far more important things going on right now over there, but I don't think it should be delayed elsewhere. Will every film, or game that contains scenes of a destroyed city be delayed? Will Tv channels stop showing films, disaster movies that are totally unrelated? If this starts how far will it go?
It is a terrible thing thats happened to a lovely bunch of people and I have been thinking of them all the time over the past few days to be honest, but you can't put everything else thats got a coincidence in it on hold in the rest of the world because of that. Why not release the game in Europe and the States and donate a percentage of the profits to Japan and help those people? I would happily pay a little more for the game if it would help their cause.
Regardless, I wish the people of Japan a speedy and safe recovery and hope the good lord will look after and help them recover from this terrible disaster.
TheLastDodo on 15 Mar '11 said:
@rbt2: Put yourself in their position dude, thats all i'm saying. I'm more concerned about Japan rebuilding itself than a possible delay of a s**tty racing game.
joe12491 on 15 Mar '11 said:
The game will have a delayed release in the UK which has been confirmed by motorstorm's community manager vua his twitter feed.
http://twitter.com/#!/MotorstormUK
rbt2 on 15 Mar '11 said:
You've missed my point completely.
The delay of something as frivilous as a game being delayed in Europe will have no effect on the people of Japan whatsoever. However, as was previously mentioned, releasing the game with a contribution given to a disaster fund for each copy sold woulld go some way to best serving the victims.
Read posts and digest them properly before replying to them eh?
flash501 on 15 Mar '11 said:
No offence but you sound like a massive attention seeker. We're not stupid, we all know how horrific this whole situation is, all we're doing is discussing if delaying the game is the right thing to do. Calm yourself down, eh?!
slaney on 15 Mar '11 said:
Don't be a muppet. Majority of games have explosions - that's not as related to Japan as, say, a game set in cities that are falling apart due to natural disasters..
I only think this is right because its for Motorstorm; delaying other games because of the earthquake is needless.
obviously this is my opinion. I just see this as insensitive when we're talking about thousands of civillians who have lost their lives, and although they may have better things to be thinking about than games, its still a sign of respect, no?
rbt2 on 15 Mar '11 said:
See that underlined bit? That's the only bit of your post you got right. Except you should've used an exclamation mark instead of a question mark.
Hang on, I've contradicted meself there. None of your post was right then!
slaney on 15 Mar '11 said:
you're abit of a pretentious t**t, aren't you
i stated its my own opinion, so i would say yeah, my entire post was correct.
and i was asking you if you thought it deserved respect, hence the question mark.
c**t.
rbt2 on 15 Mar '11 said:
Always the sign of an idiot that, innit? Resorting to abuse.
And I knew exactly what you were on about by using a question mark, no?
Anyhoo, call me what you like.
Just don't call me late for dinner.