When Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski announced Gears of War 3 live on the Jimmy Fallon show it was slated for an 8 April 2010 release. Needless to say, nobody was too upset when this date was later corrected to 5 April. Gears of War 3 three days early – w00t

Erm, that’s actually not right either. Add those three days back on, and then maybe add a few months too. Sorry.

Today Microsoft shifted the release date of Gears 3 to the Autumn of 2011. That’s around a year from now.

This delay had nothing to with with development but everything to do with marketing unfortunately. With the title more aptly poised for a November release Microsoft and Epic will be nicely situated the command a large portion of Christmas game sales. Unarguably a good business decision, but one likely to sting many hardcore fans of the series.

Why decide to reveal this to the world now? Who knows? Sorry Gears junkies, at least you’ve got around a year to get over the disappointment.