Like the header suggests, this is Delaying-Anarchy-Reigns levels of stupid. Previously Rayman Legends was slated to release on the Wii U on February 26th. Ubisoft then announced that the game would go multiplatform, no longer being a Wii U exlusive. I see no problem with this as I still don’t own a Wii U (yet) and might have a better chance getting it for my PS3. Plus, more people get to play the game. Then came the announcement immediately afterward that the game would be delayed to September 2013. Woah! That’s a deep delay, almost as deep as Anarchy Reigns‘ delay.

But to me, this doesn’t make any sense for two reasons. 1) The Wii U version is essentially done (given how close the release was). Just give Wii U owners their game and we’ll wait for ours. If anything, like I said in the comments of this youtube video, the time between the Wii U release (if it was still set) and the PS3/360 version could be used to evaluate any feedback they get from the community on Wii U and apply it to the future versions of the game. And, if they can, they can apply those as a firmware update for the Wii U version.

And 2) The month they decided to delay the game to is the same month as Grand Theft Auto V, which releases on September 17th. GTA is massive franchise, consistently selling over millions of copies with each iteration after III. Here we have a rather niche but much beloved platformer from a franchise that enjoyed a healthy rerbith, versus a gigantic megaseller that will outright pulverize any hype and publicity Rayman (or any small game around that time) will have. It’s even pointed out by the Miiverse Community in the youtube link above, and some are planning on getting GTA V that month. And lets not forget the possibility of the the Xbox Durango/Ps4 getting released during this time. Any earlier month, probably July/August might’ve sufficed. Ubisoft better hope GTA V gets delayed out of September, ’cause it ain’t gonna be pretty otherwise.

Now I can understand a simultaneous release of the game from a marketing perspective. Advertising the game twice, once for Wii U and again for the 360/PS3, might be somewhat costly compared to advertising the game once. But I’m certain word of mouth from the Wii U community might’ve been enough to garner hype for the game and do some of the work for Ubisoft’s marketing for the second time. But as it stands, Ubisoft might be shooting themselves in the foot with that September release. And ya gotta feel for the Wii U community over this delay. We sure did for Anarchy Reigns…

[Update] The developers are pretty pissed off about this delay too.