L.A. Noire officially delayed

1940s detective game L.A. Noir has been delayed to "the first half of calendar 2011", Take-Two has announced.

Publisher Rockstar Games previously said it was due out this autumn. L.A. Noir was originally announced in 2005.

The confirmation comes as no surprise: rumour of the game's delay hit the internet in July.

In L.A. Noir players rise through the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department as they interrogate criminals and other shadey characters.

Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara reckons the development team's "defeated the uncanny valley", so good are the character's faces.

During a question and answer session following Take-Two's Q3 earnings call this evening, chairman Strauss Zelnick explained the delay.

"Obviously when we schedule a title, we're trying to be mindful of at least two issues. First, how long does it take to put out an a plus title? When you're trying to do something ground breaking, it can take a while.

"We have tried very hard to balance appropriately a desire to have a rational release schedule with a desire to put out triple-A titles.

"Every time we push the envelope creatively, it takes a while. In this particular instance, I'm not going to disclose all the advancements, they're pretty extraordinary, they are complex and worth waiting for.

"Equally, we do try to pick the right marketing window. That is important. One of the things we're proud of around here is we've extended the marketing window. We've shown the market if you put something fantastic out people will come out for it. That's for pretty much year round.

"That said we do want to be mindful of what the competition is doing and we don't want to stack up a release unnecessarily. These are expensive products. One of the things we found with Red Dead to our happiness is we were able to crowd out some of the competition because the best title in the market won the day."

Feder added: "We get criticised often for title movement and not being on time and on budget. I've pointed out in the past that Red Dead Redemption took down any number of titles and was both on budget and on time.

"If a title needs more time it needs more time and we're willing to give it. I will say about L.A. Noir that as I look around competitively at the marketplace, there is nothing else quite like it in terms of the gameplay and the technology behind it. We want to make sure we get it absolutely right."

A trailer released in September last year is below.