Godfather 2, Sims 3, Dragon Age delayed

EA boss John Riccitiello announced delays for The Sims 3, Dragon Age and Godfather 2 during a financial conference call last night.

The Sims 3 had been pencilled in for February, but will now begin shipping to shops around the world from 2nd June - making 5th June a likely date for the Euro launch.

Dragon Age: Origins on PC will move from a pre-April release to a fourth quarter 2009 slot, coinciding with the console launch of the fantasy role-playing game.

And, finally, The Godfather sequel will be elbowed out of February to a slot sometime after April this year.

"We plan to match strong quality with strong marketing, particularly for our top 10 titles," Riccitiello explained to investors, as reported by Seeking Alpha. "Operationally, we expect to improve the way we go to market with our titles, starting earlier to create positive buzz and demand.

"Consistent with this strategy, we have made a decision to move titles including the Sims 3, Godfather 2, and Dragon Age for the PC from Q4 FY09 [ending March 2009] to FY10."

Riccitiello said The Sims 3 decision allows more time to build a marketing campaign "a title like this deserves". He then explained that The Godfather II nudge will help avoid a glut of cut-price early 2009 releases in Europe and North America.

"And Dragon Age, frankly, this is going to sound almost upside down but sometimes too much quality can make you reassess your options," continued Riccitiello.

"So with Dragon Age, this is truly an epic game both in scale, quality, and innovation. And we felt that we could mount a better campaign consolidating Dragon Age PC with console later in the year.

"And yes, that will allow them to polish it even more. So each of them had their own story," he added.