South Park: The Stick of Truth Delayed to March, Gameplay Footage

Thanks to a post on the official Ubisoft’s blog we learn that Obsidian Entertainment and South Park Studios’ South Park: The Stick of Truth has been delayed to March next year, and that apparently the game wasn’t up to the publisher’s standards back when it was acquired from THQ:

Originally scheduled to release this December, South Park: The Stick of Truth will now be available March 4, 2014.

Why the new delay? Well, when Ubisoft picked up the game, we thought: Easy. We’ll put some marketing muscle behind Stick of Truth, toss some additional development resources at it, then take it to the finish line with Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The game’s almost done, anyways so what more could we do?

Apparently, quite a bit more. (Within three weeks after acquiring the game, we sadly realized we had to turn this thing upside down if we hoped to deliver the experience everybody wanted,) says Ubisoft North America’s president Laurent Detoc. (It’s been such a major overhaul to get to the point where we are that we couldn’t let it go, even if that meant missing December.)

South Park’s creators wholeheartedly agree. (We always wanted the game to feel like you’re actually in an episode of South Park,) say Matt Stone and Trey Parker. (Getting the game up to the crappy standards of the show has been a real challenge and we’re excited to say it’s taken way longer than we thought it would.)

Perhaps to wash away the taste of this bad news from our mouths, Ubisoft has also released seven minutes’ worth of gameplay footage on their official channel, featuring the party of South Park boys at the “Inn of the Giggling Donkey”. The footage shows some exploration gameplay, a couple of combat encounters and the game’s seamless use of cutscenes: