Red Dead Redemption 2 delayed again

Red Dead Redemption 2 finally has a release date, but it's a little further away than expected. Rockstar Games today announced that the title will miss its previously announced spring release window, and will now launch on October 26.

"We apologize to everyone disappointed by this delay," the company said on its blog. "While we had hoped to have the game out sooner, we require a little extra time for polish. We sincerely thank you for your patience and hope that when you get to play the game, you will agree the wait will have been worth it."

This is the second time the game has been pushed back. It was originally announced with a fall 2017 release window, but the company abandoned that window last May, saying it needed extra time to deliver the best possible experience.

That delay left Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive without a major release in 2017 apart from its annualized NBA and WWE titles. While one might expect that slim a release slate to produce poor financial results for the publisher, the strength of recurrent consumer spending in the NBA series and Rockstar's four-year-old Grand Theft Auto Online helped offset financial downsides of the Red Dead delay.

Take-Two expects to weather this delay as well as it did the last one. Minutes after the Red Dead Redemption 2 delay was announced, Take-Two reiterated its financial forecast for the coming fiscal year, saying it still expects to post a company record $2.5 billion in bookings and $700 million in net operating income, driven by the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 and "a highly anticipated new title from one of 2K's biggest franchises."