West not getting Bayonetta until next year

Japan may have just recently gotten good news about Bayonetta (PS3 and Xbox 360), but gamers in the West aren’t quite as lucky. According to Sega, we’ll all have to wait until January of next year for the game’s release.

Japan may have just recently gotten good news about Bayonetta (PS3 and Xbox 360), but gamers in the West aren’t quite as lucky. According to Sega, we’ll all have to wait until January of next year for the game’s release.

Sega’s reasoning is similar to the one offered by Quantic Dream for the Heavy Rain delay. They’re putting off the launch to make sure Bayonetta doesn’t get lost in the flood of new titles coming out this year.

“Bayonetta is an extremely important new IP for SEGA and adds a new level of depth to our growing portfolio,” said Sega West president and COO, Mike Hayes. “As a result of market analysis we have taken a Publishing decision that January 2010 is the optimum release time in the Western Markets to maximize this exciting new title’s potential.”

It’s a sound decision, actually, considering that Bayonetta is a new IP. That doesn’t make me any less sad though. Importers will still be able to get the game when it launches in Japan on October 29.

• Bayonetta gets official Japanese launch date, pre-order bonus
• Christmas time is too ‘crowded’, 2010 is the ‘right time’ for Heavy Rain

Via Kotaku