No Max Payne For You - Until May

Rockstar Games announced today that Max Payne 3 has been delayed from March to May. You may commence weeping.

Console owners (X360 and PS3, anyway) will get their grubby little hands on Max Payne 3 on May 15th, while PC players must wait until May 29th. This puts the game in the month that fans have come to identify as belonging exclusively to Rockstar’s biggest releases. (Both Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire released in the month of May.)

As frustrating as this may be for fans, it’s a far bigger deal for publisher Take Two Interactive, because it moves Max out of Take Two’s fiscal year. Their fiscal calendar begins in April and run through March. Accordingly, Take Two is now expecting to post a loss for the current fiscal year.

Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says of the delay, “We do not take changes to our release schedule lightly, and this short delay will ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest quality, groundbreaking entertainment experience that is expected from our company.”

There are any number of possible reasons why the game was delayed. Maybe Rockstar simply wanted to put it into its favorite month of the year, as I mentioned above. Maybe the game needs a final polish and just won’t be ready by March. Maybe Rockstar wanted to clear out of March to avoid conflict with other big-name brands; already scheduled for March of 2012 are expected hits like Mass Effect 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Street Fighter x Tekken, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, and Ninja Gaiden 3.

Until today, it was widely believed throughout the industry that Rockstar might release Grand Theft Auto V this May, but now that seems unlikely.