L.A. Noire gets pushed back to 2011

There has been little said about L.A. Noire since Rockstar formally unveiled it earlier this year, and now it looks like the long-delayed sandbox title won’t be making a 2010 release.

In a statement to investors, Pacific Crest Securities’ Evan Wilson said that retail sources have told him that the title has been delayed.

“We have confirmed the delay of L.A. Noire from fiscal Q4 (Oct.) well into [fiscal] 2011 [November 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011],” he wrote. “As far as we can tell, Take-Two has not shown the game to retailers.”

Wilson doesn’t believe that the delay will hurt Rockstar’s financial forecasts thanks to the continued strong performance by Red Dead Redemption, but he did criticize the studio’s management for what he called a lack of concern for accurately forecasting the completion of major titles.

“In any case, the delays have reinforced the low confidence we have in current management. We continue to have low confidence that management has any idea about when its games will actually be released and believe the confidence that it displays to investors is misplaced,” he wrote.

L.A. Noire was announced way back in 2005, and has since been delayed on numerous occasions. No official announcement from Rockstar or Take-Two Interactive yet, but the relative silence surrounding the game suggests that it has indeed been delayed.

L.A. Noire was originally announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive in 2005, with Rockstar picking up the publishing rights to the title the following year. Rockstar cofounder and creative director Sam Houser is executive-producing L.A. Noire, with Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara (writer and director of The Getaway) serving as director of development.

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