So the news it a little late in coming. Winback 2 was supposed to have shipped earlier this week, but KOEI has decided to let the release slip by just a week to next Tuesday, the 25th. Why, you ask? Because that's just how KOEI rolls, man.

The move doesn't appear to be anything directly related to the game itself (the version we played recently was all but complete), so we're willing to bet it was just a casual decision. Or was there something more... sinister going on?

Apparently, vicious, bloodthirsty pirates, intent on finding and stealing the 86 sacks of Redbeard's gold that KOEI keeps locked 36 floors below the surface of their Burlingame-based US headquarters, stormed the place. Now, ordinarily, KOEI keeps a tight lid on this gold, locked behind 45 inches of solid titanium, and guarded by a small army of rabid ninja monkeys. Thing is, the monkeys were on lunch break, enjoying delicious banana sorbet (it cools and refreshes!), and the pirates nearly got in before getting gunned down by the automated turrets.

And that's why the game was delayed.