Ridge Racer Unbounded

Namco cause immense confusion with US Ridge Racer Unbounded launch

Ridge Racer Unbounded is out today in the US – that is what Namco say in their latest US-centric press release at least.

We are excited to have racing fans unleash their destructive prowess against friends and foes online in Ridge Racer Unbounded ,” said Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing,  Namco BandiI Games America Inc. “With a greater focus on demolition and high octane destruction, Ridge Racer Unbounded  takes the franchise to new heights in racing mayhem.”

This is not surprising, as many games release in the US on a Tuesday. What is confusing is that a week or so back, Namco released a press release that many sites (GamespotShacknews, and Joystiq) reported on.

It had info that the game would not meet its original release date, and would instead be release “later in 2012.” It went onto say a new date would be given “shortly,” and that Namco would give Bugbear, the developer, “additional time to pack the disc with features that will truly make the game sing.

Then everything went quiet until today, with no new date given from Namco. However, with the game’s release supposedly in limbo, many US and Canadian gamers are now reporting seeing it on shelves in the country – and some already have the game in-hand.

It was only at this point that Namco released the above PR, with the company’s Vice President of Marketing saying the game is in fact out. This led to even more confusion at retailers, with reports that some Best Buy’s have no idea that game even exists.

The game will hit Euro shelves this coming Friday (March 30th) – at least we hope it will. There was never a confusing press release for gamers on this side of the pond at least.