GAA game delay, normal for games industry

An article in to today’s Sports Friday section of the Irish Times newspaper reports that there is “No sign of” the expected exclusive PlayStation GAA computer game.

The article states that the Australian developer’s website had yesterday said “May” of this year. But Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland boss Niall O’Hanrahan told the IT that “There wont be any announcement for the foreseeable future“.

Adding to any confusion, the developer’s company profile page on their site still states May - “IR Gurus is also developing the officially licensed GAA "Gaelic Football" game exclusively for the PS2 format to be released by Sony Computer Entertainment of Ireland in May 2005”. But developers are not known for maintaining their website, the ‘games’ page has for some time listed “mid-2005” for the release.

In addition, setbacks - from weeks to years - are one of the most common things in the games industry, and dates on web pages without recent timestamps should be considered unreliable. Even fresh release dates should be viewed with prudence.

The Irish Times also points to possible problems with GAA players images being used in the game as the GPA, not the GAA, holds the rights to such and have a deal with Frank McNamee, a former Longford player.

The GAA game is most likely to use IR Gurus’ new game engine for their second Australian football game, AFL Live 2005.

Image from IR Gurus’ original AFL Live, for illustration only.

Related news

• GAA Football Computer Game for 2004 (10/2003)