Platinum Games, the developers behind Bayonetta and Vanquish, have released a statement on their blog about the North American and European release of their anticipated online multiplayer brawler, Anarchy Reigns.

“Sega has decided to change the date to TBC. While our work on the game is finished, localized, and ready to go, as publisher, Sega gets to make the final decision as to when it is released. The Japanese release date, however, remains unchanged for July 5, 2012.”

Reading between the lines, it feels as if there are many at Platinum who are not too happy with this decision. On a video blog, a representative from the developer expanded on the original post:

“That means ‘to be confirmed’, not ‘to be cancelled’. We worked really hard to make sure everybody could get the game on time. The game is fully localized. If you buy the Japanese version or any version, it’s going to have all the languages in it. We really wanted everybody online around the world to play together at the same time, but unfortunately that’s not going to happen… We’re still 100 percent behind the game and we still want to connect with you and play with you and have a good time. So let’s make sure that happens no matter what bad news we get.”

With Platinum essentially pushing people to buy an imported version, and the admission of impending bad news from their own blog, could mean that they fully expect TBC to mean “to be cancelled” after all. This, coupled with those pesky rumours that Sega has already cancelled Bayonetta 2, will undoubtedly lead to speculation that the partnership between Platinum and Sega is also about to be terminated.

[Source: Platinum Games]