If you look at movies, when movies get delayed, that usually means there are serious problems. For example, the wolf man, it was suppose to come out last october, it recently came out and disapointed us all. Most companies release ok (nothing special) movies, for a movie to be delayed does that mean that it is below average?

Of course there are exceptions such as Alan Wake, God of War 3 Etc. But if you look at Too Human, lair etc, they came out and disappointed us.

So does delays=bad game?

No, Delays = better game

BTW, God of War 3 was never delayed and I don't know about AW...

didnt they tell us it would be out spring 2009? then they said winter 2009, and now they said this year

If that's the case then GT5 is gonna suck balls :P

BATMAN!!!!!!

MGS 4 and many more

In many of these cases where the release dates aren't announced, they're of course delayed internally, and that is going to have the same effect, even if their date does not change publicly. But if a game is going to be bad, then a delay can help solve the problem, but delays can also compound the problem if the game design is fundamentally misguided, so it depends

If you release a bad game on time, it'll be bad forever. I say delay and release a good game if the quality requires it.

Well, it depends on why the game is bad. If it is bad because of poor level design, that level design is still going to be porr because the same designers are working on it, if it is just bad ideas, they will still be bad. Obviously, if it is just buggy and has a poor frame rate then delaying it would be the best solution

Delays aren't always for the same reason. Some games/movies are delayed because at some point someone steps up and says, "guys this is crap, we can't possibly release this". Other times I think it's because the developer's ambitions for the game haven't quite been matched by development resources.

it depends, but it seems that when games get delayed they need more time to fix stuff they believe could be better in the game

Delays = outdated game

Technology advances so quickly that what impresses us in a preview of a game may be totally outdated by the time the actual product hits the market.

But, like Zen said, if you release a game early and it sucks, there's no re-do. There's a balance. Innovation in a timely manner. At some point, you have to say okay.