Far Cry 3, Ubisoft's forthcoming descent into insanity (in video game form) has been quietly delayed into early December. While the game was originally set to release in only a few short months, on September 9th, apparently Ubisoft needed a little more time to fine-tune and perfect.

Now the game will be releasing on December 4th in the US and on November 30th in Europe. It's a significant wait when looking at the previous release date, but at least the game wasn't delayed into 2013 like a whole slew of games.

Ubisoft was not willing to fully comment on the nature of this delay, but Producer Dan Hay says, "[They're] taking more time to create the best possible gameplay experience."

A delay into December, however, has the potential of being a kiss of death for Far Cry 3, seeing as how it will miss the Black Friday shopping rush. Games like Star Wars: The Old Republic, which released mere days before Christmas, found success, but that was a much larger property, and arguably a more hotly anticipated title. Only time will tell whether Far Cry 3 will be able to survive amidst so many Fall releases.

From what we've seen of the game thus far, though, Far Cry 3 appears to be equal parts open-world sandbox of carnage and compelling tribal-themed narrative. Our own Rob Keyes has spent significant time with the game and its developers learning all of its ins and outs, and has provided significant coverage on everything from the aforementioned exploration of insanity to the game's completion time.

Far Cry 3 might have slipped a few more months out of reach, but that doesn't detract from our enthusiasm for the game in the slightest. It might not have shown as well at E3 2012 as it did at the year's prior show, but that's only because this year's demo focused on some of the more 'out there' qualities of the game. Regardless, Far Cry 3 still has the potential to be really great.

How do you feel about Far Cry 3 being delayed into early December? Will a late 2012 release date hurt sales of the game?

Far Cry 3 release December 4, 2012 for the PS3, PC, and Xbox 360.