Even after the recently announced extra delay (of the already unprecedented overdue date) on Duke Nukem Forever, the release date for North America was still a couple of days behind the international launch date. The folks over at the US contingent of PC Gamer were a bit baffled by this, questioning: "why is this game, which stars the quintessential American badass, is made by an American developer, and is published by an American company being released four days later in North America than internationally?".

2K Games responded with a rather simple explanation, that casually points the finger at U.S. retailers and their apparently unwavering procedure to only launch new games released on Tuesdays and these big brick and mortor players don't like getting pipped by online stores.

“We have a commitment to our fans to get the game out as early as possible, and every day counts. New games are available on Tuesday in North America, so we’re getting the game out as early as possible in this territory. The international markets do not adhere to this release timing, and it just happens that they will be able to release the game a few days before North America. We don’t want to hold it back, we want to get it into the hands of consumers as soon as possible,”

Here in Australia, the official release date is now June 10th 2011, which is a Friday, while our friends across the Pacific will have to wait until the following Tuesday June 14 to come get some.

Given the time difference and the international date-line (and assuming street-dates hold), Australians and New Zealanders will actually be the first markets in the world to play this one -- albeit at our usual inflated retail prices. Whether it's going to be any good or not though, is another question entirely.