Sega Delaying PS3/X360 Sonic Unleashed To Improve Quality, But Only In Japan (Update)

Something strange is going on with Sonic Unleashed, better known as Sonic World Adventure in Japan. Instead of coming out on December 18th Sonic Unleashed won’t be released on the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 in Japan until spring 2009. The official Sonic World Adventure page explains the extra time will be used to further improve the quality of the game. Meanwhile, the Wii version isn’t affected and the Night of the Werehog T-shirt in Sega’s Winter campaign is still valid.

But, wait a minute Sonic Unleashed is scheduled to ship on every console under the sun, including the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, next week in North America.

So, is Sega USA going to announce a last minute delay? Or is Sega Japan getting a retooled version of Sonic Unleashed?

Update: We contacted Sega USA and are still waiting on a response, but Eurogamer has one from Sega Europe which cites manufacturing and sales issues to be the source of the delay, not quality issues. This response is conflicting with information directly from Sega Japan’s Sonic World Adventure webpage which explains the delay is to improve the quality of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. Thoughts?

Images courtesy of Sega.