Perhaps this delay was made to ensure they got Lara's excruciating grunts of pain juuuuust right.

Let the mass exodus to the first quarter of 2013 begin! Well, maybe it's not as dramatic as all that, but we now have our second major title in a week's time to move from a projected fall 2012 release to early next year.

This time it's Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider reboot, which has officially been pushed to the first quarter of 2013. The news came in a forum post on Crystal Dynamics' website from studio head Darrell Gallagher. According to Gallagher, the push was made for the usual polish and quality reasons, and in service of making the best possible product.

We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can't wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.

The E3 comment is perhaps at least some small bit of solace for those anxiously awaiting Lara Croft's latest adventure. BioShock Infinite, which enacted its 2013 exit strategy last week, won't be at any of the upcoming industry trade shows. So at the very least, Tomb Raider fans will get to see some new stuff in a few weeks at E3.

Let's just hope this trend doesn't continue on too heavily, lest we suddenly find ourselves with a whole other holiday season's worth of major games in the first three months of next year. There are still enough major games on the release bubble right now to make that a terrifying reality.