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Take-Two delays 'BioShock Infinite' to February

(AP) -- Take-Two has delayed the release of "BioShock Infinite," an eagerly awaited shooter game set in 1912.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. said Wednesday that the game will launch on Feb. 26, rather than in October as it said previously. Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games, the developer of "BioShock," said the game was delayed so its creators can get more time to work on it. The development studio is a subsidiary of Take-Two, which publishes the game.

"BioShock Infinite" will be the third installment in the popular series. The first "BioShock" launched in 2007 and was well-received by critics and players alike. It was an early sign that Take-Two was moving beyond its one-hit-wonder status, in which it relies on the wildly popular "Grand Theft Auto" games.

"Infinite" is set in the early 20th century in a city called Columbia, built by the U.S. government as a floating world's fair designed to travel around the world to promote America. It's not that simple, though.

"Unknown to most, Columbia was also a `death star,' secretly packed with weaponry," the developers explain on the BioShock website. "Political strife caused Columbia to secede from America and the city disappeared. No one knows how to get to Columbia."

Players take the role of Booker DeWitt, a former detective who's sent to Columbia to find a young woman who's been imprisoned there since she was a little girl. DeWitt frees her, but the two still need to escape the city as it falls from the sky.

Take-Two's stock fell 76 cents, or 5.7 percent, to $12.65 in afternoon trading Wednesday after the announcement was made.