Bayonetta US and European Release Date Announced

SEGA has announced the European and US release date for Platinum Games' Bayonetta.

We won't have too long to wait for Bayonetta in the West, with the game's official PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 release being revealed as January 2010.

Although the game has already released in Japan, SEGA delayed Bayonetta for the rest of the world until 2010.

Well thankfully we won't have to wait too long. The game will release on January 5th in the US and across Europe on January 8th for both platforms.

Sadly this means that it's unlikely that we'll see much improvement to the PlayStation 3 version of the game, which was ported from the Xbox 360 by SEGA, rather than developed by Platinum Games themselves.

Platinum Games' Hideki Kamiya told Gamezine that he believes Bayonetta will shake up the action genre and Japan's Famitsu magazine appears to agree, giving their twelfth perfect score to the Xbox 360 version of the game. The PlayStation 3 game received a score of 38/40, showing the obvious differences.

"Traditionally high scoring games in Famitsu go on to perform very well at retail in both Japan and the rest of the world. PlatinumGames set out to deliver a game that redefines the 3D action genre, and we feel that they have set a benchmark for future games in the genre to aspire to," said Mike Hayes, CEO of SEGA America & SEGA Europe.

"We chose a January ship date for Bayonetta as we firmly believe that it is the best time for SEGA and our retail partners to launch this exciting new IP in the West, and push for a number #1 retail slot. Bayonetta is a huge title for us and the perfect start for the New Year, both for SEGA and gamers across Europe and America."

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Find out more about Bayonetta here.