In true Valve style, the developer issued an irreverant press release in June to announce the sequel to its highly anticipated teleportation puzzler, Portal 2, had been bumped from its scheduled fall release to sometime in 2011. Today, with much less fanfare (and humor) we learn that sometime is in February.

In various interviews at Gamescom this morning, Valve reps revealed Portal 2's new launch slot is February 9, 2011. We'd be remiss if we didn't harken back to the hilarious statement the company made when it first announced the game would be delayed:


"Valve today announced the successful completion of an ethics-review-panel-supervised release date restructuring process. Portal 2, the sequel to the ground-breaking title that earned over 30 Game of the Year awards despite missing its original ship date, is now targeted for a 2011 release."

Though a similarly cheeky announcement doesn't accompany the latest news (at least not yet), Valve did reveal the actor who will provide the cheeky voice of Wheatley, the personality core with a cockney accent seen in the E3 demos of the game.

In the E3 demos, Wheatley featured a placeholder voice from Valve animator Richard Lord. The developer loved the feedback it received on the character, and decided to stick with a Brit, hiring long-time Ricky Gervais collaborator Stephen Merchant, co-writer and co-director of The Office and Extras.

We'll keep you posted on any official statements from Aperture Science.



Sharkey says: Portal 2 was our E3 Best Overall Game and Best Puzzle Game. We're loving what Valve is doing with the sequel and have already circled February 9 on our calendars. Co-op teleportation puzzles FTW.