Sony has just announced that the delayed Fat Princess will finally make it out in time for Christmas in Japan. Christmas day, in fact. There’s no specific mention of the reason for the delay, but rumour has it it’s because the original artwork for the game featured characters with three fingers and a thumb on each hand, something that apparently doesn’t go down very well in Japan.
The new artwork has each class member with four fingers and a thumb, thus:

Here in Europe we complain about delays all the time, but if we’d ever had a game delayed due to a couple of appendages the furore would have been legendary. Still, we reckon that’s now everyone able to pick up a bit fat heir to the throne and carry her across a bloody battlefield, so there’s no excuse. Odd, though, because the whole thing smacks of a huge ball of irony given our story last year – some news stories just write themselves, don’t they?
waddo_89 | 22/12/2009 10:23
Member
493 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
Maybe it’s swearing or something, or maybe they just find it a bit weird. It’s kind of like Takeshi’s Castle…no wait…it isn’t :L
hazelam | 22/12/2009 10:44
Member
3950 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
i love the fact that on this page there’s an ad for 100% compensation if you’ve had a finger aputated in an accident.
context sensitive ads FTW.
and i think the problem with three fingers is it carries a yakuza association in japan, a punishment in the yakuza being to chop of part of your finger apparently, the simpsons had a similar problem i recall.
Gamoc | 22/12/2009 11:34
Team TSA: Content Manager
1216 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
…Absolutely brilliant.
Sig-gotyouth | 22/12/2009 10:50
Member
109 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2009
You are correct. It’s a sign of true yakuza punnishment where a fingure is taken. Not only did the simpsons have a problem but also ratchet and clank were remodeled in the early days to stop such reference to the franchises core Market.
Cerberus64 | 22/12/2009 11:31
Member
364 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
They must have freaked at GTA: IV’s 6 fingered lady then!
tobo_56 | 22/12/2009 11:51
Member
433 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Why delay such a great game because of a finger, :S
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 22/12/2009 22:44
* Banned *
-1930 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Who knows?
Simmo | 22/12/2009 12:53
Member
28 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
The exact same thing happened with Abe’s Oddysee as I recall, and they ended up changing it down to three fingers!
Apparently its something to do with insulting a historic sub class of Japan that were meat packers.
sideshow | 22/12/2009 12:59
Member
151 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
The finger thing looks more like a bug fix – the guy with the shovel has 4 fingers in both pics.
Cerberus64 | 22/12/2009 14:03
Member
364 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Has anyone noticed the Google ad for “Finger Amputation Compensation” attached to this story – very appropriate!
Cerberus64 | 22/12/2009 14:04
Member
364 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Sorry – didn’t read the above post – appologies to hazelam.
hazelam | 23/12/2009 08:54
Member
3950 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
i’ve done the same thing myself many time, so have others.
Rabid-Coot | 22/12/2009 20:58
Member
271 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
So how does 6 fingers like in the GTA 4 art go down in Japan?
Cerberus64 | 23/12/2009 01:01
Member
364 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
See my post above
hazelam | 23/12/2009 08:56
Member
3950 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
see