S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs. PlayStation 3 Face Off Is Off?

I never thought that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. would actually come out before Duke Nukem Forever, and I still have my doubts. And apparently so does THQ. Although they did set a "final" release date for GSC Game World's radioactive shooter for March 23 in Europe (and March 22 in the US), now it seems like they might be backing away. That's right, again! Is anyone still keeping count of how many years this game has been delayed so far? (I stopped counting at 3)

Truth be told, however, even if the game will miss the aforementioned date, the worst-case scenario would be for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to come out one week later or, in any case, before the end of March. This is what THQ UK is still claiming, according to Eurogamer, even though they seem to have dropped the "23" from the "March 23" release date:

"What we're saying at the moment is March, but it's definitely not slipped outside of March," a spokesperson for the publisher told Eurogamer.

"03:2007" is also what the the game's official website lists at the moment, and there's no more trace of the previous countdown clock that was supposed to run out of time on March 22. That Zone sure is full of oddities... Oh well, if it does slip again, at least THQ won't have to compete with the European launch of the PlayStation 3 on March 23 - which could very well be the reason behind all this.

Objects in the radioactive mirror may appear closer than they are.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)