Originally planned as a June theatrical release tie-in, Electronic Arts' Superman Returns: The Videogame was delayed until this week to coincide with the home video release.

And it's terrible.

"We're going to get a better game this fall than we would have with the movie release," Frank Gibeau, Electronic Arts executive vice president and general manager of North American publishing, told investors in May.

What Electronic Arts released a few days ago surely was not what it wanted. But if the publisher had delayed the game beyond the movie's home video release there would have been nothing for it to play off, thus little interest and few copies of Superman Returns: The Videogame sold.

It begs the question, if this is 'a better game,' how bad was this game in June?

Or perhaps, what did the development team do with its additional 5 months?

The consequences of Superman Returns: The Videogame being a bad video game will be more than disappointed Superman fans and possibly lower sales for this particular game. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, licensor for all Time Warner-owned video game properties, might charge Electronic Arts higher royalties as punishment for releasing the game in a barely playable state and hurting the Superman brand.

Perhaps worse for Electronic Arts, it was hoping Superman Returns: The Videogame would be only the first of many of its games to use the Superman property. Sales of future Electronic Arts-branded Superman games will be hurt by weak impressions of the first.

That's assuming Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment allows Electronic Arts to touch Superman, and perhaps other Time Warner properties again. Harry Potter has usually been good for everyone involved, but the less said about Batman Begins, Catwoman and Looney Tunes: Back in Action, the better.