After its first showing at E3 this year and an initial pre-Christmas release, Ubisoft has postponed the release of its upcoming reboot to the Driver franchise.

According to Ubisoft's first-quarter financial results the delay is “due to the competitive market at Christmas”.

The game's release has now been pushed back to an unspecified date in the fourth financial quarter, which means it could hit shelves anywhere between January 1st and March 31st 2011.

Driver: San Francisco won the Best Driving Game of E3 2010 award from gaming blog Ripten. Its 'shift' feature, which allows the player to assume control of any other vehicle on the game's map remotely, was nominated for Best Gameplay Mechanic at E3 by Kotaku.