Two prominent titles in Namco Bandai’s early 2012 lineup have been delayed today.

Ridge Racer Unbounded was scheduled to ship in North America for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this week, but news of its sudden delay just landed in my inbox within the past hour. Bugbear Entertainment’s new spin on the Ridge Racer franchise has been pushed to sometime “later in 2012” in order to “give the development team some additional time to pack the disc with features that will truly make the game sing.” Additional details surrounding the new launch target as well as pre-order incentives and game features are supposed to be coming soon so stay tuned.

No stranger to delays, Inversion, the gravity-defying third-person shooter from Saber Interactive, has officially slipped beyond its “early 2012” launch window. The game was first slated to ship in February before being postponed in late January. Now, at least, the game has a specific ship date (until it most likely gets delayed again): June 5th in North America, June 8th in Europe. The standard company line has been given to explain the delay: “The extra development time for INVERSION affords the team the opportunity to create an enjoyable and engaging third-person shooter experience with a comprehensive multiplayer component, including extensive competitive and co-operative modes.”

For mobile gamers, the news isn’t all bad. Linking in with the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Inversion, The Inversion Project has been announced as an Android and iOS introductory experience to get players ready for the full game with a similar third-person cover shooter gameplay format optimized for mobile devices. It’ll be available “later this year.”