The announcement came from an official announcement by WB Games, which read in part:

The post also noted that some territories, including Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, would have a different release date.

Shadow of Mordor received a great deal of praise for its innovative Nemesis System, which procedurally generated a full roster of Uruk antagonists for players to go up against, and dynamically had those Uruks develop relationships with the player. Its sequel aims to take that system to the next level, and no doubt the delay’s purpose was to give Monolith enough time to do it justice.

To help tide you over until the game is released, be sure to check out our review of the original!