PS3 Unreal Tournament III golden, due in December

[UPDATE] Following warnings of a 2008 delay, the console debut Epic Games' latest fragfest heads for the factory--but won't hit Europe until next year.

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot

After yesterday's delay of Haze, it looked like the only third-party PlayStation 3 exclusive left on the 2007 release schedule was Namco Bandai's Time Crisis 4. Today, though, owners of Sony's recently discounted console got a welcome surprise: After being all but officially postponed to 2008 last month, the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament III is now confirmed as shipping this year.

"We got news last night that Unreal Tournament III has been approved by SCEA and has been released to North American manufacturing," said Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein in an e-mail to game journalists. Earlier this month, the outspoken executive said that, despite Midway's pessimism, he was "confident" the game would arrive in 2007. Sony also continued to list it as arriving this year in its release schedule.

Rein went on to say that UTIII publisher Midway Games was currently weighing its release strategy for the shooter, which arrived for the PC this week. (Check back later today for a full review.) However, since many in the US have already left for the extended Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the company doesn't have an official release date for the game.

"My guess is that Midway will start shipping the title to North American retailers on Monday, December 10th," said Rein. "It could show up in stores as early as December 11th but more likely toward the middle of that week." Unfortunately, due to "localization-related tasks," Rein doesn't expect the PS3 UTIII to arrive in Europe until early next year.

However, by arriving in North American stores this year, Unreal Tournament III will (barely) fulfill the 2007 console exclusivity promised at the E3 Media & Business Summit in July. However, it remains unclear how long the game will be available solely on PCs and PS3s, as Midway has announced plans to bring it to the Xbox 360 sometime in 2008

OH HELL YEAH HELL YEAH HELL YEAH.

This is going ot be a HUGE SELLER.. OH HELL YEAH !!!!!!!!

lol I guess your a big fan,

Yeah and maybe I will get a PS3 for Christmas.

lol.. never played ut.. but it looks amazing.. and haze was delayed so this is good news for ps3... xD

I already pre-ordered my copy, and it will be under my tree this X-Mas.

never played these games, are they fun?-

UTIII I don't believe is actually out it got delayed, just like HAZE did once again...

But HAZE is definitely one to watch out for, it's developed by the people that did the apparently awesome TimeSplitters on PS2, so expect great multiplayer.

Superman4u, I told you ages ago, your NOT allowed to advertize sites in your sig, now MOVE it or I'll report it this time, no questions asked.