No Deus Ex sequel until 2004 for Europe

The sequel to the hugely popular PC title Deus Ex is still scheduled for a 2004 release in Europe, according to publisher Eidos, despite the game being now slated for an early December launch in the USA.

In a move which is likely to cause no small amount of upset among fans of the game, Deus Ex: The Invisible War won't arrive here in time for Christmas despite the official website stating December 3rd as the release date, as this date applies only to the USA.

The delay to the European launch is presumably due to localisation issues, although this isn't an excuse which will hold much water with PC players in particular, as they're used to near-simultaneous launches in the USA and Europe for the majority of titles.

Indeed, this will be an interesting one to watch from a sales perspective, as it's not hard to see a lot of PC gamers resorting to piracy in order to get their hands on the game following its release in the USA. Inevitably, a game this popular will be available for download from pirate websites and file sharing programs as soon as it is released - and we doubt that Eidos can count on the honesty and innate goodness of European PC gamers in this situation, particularly as many of them will undoubtedly feel that the publisher has shafted them by pushing the game back to next year in this territory.