PS3 Unreal will make US holiday after all

The PlayStation 3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 has been approved by SCEA and has been released to North American manufacturing, according to Epic's Mark Rein.

"Midway has started talking to retailers to figure out exact timing and they will have a formal announcement early next week when everyone is back from the Thanksgiving holiday," he said in a statement.

"My guess is that Midway will start shipping the title to North American retailers on Monday December 10, and it could show up in stores as early as December 11, but more likely toward the middle of that week."

The game was originally scheduled to be released in November, but Rein did not commit to a specific date.

"All we've said is that we're hoping for a November release, but as you know we value getting it right over getting it right now, so there's no guarantee of that," he said on Epic's official forums back in September.

When Midway reported its third quarter results in early November, it lowered its financial outlook to reflect the delay of the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 out of 2007. Even so, Rein left open the possibility that the game could still reach store shelves before Christmas.

Apparently, that has now become a reality...for North America, anyway.

"I think PS3 owners are going to really enjoy UT3 this holiday so make sure you get it on your shopping list!" he said.

As far as the UK and Europe are concerned, Rein noted that Epic had a few localisation-related tasks to complete before starting the certification process. He anticipates a January or February 2008 European release.