UT3 officially delayed until 2008

Midway has announced that it is revising its Q3 financial estimates based upon the delay of key titles Unreal Tournament 3 and BlackSite: Area 51.

UT3, a timed PS3 exclusive, will move into Q1 2008. The European release of BlackSite: Area 51 on PS3, originally scheduled for October, will also miss the holiday season. The move puts the new release dates some time between January and March 2008.

"While we regret that these delays will cause us to lose some valuable holiday sales in the near term as well as shift revenue for some of these titles out of 2007 and into 2008, we remain confident that our technology strategy and product plan position us to grow both revenue and market share as we move into the heart of this console cycle," said David Zucker, Midway's CEO.

For Q3, Midway has revised its sales estimates downwards from USD 50 million to USD 39 million. It now estimates full year sales at USD 170 million, down from 225 million.

Moving the PS3 version of Stranglehold to late October, putting it in Q4, was also cited as a reason for the revision.

UPDATE: Mark Rein, posting on Epic' official forums, wrote:

"As a public company, Midway felt an obligation to its shareholders to let them know about the possibility of a delay. But our goal is still to get the PS3 version of UT3 in stores before the end of 2007."

"However," we wrote further, "we will only ship it once its ready and is the best game we can deliver."