POWNED!

On the outside it appears as though Midway has given Sony a swift kick to the stones, with the announcement of the delayed release of “Unreal Tournament 3,” and the European PS3 release of “BlackSite.”

Midway claims that they have run into some “bumps” in the development of UT3 for the PS3. President and chief executive officer, David F. Zucker, had this to say:

“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.

Looking ahead to 2008, with our core technology platform now in place, we expect to release a number of titles, including already announced console versions of Unreal Tournament 3, a next generation installment of our NBA Ballers franchise, Wheelman, and TNA iMPACT! the video game. We also expect to release several as-yet unannounced titles such as next generation versions of our hit franchises Blitz and Mortal Kombat, and two exciting new ambitious open world games. We intend to give more details on our 2008 release schedule in the near future.”

Midway revised sales estimates reveal a lost of $11 million for the end of their third quarter and an overall lost of $55 million for the year due to the delayed releases. Midway will miss the holiday release for “Unreal Tournament 3” as the game moves into the first quarter of 2008. This puts the UT3 to be released sometime between January and March of next year.

In my opinion, this all just a clever marketing scheme, in other words I believe they pushed back the date to release UT3 because of Halo’s release. With IGN Entertainment’s GamerMetrics report that among the 15,000 gamers surveyed, the Xbox 360 SKU of Midway’s “Unreal Tournament 3” doesn’t sit too well with Halo lovers. Not only that the Halo boom was sure to over take the proposed UT3 sales. Of course this could also be Microsoft’s plan to begin with; a lack of new games for the PS3 for the upcoming holiday season Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is sure to make a lot more money.

I mean it’s not hard to put together just look at the dates. In February Amsterdam-based independent developer, Streamline Studios, announced that it will be creating 3D content service solutions for Epic Games’ upcoming UT3, expected to launch later this year for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Then three months later Bungie releases the online Beta for Halo 3 followed with a September release date for the Final.

UT3’s delay isn’t as big of stab for Microsoft as it is for Sony, but then again I could be making up conspiracy theories in my basement while draw circles on the newspapers pasted to my wall. I mean it’s not like the gaming industry ever gave misleading information to the public before (DualShock 3)..

This wouldn’t be the first time the industry has given the public misleading knowledge (The SixAixs can’t have vibration, duh).

Tags: Epic-Games, Midway, Unreal-Tournament-3, UT3

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