The changes are primarily to reflect Midway's decision to release Stranglehold for the PLAYSTATION® 3 computer entertainment system in the fourth quarter rather than the third quarter, the expected movement of Unreal Tournament 3 for the PLAYSTATION 3 system into the first quarter of fiscal 2008, and lower expected sales of BlackSite: Area 51 primarily due to the adverse impact of the split shipment between the Xbox 360 and the PLAYSTATION 3 system, with the European version of BlackSite: Area 51 for the PLAYSTATION 3 system shifting into the first quarter of 2008.
@Just_Ben, considering that UT3 can be played using KB and mouse on the PS3, you'd think this is the perfect example of console-PC interplay. Hopefully they do support it eventually, but usually those things don't pan out as an afterthought.
"There will not be cross-platform play at launch," answered Epic VPMark Rein. "The biggest challenge in doing cross-platform play is synchronizing the builds such that the build on the PC is 100% compatible with the build on the PS3. Unfortunately (or fortunately) when you [put] games on [a] console you have a lengthy certification process to go through each time you release anything new."
And there in lies the problem, said Rein -- to enable cross-platform play, any updates or patches would have to be held back on the PC to await certification for the PS3. "Our PC fanbase is of ultimate importance to us," Rein said. "They are our bread and butter. We can't let them down or compromise their experience in any way to accommodate cross-platform play."
Which isn't to say it won't be possible further down the road, but don't hold your breath. "This doesn't completely rule out adding this feature at some point in the future after the game has settled down and we've been through a few updates, but even then the likelihood is small," Rein said.
Production is indeed proceeding apace, and the game is still roughly on track to be released on the PS3 in November, in accordance with Epic's previous statements
No problems and Gamesindustry are in fact carrying another story with Mark Rein clarifying the positioning and explaining what he meant in his now obviously "blown out of proportions" forum post.
1
Ok. If you really want to trade it for month :o) I don't invest much in meta critics.