Unreal Tournament 2007 - PS3 launch, or PC first?

"Who the hell knows? Now updated.

Epic Games has reportedly confirmed that Unreal Tournament 2007 will be coming to PlayStation 3 - and in Q2 2006.

The January issue of the US PlayStation Magazine makes the claim. This essentially implies that the game should be on store shelves at or around the launch of Sony's next-generation console. Naturally, there's been plenty of speculation lately that it won't, including word from EA boss Larry Probst, who said recently he reckons we'll see it later in 2006.

The announcement of UT2007 on PS3 isn't a huge surprise. Epic has been a big supporter of PS3 so far - even appearing at the console's unveiling at E3, where cofounder Tim Sweeney showed off a tech demo running on a devkit. At least for gamer's sake, Epic is keeping its options open. Its Unreal Engine 3 technology is certainly the basis of games on both PS3 and Xbox 360. Epic's own Gears of War is expected to be one of the biggest original titles on Microsoft's next-gen platform.

Of course, the suggestion that the game will be on the PS3 first directly flies in the face of some other recent reports. Making an appearance on the Atari community forums under the psuedonym 'War_Tourist', Epic Games Producer Jeff Morris stated that the game would be 'PC first' and also made the suprising comment, 'We're not scheduled to be a PS3 launch title'. This makes you wonder what the editors at the Official US Playstation Magazine have been smoking. Who are you going to believe? Epic staff or writers of an 'Official' magazine? We know who we'd choose.

For an UT game to make it's debut on the PC isn't all that surprising given the series' history with the platform. Morris also stated that PC gamers will be treated to a pre-realease demo but failed to mention when that day would be.

No word yet on when the actual release date of this hotly anticipated title will be on either console, but you can count on PALGN to give you the heads up." [link]