Major publishers welcome PS3 Euro launch announcement

Following the announcement of the European PS3 launch details earlier this week, big name publishers have been showing strong support for Sony's next-generation console.

Adam Roberts, MD for Vivendi Northern Europe, told GamesIndustry.biz, "Confirmation of the European release date for the PlayStation 3 is excellent news for the industry as a whole.

"We at Vivendi Games are very excited to be a part of the launch plans, and also about bringing F.E.A.R to a fresh audience at the start of 2007," he continued, referring to Vivendi's PS3 launch title.

"We're equally enthusiastic about the prospects this new platform will bring to the UK market in the future."

Square Enix CEO John Yamamoto confirmed that company has two Final Fantasy games in development for PS3, observing that the series has been highly successful on Sony platforms in the past.

"We are developing Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII using the full power of the PlayStation 3 and hope to make them the best games we have ever released," he said, adding, "We expect the PlayStation 3 to sell very well in the UK, Europe and other PAL territories."

Meanwhile, Ubisoft UK managing director Rob Cooper welcomed confirmation of a March launch date for PS3, stating, "We are looking forward to fully exploiting the PS3's technological advances to deliver ever more immersive and creative gaming experiences to our fans.

"It's now our job to offer games that explore the new creative landscapes the PS3 has opened to us." Ubisoft will publish four PS3 games on launch day - Blazing Angels, Enchanted Arms, Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Oblivion.

[Maddens Raiders]

Square Enix CEO John Yamamoto confirmed that company has two Final Fantasy games in development for PS3, observing that the series has been highly successful on Sony platforms in the past.

"We are developing Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII using the full power of the PlayStation 3 and hope to make them the best games we have ever released," he said, adding, "We expect the PlayStation 3 to sell very well in the UK, Europe and other PAL territories."
-- SNE knew the PS3 would be difficult to develop for and didn't want to add further hampering restrictions to the process. They are going to do a wide array of things to this machine to make it even more and more appealing in the coming few months. Namely some really kick, kick, kick a$$ games are going to be hitting our shores in not too long. We can then shift focus to something that PS3 doesn't have enough of right now: New Glorius Games. The PS3 is a big baby. Big, literally and not a large library of re-playable games.
This is going to change drastically over the next year and I can't wait to be talking about how awesome, Lair, Motorstorm, and Heavenly Sword are. Man, those conversations are going to be great.
Why? 'Cause I seriously, seriously doubt all three of these games are going to suck. We can go ahead and chalk up two to three stellar games for the PS3 right out of the box in 2007 and its gonna be great. I said 2007 is the year of the PS3 and the gamer who wants diversity in games.

It's easy to see that SNE is starting to talk the talk to devs and giving them the tools they need along with whispering in their ears the (promises) of massive future support for their projects. Just like the relaxed restrictions on what was once heavily format, OS restricted and easily brickable systems, they are now content with letting this system ride free. Devs see this as an invite to create and be bold without fear of having that backup to keep their projects moving foreard. SNE's bettin' the farm on them and their games. & These devs aren't stupid: they want to be the first ones to harness as much CELL SPU glory as anyone ever has so the challenge is on and they know support from SNE will be strong. THis is why Hideo Kojima will get his way convince Kaz to pay Immersion and bring the Dualshock rumble back to PlayStation where it belongs. Snake will be responsible for not only saving our lives, but also saving a franchise. Wierd.

[DC RID3R]

they're(square) gonna HAVE to tho , aren't they???
i don't know about you bro, but word on the street is, is that EPIC and not SQUARE are the pace-setters concerning "next-gen" visuals this time round.

And if i'm not mistaken, square are now using (buying) EPIC's UE3 tech?!?

ROFL

never thought i'd see the day tbh. hehehee

08,09 will be timescale for teh POS3 to show it's true colours, until then.................. i PITY the tool!!

[super bill]

nice read my friend.but you forgot one think.that is the console war is already won in europe and sony are late in arriving.360 has sown up europe so i think sony should,nt bother with the ps3 in europe considering the amount of money they want for unproven console.

[OutpostCommand]

The war in Europe is VERY far from over, Bill.

Do you know why I know almost no people over here who have a 360 ?
Everyone is waiting for a PS3.

I wouldnt jump to conclusions very quickly,
Bill...

[r1000]

You have to be kidding me... The console war is over in Europe????

I really can't believe I read, and find it harder to believe that you think thats tru.

The 360 has sold "ONLY" 10 million worldwide and I'm being generous. You can't consider it a war unless your fighting someone... else... Both the wii and the ps3 were just released.

The war has just begun....

[Icryo]

Why all this PS3/360 big me up talk? Just enjoy games gamers.

[malachi23]

I'm glad the publishers welcome the Euro launch, cause i in turn don't want this load of crap to launch in my country.

We don't need crap.

[R34GTR]

Notice the flamers. Good job on disagreeing guys. Hopefully they will see flaming something cause they cant afford it or simply dont like it is "null and void". Sometimes i really think these guys are M$ bots that programmed to roam the net and flame Sony threads. I mean look how unrelevant and incredibly ignorant #2&4 posts are. lol Hard to believe im reading such non-sense sometimes. "Console war is over" lmfao. Someone get that guy a medal and his very own physic hotline. Cause the last console wars took 5 years to conclude. This dude called it in 2 months. ahahaha

[Harry]

It started 2 years ago mate. Remember the 360?

[R34GTR]

Yeah thats actually the sad part. Almost 2 years barley just over 10 million consoles sold. World wide. hmmm. lets compare that to a real console war winner. PS2 1 oct. 2001- May 2002 30 million sold world wide. See anything wrong with that picture?

[LightofDarkness]

Well, yes, I see something clearly wrong with that picture. PS2 had no real competitors within that time frame. This time, Sony has a lot more on it's plate before it's finished eating the competition. I own all 3 consoles now, and I can safely say that the 360, so far, is the stand out winner.

Admittedly, if Billy is shouting that the 360 has won the war he's deluded. But any idiot knows that's not the reason why he said it, it's just marketing.

If you're simply going to post pro-PS3 comments at the moment I would advise a swift halt. Why? Because right now, the PS3 has nothing going for it. The 360 is doing everything the PS3 can do much better (why the F*** can't I listen to music and play games at once?). When a great game comes along (hopefully VF5 will be one such game) then you can start bragging, but until then you can't win an argument. We can debate system power until we're all blue in the face but the simple fact of the matter is that developers have to be able to make use of said power, and their games are a testament to it. The PS3's (and PS2's) SDK is like a great game contraceptive. It's like pulling a big rubber "NO" over your shiny great game idea. All that power is useless is you can't make use of it. So far, nothing on PS3 is wowing me either graphically or gameplay wise. I have Resistance, Full Auto 2, and Fight Night. I believe that the characters certainly look better in Fight Night on PS3, but the rest of it looks like mud. Resistance is certainly nothing to brag about. It has an OK story and OK everything in general. "LOCKED AT 30FPS WITH NO SLOWDOWN EVEN IN MULTIPLAYER EAT TAHT XBOTS (worst. put-down. EVER.)." is no argument. A game that looks like that on a supposedly next gen machine that is locked at 30 frames per f***ing second is NOTHING to brag about. SO PLEASE STOP. YOU ONLY DIMINISH YOURSELF AND THE GAME. The comparisons to GoW were the most ridiculous, because Gears sits atop a lonley plateau as if shouting to the rest of the game development community "Come on, at least TRY to keep up!!!" Don't get me wrong, Resistance is a fine game, and if it were a game for the PS2 or Xbox it would a great game for the last generation, but you should expect more from your shiny new $600 purchase. The game is just Call of Duty + rudimentary Halo elements.

I like all my consoles, but there's an obvious leader among the pack, and right now it's my White Knight in plastic armour.

[ArmrdChaos]

to read a mindful post that doesn't involve a bunch of factless pom-pom waving and have that fan b*tch smell to it. Well said.

[OutpostCommand]

Comment 7-
you have suprised me.
And im still not sure if I believe it-
A 360 fan who ACTUALLY DARED to post a mature comment ?
Good grief !
I disagree with you, but nice post.

[MySwordIsHeavenly]

Good post, but i gotta disagree.

What do you mean the 360 is the stand-out winner right now? You have GOW and Dead Rising, that's it...everything else is either better on PC or just sucks period.

What do you mean the PS2 had no competition at the beginning? What the frick was the Dreamcast? The Gamecube and Xbox were very near too, and everyone knew it, but the PS2 still sold like crazy because of the GAMES...like the PS3 will have this year.

I'm only sold on systems with upcoming GOOD games...not another Halo...we PC gamers are tired of its slow-paced, non-strategic arse!

[LightofDarkness]

The Sony hype machine was in full swing for nearly a year before it's release, the Dreamcast wasn't really considered any form of real competition for the PS2 by te average gamer. Uttering the word Dreamcast amongst Playstation fans was like saying f*** loudly in church.

I can't speak for everyone, but I certainly enjoy Lost Planet as much as I do Dead Rising, and the Crackdown demo is very entertaining and shows a lot of promise. I too am an avid PC Gamer (just waiting for the 2nd gen DX10 cards, then waving goodbye to my consoles for a while), I'm foaming at the mouth for Supreme Commander and Crysis. Plus, UT3 was made for the PC, playing it on a console controller is unnatural and smacks of heresy.

As for upcoming good games, 360 owners can expect (off the top of my head): Crackdown, Forza 2, Halo 3 (is it even worth mentioning at this point?), Too Human, Mass Effect, Elveon, Alan Wake, Shadowrun, Ninja Gaiden 2(possibly) and Wolfenstein.

Ps3 can expect: Motorstorm, Heavenly Sword, Gran Turismo 5, Tekken 6, Naughty Dog's Project, Lair, Warhawk, Eight Days, Killzone, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Devil May Cry 4 and that's not to mention the plethora of cross-platform titles coming to both machines. It looks as though the bigger names are certainly on Sony's side, and those willing to "Wait B3yond" may be in for a real treat.

[nice_cuppa]

ps3 to launch in march for the ridiculus prise of £425. maybe they picked march so they could send over the ones from america that arent selling.

it was a very small article but it made me laugh.

publishers maybe happy now.
give it 2 or 3 months.
then ask them.

[OutpostCommand]

Oh for goodness sake,
stop flogging that dead horse.

It was posted by THE SUN.
That is not exactly the Guardian or Daily Telegraph.

The Sun is a waste of paper.
Worst paper. EVER.
They write in such a biased and stupid way, its unbelieveable.
They scare monger like hell too.

I would sooner read the Daily Mail, which 98% scare mongering 2% cricket than read the Sun.
Dispise it. Always have.

Dont believe anything you read in The Sun.

[super bill]

shame that all these ps3 fans don,t like the truth.shame that sony have overprice on a console which is overrated and unproven.360 has better grathics and online play and always will have.shame people are spending all that money on the sony name only.consdidering the console is crap.sony must be laughin all the way to the bank.

[scriptkiddie]

I thought the console war was over once the PS3 was released in the US and japan. But it isn't selling. Now we are told that when it is released in europe it will sell.

most people do not buy a console for watching movies. No one cares about blu-ray. People are going to see a over priced console with very few games, no of which look any better then the less expensive consoles. Noone other then fanboys are going to buy it for potential. When there are more games and they lower the price then it will sell.

Sony includes a blu-ray move and not a game, with a so called game console. To sony games are an after thought to their blu-ray movie player. The PS3 was developed to get blu-ray into as many homes as possible so they can win the format war. Sony knows their fanboys will buy it no matter what, but they are taking a big gamble if the average consumer will buy into the hype. so far it hasn't worked.