PS3 News
PS3 suffers another blow as Haze faces possible 2009 release
By Stevie Smith
Jan 24, 2008, 10:31 GMT

Having already lost the exclusivity of important franchises Grand Theft Auto and Devil May Cry to the lure of an increased consumer base on Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony Computer Entertainment’s remaining exclusives continue to suffer with repeated release delays.

With the likes of Home, LittleBigPlanet, and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots all missing 2007 releases and expected to arrive during 2008, Ubisoft has this week added to Sony’s software woes with news that first-person shooter (and ‘timed’ PS3 exclusive) Haze has been pushed back as far as March of 2009.

In amongst the financial figures released by Ubisoft in a recent performance report covering the third quarter of its fiscal year, which ended on December 31, the prominent publisher and developer has revealed that Haze’s current release date of March 2008 has been abandoned. While offering no explanation, the game is now pencilled in for a retail arrival some time during the fiscal year 2008, which runs from April 01 of 2008, through to March 31 of 2009.

Haze was initially announced by Ubisoft for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms, before the latter two formats suddenly disappeared from the game’s official fact sheet, to which an Ubisoft spokesperson commented that: "We just felt that PS3 needed some love."

David Doak, co-founder of Haze developer Free Radical, has since explained that the game will debut on Sony’s platform before later launching on the Xbox 360 and PC.

Enjoying solid performance throughout 2007, Ubisoft has outlined that its remaining fiscal Q4 releases (due to arrive before March 31) are Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC), Assassin’s Creed (PC), Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles (Nintendo DS), Lost: Via Domus (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC), and also a selection of as-yet unnamed casual Nintendo titles.

Scheduled to arrive in the same fiscal 2008-09 period as Haze, Ubisoft will be looking for the likes of Tom Clancy’s End War, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Far Cry 2, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, and fresh entrants to the critically acclaimed Prince of Persia series to further bolster the company’s positioning.