360’s UT3 Closer To Completion Than Originally Thought?

One of the most entertaining topics we have covered over the past few months- in my opinion- was Epic Games’ Mark Rein’s statement that they had not even started development on the Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3- and wouldn’t until TBD 2008. Mark originally stated that Microsoft not allowing the “mod” aspect of the title on Live was the main source of the huge delay and lack of production so far, only to come back correct his mis-statement with “What I probably should have said was we’ll start working on it again.”

Now, a German gaming magazine claims that they can “confirm” - a big claim- that Unreal Tournament on the 360 is roughly 90% finished, and nearly ready to go, for a Spring (April) 2008 launch date. Recalling Sony’s ‘epic claim‘ that UT3 was exclusive for 2007, that would mean this “confirmed” date would be trailing on the 6 month exclusivity window commonly used. Good news for UT fans I presume, but judging on folk’s reaction to the game so far on consoles, I don’t see the title doing exceptionally well, but it should definitely fair better in Live’s community, that’s for damn sure, if we can dodge any further blackouts. It sure would be a good way for gamers that are sick of “the Haloz” to start 2008, though.~