UT3 a NO SHOW in 2007???

Kotaku says,"On the official forums, Mark Rein popped in to settle a debate on Unreal Tournament 3 countdown timers. But in doing so, he kind of killed the party:

We do not know exactly when the game will be completed. All we've said is that we're hoping for a November release but as you know we value getting it right over getting it right now so there's no guarantee of that.

Truthfully, Epic may be better not releasing the game in November. Sure an 08 launch would cost them the holiday season, but there is plenty of competition on the store shelves in the coming months. But we hope not, because all that slower paced Halo 3 multiplayer will get us craving some crack-on-speed UT3 gameplay."

The thing about this story was that I couldn't find the source they cited on the forums. I found a re-quote of what they quoted but label this one a rumor for right now. It's just not reliable at this poimt. The idea that this could happen is insane. The PS3 is looking to have a VERY SPARSE 2007. If they manage to crank out a descent swath of games for January on, it would be just as good. But nothing says console failure like a dead holiday season. Even if it is only the beginning of the second year.

(UPDATE) Next Generation reports:

"But he explained to Next-Gen in an e-mail that his statement is somewhat misconstrued.

“Nothing has changed at this point. We're working toward a November release,” Rein said in an e-mail. “The point of my forum comment was not to cast doubt on our plans but rather to debunk the countdown timer on a German fan site that listed a specific release date.

“We don't know the specific release date yet and I think it is always prudent to remind our fans that we value quality over release date. They've come to expect that from UT and we don't want them to think we're handling UT3 any differently.”

There was much ballyhoo during Sony Computer Entertainment’s E3 press conference about how UT3 would be an exclusive to PS3 (on a console basis) during 2007. The game, published by Chicago-based Midway, is also slated for release on PC this year, with an Xbox 360 version to follow in 2008.

“Midway had a bunch of consumer press folks out to play multiplayer on PS3 last week in New York and we had thousands of gamers playing on two 16-player PC LANs at Leipzig a few weeks ago. Much fun was had at both events so I think we're in pretty good shape but there's always lots to do to get a game like this ready to ship,” Rein said."