Oblivion, Sonic, F.E.A.R. To Miss PS3 Launch, NBA Live Cancelled

What little good could be said about Sony's PlayStation 3 is slowly dimming, day by day... Even the launch line-up is shrinking at an alarming rate, and over the past few days it was revealed that three more games will miss the console's release on November 17 (actually four games, unofficially speaking). Oblivion and Sonic have both been pushed back, NBA Live 07 was outright cancelled, and the PS3 version of F.E.A.R. is also said to be slowly drifting away.

The first among these titles to be delayed is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, bringing back memories from last year, when Bethesda's RPG also missed the Xbox 360 holiday line-up. In a similar manner, the PS3 version has now been pushed back until Q1 2007.

Although the upcoming Knights of the Nine extra pack is included in the PS3 version of Oblivion, if you're waiting for it on the PC or Xbox 360 you need not worry: Pete Hines from Bethesda calms us with the following statement:

"First, I wanted to clarify a couple things on Knights of the Nine. The retail version of Knights of the Nine is a collection (for PC) that includes Knights of the Nine plus all the other DLC released to date. That's why it's $19.99. If you want just Knights of the Nine for PC, you can download it for $9.99 and get just that DLC without the rest of it. Same on 360…800 points for just Knights of the Nine. A retail version for 360 isn't technically feasible at this time. If/when it becomes a possibility we'll let folks know; it's certainly something we'd like to offer. Release date for Knights of the Nine is 11/21 for the retail version as well as the 360 version on Xbox Live. It will be available to download for PC (from www.obliviondownloads.com) on 12/4."

Another loss for Sony's launch line-up this week is Sonic the Hedgehog. According to SEGA representatives, Sonic will arrive on PS3 sometime in December, and the developers will use the extra time to implement some kind of downloadable content (what kind exactly, we have no idea yet).

A more drastic loss is EA Sports' NBA Live 07. The basketball game was released on current platforms at the end of September, and was met with some lousy reviews (or at least lousy ratings). Not sure if this had anything to do with Electronic Arts' decission, but the official story is that they abandoned the PS3 port of this year's NBA Live in order to focus on NBA Street: Homecourt (NBA Street 4, due in Q2 2007).

And finally, F.E.A.R. is also very likely to miss the release of Sony's console, as major retailers have changed the game's PS3 version release date to February 6, 2007. There's no official confirmation on the matter yet, but don't be too surprised if / when it comes.

And so, the crippled PlayStation 3 line-up currently includes the following nine titles:

- Resistance: Fall of Man (Sony)

- Genji: Days of the Blade (Sony)

- NBA 07 (Sony)

- Untold Legends (Sony Online Entertainment)

- Call of Duty 3 (Activision)

- Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft)

- Full Auto 2 (SEGA)

- Ridge Racer 7 (Namco Bandai)

- Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire (Namco Bandai)

Still some solid games left there. And hope we didn't miss anything.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)