Mark Rein, producer of Unreal Tournament III, has just confirmed on the Epic Games boards that the sci-fi FPS for PS3 has gone gold.

It was confirmed that UTIII has been approved by Sony Computer Entertainment America and has been released to North American manufacturing.

Two months ago, Unreal Tournament III for the PlayStation 3 was delayed till late 2007, with the possibility of an early 2008 release. Because of all the hard work Epic put into the game, UTIII will in fact make it into your hands on December 11, but only in North America.

Rein stated on the Epic boards that he expects the title to show up in Europe between January and February next year.

Check out his post right here.

UTIII is currently a PS3 exclusive (bar the PC). It is expected to be released on Xbox 360 some time in 2008.

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I’m so excited about this. The PS3 version of Unreal Tournament III will be able to play user created mods, including maps, full game mods, etc. Not sure if the tools for PC to create the mods will come with the PS3 version or just the PC version (any of you know? leave a comment).

The 360 however is a different case, Epic stopped working on the 360 version back in spring to focus on the PC and PS3 version so they could get them out for the holidays. They supposedly have a meeting with Microsoft coming up to see how they can get mods onto their system. Here’s what Epic V.P. Mark Rein said on the matter:

“The PS3 is an open system, and they embrace user-created content. But there isn’t really a way to do that on the 360. So our job, when we finish the PS3 version, and we’ve taken a little break, is to sit down with Microsoft and to figure out how we can do mods on their system.”

For you 360 owners out there, let’s hope they get it! Now if only both systems could play each other online…

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