Sony’s hot new next generation console, the Playstation 3, is slated for a 2006 launch, although little information has been released about the games in development for the system. In fact, the current lineup for the PS3 has looked dismally bare to date. Granted, the system will first be released in Japan and the Japanese launch is still months away. When Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was launched in November 2005, there were well over a dozen games ready for immediate release, including a number of “big name� titles such as Madden NFL 06 and Quake 4, giving gamers a variety of title options. No such “big name’ games appear on the PS3 title list yet. So do excited Playstation 3 fans need to be concerned?

Certainly not at this time. The release date for the Playstation 3 has not yet been announced, so it will be several months before gamers can expect to start seeing the console on the shelves. This is important for two reasons.

First, game developers who are in the midst of developing a PS3 game may not yet know if their games will be completed in time for the system’s launch, if the launch date is unknown. Just a few weeks can make the difference when determining if a game is ready for release. But with the wiggle room of several months, it’s anyone’s guess as to with games will be ready and which will hit the shelves after the launch of the PS3. Most developers will err on the side of caution when announcing a release date for a game, to avoid disappointing gamers counting down the days to the game’s release. So developers will be sure to take full advantage of any available time. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that the current lineup is so lean.

Secondly, since the console will first be released in Japan, a number of the game intended for Western audiences will not hit the shelves until a later date, when the PS3 is released in North America and Europe. Gamers should remember that the current lineup consists of games slated for the Japanese release.

The first piece of good news is that game developers are beginning to announce their contributions to the Playstation 3 lineup little by little. Japanese game publisher, Success, just confirmed that the company has two PS3 games set for release sometime in 2006. One of the games is a role-playing game that has yet to be titled. The other game is a simulation game named Hitsuji Mura, or Sheep Village in English. Previews of both of these games were shown at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show.

The second piece of good news is that there are over a hundred games currently in development for the PS3. Sony notes that there are already 71 different game publishers working on a total of 102 games for the next generation console, in spite f the fact that the current announced lineup appears lean. Most of these games in development still carry “To Be Announced� release dates.

So what is the current PS3 lineup? Game currently slated for a 2006 release include:

Fatal Inertia (Developer: Koei) – Spring 2006
Mahjong Taikai (Developer: Koei) – Spring 2006
Ni-Oh (Developer: Koei) – Summer 2006
Shin Ten Makai VI (Developer: Idea Factory) – Summer 2006
Vampire’s Rain (Developer: AQ Interactive) – Winter 2006
Sonic the Hedgehog (Developer: Sega) – Sometime in 2006
Unnamed RPG (Developer: Success) – Sometime in 2006
Hitsuji Mura / Sheep Village (Developer: Success) – Sometime in 2006

One last thing to keep in mind: the final Xbox 360 game lineup wasn’t released until just a few weeks before the console hit the shelves. The same will probably be true of the Playstation 3 release.

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