Unreal Tournament III having a 360-degree summer

Fifteen months ago, Midway Games announced its competitive shooter Unreal Tournament III would be headed to the Xbox 360. The news came as a bit of a shock, as the game had previously been touted as a possible PlayStation 3 launch title and was the console's answer to Gears of War, Epic's wildly popular 360 shooter. (Both games are also available for the PC.)

Later that year at the E3 Media & Business Summit, some ruffled feathers at Sony were smoothed by the news that UTIII would have timed PS3 exclusivity on consoles, with the 360 version not arriving until sometime in 2008.

For the next nine months, the 360 UTIII hung in limbo as its PS3 iteration narrowly made its fourth quarter 2007 release target. Today, though, Midway and Epic announced that owners of Microsoft's console would finally get their hands on the highly rated action game "this summer."

Though far from a definite lockdown date, the announcement means the game will most likely arrive between late June and early September. The Xbox 360 version offers everything released for the PC and PS3 editions, including all updates and patches, plus the split-screen play, three entirely new maps, two revamped maps, and three brand-new player characters.

For more information on Unreal Tournament III on consoles, check out GameSpot's brand-new preview of the 360 version or the full review of the PS3 edition.