Ghost of Sparta haunting PSP November 2

Less than three months after being revealed, the next installment of the God of War series is set to make its debut. Ready at Dawn's Ghost of Sparta will be out in North America on November 2, Sony announced today. Sony has confirmed it is targeting a "November release window" in Europe for the title, but has not confirmed a date in the region.

The latest instalment in the multimillion selling PlayStation-exclusive franchise will also be available as part of hardware bundle in the region. The God of War: Ghost of Sparta Entertainment Pack contains the game, a two-tone red and black PSP-3000, a download voucher for God of War: Chains of Olympus, a copy of recent comic-book action movie Kick-Ass on UMD, and a 2GB Memory Stick Duo. Sony has yet to confirm a release date or hardware bundle availability for other regions.

Ghost of Sparta is the second God of War game to be released on Sony's portable. The title is being developed at Irvine, California-based Ready at Dawn, which also handled development duties for Kratos' only other PSP outing, Chains of Olympus.

Ghost of Sparta was first revealed in May and was recently on show at Comic-Con in San Diego. In July, it won the Best Handheld Game category at the E3 Critics Awards.

Sony also announced a preorder package for the game that includes a making-of feature with commentary from David Jaffe, Cory Barlog, Stig Asmussen, Dana Jan, and others "in the same room for a roundtable discussion."

Beyond the documentary, preorderers will also receive the Ghost of Sparta soundtrack, a God of War PSP theme, a dynamic God of War PlayStation 3 theme, a Kratos avatar for use on the PlayStation Network, and an in-game Legionnaire skin for Kratos.