Dark Void opens up January 12

Dark Void is cleared for launch. Capcom padded out the post-holiday release period a little more today, giving its sci-fi action game a January 12 release date in North America, with a European liftoff set for January 15. Mid-January has been a traditional sweet spot for the Japanese publisher, who used it to launch such hits as Lost Planet: Extreme Condition in 2007 and Resident Evil 4 in 2004.

When Capcom initially delayed the jetpack-driven shooter into the first three months of 2010, it did so "in order to get the game out of the crowded fall game season and to allow the development team more time to polish and enhance the game experience." The publisher predicted that the move would lead to the game hitting a worldwide sales target of 2 million copies in its first year of release.

While the developers are still getting the extra time to polish Dark Void, the crowded fall game season seems intent on following the sci-fi action game into the New Year, one title at a time. A host of delayed releases like BioShock 2, Alan Wake, Red Steel 2, Red Dead Redemption, Mafia II, Singularity and Splinter Cell: Conviction are all set for release in the first half of the year. Already confirmed for January are THQ's Darksiders, Sega's Bayonetta, Sony's MAG, and EA's Army of Two: The 40th Day, which also is set for a January 12 debut.

Dark Void is the first project from developer Airtight Games, home to several veterans of the shuttered FASA Studios (Crimson Skies). The third-person shooter will have players engage in fast-paced vertical combat courtesy of in-game jetpacks. It sees mankind fighting The Watchers, an alien race banished by humanity to an alternate universe after its members developed superpowers.