Doom 3 coming August 3?

At this year's E3, Activision and id Software narrowed the release window for Doom 3. The two companies announced that their much-anticipated PC shooter, which has been in development for more than four years, would arrive in stores "this summer." An Xbox version of the game is set for release this fall.

Now, it appears the two biggest online merchants have pinpointed which of the dog days of summer the game will arrive. A banner on GameStop's home page declares that an August 3 "release date" has been "just announced" for Doom 3. EB Games also has an August 3 release on its product page for the game but does not promote the date as being recently revealed.

However, the August 3 date was news to Activision. When contacted by GameSpot, reps for the publisher refused to confirm the date, saying only that the game would ship "when it's done...this summer." However, they also wouldn't totally discount the new date either, saying only that GameStop's new banner was "interesting."

The Doom 3 ship-date discrepancy echoes a similar situation several weeks back, when EB Games and GameStop revealed ESPN NFL 2K5's new price point before it was officially confirmed by Sega and Take-Two Interactive.