Beautiful Katamari gets official date

By Robert Purchese Published 5 February, 2008

Definitely coming this month.

Atari has finally concreted the Beautiful Katamari date as 29th February in Europe.

It follows a bit of indecision by the publisher, which said February then changed its mind to March.

However, we were treated to a demo for it at the end of January, so you can hop on Live now and roll things up as if you were in control of a giant magical snowball.

Beautiful Katamari is the first instalment in the acclaimed puzzle series to appear on new generation hardware. It arrives without the help of Keita Takahashi, who designed the first two games on PS2.

He's off making Nobi Nobi Boy for the PlayStation Network, you see, and his departure leaves a rather gaping hole here.

But whether this is because Beautiful Katamari is more an HD and online incremental update or because it lacks creative flare is hard to tell.

Best pop over to our Beautiful Katamari review and make your own mind up.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • brooza #1 4 years ago

    That's good news then

  • kissthestick #2 4 years ago

    lol, why doesnt Namco distribute their own games in EU?, embarassing..

  • Darren #3 4 years ago

    It's coming 29th February... for £30 RRP... yes?

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #4 4 years ago

    I really enjoyed the demo. Probably not as much as I enjoyed Katamari Damacy (due to it being something totally original at the time) but certainly as much as I enjoyed We Love Katamari.

    I'll definitely be picking it up.

  • Jheronimus #5 4 years ago

    Never played the first games, but I'm extremely interested in this one. Think I'm going to pick this one up at the end of the month!

  • fruitpunch #6 4 years ago

    Pretty sure you meant "flair" ;)

  • BBIAJ #7 4 years ago

    No Darren, as I already told you on OXM several days ago (before you threw a hissy fit over being called an immature schoolboy who posts game names with swears in them, and deleted me off of your friends list), it's £39.99 on Gameplay, and £34.99 at Play.com.

    As Mentazm said, you buy enough shit games as it is to easily afford BK at whatever price it happens to be released at, you tight wad.

    Oh, and your excuse that it's taken so long to get here that you've lost interest is just plain wrong.

  • Weezer #8 4 years ago

    Never played previous versions, loved the demo, will be buying.

  • Darren #9 4 years ago

    @BBIAJ - Sorry but do I know you? Who did you say you were again...? Ah, yes, I remember... you're that drama queen, right? :p LOL

    P.S. I've deleted *ALL* of my Friends, not just you, simply because I've now cancelled my Xbox LIVE Gold subscription. As you know I don't play games online anyway and I felt the Friends list was what was causing my 360 to freeze up periodically so that's my main reasons for doing so. Sure enough, I've not had any freezes since then. If I want to play games online at some point in the future then I'll play them on my PC or PS3 where it's free.

  • Darren #10 4 years ago

    P.P.S. I've already explained why I think the game should cost £30 but I'll repeat them here, just for you (aren't I nice?).

    Here goes... it came out six months ago in the US, it doesn't have a lot of content (going by the reviews) and it didn't get great reviews either so a £50 RRP seems too much. Also I cannot see how Atari hope to sell such a quirky niche title as this at that price; it would have been far better had they released as a £30 RRP budget title to maximise sales IMO. I might be wrong but I reckon it'll be discounted quite quickly as I don't believe it will sell very well. I suspect that's why it's taken so long to release over here too as publishers were shying away from it.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #11 4 years ago

    And it was a budget release Stateside as well... Poor sales here we come!

  • smelly #12 4 years ago

    Am i the only one that thought this was a overrated bag of poo? Style of substance.. good original idea, nowt much else?
    Edited by 1 at 05/02/08 @ 18:46

  • Ignatius_Cheese #13 4 years ago

    Nah, you're right. Definitely style over substance but the charm (and music) outway the basic overall game. End result? I'll buy anything associated with Katamari.

    /buys Prince of the Cosmos-shaped turd

  • Darren #14 4 years ago

    Ignatius_Cheese - "And it was a budget release Stateside as well... Poor sales here we come!"

    Was it? I did find it for around $38 but it's been out over there so long that I just thought it had dropped in price.

    If Atari think this game is going to sell well at £40 then they're delusional. This kind of game needs a low price tag to encourage more people to buy it otherwise why bother even releasing it here? Stupid really... in fact, this game would be better suited for XBLA at 1200 points or something. If I see it for £20 I'll pick it up without a second thought as it's worth the risk but given the iffy critical reception its had I'm simply not willing to pay £35+ for it. Sorry Atari!

  • muscleblade #15 4 years ago

    Too late.

  • sneetch #16 4 years ago

    @Darren
    You and me both.

    $40 = €60 = £40... apparently. Strangest maths I've ever seen.

    Anyone else getting tired of the fact that they think they can charge full price for any old shite over here in Euro(and Sterling)land?

    Sorry, let me take that back a bit, I'm not attacking this game here, it might be great but as has been pointed out the reception has been mixed, no doubt those review scores should be a point or two higher if you've never played one of these games before. Rather I've noticed an increased trend where they (publishers) charge full price in Europe for what are "budget" titles in the US (Resident Evil Wii, Mercury Revolution, this and so on) the idea that I'm being ripped off seriously hampers my enjoyment of these games.