Latest Mattel release information

The latest release schedule just arrived from Mattel, with the absences more noteworthy than the few changes. "Close Combat : Invasion Normandy" was one of the only movers, with its release actually being brought forward a couple of weeks to November 17th. Now there's something we don't see very often, a game being completed ahead of schedule! But while there were few movers, three titles had mysteriously dropped off the release schedule entirely. After checking with those lovely folks at Mattel's PR company, Bastion, we discovered their fate...

With the Formula 1 season all but over, and Michael Schumacher already crowned world champion, Mattel have perhaps wisely decided to hold back their "Williams F1 Team Racer" until the start of the 2001 season. This also neatly sidesteps the spate of Formula 1 games due for release around the time that Williams F1 had been expected, including EA's "F1 Championship Season 2000" and Hasbro's "1999 Season" update for the all-conquering "Grand Prix 3", both due in November, as well as "F1 World Grand Prix 2000" from Eidos, which is due at the start of December.

Meanwhile role-playing fans will be sorry to hear that the new "Pool Of Radiance" game may well slip to early next year as well. A definite casualty of the Christmas rush though is naval strategy game "Harpoon 4", which has been pushed back all the way to the second quarter 2001 - that's "some time next Spring" in English. For all the latest information from over a dozen publishers, now covering well over a hundred games, check EuroGamer's comprehensive UK release date list.