Forza 2 dated by retail

Retail sources claim that Forza Motorsport 2 will be racing into shops and sitting quietly on the shelf until you pick it up, go over to the till and give the funny man some money on 8th June in Europe.

But contrary to reports that's not what Microsoft UK is saying, with a spokesperson for the platform holder unable to confirm the date to Eurogamer this afternoon. The most recent official release estimate for the game is 25th May, but it looks to have moved beyond that.

The racing opus - the second, following the series' debut on Xbox, from Microsoft's internal Turn 10 studio - will feature some 310 cars, fully modifiable, a vast range of tracks and a heavy emphasis on realism.

It's been in the cooker for a while, mind, having first been announced at E3 last May with a Christmas release date in mind. Indeed, it was much to the chagrin of the Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel that it didn't hit that date - the poor little, brilliantly made bugger's been sitting around for months waiting for its flagship game.

As have we. Sort of. We've been hanging around on Internet shops, anyway. And with the likes of Amazon and Play.com acknowledging the 8th June date when we checked, that's where you can go to lay down some preparatory readies.

We'll let you know as and when the date is officially confirmed - and look out more on Forza 2 closer to launch.