French/German Orange Box stall
Some Euro PS3 versions held up.
French and German PlayStation 3 owners will have to wait until early 2008 to play The Orange Box, Electronic Arts said this week, despite confirming that it will be available in North America and Europe next week.
The German release date is known to be 17th January at the time of writing, but the French one we're waiting to hear back about.
As we told you last month (la-di-dah), gamers in the UK will definitely be able to pick it up on 14th December at retail, although the lorries will start moving them in buyable direction from the 10th, meaning that US gamers will be able to pick theirs up on the 11th. Keeping up? Good.
Like the Xbox 360 version, The Orange Box on PS3 consists of Half-Life 2 and both of its episodic follow-ups, Portal and Team Fortress 2.
As you've probably noticed, there has been a certain amount of preview-based whinging about the PS3 code's frame-rate issues over the pond, but sources close to EA UK confess to being bewildered by the ferocity of the reaction, claiming that the PS3 version handles itself very well compared to the 360 release.
All will be revealed next week when the review embargo lifts.