Perfect Dark on October 4th?

Several reports have sprung up recently claiming that Perfect Dark Zero is due out on October 4th. Microsoft has officially declined to comment – pointing out that it "hasn't officially announced any released dates for Xbox 360 titles" – but a number of sources close to the publisher have described the suggestion as "nonsense".

Perfect Dark Zero will be an Xbox 360 launch title, and the console itself is expected to launch worldwide toward the end of November – with an official confirmation of that expected by Microsoft either at the Tokyo Game Show this week or, more likely, at its X05 press and trade event on October 4th/5th in Amsterdam.

Indeed, X05 may well be the cause of the Perfect Dark Zero-related confusion. The game's official website was updated recently with a mock answer-phone message from Joanna Dark saying, "I'll be out of town taking care of some business until October 4th." We can presumably expect an explosion of Perfect Dark excitement on that date. Wonder why.

Either that or the release of the Perfect Dark: Initial Vector novel, which is due out at the start of next month too.

Whatever – we definitely don't expect to be buying Xbox 360s with Perfect Dark Zero on that date. The chances of Microsoft "pulling an Apple" are so remote that our source actually laughed at us down the phone and said he'd personally queue up, buy one and eat the DVD if that happened. So basically we've got a story either way – hurrah!