PS3 devs' mouths shut

Britain's PlayStation 3 development community is refusing to comment en masse today on the European launch details for the machine that were announced at midnight last night.

"As a registered PS3 developer we cannot discuss or comment on the PS3 from a development angle because of our contractual commitments with Sony," said Paul Jobling marketing director at Eutechnyx. "However, you can say that we are very excited about the launch of the PS3 and wish it every success!"

Jobling's comment was mirrored by other first party developers in the UK this morning, as Non-Disclosure Agreements kept opinion about the launch details firmly off the record.

"I'd really like to help you, but the NDA's do indeed bind us too," said Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz Games.

"We'd love to give you a little comment on this but could I please direct you to... SCEE," said Nina Kristensen, chief of development at Ninja Theory. "As [Heavenly Sword] is a PS3 exclusive, in this context our PS3 comments really also need to go through [SCEE]."

Sadly, even the SCEE representative didn't get back to us despite being poked with a sharp stick.

Criterion Studios, the EA-owned developer of the Burnout series, also admitted it was bound by the same gagging order as everyone else when asked to comment about the PlayStation 3.

At midnight last night Sony announced that the PlayStation 3 will launch across Europe on 23rd March at a GBP 425, EUR 599 price-point. There will be 30 titles to chose from on day one, and estimates suggest around 300,000 units will be available in the UK.

You can see the full list of games elsewhere on the site, as well as prices for the PS3 peripherals.