Fatal Inertia started out as Koei Canada’s flagship project and a Playstation 3 launch title. It didn’t make the PS3 launch and later Koei announced it will also be appearing on the Xbox 360. After a dip in Fatal Inertia news Koei has a set release date for it, September 11, 2007. In their press release they only mention it is scheduled to ship “for Xbox 360(tm) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.”
It looks like Koei is sweeping the Playstation 3 version of Fatal Inertia under the rug or it’s getting a delay. While low Playstation 3 sales may have been a reason to close the project, Koei might have canned the project because it is too similar to Wipeout. Sony confirmed Wipeout HD is coming out later this year on the Playstation Network and Koei may have thought there is only enough room for one futuristic racing game per console.
See the full press release past the break and if you have a different opinion on the status of Fatal Inertia on the PS3.
Update: Game|Life contacted Koei and discovered the Playstation 3 version has been "delayed indefinitely. If you want to play Fatal Inertia, it's only going to be on the Xbox 360.
Burlingame, CA — July 2, 2007 — KOEI, recognized worldwide as the premier brand of strategy and action games, today announced that Fatal Inertia is scheduled to ship to North American retailers on September 11, 2007 for Xbox 360(tm) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.
"KOEI has been at the forefront of creating the most engaging action games, so with Fatal Inertia we're now lending our action game talents to the racing genre to deliver an experience that is as fun as it is fast," said Senior Vice President of KOEI Corporation Amos Ip. "Armed with an eclectic variety of weapons and racing challenges, plus elegant and intuitive driver controls, Fatal Inertia is quite simply bringing high-speed fun and excitement back to the combat racing genre."
"By designing Fatal Inertia 's gameplay around a physics engine it not only allowed us to create a truly different driving model, but it also helped us create a set of dynamic weapons with multiple tactical applications," said Lead Game Designer Michael Bond. "We've based many of the game's weapons on straightforward physical principles, and by doing so we're giving players the freedom to come up with their own creative ways of using them- ways that even we are still discovering."
Fatal Inertia is the debut title from KOEI's Toronto-based development studio, KOEI Canada. The team is led by Producer Takazumi Tomoike, creator of the Dynasty Warriors® series, and KOEI Co- Founder and Chief Advisor Yoichi Erikawa, who under the pen name Kou Shibusawa is regarded as one of the world's top video game designers.
