Deus Ex 3 boss speaks

Eidos Montreal general manager Stephane D'Astous has given an interview in which he has more or less confirmed formats for Deus Ex 3.

Speaking to 1UP, D'Astous said: "It's going to be announced in maybe early 2008 or maybe summer. But we're not working on current or last gen, it's next-gen and PC." Which, with respect to Nintendo's loveable little Wii, presumably means 360 and PS3.

As for the game's release date, information will be "more precise in the next press release", but it sounds like it's 2009 at the earliest.

D'Astous also shed some light on the development team: there's no one from Ion Storm, although internally there is "triple A" experience, and while both Warren Spector (Deus Ex 1) and Harvey Smith (Deus Ex: Invisible War) have been spoken to privately, it sounds as though neither is available to contribute.

On the plus side, D'Astous insists that Eidos in the UK is incredibly protective of the Deus Ex brand, and that a very high benchmark for quality is being set, with Ian Livingstone (Eidos product director) said to be "helping us out from a distance".

D'Astous is obviously coy about discussing game features, but he did talk a little about themes. "There's obvious features that we definitely want to continue," he noted. "I think the dialogue, choice versus consequences, the depth and richness of the game is something that we will certainly conserve. There are other more specific features that we want to keep."

Equally he's unprepared to discuss story specifics, except to say that it will be "something that will please the fans that are loyal to the franchise". "Next year we'll be announcing all of that," he adds. In the meantime, interested gamers are encouraged to contribute to the official forum, where the developers are said to be listening on a day-to-day basis.

Deus Ex 3 is Eidos Montreal's first title and was confirmed last week after months of rumours. You can check out the first trailer on Eurogamer TV and marvel at the fact they plan to use the Tomb Raider Legend engine too.

Or, for more exploration of Deus Ex 3, our friends at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have been doing some interesting detective work with long words.