Eidos announces Thief release date

Thief: Deadly Shadows will creep out of itself on June 11th, publisher Eidos announced this week, and you should see both PC and Xbox versions of the Ion Storm Austin-developed sneak-'em-up tucked in amongst the goodies at your local gaming shop from that day forth.

It would be an understatement to say that the third Thief title has a lot to live up to. The game, which began life at Looking Glass back in early 2000 before the studio folded and it switched to Ion Storm, has already faced a degree of backlash thanks to the developer's decision to introduce a third-person view (by default, in the case of Xbox, and as a backup to first-person on the PC), and it hasn't even been released yet.

But judging by Ion Storm's and in particular director Randy Smith's comments lately, fans can look forward to a game that expands and builds on what came before more than it chops and changes, and there are plenty of neat little touches that fans should appreciate - like a customisable difficulty level, and AI characters who notice things like opened doors and missing items and start probing for you in the shadows.

We'll certainly be in line for a copy come June 11th, although you might want to wait for the inevitable review before you toss your coins into the ring. Still, at least you now know when to pay attention, and in keeping with traditional PR tactics, we've also been sent some new screenshots to celebrate. Sneaky.