SingStar PS3 Hits Last-Minute Hurdle

Release date in no-mans-land while the team works out network issues.

PlayStation 2 owners are still lapping up any and all SingStar updates Sony puts out but the company's attention is now turning to the first game in the series for the PS3.

SingStar was supposed to be out in the next few weeks but Sony has put the game's release on hold for now while it works on the network features of the game.

Exactly what is holding the game back is unclear. The official line from Sony is that more testing is needed, especially for the online components that form the heart of this new SingStar.

"We want to ensure that consumers have the best possible experience when playing SingStar on PlayStation 3. We are therefore taking extra time to test the downloadable content and community features of SingStar to ensure that it is as rich, simple and accessible a SingStar experience as possible," a spokesperson told Kikizo.

The decision seems to be a recent one. Already some retailers in Europe have started selling the game early, with proud owners showing off their copies on message boards such as NeoGAF. This suggests that the problems have less to do with the game itself and more with the infrastructure that powers it.

There have also been suggestions that the issues could be legal, related to licensing of some of the music in the game, but Sony has not commented on this.

If pushed past Christmas, SingStar would join a rapidly growing list of games that won't be out in the all-important end-of-year months for Sony's new console.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo