Beautiful Katamari a go for the Wii, not sure on PS3

Filed in archive Rumors on July 2, 2007

IGN has reported that Beautiful Katamari was sure to find a place on the Nintendo while its PS3 sibling has been cancelled. Developer Namco Bandai revealed earlier this year that it was developing the next-generation Katamari Damacy sequel, Beautiful Katamari, for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Up until recently, the developer continued to work on both versions of the project. However, the studio allegedly ran troubles porting the game to the PlayStation 3 and these issues, coupled with the stalled sales of the system, have led to the project's quiet cancellation. Add to that is the fact that the Wii has been flying off the shelves, Namco Bandai has, say insiders, re-shifted development resources to ready a Wii build of Beautiful Katamari instead. Given that the title cannot be ported from Xbox 360, the game is being redone entirely for the Wii.

This is not the first time Katamari has been rumored for Wii. In early 2007, reports of Katamari for Wii began to surface. However, development sources indicated at the time that Namco was not thrilled about the prospect about moving forward with the project, mostly because it was not convinced that Wii would be a success. The game's original creator has in the past been critical of Nintendo's platform, too.

We contacted Namco Bandai for comment, but a spokesperson for the company did not return our inquires in time for the publishing of this article.

As always, until we get an official confirmation from the company, this story should be considered rumor. However, when asked, our well-placed sources said the information was "100 percent reliable."