Microids: Syberia 3 real, console release 'essential'

Developer Microids confounded our meager brains on April Fool's with a gag press release announcing a new point-and-click Syberia adventure in which players on both the PlayStation 3 and PC would be able to "collaborate online." Now the French dev sends word that while that announcement may have been all in good fun, the company is working on a third Syberia game. However, president Emmanuel Olivier notes that the game's console hopes rest with Sony.

Syberia 3 will get a PC release "for sure," though Microids adds that, given rising development costs, a cross-platform release is "essential." That said, the company writes in a rather frank statement that Sony has a history of turning its nose up at the studio, having previously denied a U.S. release of several unnamed Microids titles including the PS2 version of the original Syberia. The developer calls out Sony for "censorship" and what it deems "exorbitant royalties" demanded by the console manufacturer as part of "the 'rule of the game' imposed by Sony." Microids has gone so far as to launch a letter writing campaign to get its game onto the PS3. We've reached out to Microids for more, if only to ask why it feels that Sony is the only game in town.