While at the Tokyo Game Show, 1UP was able to confirm with director Jun Morikawa that Beautiful Katamari would not be arriving on the PlayStation 3. But, fans of rolling take heart! Morikawa says that the series will "definitely be making its way to the console soon," just not in the Beautiful Katamari state.

So, will this be the Katamari that evolves the series at least a little bit past the roots established in the 2004 original? Well, what does your heart tell you? Because ours is walking away, shaking its head and laughing, which we can't imagine is a good sign.

[Via PS3F]

Remember how yesterday we reported that Eternal Sonata is coming to PS3 because it was listed on the official Namco Bandai site? Well, if you didn't follow the story after that, Namco Bandai pulled the information later. Now, in a classic Willy Wonka "Scratch that, reverse it" moment, Famitsu reports that the Eternal Sonata is coming to PS3 in Japan during the spring of '08.

We're also expecting the PS3 version of Beautiful Katamari -- also part of yesterday's disappearing act -- to show up announced somewhere in the relative future too. What we still find funny is that Eternal Sonata is still not listed on the ESRB website, despite it coming out next week in the States. The ESRB was who originally tipped off everyone that Eternal Sonata would make its way to PS3.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Sometimes a checkbook, a life-sized model, a shirt, a Play-Doh model, a Lego version or even Catamari isn't enough. Sometimes you need the real deal, the mainline Katamari. Your Xbox Live dealer has prepared a hit just for you on Xbox Live with a new demo: Just remember, only the first one's free.

If you're among the uninitiated (and if you're solely a 360 gamer, there's a good chance you are) prepare for ... well, for insanity that you control with two sticks. If you try to figure it out, your brain's going to sprain it's ankle, so just roll with it. ... Do you get it? Roll. It's funny. Cause it's a ball.

Still playing is-it-or-isn't-it-an-exclusive, (hey, can you spare $50 million?), Beautiful Katamari's opening sequence has surfaced on GameTrailers. Having finished the other, less beautiful Katamari games, our joy in seeing the introduction video wasn't as great as we imagine a virgin Katamari player's amazement. And with this title landing on the 360, we expect a lot of gamers will be introduced to the delightfully quirky franchise with Beautiful.

See the opening video after the break, or rock it in HD directly from GameTrailers.

Katamari Damacy is a strange, strange game. This is a fact of which its fans are patently aware. I'm an Xbox guy, so my experience with Beautiful Katamari at E3 was my first with the series. Considering this is also the first time the series will be showing up on Xbox, it seemed like a good fit for me to try it out. For the uninitiated, the object of Katamari is to roll things up into a ball. By things, I mean all things. Thimbles, cats, bushes, people, cows, buildings, boats, everything: it's all up for grabs. You do this by manipulating the thumbsticks. That's it. That is the game. But most of you already knew that, so the next question is "why should I buy this game again on the Xbox 360?"

Rumors surfaced over the last couple of weeks about Beautiful Katamari rolling itself away from PlayStation 3 and towards Nintendo Wii. An Xbox 360 version, already weighted its own speculation, is the only confirmed version to be shown at next week's E3.

Now comes word that Famitsu (via PS3 Center) has validated the rumors and that Namco Bandai has indeed quietly canceled a PS3 iteration in favor of rolling the Prince of All Cosmos onto the Wii. As we have yet to see the purported issue of Famitsu, we're still labeling this as rumor fodder.

We've contacted Namco Bandai for a statement. In the meantime, take a stroll down memory lane with our recent b[ack]log on We Love Katamari.

[Via Evil Avatar]

Well, the title seemed sort of clever at the time. "The B[ack]log" represents one gamer's fight against that seemingly insurmountable and entirely self-inflicted obstacle, the ever-sprawling backlog of games that are either unfinished, unplayed or unloved. That's the "Backlog" part. After surgically inserting some brackets, it becomes "B[ack]log," a reference to both the blog format and the unique sound emitted whenever I view the stack of games I keep adding to every month. And every week, I hope to subtract at least one and ramble about it for a few paragraphs... if you don't mind. A review this is not.

It seems simultaneously appropriate and depressing then, that the first game to be ejected and examined (and then ejected again) is one primarily concerned with hoarding as much stuff as you possibly can -- We Love Katamari for the PlayStation 2.

According to an official Namco Bandai fact sheet (found after the break) Beautiful Katamari is coming to Xbox 360 ... and that is all. Siliconera dug up the sheet and adds another log to our crazy katamari of news surrounding this title. Even though the game is just more of the same gameplay we've come to enjoy from the series, the story behind all this maneuvering is becoming the interesting tale.

Maybe it is time to just to make an absurd list of what people think will happen next and we'll check back on it when the next Beautiful Katamari incident occurs -- see if anybody is on the mark. Siliconera goes on to say that the game is probably a timed exclusive, considering GameFly still has their info up for all three systems (and they don't just make stuff up), it's the best information we've got until Namco Bandai makes a clear statement on what's really going on.

[Update: We shouldn't have doubted you, Ross! Gamespot has stated that the information in the article was indeed "total crap". Original post follows.]

As the extreme and possibly insane cynic might ask, "Isn't there already a colossal ball of junk on Xbox Live Arcade?" To that we answer, "No sir, but there soon will be. Although, Feeding Frenzy was a bit rubbish, wasn't it?" The destined arrival of Bandai Namco's next Katamari game on Xbox Live Arcade is announced in a rather blasé manner by the first sentence in Gamespot's hands-on preview of the title: "The big, huge Katamari ball of junk just keeps on rolling, this time with a new installment called Beautiful Katamari slated to hit Xbox Live Arcade in October."

The news sticks to yesterday's word from Newsweek's N'Gai Croal that Beautiful Katamari would be an Xbox 360 exclusive, and neatly contradicts previous XBLA portfolio manager Ross Erickson's "total crap - not happening". Something obviously changed in the months since then, an observation not befitting of the Katamari franchise, it seems. Gamespot's Brad Shoemaker labels the game as "more of the same," noting the presence of new levels, high-definition graphics, 4-player online gameplay and, perhaps most importantly, an original soundtrack. Despite losing momentum in terms of moving the series forward, we suspect there's still plenty to heart about Katamari -- especially if the price is right.

Striking a blow to symmetrical ball-rolling controls everywhere, Newsweek's N'Gai Croal reports that Beautiful Katamari's royal rainbow will extend only to the Xbox 360. He explains that an exclusivity deal is already "very close to fruition" and is likely to be announced formally at July's Min-E3 event in Santa Monica. The trail of digital crumbs leading to the deal seems especially obvious in retrospect, with Ridge Racer 6, Ace Combat 6, Eternal Sonata and Pac-Man: Championship Edition all indicating quite the chummy relationship between Namco Bandai and Microsoft.

With the Katamari franchise not being nearly as unstoppable as its clutter-collecting cosmic prince, PlayStation 3 alarmists shouldn't view this as the end of their fragile and constantly beeping world. That being said, seeing a distinctly, almost obviously "Japanese" game picking up Microsoft's system alone certainly points to interesting times ahead. It also makes completing the level that much harder.

[Thanks, Matthew]

Gamefly, the online game rental service, has never been the harbinger of new releases; but unless they're getting into the habit of offering up officially unannounced games, expect Beautiful Katamari to release in October for PS3 and Xbox 360. The Wii version supposedly comes out one month later. Although October and November look like placeholders at this point, maybe spurred by previous rumors, the fact that the game is even listed is a good sign that the King of all Cosmos will send his son to roll balls on the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii this fall.

Like the ESRB database, Gamefly might become a nice source for future, and especially in this case, unannounced games. If this becomes a habit for the service, we wonder what other treasures Gamefly may accidentally tell us in the future. We will certainly laugh if they end up making the Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII announcements for Xbox 360 before anyone else.

In related news, OrangeLoungeRadio, who originally reported the rumor of Beautiful Katamari, wrote last week their Katamari "story has been removed by request from Namco Bandai." A nice strong-arm tactic by Namco Bandai that does nothing but show OrangeLoungeRadio was on the money the whole time. We've contacted Namco for a statement about Beautiful Katamari. The Prince's cosmic Leo is certainly out of the bag.

[Thanks DPCough]