21 PS3 games available by end of '06

Today Sony executives showed off the PlayStation 3's controller and online store at its Gamers' Day event in San Francisco. At the same time, the company announced the final "launch" lineup of games that will be available in stores after November 17, the day the PS3 goes on sale in North America, and before December 31.

[UPDATE] The launch lineup of games will be available at various dates "through the holidays," and will total 21 in all. Three PS3 launch titles will be first-party titles developed at one of Sony's Worldwide Studios shops. They include the much-vaunted shooter Resistance: Fall of Man, the basketball sim NBA 07, and the fantasy actioner Genji: Days of the Blade. Another Sony game, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom, is being classified as a third-party title because it's being developed by the company's subsidiary Sony Online Entertainment.

The third-party PS3 launch lineup runs a greater gamut of genres. Five will be traditional sports games--EA Sports Fight Night Round 3, Madden NFL 07, NBA 2K7, NHL 2K7, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07--while another, Tony Hawk's Project 8, is of the extreme athletic variety. Two others, Need for Speed Carbon and Ridge Racer 7, will focus on automotive competition.

Three other PS3 launch games will also involve motorized vehicles traveling at high speed. However, they will also be armed, as the combat of Full Auto 2: Battlelines, Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII, and Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire will show. They won't be the only games to feature flurries of gunfire, though. Three high-profile first-person shooters--Call of Duty 3, F.E.A.R., and Rainbow Six: Vegas--will all go on sale before or during the holidays.

Three role-playing games will hit the PS3 from the get-go. Besides SOE's Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom, the console will be graced by the expansive The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the superhero-themed Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Last but not least, the platformer category will be represented solely by Sonic the Hedgehog.

SCEA Launch Titles:
Resistance: Fall of Man
NBA 07
Genji: Days of the Blade

Third-Party Publisher Titles:
Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII / Ubisoft
Call of Duty 3 / Activision
EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 / Electronic Arts
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion / Bethesda Softworks
F.E.A.R. / Vivendi Universal Games
Full Auto 2: Battlelines / Sega
Madden NFL 07 / Electronic Arts
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance / Activision
Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire / Namco Bandai Games
NBA 2K7 / 2K Sports
Need For Speed Carbon / Electronic Arts
NHL 2K7 / 2K Sports
Ridge Racer 7 / Namco Bandai Games
Sonic the Hedgehog / Sega
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 / Electronic Arts
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas / Ubisoft
Tony Hawk's Project 8 / Activision
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom / Sony Online Entertainment