M-rated Ninety-Nine Nights hitting US in August

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo last month, famed designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi gave Xbox 360 owners a double-shot of news. First up was the official announcement that his company, developer Q Entertainment, was bringing its popular Lumines franchise to Microsoft's next-gen console. Second was Mizuguchi's unofficial revelation that Q's action adventure game Ninety-Nine Nights would "probably" arrive in the US in August.

Today, Microsoft announced that Ninety-Nine Nights will "definitely" be arriving in the US in August; it is already available in Japan, China, and South Korea. The game is being codeveloped by Phantagram, the Korean developer of the Kingdom Under Fire series. It will retail for $49.99 and will sport a fantasy action storyline, as outlined in GameSpot's most recent preview.

Microsoft's announcement today also confirmed two other things about Ninety-Nine Nights. First, the game will be rated M for Mature by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. That's an abrupt departure from Mizuguchi's previous games, which consisted of family-friendly titles such as Space Channel 5, Meteos, and Rez. Secondly, the game will go by the shorthand title N3, as it does in Asia.