Which is now. Or next month. One of those.

If you missed Kotaku US’ coverage of Soul Calibur IV at CES, not to mention the seriously funky Star Wars related news, don’t worry, just click the rather obvious hyperlinks and you’ll be up-to-date in no time.

The aforementioned press release can be read in its entirety after the jump.

UBISOFT® TO DISTRIBUTE SOULCALIBUR® IV AND SOULCALIBUR LEGENDS™
ACROSS PAL TERRITORIES

Soulcalibur® IV and Soulcalibur Legends™ to Hit the Stores in Winter 2008

AUSTRALIA, 11 January 2008 – Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, today announced that it entered into an agreement with NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe SAS to distribute Soulcalibur® IV on the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and Soulcalibur Legends™ exclusively on Wii™. Both games will hit stores across Europe and other PAL territories in Winter 2008.

Soulcalibur ® IV is the latest iteration of the world renowned melee-based fighting series. Delivering new gameplay modes, characters and enhanced features with groundbreaking 3D modeling and animation, Soulcalibur ® IV will be the definitive fighting game experience. Soulcalibur ® IV also provides unprecedented character customisation possibilities and the eagerly expected online battle mode.
As part of a monumental collaboration between NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. and LucasArts, the Sith Lord Darth Vader will appear as a guest character in the PLAYSTATION 3 system version of the title, and Jedi Master Yoda will be available for the Xbox 360.

Soulcalibur Legends™ thrusts the players into a third person action adventure and takes a unique approach to the series by truly utilising the Nintendo Wii™ Remote and Nunchuk.

“So are there any new characters?”
“Well there’s a guest character from the Tales series, but other than that not really.”
“And can we fight against each other in two player?”
“Well, not in the classic 1-on-1 sense.”
“It isn’t a fighting game?”
“Well no.”
“Why would they even release it then?”

Then again, maybe he did get it.

As we waited for my brother and his son to arrive for a little holiday Rock Band (new name: Tubgirl), my nephew Xavier grabbed the Wiimote, stole some batteries out of the Xbox 360 controller (the roommate had stolen the batteries from the Wiimote to power her…um. Nevermind.), and sat himself down on the couch for some Soulcalibur Legends as I hopped online to check my emails. Soon pizza, my brother, and my other nephew (in order of importance) arrived, and I headed out into the living room to see how Xav was doing.

He actually seemed to be enjoying it, but he was playing off of my saved game, so he hadn’t realized that the level he was playing was the exact same level I had already been through twice on two different missions. He just sat there on the couch, nunchuk in one hand, Wiimote in the other, shaking it back and forth rapidly as he took out enemies with a blissful look on his face.

“Um,” I muttered, nodding to the odd positioning of the Wiimote in my nephew’s lap. My other nephew took notice and burst out laughing.
“You seem rather good at that,” I observe, desperately trying to keep a straight face.
“Oh yeah, this is pretty easy,” he replies, stroking the Wiimote back and forth in his lap.
“You’re a natural. You must practice a lot.”

It was then it dawned on my innocent little nephew exactly what it looked like he was doing, and despite having the strap firmly secured about his wrist he manged to toss the controller across the room.

“Can we play Rock Band now?”

So now I have Soulcalibur Legends sitting in my Wii, but I cannot play it anymore. Not without immediately launching into pantomimed masturbation, which while entertaining in a large group kind of loses something when you are sitting alone in your living room.

Incidentally, my brother asked me in the middle of our Rock Band session what Tubgirl meant, and I told him to Google it when he got home. The phone message I received the next morning is absolutely priceless.