It’s official. Christmas is better in America. At least, it seems that way, what with Epic Games’ Mark Rein claiming today that the awesome PlayStation 3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 is set for release in the US this Christmas.

UT3 on PS3 has been granted approval by Sony Computer Entertainment America, which means that hundreds of thousands of copies of the game are currently being hurriedly copied and boxed up in a grim factory somewhere in the mid-West (we imagine) in time to brighten up American PS3 gamers' holiday season next month.

“My guess is that Midway will start shipping the title to North American retailers on Monday December 10th and it could show up in stores as early as December 11th but more likely toward the middle of that week”, Rein told Next-Gen.biz

We spoke with Mark Rein about all things UT3 recently – and you can read that full and frank interview right here next week. In particular, he had a lot to say about Cliffy B’s obsession with his hair.

SPOnG assumes that Europe will see the PS3 version of Epic's what's looking like one of the best first person shooters made by humankind early in 2008, once all the localization and whatnot has been completed.

We've contacted Midway earlier today for further confirmation on this. Stay tuned for more on Unreal Tournament 3 for the PS3 shortly.

^{Source: Next-Gen.biz}