After receiving “a lot, a lot, of emails” from fans, Eidos Montreal has confirmed that Thief is no longer exclusive to the next-gen, and will be launching on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC simultaneously next year.
Senior Producer Stéphane Roy made the announcement in a special Eidos Montreal community video (embedded below), revealing that the current-gen ports will not be farmed out to another studio, but are instead being developed in-house by the same team that is working on the PS4 and X1 versions.
Roy promised that the “core mechanic and fun factor” of Thief will remain the same across both the next-gen and current-gen versions of the title, but he also noted that there will be a few minor differences.
“No doubt we have to change it a little bit, the next-gen is just much more powerful, so we have to adapt our strategy of how to make it happen on current-gen,” Roy said.
The good news – aside from the fact that the Thief ports will exist at all — is that Roy promised that the team’s experience with the PS3 and Xbox 360 will result in a “very high” visual quality for current-gen players.
Thief started its development life as a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game when it was first announced back in 2009 — at the time it was given the completely horrendous title Thi4f — so it is fitting that Eidos Montreal ultimately deliver on that promise to fans.
We will keep an eye out for any additional details about the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Thief, and let you know as soon as anything pops up.