Ubi Soft has announced that it will be moving up the European release dates for Bethesda's role-playing game, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The PC version will be available in May, while the European release date for the Microsoft Xbox version has yet to be finalized.

　　To meet the demands of its European consumers, Ubi Soft will release the PC game in two stages. In certain countries, a semilocalized version of Morrowind--meaning a translated manual with English in-game text and speech--will be released in May, with a fully localized version to follow in August. This will let all European consumers buy the game in May, while fans in Germany and France will have the option of waiting until August for a fully localized version.

　　"By introducing a two-stage release, we hope to meet the unprecedented demand from fans who want to play Morrowind as soon as possible, but we hope to also deliver a perfectly localized version for those who can wait till August," said Thomas Petersen, group brand manager for Ubi Soft. "For a gaming universe featuring more than a million words, full translation poses quite a task."

　　In detail, the shipments will be as follows: In the UK and Scandinavia, an English version will be released in May. In Italy, Holland, and Spain, a semilocalized version will be available in May. In France and Germany, a semilocalized version will be available in May and will be followed by a fully localized version in August.

　　For more information, take a look at our previous coverage of Morrowind.