When it was first announced at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, the sequel to the 2005 cult hit Mercenaries was billed as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, a fact once again confirmed by developer Pandemic earlier this month.

　　However, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has now officially gone the way of other one-time PS3 exclusives Assassin's Creed, Fatal Inertia, GTA IV, and BladeStorm: The Hundred Years' War; the title will now be multiformat as opposed to a Sony platform exclusive.

　　Mercenaries 2 is set for a "simultaneous global release" during the 2007 holiday season on the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 2, along with the previously confirmed PlayStation 3.

　　The action adventure game has players step into the shoes of a series of hardened bounty hunters tasked with solving some nasty problems. Whereas the first game took place in North Korea, the sequel is set in Venezuela--much to the dismay of the Venezuelan government.

　　Pandemic Studios CEO Andrew Goldman commented on the decision to make the game multiplatform by saying, "All four platforms are incredible gaming machines." He also added that although the title had been previously thought to be PS3-exclusive, it had in fact been designed "from the beginning [as] an experience that accentuates their [platforms'] different strengths."