Microïds president Emmanuel Olivier has confirmed in a press release that the April 1 announcement of Syberia 3 was no April Fool’s. However, to say Mr Olivier’s latest statement was a little bit hazy would be like calling Silent Hill a little bit foggy.

At first he suggested that Microïds would be happy to cough up the dough to get Benoît Sokal on board for the third instalment. However, Olivier then implied that the hefty development costs demanded by Sokal would only be put forwards if Sony agreed to release the game on PS3 worldwide.

The original game was put out on PS2 in Europe, but failed to get a release in the US along with “a dozen other Microïds titles.” This has clearly hacked off Olivier, who stated: “the exorbitant royalties demanded by Sony to manufacture the games on its consoles seriously hamper the financing ability of independent producers.”

Microïds have issued a plea to all Syberia fans to send in messages of support to supporToSyberia3PS3@microids.com

A few emails are sadly unlikely to change Sony’s policies, and you have to wonder why Microïds don’t simply try for an Xbox 360 release instead, especially if they have already paid €15million of royalties to Sony for previous releases. Still, Olivier has promised a PC release which should please fans of Kate Walker’s adventures - if it actually comes to pass. I’m just curious to see where the series will go after the last instalment – perhaps [SPOILER ALERT] Kate will look around, think ‘oh crap, I’m stuck in some desolate wasteland with an insane old codger and a fish-obsessed hairball’, then spend ten hours finding increasingly obscure ways to wind up her train and get back to New York. Just as long as we don’t have to speak to her bloody mum again.