While a lot of you (myself most definitely included!) are waiting for the sequel to Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Japan's already gotten the third installment just this week. A press conference with Level-5 was held this week to celebrate the launch of Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel in Japan.

The event had your typical fanfare for a game launch - the Level-5 big shots were there, as well as Japanese voice actors in the game. The biggest news that they revealed, however, wasn't much about the third game in the series (which isn't to say that in itself wasn't well publicized).

The announced the release date for "Professor Layton: The First Movie": January 1, 2010 in Japan!

The Japanese voice cast is returning to reprise their roles in the feature-length animated movie. Though they didn't mention anything about a western release, there's still some hope: Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino dropped that the sales of Professor Layton in the west were pretty good - thus showing a following. Perhaps an English movie will do well in the west too?

I've heard talks about bringing the game to the silverscreen when I was writing up that Layton review a few months back - but now everything's coming full circle! And what's more is that it's sub-titled as the first movie. Could there be follow-ups?

Seeing the DS game jump onto the big screen isn't that farfetched - considering that the game boasts Studio Ghibli-quality animations, and that's even prior to the Level-5 parntership with the Japanese animation company for an upcoming game.

The press conference didn't reveal any details whethr Studio Ghibli is actually also helping out with the movie, but regardless, I'm sure Level-5 can still deliver.

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Related articles:

• QJ.NET reviews Professor Layton and the Curious Village