While it’s due out in March 2010, the ESRB have already rated the recently announced Deadly Premonition for Xbox 360. However, the only situation is that they’ve rated it for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Little to my knowledge, Deadly Premonition is actually Rainy Woods, announced for both consoles back in 2007. So it’s possible it’s still in development for both consoles, but will be released on PlayStation 3 over the PlayStation Network or something. That, or maybe Ignition’s just holding off a PlayStation 3 announcement.

For more, here’s the ESRB’s description of the game.

This is an action-horror game in which players assume the role of a detective investigating a series of strange murders in a small town. Players examine crime scenes, interview townspeople and suspects, and occasionally use guns, knives, and metal pipes to battle zombie-like creatures. One humanoid-like monster (naked, but with no genitalia or nipples) crawls along walls and can be killed by using a submachine gun. In one flashback sequence, players are able to control the villain (the Raincoat Killer) as he uses an axe to kill the townsfolk—toxic gas has left them in a deranged state; the grainy black-and-white sequence depicts the townsfolk emitting red blood-spurts when hit, as their bodies disappear.

Graphic depictions are presented during investigations of crime scenes, where players sometimes discover the victims: a woman is found tied to a tree with her abdomen sliced open—blood surrounds the open wound (hair partially obscures her breasts); another woman is strung up by wires in a shower, covered with blood, and strangled by an elaborate trap; and a “profile”-montage depicts still-frame images of a struggle between killer and victim amid sounds of crying and desperate pleas (e.g., “stop, please . . . I swear . . . I won’t tell anyone . . .”). A couple of cutscenes are intense as well, depicting suicides via gunshots to the head. The dialogue contains mild sexual innuendo (e.g., a woman at a gas station says, “Let me know if you want me to pump it”) and more direct commentary about sex: “She’ll scr*w anyone” and “Oh, I sleep with anyone I wish. Anyone I prefer to sleep with . . . I could sleep with you, if you’d like.”

Thanks, Siliconera.