Yes, it's being relaunched. It was announced a month or so ago - presumably Brian's statement that it was being deleted to encourage sales of the "proper" albums resulted in such low sales that they're all down to their last £50 Million.
More likely it's EMI insisting...
If you think that's bad you should check out HMV Japan's Queen listings sometime. CONSTANT re-issues of stuff.
I've wondered if there's some chart advantage to calling something a re-issue rather than just continuing to provide copies as has been going on all along? Or maybe it's just the extra attention it gets for being listed as a new release AGAIN in some places.
Either way it's ridiculous. If it's been out and still widely available and in print, with the same catalogue number and contains nothing different at all, there should be a law against calling it a re-issue.
The Queen camp always claim to not want to flood the market with releases, whenever they end up shelving an idea. Yet time and time again they rape the system with constant re-issues of catalog material anyway.
I'm not so sure it's EMI's fault either. Moreso than probably any other artist except Elvis, they have way more than enough constant releases to keep them happy with Queen. With Queen apparently controlling and licensing their own stuff, they would have the final say in these matters if they truly wanted to or cared.
I don't care really. Just feel like typing today.
Saw it in Music Zone today myself. Basically, it's because Xmas is coming and they always re-release it every year. The Platinum Collection is now 6 years old anyway as I checked the date on the back when I saw it.