EA Games president reveals "extension" of driving and skateboarding series in next fiscal year, commits long-term to Mass Effect, and says next Need for Speed will return to series' roots.

Another new franchise EA is prepping a sequel for is Mass Effect, which was announced for the PC today. From the very first time now EA-owned developer BioWare showed it off in 2005, the role-playing game franchise was touted as trilogy. EA Games president Frank Gibeau's presentation today suggested it may not end there, as he told analysts that it "will be a franchise for [EA] for a very long time." He also said that going forward, EA will take over publishing duties on the Mass Effect franchise from Microsoft Game Studios, which handled the game's initial release on the Xbox 360.
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Xbox accounts for 61 per cent of units sold in UK.

The latest title in the former Sony exclusive franchise Devil May Cry has debuted in the UK's All Formats charts at number one, with the lion's share of sales on the Xbox 360.

Sixty one per cent of sales were on the Microsoft console, with the rest on Sony's PlayStation 3 and PC. The game is number one in the All Formats charts but also the individual format charts as well.
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Exhaustnote.com reports Japanese gamers won't see Burnout Paradise for nearly a month after it's North American release. But in typical fashion, they get some Japan-specific content. The site has additional information on the vehicle and EA's plan to "unlock" it. Burnout Paradise will debut in Japan on February 21st.
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From criteriongames.com:

Just a quick message to let you know that the Community section of burnout.ea.com/community/ is now live in the UK. Other territories will go live soon. "What can you find in this section?" you say. Well...

1. Burnout Rule The Roads
Compete with your friends to set the fastest times and highest Showtime scores on the roads of Paradise City. It takes determination to stay ahead of the rest. Can you dominate the leaderboard?

2. My Statistics
Track your game progress - everything from number of Billboards left to find, to what car you used in your last online race.

3. My Friends
Manage your Friends List. - Ever wondered how much time Discodoktor is spending playing the game online?
Create quick links with up to 9 friends playing on the same platform as you, and search for any Burnout Paradise driver to see their stats.

4. My Rivals
Check out what your latest Online Rivals are up to - are you ahead on takedowns?

5. Forum
Read fan feedback and get direct answers from Matt Webster and Paul Ross, our new moderators.

Sounds cool huh? Well stop reading this and get over there!!!
www.burnout.ea.com/community/
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Publisher Electronic Arts confirmed to MTV Multiplayer today that Burnout Paradise's additional content allows gamers who choose to opt out of engaging with new content to still see the new content in-game while playing online. Additionally, EA says the content will be a combination of pay-to-play and free.

"It's our intention to extend the life of Burnout with additional DLC in the near future. As mentioned, we don't want to split the online community between those that have content and those that don't. Our intention is to offer both free and paid for DLC in a way that enables everyone to 'see' the content, even if they have not paid for it," said an EA representative in an e-mailed statement.
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It's pretty much 'as you were' in the PlayStation 3 chart this week...
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Electronic Arts has decided to extend the online mutiplayer portion of the Burnout Paradise demo.

Earlier this week, EA indicated that it would be switching multiplayer off as of February 1 "in order to enable the best possible experience for gamers who have purchased Burnout Paradise." The company then urged players to buy the full game.

An EA spokesperson told GamesIndustry.biz that they have extended the deadline by two weeks, and will now be switching off the servers on February 15 instead.
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If you're still enjoying the high-speed online thrills of the Burnout Paradise demo you'd better make the most of it because today's the last day it'll work online. To free up some bandwidth on its inevitably busy online servers, EA is clearing out the cheap-skate gamers by shutting down the online part of the demo tomorrow. "In order to enable the best possible experience for gamers who have purchased Burnout Paradise, we will be switching multiplayer off this Friday 1st February," confirms ... » Read More

For those of you that have been enjoying playing the demo online now is the time to buy the full version as of Friday
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Videogamer reports: "Burnout Paradise has impressed gamers since its release last week, but the Xbox 360 version isn't the same for everyone. Reports from gamers suggested that the game needs a hard drive for online play, meaning owners of Core and Arcade Xbox 360s can't play the game online. Having been totally unaware of this, we hunted down our retail 360 copy of the game to look at what was said on the case. After close inspection we finally saw the text.

"online multiplayer 2-8/hard drive required" read the orange text on the second line of the game information on the rear of the case.

A user on Maxconsole.net contacted EA support and received the following reply via email:

"The hard drive is needed to store temporary data when playing online as the data transferred from one console to another requires storage space greater than what the memory card can contain."

We're waiting for an official response from EA on the matter"
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VideoGamer.com takes a look at the big rumours currently doing the rounds in the video game industry. Every week they'll hunt down the juiciest stories and give their opinion on how legit they are.

Retro Studios working on Zelda spin-off

The Rumour: Surfer Girl claims that Retro Studios' (the team behind the Metroid Prime series) next game will be revealed at or around the time of E3 (which takes place in July) and shockingly is a spin-off from the Zelda series.

Verdict: This seems too far fetched to make up. What's most puzzling is the kind of game this supposed spin-off will be. We're putting money on an action/adventure game of a similar style to Retro's cancelled GameCube project Raven Blade.

Plausibility rating: 3/5

Killzone 2 missing 2008

The Rumour: Killzone 2 is without doubt the most hyped game in development for the PlayStation 3, but with that hype comes much pressure. So much pressure that it's not going to be shipped until it's completely ready - even if that means 2009.

Verdict: This latest Killzone 2 rumour comes from Surfer Girl but that doesn't automatically make it 100% legit. Sony undoubtedly will want Killzone 2 released this calendar year, but all isn't lost if it doesn't happen. We're sure Insomniac's Resistance 2 will be more than happy to step into Killzone's FPS shoes. Sony probably won't get another chance to make Killzone into a big franchise, so Guerrilla Games will likely get all the time it needs.

Plausibility rating: 4/5
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Burnout Paradise races straight into pole position in its first week of release on the PS3...
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Gamasutra reports this week's top rental charts from U.S. game rental company GameFly, representing the most requested games for the week ending January 21st, highlight both to-be-released and already released games in a unique demand-specific chart.

Burnout Paradise hangs on to the top spot for the second week in a row. Capcom's Devil May Cry 4, slated to release February 5th, made the top five twice last week --the Xbox 360 SKU in second position, and the PS3 SKU in fourth -- but this week, the Xbox 360 SKU steps back a spot to third, while the PS3 SKU fails to chart in the top 5.

What follows is a breakdown of the top titles requested by GameFly subscribers across each of the major platforms:

Xbox 360

1. Burnout Paradise (Electronic Arts)
2. Turok (Touchstone)
3. Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom)
4. The Club (Sega)
5. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Ubisoft)

Nintendo Wii

1. No More Heroes (Ubisoft)
2. Endless Ocean (Nintendo)
3. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo)
4. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo)
5. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega)

PlayStation 3

1. Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom)
2. Burnout Paradise (Electronic Arts)
3. Turok (Touchstone)
4. Unreal Tournament III (Midway)
5. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Sony)
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Whilst the details of the update are still a little sketchy, Burnout Paradise has gone to v1.1 on the official day of it's European launch.

With some users having issues with 'sponsor codes' to unlock the Steel Wheels car, and others having problems with online game disconnections, could the patch be to fix either of those issues, or something else?
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EA has officially announced that Burnout Paradise will be released for the PS3 and XBOX360 next month in Brazil and will cost R$199,00 (Brazilian Reais ¿ around $110 USD).

The official Brazilian release will occur simultaneously with the major local festivity, the "Carnaval". Welcome to Paradise City.
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Steve Boxer got hands-on with the new Burnout Paradise and had a lovely time, by all accounts. Read on.
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TripleTags.com writes:

First of all for those of you who will doubt this; yes, the photo is 100% legitimate, not a "no-name source" sort of deal.

You can check for yourself if you own Burnout Paradise. Simply pause the game at any point, select the "Paradise City Online" menu, and press Triangle. Bam, there's your friends list, just as you remember it from the XMB. You can send and receive messages, change your comment, add, block, remove... anything you could normally find listed under the Friends icon can be found here. Although a few other titles have allowed messaging from certain menus, this is the first time it's been available during gameplay.

While this isn't exactly the full implementation that we've all been waiting for Sony to bring us, it's certainly a step in the right direction, and closer than we've come from a non-PSN title to in-game XMB yet.
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Gamasutra reports that this week's top rental charts from U.S. game rental company GameFly, representing the most requested games for the week ending January 21st, highlight both to-be-released and already released games.

Burnout Paradise speeds into the top spot after spending last week at number three, displacing three-week leader Kingdom Under Fire: Circle Of Doom, which tumbles all the way down to tenth place.

Capcom's Devil May Cry 4, slated to release February 5th, makes the top five twice -- the Xbox 360 SKU in second position, and the PS3 SKU in fourth. In between them, holding the third spot, is the Xbox 360 SKU of Turok, while No More Heroes enters the charts in fifth.

Overall:

1) Burnout Paradise (360)
2) Devil May Cry 4 (360)
3) Turok (360)
4) Devil May Cry 4 (PS3)
5) No More Heroes (Wii)

Xbox 360

1. Burnout Paradise (Electronic Arts)
2. Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom)
3. Turok (Touchstone)
4. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft)
5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision)

Nintendo Wii

1. No More Heroes (Ubisoft)
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo)
3. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega)
4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo)
5. Endless Ocean (Nintendo)

PlayStation 3

1. Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom)
2. Burnout Paradise (Electronic Arts)
3. Turok (Touchstone)
4. Unreal Tournament III (Midway)
5. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Sony)
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January 22, 2008 - Burnout Paradise, the latest installment in Electronic Arts' crash-crazy street racing series, is now available at retail stores in North America.

Built with a new open world design and instant-connect online mode, Burnout Paradise moves the franchise in a freer, more collaborative direction than previous iterations.

"Burnout Paradise is the natural evolution of the franchise as we wanted to give the player full control to create their own personal Burnout experience," says Alex Ward, Creative Director at EA Criterion.

The game is in stores now for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and will be available in Europe Jan. 28.
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With just a few days left before its official release, another game's street date has been broken. The game: Burnout Paradise; the culprit: an EB Games store in St. Alberta, Alberta.

The image you see here was taken courtesy of Daelakk on QJ.NET's PS3 forums. He mentions that he was able to get his hands on a copy of the PS3 version of the game after pre-ordering it two days ago. Apparently, the store didn't realize that the release date of the game isn't until tomorrow.
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