Doug Lombardi has told Joystiq that a multiplayer demo for Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 is planned for both the Xbox 360 and PC. According to Valve's PR guru, users who pre-order the upcoming zombie survival title at "participating retailers or [via] Steam" will gain "advanced access to the demo," which will eventually land on both platforms for all users prior to the game's November 17 launch.

Speaking with OXM at a recent London preview event, Lombardi discussed the strength of Left 4 Dead's "word of mouth," which has presumably fueled the need for a demo to the sequel. With groups calling for a boycott of Left 4 Dead 2 due to lack of content support for the original title, a demo may be the best way for Valve to prove why it believes its sequel warrants a full price tag. Although, strong pre-order numbers tell us the game is already on pace to decimate sales charts like a zombie tank.

After EA DICE loosed the official release date for Battlefield 1943 early today, we set to scouring the interweb for more information on the upcoming digitally distributed title. Wouldn't you know it, the first thing we found was the game's somewhat less-than-thrilling Achievements over on Inside MGC, detailing how many flag caps you'll need before hearing the glorious cheevo noise and snagging 10Gs for yourself, among other things. If you're one of those folks a bit more concerned than they should be with points (aren't we all?), check out the full list to see exactly how you'll be playing BF1943 when it hits next week.

Following up on earlier reports that Valve won't leave Left 4 Dead to die an early death, the company stated today that there should be an L4D DLC announcement before the end of summer. A company spokesperson also told CVG that about eight or nine months from now, when L4D2 has released and people see the continued support for L4D, they may finally understand the method to the madness.

We're all eagerly awaiting the epiphany.

Grasshopper Manfacture boss Goichi "Suda 51" Suda likes to do everything to the extreme, whether it's the ultra-violence of No More Heroes or -- as we now know -- playing other developers' games, specifically Criterion's Burnout Paradise. The British dev's head honcho, Alex Ward, issued a tweet revealing that Suda had recently popped by his studio (likely after the recent Nordic Game Conference) and is a "hardcore Burnout fan."

"Hardcore" may be an understatement, as Ward disclosed that server logs show Suda has played more than 700 hours of Burnout Paradise. So, there it is: Even more proof that Suda 51 knows great games and takes everything to the extreme. It may also explain why we haven't heard anything more about the horror title he's working on for EA alongside Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.

[Via VG247]

Some people in the video game industry predict the mobile games business could eventually grow to topple the handheld gaming market, Wedbush Morgan disagrees. In its July industry report, analyst Michael Pachter estimates the mobile games industry is currently closer to $2 billion and, even with expected growth, the market may only expand to $4-6 billion in the next three to five years.

In a section titled "Mobile Phone Games are a Fad," Pachter explains that, while 1 billion iPhone applications have been downloaded across 31 million Apple products sold, "it is not evident that more than 20% of these downloads are games." Suggesting the iTunes App Store has generated "under $400 million in game downloads" in its first year. Pachter does predict the mobile game industry will grow at 25% per year for a few years, but will eventually fall as competing devices enter the market.

The report also calls Electronic Arts' emphasis on mobile games "misplaced." EA Mobile has grown steadily over the last few years, but the report estimates the mobile games division is -- along with that of competitors Gameloft and GLU Mobile -- "barely profitable."

According to the report, finger pointing in Apple's camp should directed toward the "open forum" structure of the store and Apple's business model. Apple runs the game download service for an estimated 30% fee, leaving 70% to the game's publisher, the report claims. The section on mobile games goes on to conclude that handheld systems, like the new PSP Go, will "maintain its niche, without significant cannibalization" from the mobile games industry.

Don't worry, Hogwarts devotees, you won't need a Marauder's Map to find these new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince videos. First, direct your gaze to the launch trailer above. Once finished, point your wand to the break and two more videos will magically appear. Said videos are "making of" featurettes that discuss, unsurprisingly, the making of the game, including the new dueling, Quidditch and potion-making features. You'll also get to see Tom "Draco Malfoy" Felton working his best PR / Marketing schtick.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ships for every platform under the sun this week.

An upcoming patch to Mass Effect Galaxy promises to increase performance on "lower-end devices" by an "estimated 50%," according to BioWare's official Twitter account. Released on June 22, Mass Effect Galaxy is the iPhone OS-exclusive title which details some of the backstory for characters featured in the upcoming Mass Effect 2. According to users on BioWare's official forum, the app runs at a pace similar to that of the original game's infamous elevator system (read: hella slow). BioWare promises the patch will release within the next ten days -- just enough time to finish loading the elevator sequence shown above.

In our excitement to introduce you to the latest DLC content for Burnout Paradise, we completely overlooked one of the key rewards added to the game. Yes, we've already mentioned how gamers can get their hands on free toy versions of the Legendary Cars on Big Surf, but did you know an elusive ninth free car is available for online experts only?

Completing all of Burnout Paradise's 500 online freeburn challenges -- including everything from the original game and all new timed and freeburn challenges in the Cagney update, Bikes Pack and challenges on Big Surf Island -- nets players a diamond-branded P12. Finish it all and nab the exclusive ride, free. What better way to show off your Burnout Paradise superiority than driving around in a diamond-studded speed demon?! The race is on for our community's first official Diamond P12 owner. It shouldn't take you long, you're part of the gaming elite.

Okay, we're going to have to step very lightly here to avoid inciting a full-on boycott/panic/riot. A subtle piece of information slipped under the radar during a mid-June IGN interview with Fight Night Round 4's producers. The tidbit came in response to a query which asked whether the game would allow face button punching controls (it doesn't) -- a query which producer Brian Hayes answered with, "there is no option for face button punching in the final version, but we are investigating providing the option via DLC."

Now, we're somewhat confused as to why the button-mapping options featured in previous Fight Night titles aren't already present in the most recent iteration of the sweetly scientific sim -- not everyone appreciates the stick-based punching control scheme. More importantly, if the folks at EA Sports are thinking about charging for this option -- and we're not saying they definitely are -- then they are high on pot.

We've contacted EA Sports to find out what the deal is.

[Via Evil Avatar]

Hey, remember when we gave away all those codes of Battlefield 1943 just after E3 and there was a bit of confusion surrounding when you could use them -- er, ya know, actually play the game? Don't worry, we were confused too, but according to June's official EA Newsletter, the long awaited online shooter from DICE will be hitting your digital store shelves on July 9th.

Interestingly, the game description no longer lists a PC version, making the delayed iteration of Battlefield 1943 that much less of a possibility -- a strange one at that, considering the franchise's PC roots. Either way, those of you that snagged codes for the game back in early June should start getting ready for battle by talking to our friends in the JPAG and setting up a game night. Talk about two tastes that taste great together.

Update: DICE producer Gordon Van Dyke said today on EA's UK forums that "We are close to confirming our dates (Xbox 360 date & PS3 date), but still need to settle a few minor things." Looks as though the release date listed in the newsletter is still unconfirmed, unfortunately. Sorry, folks -- and thanks to everyone who sent this in!

[Thanks, Iain!]

Like any good sports star, the launch trailer for Fight Night Round 4 that just landed on us does a good bit of strutting around and letting us know who's the best. And who, you ask, is the best? Why clearly Fight Night Round 4 which dropped earlier this week -- albeit with some technical issues -- a full week earlier than we had originally expected. If you're looking for another dose of ridiculously detailed boxers throwing punch after punch at each other, look no further. If not, well, maybe you're smoking lettuce, ya lettuce smoker.

Whilst staring longingly at Tuesday's finally released cover art for Brütal Legend, something struck us as a little ... out of the ordinary. There they were, right above the game's logo: the words "A Tim Schafer Game." (With a seriously metal "S" in Schafer, we must say.)

You see, unlike the wonderful world of film, it's a rarity that video games' creators get credit in promotional materials, let alone on their games' covers. Sure, there are exceptions, like Sid Meier, Hideo Kojima, Tom Clancy and John Madden. Oh, that's right. Those last two don't even make "their" games; they just get all the credit. For shame!

But Tim Schafer? He makes the game (in more ways than one). Although his lone "solo" work to date -- Psychonauts -- was a critical success, it unfortunately didn't set cash registers ablaze, literally or figuratively. So, why the box-front accolade then? Two likely answers. The first is the fact that EA, in its early years, was fairly unique among computer game publishers in that it prominently displayed the names of its designers on their games' boxes -- so there's precedent. The other, perhaps stronger possibility: EA knows it's got something good, and is banking on Schafer and his Double Fine crew to keep on making EA-published games with his name on them, hopefully for many years to come.

It looks like Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison have more to do with The Beatles: Rock Band than thrilling journalists at Microsoft's E3 media briefing. In an interview with Crispy Gamer, the game's lead designer, Chris Foster, intimated that the former Beatles, along with Ono and Harrison, have shared quite a bit of input with the team at Harmonix.

Foster calls the group "the shareholders," and states that they helped put together the song list, its venues and gave input as to whether the game's "dreamscapes" adequately supported the songs. "They looked over all the characters, the animations ... they really kept us honest on whether we were capturing the spirit of the band as they were performing, which was a huge challenge for us," says Foster, noting that it's necessary to capture the joy that The Beatles expressed when playing.

According to Foster, seeing the former Beatles and their widows at Microsoft's E3 briefing "is about as validating as everything." He adds, "They don't get together for almost anything ... it has to be something important, something they believe in."

EA is mushing up Mythic and BioWare into one team led by BioWare's General Manager, Ray Muzyka. The new "RPG/MMO studio group" will have BioWare's Greg Zeschuk as the "group creative officer." Mythic's General Manager, Mark Jacobs, who oversaw the less-than-successful Warhammer Online, has apparently been shown the door. Rob Denton, who was the chief operating officer at Mythic, will now become general manager and report to Muzyka.

Upon contacting EA, BioWare and Mythic, we were informed that a formal announcement would be made later in the day. We'll update as we hear more.

[Via Massively]

Prepare to crack some skulls and extract information with a pair of pliers this September with ... MySims Agents. OK, so using torture tactics to get what you need out of sources is likely out, but the game will allegedly allow you to use "wits, skills and trusty collection of gadgets to solve puzzling mysteries."

Players can even create their own MySims Mission Impossible-esque teams to go on adventures and collect "treasure." What kind of spies collect souvenirs? We really have no idea what to think about this game, but gosh, is it adorable.