Capcom has confirmed that they have secured the exclusive worldwide rights to publish official videogames and peripherals for the motorcycle racing championship MotoGP through 2012. The exclusive four year license covers all console formats including PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and PC.

MotoGP is the world’s premier motorcycling championship consisting of 18 Grand Prix races hosted around the globe. It features top motorcycle manufacturers such as Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Ducati, Kawasaki, KTM and Aprilia, who provide machinery for the world’s best riders, including reigning World Champion Casey Stoner from Australia, American Nicky Hayden, Italy’s Valentino Rossi, and Spain’s Dani Pedrosa. The 2008 line up also includes Japan’s Shinya Nakano, plus newcomers for the new season, such as 250cc World Champion Jorge Lorenzo and last year’s World Superbike Champion, James Toseland, from the UK.

“We are very excited to have signed this long term agreement with Dorna Sports, which for the first time grants one publisher worldwide multi-platform rights to the adrenaline fuelled world of MotoGP,” said Mark Beaumont, executive vice president, officer and head of Capcom’s consumer software publishing in the Americas and Europe. “We feel this move to a single publisher will greatly benefit our ability to develop titles that deliver more authenticity and excitement to the consumer.”

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will launch the Speed Racer videogame based on the upcoming film written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. Speed Racer is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Silver Pictures production. The game will be available in 2008 on the Wii and Nintendo DS systems as the Speed Racer film hits cinemas. It will be released on the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system with the DVD launch.

In the Wii and PlayStation2 system games, developed by Sidhe Interactive and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, players will be able to take on the role of the characters from the film, getting behind the wheels of each character’s signature vehicles to experience firsthand the film’s high adrenaline, combative racing style. The car-fu style of action within the game will closely represent the action style being designed by the Wachowski brothers for the film itself as they lend direction and assets to the development team directly from their Berlin set. John Gaeta, a long time Wachowski collaborator and Co-VFX Supervisor on the Speed Racer film, is working with Sidhe and WBIE to assist in maintaining a close film-to-game aesthetic connection.

“Speed Racer is an exceptionally creative property and teamed with the Wachowski brothers’ vision it makes for action-packed racing gameplay,” said Samantha Ryan, senior vice president, development and production, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “The game will capture the intensity of the racing in the film to give gamers and movie fans a chance to take the wheel after the experience the film.”

In May 2008 Milestone and Black Bean will release SBK -08 Superbike World Championship for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PC and PSP.

The new game, developed by Italian racing veterans Milestone, is the official WSBK game and will feature new enhancements for the next-gen consoles. Milestone was originally called Graffiti and released the highly acclaimed PC racing game Screamer in 1995. In 1996 the company followed up the success with Screamer 2 and later Screamer Rally. The Superbike World Championship game series was started in 1999 and SBK -08 will be the sixth game from Milestone with these two-wheelers.

The Finnish racing game FlatOut 2 has now sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide during three months of sale in 2006. IGN.com chose it as the “Best PS2 Racing Game of 2006″ and G4 TV channel’s X-Play had it as the “Best Racing Game of 2006″.

A lot of FlatOut’s appeal lies in the destructable cars and environments. Bugbear’s own physics engine drives the whole smash fest and is capable of delivering 5000 fully destrutable objects and 40 deformable parts on each of the eight cars racing.

At the moment Bugbear is busy developing FlatOut Ultimate Carnage for the Xbox 360.

Oxygen Games are now announcing SnoCross2: Featuring Blair Morgan. It’s probably a sequel to SnoCross1 but Slipstreaming must have missed that game.

Anyways… it’s all about adrenaline and racing snowmobiles on snow. With thirty tracks, career mode, multiplayer and quick races you could be in for a snow racing treat. And without the freezing of body parts as a bonus.

In March 2007 (when we’re pretty fed up with snow in the Northern parts of the world) it will be out for PlayStation 2.

Oh, and what’s wrong with the “W” in snow? Not extreme enough?

The next installment of the successful Burnout series, Burnout Dominator, will be released exclusively for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.

In Dominator you will face off against rivals in lots of tests of your driving and drifting skills while dodging the head-on traffic. The game which is going back to its PS2 roots is being developed by Electronic Arts’ UK studio and will be released in 2007.

The new McRae rally title from Codemasters will come to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in 2007 and is the first game based on Codies’ new game engine Neon.

Neon is a multi-platform continuous technical development that’s already been in production for over 18 months with over 30 tech experts on the team. Neon is being used to build Colin McRae: DIRT from the ground up with technology developed exclusively for next-generation formats; there’s no adaptation of previous McRae tech in DIRT.

DIRT will feature 40 official licenced vehicles with 12 car categories.

Italian distributor Black Bean have aquired the official licence of the Superbike World Championship and together with the developer Milestone bring SBK ‘07 Superbike World Championship to video game consoles near us in 2007.

Milestone has plenty of racing game experience with apart from previous Superbike games they are also the team behind games such as Screamer, Racing Evoluzione (Apex in North America) and Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo.

Below are some screenshots from the PlayStation 2 version: