EA has confirmed that a playable demo of Fight Night Round 4 will be distributed ahead of the game’s retail release date. As part of a joint partnership with GameStop, those who pre-order the game either in-store or online will receive “early access” to said demo.

Sure seems this whole pre-ordering for a demo business is catching on amongst publishers. If you recall, Sony ran a similar promotion with Killzone 2, as did Valve before the release of Left 4 Dead. Don’t know about you, but I sure miss the days when we received collectible items in exchange for reserving a game, not a demo. That’s not to say those days are entirely gone, there’s a few companies that still offer such deals, like Atlus. I suppose playing the game before all the non pre-orderers do is a plus, though.

Fight Night Round 4 is scheduled for a summer debut on PlayStation 3, PC, and Xbox 360. The cover features well-known boxing legend Muhammad Ali and heavyweight champ Mike Tyson.

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