Yes you read the Title correctly. We can finally tell you that Burnout 5 is Officially in production and tell you some details (as released by EA and Criterion Games).

Frist of all, you wanna know the actual name of the game. Am I right?
Well it's been officially announced as Burnout Dominator.

Now for some details as to what the game will involve.

First of all it will only be released on the Playstation 2 (PS2) and Playstation Portable (PSP) consoles. So no, next-gen Burnout yet. And no multi-platform Burnout either (apart from the previously stated PSP version I mean).
On a slightly side note, anyone wondering if the PS2 and PSP games will be able to interact with eachother will be slightly disappointed; there will be no interaction between the two games at all.

The PSP version will be playable in Ad-Hoc mode. You'll be able to play Record Mode, which basically means you try to set a record on any unlocked single race, and then share the record with your friends, via Wi-Fi, allowing them to try to beat you. You will also be able to upload your records to a website. So called "cool additions" will also be available for the game via download.

The PS2 version has some cool modes as well.
First of all, there's the art of mastering Burnouts. If, during a race or challenge, you use up all your boost numerous times, you'll eventually perform a Burnout. It's this feature that will allow you to get massive high scores when doing the near-miss and drift challenges.
Also, there's a brand new maniac mode. This put's all the skills you've learned together to create "the most dangerous run imaginable".

Finally, we can tell you that this may not be the final Burnout game on the current-gen consoles. When asked in an interview, with the website GameSpot, if this would be the last game on the current-gen consoles, Nick Channon, Senior Producer at Criterion Games had this to say:
"You'll have to wait and see".

So whether this is the last current-gen Burnout or not, I can confirm that this is one game I will most definitely be getting. EA's Need For Speed games are good, but their Burnout games are the real racing games to get.

There's no definite date for when Burnout Dominator will be out, but it will be some time next year (2007).

Jay (Site Squad)

Update:

I would like to clear up a query I got asked.
It seems that Burnout Dominator is not actually Burnout 5 as I previously mentioned.
Dominator is a seperate game due to be released round about March time. I presume that date will be in America so us British people may have to wait a little longer, I'm not sure though.

Anyway, as I just said, Dominator is NOT Burnout 5, think of it more like Burnout 4.5, but even that's not completely accurate.
It is, however, a game that will DEFINITELY only be released on PS2 and PSP.

The proper Burnout 5 IS in production, but it will only be appearing on PS3 and XBOX 360 (at the moment anyway).

I hope that has cleared up any confusion.

Jay
(Site Squad)