Mark Androvich 17:39 (BST)
05/02/2008

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Criterion, the developer of Burnout Paradise, has responded to criticism that the Xbox 360 version of the game requires a hard disk drive in order to play online.

Although all PlayStation SKUs contain a HDD, as do the Xbox Elite and Premium models, the Xbox Core and Arcade models do not.

Core and Arcade users have access to the online Road Rule gameplay and leaderboards, but cannot race directly against others online.

Criterion explained its decision in an open letter posted on the company's website. In a nutshell, the developer decided that its vision of an open world extended through downloadable content was not possible if it supported "the lowest common storage denominator."

The company did not want to split the playing community between those that have updated data and those that don't.

"We opened a dialogue with Microsoft to attempt to discover a possible solution and all possible technical options were investigated to retain the seamless freedom of Burnout without requiring the HDD," the statement read.

"Unfortunately a solution was not available and we decided together that it would be in the best interests of the Burnout community if we require the HDD for full online play."

Burnout Paradise remains atop the UK All Formats chart for the second week running, with PS3 sales improving on last week to take 49 per cent of the pie.

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