Electronic Arts has announced that a new installment of the Fight Night boxing game franchise is in development, with a probable release date set for early in 2009. Officially titled EA Sports Fight Night Round 4, the game will offer the visceral thrill of breaking someone's nose, of biting off someone's ear (go, Mike Tyson!) on a new and improved engine that has been built from the ground up to take advantage of all the processing power of the Xbox 360 and of the PlayStation 3. Sadly, the PC guys don't get a change to smash eyebrows and spit broken teeth.

The studio handling development duties is EA Canada, which also handled the first game in the series, after which EA Chicago took over. The Chicago studio has been knocked out and then closed down by Electronic Arts, so EA Canada is once again in charge of the boxing series.

EA remains pretty tight-lipped when it comes to game modes or to specifics about the fighters featured. We only know that Muhammad Ali is in the game and that Mike Tyson also gets a rematch. Seeing these two names put together, we pretty much figure that the game is going to be a Who's Who of boxing history, with important fighters from all decades making appearances in the game.

Kevin Wilkinson, executive producer for the game, has declared "The EA Sports Fight Night franchise has always been synonymous with quality and innovation that raised the bar for the sports videogame genre. EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 was a platform defining game as the industry transitioned to next generation consoles. EA Sports Fight Night Round 4 will change how boxing games are played and measured in the future."

Until the game ships, we here at Softpedia have only one question to ask: will Don King be involved with the game and will he be making an appearance in-game?