Hi folks, this is just to let you know that the issues reported in this thread and elsewhere are being looked into. We're currently trying to establish any common factors for people who are experiencing game freezing so if you are having trouble please be as thorough as possible with regards to your PS3 setup - are you using a launch version of the console or a brand new slim, playing in standard or high definition (I'm not suggesting that these are potential causes, just making the point)... any information you can give may help to find where the issue lies.

One word of advice we've had already is to avoid switching off your PlayStation while the game is in black screen as this may be affecting your save game. There have been a few reports of incidents where game saves have taken longer than would normally be expected - and with a black screen present it may leave the assumption that the game has crashed. In these circumstances we recommend you wait at least 5 minutes before rebooting - while it's highly unlikely a save will take this long, it's better to be safe than sorry.

While incidents of problems with the game are very low we're working to ensure that everyone gets the Heavy Rain experience they expect. As soon as there is any further information we'll update further.

Thanks for the responses so for, I'll pass these on to the right people to help in establishing potential causes for these issues. Obviously I'll keep you up to date with all further information that comes along, and please do continue to post any findings you have and I'll make sure the team are informed.

One other thing to try, that I mention purely because I've seen it happen in another game, is to try removing any peripherals to have assigned to your PS3 - Blu-ray remotes, Buzz! controllers, guitar controllers etc - while it's unlikely that this is the cause I'm keen to rule out the obvious to begin with.

"We've had another team internally [other than those making Reach] for quite a while now - they've been working on the genesis of what will become our next big thing.

"It's a little premature to get into specifics, but you know I think we have a really good mix of old blood and new blood in the studio."

"I don't think it'll [Wii successor] be any time soon," Nintendo of America exec Cammie Dunaway told GameSpot at the recent Nintendo Summit.

"Even though our installed base it, at this point, 5 million households larger than the PS2 was at the same point in its lifecycle, [Wii] still has a lot of room to grow."

"That said, part of Nintendo's heritage is to always be looking at innovation, and to always start working on the next hardware every time we launch a platform, so we'll have it ready when the time is right." Ah, the future!