Here’s a roundup of today’s news found elsewhere on the internet:

BioWare "think of games as franchises" (eurogamer) - BioWare once steered clear of sequels, but today the EA-owned company has a very different mindset.

"‬We think of our games now in our group as franchises,‭" BioWare co-leader Ray Muzyka said yesterday at GDC. "‬We really do."

He went on to tell an audience (thanks Gamasutra) that "franchises include a lot more than just games" and may span books, comics and films. As such, BioWare has to think as far as a decade in advance of each game's launch.

This strategy was most evident with Dragon Age, a self-described franchise started by Origins last autumn but expected to run and run through expansions, sequels and considerable DLC.

A similar approach is now being taken with Mass Effect 2, which launched in late January and became one of the highest-rated games ever on Xbox 360 (it was also released on PC).

Muzyka said sequels not only make sense, but that the development teams have fun making them.
"If you're not going to take the innovativee risks that you need to, ‬then yeah, you're setting yourself up to be in a death spiral,‭ ‬and that's a bad thing," he added. "You have to invest and innovate.‭ ‬‭‬That what's keeps sequels selling more."

‭"You gotta listen to fans.‭ ‬That's the most important thing you can do."

With Mass Effect 2 out of the door and Dragon Age expansion Awakening ready for launch next Tuesday, 16th March, BioWare still has Star Wars: The Old Republic - EA's "largest ever" project - and ME3 to think about.

BioWare drops potential February 1, 2011 date for Dragon Age 2 (vg247) - BioWare may have hinted at a set-in-stone date of Tuesday February 1, 2011 as the release date for Dragon Age 2.

A teaser card, with the series trademark logo, is packed in with US retail copies of Dragon Age: Origins expansion, Awakening.

The new content is released on PSN only in Europe for PS3 owners, while PC and 360 owners can pick it up at retail as well as download.

Last month, EA announced a new Dragon Age was in development for Q4 of fiscal 2011 – between January-March 2011 – for consoles, handhelds and PC .

Whatever the case, it looks like this will be one of BioWare’s planned E3 announcements that boss Ray Muzyka hinted at a couple of weeks ago.

More Mass Effect 2 DLC announced (eurogamer) - BioWare's announced the Kasumi's Stolen Memory downloadable content for Mass Effect 2.

Due 6th April, this introduces the last and twelfth recruit to the roster: Kasumi.

You'll find her - a thief - on The Citadel, and help her on a top secret recovery mission should you feel helpful. Joystiq said the task requires a disguise and leads to a run-in with an art collector.

Besides the character, Kasumi's Stolen Memory will offer a Locust sub-machine gun, a flash-bang loyalty ability and a new Achievement.

The content should take around an hour-and-a-half to romp through.

There's no word on price.

Next Red Faction due in March 2011, says THQ (vg247) - THQ SVP Danny Bilson has said that the next Red Faction will be releasing next March.

Speaking with Joystiq, the exec also mentioned the game would be a “hybrid” between the first two Red Faction titles in the series and Guerrilla.

“The new game takes [Red Faction] to a whole new place, it kind of goes back to the old Red Faction because about 80% of it is underground,” said Bilson.

Last month, THQ announced a new Red Faction title would be coming next fiscal year, with a reveal coming at E3 this June.

PlayStation Move Gets Its First Wii Port (Kotaku) - With the PlayStation Move looking, well, similar to Nintendo's Wii Remote, you may have wondered how long it would take until it was announced a Wii game was being ported to the PS3. The answer? How about, oh, a few hours.

Warner Bros let us know today that The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, a game previously headed for the Wii (and DS), will now also be making an appearance on the PlayStation 3, "with full support for PlayStation's upcoming motion controller technology".

Explains why the Wii version was delayed.

TT Fusion, who were handling the DS version of the game, will now also be taking care of the PS3 edition, along with a PS2 and PSP version that were also announced today. The Wii's game is being developed by Headstrong Games.