Games

The release of a utility onto the web that allows anyone with a 1.0 firmware PSP to 'dump' the data from a UMD to a memory stick is about to trigger a PSP file-sharing explosion.

According to GamesRadar the files are stored on the memory stick as raw ISO files. There is currently no way of playing back such files, but hackers are hard at work attempting to write a utility that does just that and a release may be only days away.

If they succeed we will likely see a flood of illegally copied and distributed PSP games.

"Hello World!"

That's the traditional phrase that programmers display when they create their first piece of software for an unfamiliar operating system. Owners of Sony's handheld PSP game system were delighted to hear May 5 that a hacker had managed to write a small program that displayed those words on a PSP. They wondered what would be next. As it turned out, it only took hackers five days to go from "Hello World" to Mario World.

Sony has taken legal action against resellers flogging PlayStation Portable (PSP) devices ahead of the official 1 September European launch. The consumer electronics giant has sent "cease and desist" letters to grey market traders that are selling PSPs to UK punters after importing them from either Japan or the US, where the eagerly sought gadget is already on sale.

Monolith Productions, keeping it promise to make it worthwhile to play The Matrix Online, has gone and done the unthinkable. They went and killed off Morpheus, the main sage in the Matrix and the captain of the human hovership Nebuchadnezzar. Not only is Morpheus dead in The Matrix Online, but he is also now dead in all the future works set in the Matrix Universe after the trilogy. This is because anything that happens in Matrix Online is canon and automatically becomes part of the Matrix universe. Morpheus’ death came at the end of this weeks Matrix Online “live events”.

Gaming has never been an inexpensive hobby. But as the industry moves into its next generation, the emphasis on cutting edge graphics and sound, mixed with increased development costs might have gamers double checking the balances on their savings accounts.

The first test comes this fall, when Microsoft debuts the Xbox 360. The company hasn't announced a price for the machine, but several industry observers believe it could cost $399 -- $100 more than new consoles have traditionally cost.

Will there be "Halo 3" for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox 360? No question. In time for the holidays? Maybe not.

David Hufford, Xbox group product manager for Microsoft, said in an interview this week that "Halo 3" for Xbox 360 is a certainty. "I think people would expect that, don't you?" he said.

But because the launch game lineup for the new console is being held mostly under wraps until Microsoft's press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo this week, he was more cagey about the timeframe.

In the first-person video game "Narc," published by Midway, you play an undercover police officer busting drug dealers.

Except in this game, your cop character can take the drugs he confiscates -- and the illicit substances can enhance performance.

Narc's publishers at Midway say the game is all about choices, and the consequences of those choices. The following is an excerpt of a statement released to CNN by the company's chief marketing officer, Steve Allison:

Microsoft Corp. has enlisted Hironobu Sakaguchi, credited with creating the legendary "Final Fantasy" series of role-playing video games, to make two games for the next Xbox game console, the company said on Thursday.

Microsoft (Research) offered few details on the games, other than to say they were role-playing titles already under development by Sakaguchi's studio, Mistwalker.

The current-generation Xbox struggled in Japan from the very start, a problem blamed on a lack of games that appeal to the market. Sakaguchi would help change that, Microsoft said.

Video gaming reached official academic status Tuesday when Electronic Arts endowed a chair at the University of Southern California for the study of interactive entertainment.

Bing Gordon, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Electronic Arts (Research), was named the first holder of the Electronic Arts endowed faculty chair at the USC School of Cinema-Television, according to a statement from the company, the biggest video game publisher.

Massively multiplayer title World of Warcraft appears to have become a victim of its own success, with developer Blizzard forced to apologise as serious server problems continue to prevent many users from accessing the game.

As many as a quarter of the World of Warcraft servers for North America were reportedly down over the past weekend, following a day-long scheduled outage on Thursday which was meant to fix previous stability and overloading problems.