Activision's decision to raise the suggested retail price of Modern Warfare 2 in the UK to UK£ 54.99 (almost US$ 90) has raised a furor among gamers in the region. Former SCEE president Chris Deering recognizes that a conundrum exists: prices for blockbuster titles should be even higher in order to support the industry, but people "just don't have that kind of money."

After 12 years, Sony is about to pull the plug on its Yaroze program, which made console development available to aspiring non-professionals. Through this service, subscribers received access to an online community, development software, as well as a very rare black PlayStation One console that allowed devs to run their own code on the system.

Forget Wii knee or whatever you call it. Doctors now have something new to watch out for when dealing with gamers: the PlayStation palmar hidradenitis, a skin disorder caused by excessive use of consoles. No danger of seeing health warnings from the surgeon general on console boxes though.

Details after the link.

Ohh I haven't written a mud-slinging article in weeks. In an interview, SCEE prez David Reeves said "you don't grow the market by putting out shoddy machines." Taking potshots while Microsoft's down, Sony?

It was reported back in September that an uncut and untouched version of Manhunt 2 (PSP, Wii, PS2) has been leaked into the Internet. As much as this is a very controversial video game title from the similarly controversial Rockstar Games, things of this nature are not really much of a surprise nowadays.

However, the matter was brought up again as new details about the leak surfaced. Sky News recently provided this statement, "Rockstar accepts the game was leaked onto the web by an employee of a different company who had access to the preview copy. That person has been sacked".

But the million dollar question now is, "Who leaked Manhunt 2?" Online site Game Politics tried squeezing out more information from Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive. Very interestingly, the publisher provided this reply:

Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that a former employee of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has acknowledged his responsibility for the unauthorized online distribution of an unrated play-test version of Manhunt 2 submitted for the European PAL PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system.

Aside from being fired from his post, it is still unknown whether Take-Two and Rockstar will be taking any legal actions.

(Editor's Note: It's a fresh issue of QuickPeek for a fresh new month. We've finally hit the big "One-Five" edition for our weekly updates, and if some of you've noticed, QuickPeek posts seem to get longer and bulkier with the updates! As always, we'd like to give everyone a resounding "Thanks!" for all the fun and the never ending support. This weekly update of updates is all for you!)

The 15th issue of QuickJump QuickPeek sees the start of a new month. We've got a couple of weeks ahead of us before Halloween finally hits, and even as early as now, there's been some hair-raising news that could leave some of you pale and ghastly (not to mention some toothache from all the sweet stuff going on around the gaming industry as well).

The previous edition of QuickPeek had its own fair share of enormous news - including, of course, the release of Halo 3. Today, we've got some weekly updates that have been specially carved right out of last week's pumpkin. It's big news on top of big news, with some bewitching brew being concocted from the cauldron of the homebrew community on the side.

This has got to be our biggest, meatiest, and most jam-packed issue yet, so you better tighten your bootstraps. You're in for one heck of a ride.

Check out the rest of this 15th issue right behind the Full Article link below!

Originally posted on October 6, 2007 at 2:20 PM.

(Editor's Note: The tenth issue's rolled out, and you can bet on it this won't be the last! Far from it. So far, you guys have done a great job sticking by us with our little weekly attempts at recapping the highlights in the industry, and for that, we really are grateful. Yeah, yeah. We've said thanks a hundred thousand gazillion times. But for as long as you guys are around, then there isn't any reason for us to stop, right? We hope you continue to take in your fill of our weekly dose of the QuickJump QuickPeek. So, with that said, on to the meaty stuff of this tenth serving! Enjoy!)

To take from our comments section, we open this edition with a: READ THIS AND YOU WILL BE EXCITED. Ha! Talk about spammage. Antics aside, we've reached the big one-oh for QuickJump QuickPeek and with it, you better get ready for all the beef in today's Issue 10. The world of gaming is not one to sit idle after all. At every turn, there is action to be had, lessons to be learned, insights to be gained. There is something that makes certain things standout in history, be it a contribution in the PSP coding scene, or in the outlook of the raging next-gen console wars. So what's been hot this week? On with the Peeking, boy-o!

The rest of the issue is waiting right behind the Full Article link!

Ah, if the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is willing to create a separate awards events for video games, can the Oscar's Academy and the Golden Globe's foreign press pool do the same? And while the debate on whether video games can be considered art still rages on, no one will deny the impact it has had on culture and society. While BAFTA been giving these awards since 2003, this will be the first year the vid-games awards shall be handed out separately, demonstrating their commitment to video games as a contemporary art form.

The categories reflect this cultural recognition and commitment. BAFTA shall be praising games for their innovation, character development, and storyline as well as their technical and gameplay merits. The 2006 British Academy Video Game Awards shall be held at the historic Roundhouse on October 5.

And the distinguished list of video games that shall compete for the... okay, "British Gaming Oscar" (for the lack of the award's actual name) include some gaming heavyweights like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Guild Wars, and We Love Katamari, hot up-and-commers like Just Cause, and long-standing series like Tomb Raider.

Check out the full list of nominees at the full article (click on the Full Article link below)!

FreeStyleGames is an independent British developer founded in 2002. Hip-hop rhythm action game B-Boy, its first title, is set for release this year. Even so, the young, talented and ambitious company expresses plans to go next-gen. And with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) backing them up, why wouldn't they?

With the major expansion in mind, the independent developer is looking to recruit new artists, animators, programmers and project managers over the next year. Aside from the jump, FreeStyleGames is thinking about a move to set up offices to significantly grow development capacity.

To PSP and PS2 fans who are already excited about B-Boy and would like to see more of FreeStyleGames, you need not worry as they don't totally plan to leave the current generation consoles.

According to their Commercial Director, Chris Lee, "While we're all excited about the results we're seeing on next-gen hardware, we're still committed to developing at least two more current generation products, as there's a lot of life left in the market so it doesn't make sense to ignore it."

FreeStyleGames is presently based in Leamington Spa, in the Midlands of England. To date, they employ only around 30 people.

This weekend's biggest news story was that of the death of the Electronic Entertainment Expo; it's replacement, the new "E3 Media Festival," will be happening in July next year. Now, the best part of E3 for many is the face off between the three hardware giants - Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft - in their annual Pre-E3 Press Conferences. We don't know if that will still be happening, but what's their stance on the E3 Media Festival?

Nintendo's PR manager in the UK, Rob Saunders, said, "I can confirm that Nintendo will be involved in the E3 expo next year," so at least expect to see them back. Not too surprising considering the success they had at E3 2006 with Wii.

Microsoft is riding the fence as the official word from the UK office was, "We're supportive of the move ESA has taken. It's still early days, and we're not in a position to talk about what Microsoft will be doing in regards to next year's E3, but we'll be making an announcement nearer the time." Take that as you will.

Sony's UK office doesn't seem to want to deal with it at all. David Wilson, the SCEE PR manager, says "we generally view E3 as a 'US' show. That isn't to devalue or deny its significance to us, it's just that because it's based in the US: SCEA 'own' it." Good mentality to take.

It's not too doubtful that all these guys will be back for next year's show. However, we'll definitely miss the fun and excitement of their press conference wars if it doesn't happen again. They're one of our favourite parts of E3!