It's finally up and running, the huge feature of PS3 exclusive MAG is now in motion thanks to the v1.46 patch for the game's beta program.

Developer Zipper Interactive has decided to extend the beta period to December 5th, given this major step. MAG is due out on January 26th.

An internal clip of what appears to be Pandemic Studios' work on a Mercenaries MMO project has surfaced. It's called 'Mercs, Inc'.

Visual effects artist Dorian Compo says it's a "multiplayer sandbox game," who was let go. Sources say it's in pre-production at EA LA.

Video game industry veteran Jeff Strain today announced the formation of Undead Labs, a Seattle-based game development studio that's working on a zombie MMO for consoles.

Developer Zipper Interactive have yielded to fan requests for more MAG beta, and so now it'll end sometime this week instead of Friday gone.

In fact Jeremy Dunham of Zipper says the requests were "overwhelming" so they extended it "through the weekend" with it ending soon.

The news spurting from Fanfest in Reykjavik over the weekend suggests that CCP's upcoming console MMO Dust 514 won't charge players with a monthly subscription.

Instead, the game will use micro-transactions via the virtual items marketplace.

Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine has revealed they've got console plans, with the unannounced MMO heading to the next-gen home systems in 2011 sometime.

So far the games development has cost them $20 million and will be a free-to-play affair. The console MMO has been hard to implement but some are on their way, like SOE's The Agency.

Once more, another challenger has arisen to joust the law in a U.S. court room. It's over the technology behind the Massively Multiplayer Online game, and how it uses data.

Paltalk are issuing the suit against Turbine. To make matters worse, in 2006 they sued Microsoft over it's Halo multiplayer mechanics, with the giant settling the claim - 'validating' them.

John Smedley of Sony Online Entertainment, the big boss, revealed that the 5 million user strong Free Realms will hit the PlayStation 3 "next year sometime," likely mid-2010.

The PlayStation Eye is "going to be something" Free Realms will "very likely" support. The free-to-play and micro-transaction MMO is hot, so hot it's getting a Star Wars clone.

For those looking to get inside the MAG beta you're in luck, Sony is running a quick signup for more testers and they have, or had, "up to 16,000 Promotional Codes" ready.

The beta sessions will run Monday to Friday for six hours each day. These time slots will be at 5pm to 8pm and midnight to 3am GMT. Not for Germany, due to "restrictions imposed" by law.

Developer CCP has revealed more on their upcoming online console FPS title, DUST 514. It takes places in a persistent state; it's an MMO but not an EVE expansion.

It has real-time strategy elements to the game, and links in with EVE Online with players from the space opera able to fund DUST troopers, who impact the faction warfare system.

CCP today revealed DUST 514, a console-based hybrid MMO/FPS set within the EVE universe. The announcement was made during a keynote address by CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson at the Game Developers Conference in Cologne, Germany.

This will be a console exclusive, no PC version has been confirmed.

Sony has just announced that Final Fantasy XIV is to be an exclusive for the PS3 that will be released in 2010.

It might be a MMO, but we'll have to confirm this.

Sony Online Entertainment announced today that Free Realms has entered the closed beta stage of development. SOE is currently accepting early registration for open beta, set to start in early April. To be considered for participation in the open beta, players of all ages can register at www.freerealms.com.

Free Realms is currently in a critical stage of development known as beta. Beta testing is the last step of game development and the first chance for a few selected players outside of the company to experience the game.

Codemasters showcased some of the star players from its 2009 portfolio at its San Francisco Gamers Day event, held last night, Thursday 19th February. Featured titles included DiRT 2, FUEL, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Jumpgate Evolution, OverlordII, Overlord Dark Legend and Overlord Minions.

Set to deliver a thrilling off-roading experience with extreme sports attitude, new visuals released on Strategy Informer revealed that, in addition to Utah, Malaysia and London, DiRT 2's World Tour of off-road events will take racers to a massive, spectator-packed Los Angeles sports stadium for an exhilarating rally cross event: the "Stadium King Shootout".

Sony Online Entertainment has confirmed that their free family-based MMO will launch on PC in early April.

Free Realms, which is also in development for PS3, will be released on the PC way before Sony's console. Beta testing will start within "a couple of weeks" according to associate art director Sebastian Strzalkowski.

The DC Universe Online image gallery has been updated with 8 new screenshots.

Click here to view those new screenshots...

Sony confirmed today that PS3 firmware 2.6 will be unveiled from tomorrow, January 21st.

In an official release, the company told us:

"Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) is pleased to announce the latest upgrade (system software update version 2.60) for PlayStation 3. The PS3 experience is about more than just games; it's also about movies, pictures, music, video and more."

Last November, Hollywood production company Red Eagle Entertainment grabbed the rights to adapt the fantasy novel series Wheel Of Time by the late Robert Jordan into movies and videogames.

Ea have now announced that they have partnered with Red Eagle to distribute the Wheel Of Time games via its EA Partners program.

Sony has confirmed to MTV that the 17 million subscribers to the PSN, which was announced at CES09 last week, includes people who have created an account on the PSP, PS3 and website.

This number, which matches Xbox Live registrations, brought questions and skepticism that MTV decided to answer by contacting Sony.

In an interview with Kotaku, Microsoft's Director of Product Management Aaron Greenberg said that the Xbox 360 has gained enough ground to cause a lead over PlayStation 3 third-party support, suggesting that companies will no longer feel the need to support the PlayStation.

"I think what we'll see is, as a result of how 2008 shaped up - the fact that we had our biggest year in history and we're now expanding our lead over the PS3 in a global basis - we went into 2008 with a solid lead over PS3 in North America, but Europe was a much closer race. Now, we're really expanding our lead there," he said. "We've become, by far, the lead global platform for third parties. I think you'll see us getting some benefits from that."