This just gets rosier. According to a filing made by new Midway owner Mark Thomas, Midway’s going to very quick cash from Acquisitions Holding Subsidiary, his shell company, and he wants his investment collateral protected.

“It is beyond dispute that [Midway has] an immediate need to access and use AHS’s Cash Collateral,” said the filing.

“Nor can it be disputed that, based upon the Debtors’ 13 week forecasted Budget, [Midway is] hemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate. Indeed, the [Midway] Budget indicates that between February 9, 2009 and May 4, 2009, [Midway] will burn through approximately $12,392,598 in cash representing an approximately 75% depletion of its cash reserves.”

Happy talking talking happy talk. More on GamePolitics.

Oh dear. GI’s reporting that some Xbox Live users who let their Microsoft Passport Hotmail accounts expire are at risk of getting their Gamer Scores wiped. For good.

“The only alternative is to set up a new Gamertag with your preferred email address,” said a rep today.

Yep, that’s right. Anyone hit by the fault will lose all Achievements and score completely, even if they’ve been working at it for the past four years.

Microsoft’s investigating the problem, apparently. You’d bloody hope so.

Thanks, Kotaku.

SCEA comms man Patrick Seybold has confirmed on the US PS blog that PS3 Firmware 2.40 has been removed from the company’s servers after receiving a “low volume” of complaints regarding installation. The complaint being that the update “bricked” people’s consoles.

“As has been reported on many gaming blogs and websites, we have temporarily taken Firmware v2.40 offline,” said Seybold. “We’ve received a limited number of calls from consumers experiencing an issue with installing the system software update on their PS3.

“While our consumer services department has seen a low volume of calls on this topic, we are committed to providing the PS3 community with XMB access features delivered in the v2.40 update. We are working diligently to isolate the problem for those few consumers and to identify a solution before we put the firmware back up.”

Threads on the official boards began popping up yesterday afternoon saying that installation of the software was literally breaking some customers’ PS3s.

SCEA took the decision to remove 2.40 from its servers late last night.

Expect more on this later today.

“The government’s proposed changes to the existing age rating systems will create further delays in getting hit games to the UK,” he said. “An extra and unnecessary layer of administration beyond a single system slows the process, and that delay will get passed on to the players themselves.”

Oh dear. More through the link.

Nintendo Germany’s Dr. Bernd Fakesch iterates that this decision applies only to GC 2008, the last year it’ll be held in Leipzig. As for next year’s bigger, better, badder Games Con in Köln, they say they’ll “evaluate” the decision next year. Right. Poor Leipzig.

Press release (in German) after the link.

Nintendo 2008 nicht auf Games Convention

Im August 2008 wird Nintendo Deutschland nicht mit einem eigenen Stand auf der Games Convention in Leipzig vertreten sein.

Mit kleineren lokalen Events und nationalen Promotiontouren, auf denen die zum Teil völlig neuartigen Spielkonzepte für den tragbaren Nintendo DS und die Heimkonsole Wii vorgestellt wurden, hat das Unternehmen in den vergangenen Monaten viele positive Erfahrungen gesammelt.

Auch im zweiten Halbjahr des Jahres 2008 setzt Nintendo daher statt auf eine zentrale Messe auf deutschlandweite Event-Präsenz: In den unterschiedlichsten Lebensumfeldern werden seine Videospiele so bei vielerlei Gelegenheiten direkt erlebbar.

„Um auch Medien und Handelspartner so früh wie möglich über die neuesten Spiele zu informieren, wird Nintendo im Anschluss an die Spielemesse E3 2008 eine bundesweite Roadshow starten”, ergänzt Dr. Bernd Fakesch, General Manager Nintendo Deutschland.

Nintendo legt Wert auf die Feststellung, dass es mit seiner Entscheidung keine Kritik an der Games Convention verbindet. „Wir sind immer gerne nach Leipzig gekommen und haben uns hier sehr wohl gefühlt. Wir möchten uns an dieser Stelle noch einmal herzlich für die vielen Jahre der guten Zusammenarbeit bedanken”, so Dr. Fakesch. Er betont außerdem, dass die Entscheidung keinesfalls eine Vorentscheidung für die GAMESCom in Köln 2009 darstelle. Nintendo werde das Messekonzept bewerten und dann auf Basis seiner bis dahin gewonnenen Erfahrungen neu entscheiden.

Unfortunately for the site, both videos used in the movie were from the PS3 version, as seen clearly from the controller map in the bottom of the screen.

Gametrailers has now removed the video and according to various reports is removing all comments from the site related to the issue and has disabled it’s email contact function in reaction to teh internets going shithouse mental.

Someone, of course, nabbed the video before it was removed. A genuine error? Probably. Watch it after the break. Can’t beat the internet, Gametrailers. Third law of life.

ESA’s Rich Taylor said in a statement:

“While the Entertainment Software Association remains the preeminent voice for U.S. computer and video game publishers, we can confirm that Activision and Vivendi Games opted to discontinue their membership. The ESA remains dedicated to advancing our industry’s objectives such as protecting intellectual property, preserving First Amendment rights, and fostering a beneficial environment for the entire industry. Our high level of service and value to members and the larger industry remains unchanged.”

This could be very nasty for both ESA and E3. Activision-Blizzard will be the biggest publisher in gaming after it merges this year, and all know what happens when the biggest names in the business pull out of “things”. Don’t we?

A former Midway employee has contacted us and said that he worked on the game, and that Mortal Kombat v DC features “no fatalities and little-to-no blood”.

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

Oh dear. Looks as though the 360 version of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 comes with its own glitches, following news that the PS3 version’s multiplayer is pretty much unplayable. According to this, the 360 game has an Achievement bug if you’re bringing data over from the first title, and also carries stat-tracking issues. Not so good. You’re being asked to report bugs here. Isn’t the bug-reporting bit supposed to happen before the game goes on sale?

The Nikkei’s reporting the Toshiba is likely to write down just under $1 billion in its failed war on Blu-ray. The company has refused to comment on the report, which has hit the firm’s share price to the tune of 2.3 percent. Toshiba is still expected to post a 250 billion yen operating profit for the year, despite the decision to ditch HD-DVD.

Loss for the nine-month period was $20 million.

“Atari will not be holding a conference call for the third quarter ended December 31, 2007.”

More here, if you can stomach it.

“Jeff’s firing just destroyed me, and I think it shed a light on the other stuff that I had been kind of rolling along with,” he said.

Davis quit yesterday.

In a Joystiq interview, Davis said he wanted the people left at the site to be seen by readers as the real deal.

“I want people to have some faith in the editors that are still there,” he said. “These are honest people doing honest work that honestly isn’t being mangled by marketers and salespeople. I just don’t think I have it in me to try and repair the damage that’s been done in the process.”

Required reading.

New editor-in-chief Ricardo Torres confirmed the decision.

Davis wrote in a blog post last December, “It’s been almost 8 years since I started working at GameSpot, and Jeff was there for nearly all of my fondest and most memorable experiences on the job. Simply put, I would not be in the video game business at all were it not for Jeff Gerstmann, and I am loathe to imagine what I might be doing with my life right now without the focus I’ve earned from having this ridiculous job. But now, Jeff’s gone, and I’m not afraid to say that it absolutely breaks my heart. I felt the departure of Rich Gallup from the site earlier this year in my bones, but this goes deeper. Jeff was a rare constant, and this marks the end of an era for both GameSpot and myself, a fact that doesn’t seem to be getting any less upsetting for me.”

Hardcore. Good luck to you, Ryan.