News is currently circulating that European game retailer GAME is already refusing to trade in recently affected PS3 which were affected by the PSN / PS3 hardware failures which occurred earlier today.

Owners who have been attempting to trade in their “fat” PS3s for the currently-unaffected slim models are apparently being refused, reliable reports have indicated to us. GAME is refusing trade for those consoles at this time.

We have received word directly from consumers regarding this as well.

We’ll keep you informed on any more updates regarding the PS3’s recent problems as we get them.

It wasn’t too long ago that Movie Gallery announced they were closing over 800 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores across the US, but now it seems like UK-based GAME is following in the footsteps, albeit on a much smaller scale.

12 GAME stores, six GameStations and 25 Debenhams concessions will be shutting their doors after a rough Christmas period resulting in being down 18% in sales.

“The majority of the identified sites are located close to another one of our stores, and we will help each customer affected by a closure to transfer to their nearest store as well as our online offerings,” GAME told Games Industry.

“We will provide extensive support to the teams in each store. However, with deep regret, we have had to offer redundancy to 247 employees. We will do our utmost to redeploy roles if possible, and have started consulting with all affected employees in the 43 sites.”

Sad day. :( More game stores closing.

Well, that didn’t take too long. Modern Warfare 2 has only just been released, having had its street date broken, and The Daily Mail is already digging its tabloid claws into it.

One of the most clear criticism from the article is the scene from the first chapter of the game, that allows you to kills innocent civilians if you so choose to.

“Among the most controversial is a situation where the gamer must decide whether to kill unarmed civilians at a Russian airport in order to infiltrate a terrorist group.”

Not surprisingly, the politicians have already come out of the woodwork (in this instance Labour MP Keith Vaz) and promised to save our children from these vile and socially destructive video games…

“I am absolutely shocked by the level of violence in this game and am particularly concerned about how realistic the game itself looks,” Vaz stated, and promised that this would be brought to light in parliament this evening.

Could British politicians be any more out of touch with society? Seriously?

Thanks to VG247 reader Dannybuoy Twitpicced his copy of Modern Warfare 2, we can confirm that GAME has broken the Modern Warfare 2 street date, a day before the title is due to go on sale.

Many more reports from around the country seem to indicate that  retailers all over the UK and US have broken the game’s street date, including GameStop.

Activision has said that it “has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date.” Looks like they didn’t listen!