Treyarch has shot down increasingly hot rumours that a Call of Duty: Black Ops public beta is set to arrive on Xbox Live and PSN. Speaking to CVG at the Black Ops multiplayer reveal event in LA this morning, Treyarch community man Josh Olin confirmed that Activision's not planning a public beta at the moment and said that current console trials are "internal only". "We're already doing an internal beta with all sorts of Activision studios - thousands of people are participating in our beta," he said. "That's the only formal beta that we're planning at the moment. There were a lot of misconceptions, confusion and Google ads. There was some speculation that we'd be launching a public beta tonight - that's not happening. The beta is internal only right now." He added: "Keeping it internal is very helpful for us. It allows us to move a lot faster on our builds, so if we want to change something we can easily push out a new build within the company to anyone who has one of these dev kits. "Call of Duty is so much this big mainstream thing that everybody at Activision is playing this game."

Some revolutionary changes have been made to the Call of Duty multiplayer formula. The most notable addition is currency: earned by playing multiplayer matches, you can use it to buy weapons, uniforms and accessories for your player. Some more additions below.

Customization
Customization will also play a huge part in the new Call of Duty. You can create a tag and etch it onto your weapons, so theyre stamped as yours. The option is also there to alter your sights and clip on attachtments such as flame-throwers. These attachments, sights and tags can be bought with in-game cash and will help to make your character unique.

Wager Match
Another new addition is a Team Tactical gametype called Wager Match. When you choose to play Wager Match, you'll be randomly placed in one of four modes: One in the Chamber, which sees players given one bullet to kill other players: miss, and they're forced to use the knife, Sharpshooter, which sees players given a random weapon, Sticks and Stones, which involves the crossbow, ballistic knife and Tomahawk, and Gun Game (formerly a mod for Call of Duty 4), which sees players vying to get kills with 20 different weapons: knife someone, and they move down a level.

"You gamble with your own currency, and the fear of loss is so incredibly great that it intensifies the action."

Team Deathmatch, the popular and ever-present gametype which pits teams of 6 against each other, will return in Black Ops. However, points for headshots and other bonuses will apparently add to the team score, encouraging players to be as accurate as possible.

Maps!
Three maps were confirmed in the magazine extract: Launch and Summit have already been seen in the Multiplayer Teaser Trailer, but Radiation, set in a power station, is brand new. It was also confirmed that the rocket seen on the map Launch will indeed lift off during gameplay and 'fry anyone underneath it'. full story in read more

Despite what people may think of Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter, the guy is occasionally right so credit be given where credit is due. For instance, almost a year ago from today, Pachter predicted that the Xbox Live yearly fee would increase to an estimated $100. Though he was slightly off as far as the numbers go and the prediction shot down by Microsoft representatives, the increase did come and was announced as late as yesterday, much to the despise of a whole lot of gamers. Whether the service will be worth paying extra for or not remains to be seen, and will be argued for and against over the foreseeable future. But while the increase in price is a mild one all in all, Pachter still predicts that a $100 ‘Platinum’ service is in the works and will make itself known sooner or later. “The extra $10 translates to around $100 – 150 million per year in additional revenue for Microsoft,” said Pachter. “I think that they will reinvest at least this much in developing other new applications, and will roll out a premium service with $100 – 200 million worth of enhancements. If they can get 2 million users to switch from the $60 plan to the $100 plan, they’ll make an extra $80 million a year, and can keep investing to try to grow that business.”

According to court filings, it looks as if the judge was just too busy to be concerned with the PSJailbreak case. The case has since been delayed for hearing on September 3rd at 10:15 local time. So that leaves a bit of time left to wait to see the outcome of this fascinating case between all the parties.

Well known hacking PR guru Mathieulh has stated the following on his Twitter page - "Someone from our group just successfully cloned the psjailbreak dongle. Going to improve the shell code soon." Interesting stuff, if true, it just goes to show how 'easy' this device is to clone and the potential even bigger Migraine Sony will have if they try to stop every development

The PS3key team (believed to behind Wiikey) just posted this status on their FB page - "Good news everyone! Our mad scientist has confirmed that getting into the console is as simple as pretending to be a USB hub! It doesn't look like this is going to take any more than a few weeks!" In other words, their clone of PSJailbreak is coming along nicely.

Looks like Denmark will be missing out on the release of EA’s MMA due to the game featuring marketing for energy drinks.Apparently, Scandinavian law prohibits the marketing of energy drinks, therefore, EA has decided that instead of changing the fighter shorts and environments in the game depicting the offending material – it just won’t release the game over there.“We are adhering to laws in Denmark that restrict the use of energy drink product placement in-game,” reads a statement from EA, “and therefore are not shipping EA Sports MMA in that region.“Our game authentically recreates the sport of MMA in every facet, including energy drink in-game sponsorships on fighter shorts, gear, and in fight venues.”Hooray for authenticity then, we reckon.MMA is slated for release in October on PS3 and Xbox 360.

PSjailbreak is legal and contains no copyright code, that's what the makers of the device are claiming. In a conversation forwarded to us, a Dutch retailer reveals that the creators of the device are insisting that Sony is just using 'scare tactics' to try and make people think twice before selling it. Moreover the creators are claiming that the device was primarily produced for homebrew on the PS3 console. Keep reading to check out the transcript, some names have been blanked out.

With just about a month away from the expected Sept. 29 price and release date reveal for the 3DS, Nintendo is rolling out a price drop on the soon-to-be elder DSi and DSi XL models. Starting on Sept. 12, both will get a $20 price cut, bringing the new suggested retail price of the DSi to $149.99 and the DSi XL to $169.99. The ole Game Boy Advance-compatible Nintendo DS Lite will remain at $129.99. Nintendo was quick to point out the DS family’s record-setting might via press release, calling it the, “best-selling portable video game system in history” and stating that the new prices “offer consumers tremendous value for their money while providing access to the best portable video game experiences possible.” Whether you’re planning to wait for the heralded 3DS, the price drops on the earlier DSi models should come as wallet-friendly news.

Did you know that a football player's vocation requires them to hurtle their head at other football players' heads with little regard for the safety of either? Did you know that this type of reckless cranial colliding can cause concussions and other serious, long-term head injuries? It's true -- but according to the Washington Post, athletic trainers at the University of Maryland and Ohio State University have found a tool to help diagnose and monitor players' dome-piece health: Wii Fit. Trainers at the two universities now require players to use the Wii Balance Board to get a baseline reading of their -- what else? -- balance. When a player suffers a fairly nasty blow to the head region, they can take another Wii Fit test to see if their balance has deteriorated -- one of the telltale signs of a concussion. Man, combine this test with the Vitality Sensor, and the Wii will become a one-stop-shop for sports-related injury diagnoses!

Here’s a bit of breaking news: the Wii is pretty dang popular. Nintendo this week revealed that the company has sold 30 million Wii consoles in the United States alone. Here’s the interesting part, though – the Wii reached the 30 million milestone faster than any other console in videogame history. A whole 15 months faster than the next best-selling console, in fact. Put another way, if the Wii were a girl, she would have been prom queen at your high school.

Here's a reason to dust off your Wii: When GoldenEye 007 comes out in November, you'll have the option of buying it with a golden Classic Controller Pro. You can see it in the picture above. It's a beauty, right? No word yet on the price, but seriously, when has James Bond ever cared about spending money -- just charge it to British Intelligence.

Read on to see video.

If you went out this week to pick up a Wii, congratulations! You're part of history. Nintendo just announced that the Wii has now exceeded 30 million units sold in the US, forty-five months after its launch. To celebrate the occasion, Nintendo released some rare sales data, disclosing not only the top ten Nintendo-published Wii games (as of the end of June), but the top ten third-party games as well. Nothing from 2010 is on the list, reaffirming the belief that many Nintendo titles enjoy high sales alongside long tails. If that list isn't to your liking, however, perhaps you should go buy several copies of Sin & Punishment: Star Successor to move things along.