A hacker eager to reconnect modded Xbox 360s banned by Microsoft in recent days may be on the verge of releasing a workaround. According to 360Mods (by way of DailyTech), user 'c4eva' has shifted gears from developing Lite-on and Hitachi optical drive mods to creating a firmware rev that would allow modded Xbox 360s to bypass Microsoft's online security tests.

Square Enix says Final Fantasy XIII will hit the US on March 9, 2010, an announcement fulfilling the publisher's promise earlier this week to deliver 'important' news on Friday.

Sony's PS3 continued to outpace Microsoft's Xbox 360 in October hardware sales according to US NPD Group data, though Microsoft cleaned up in top 10 software sales, claiming five slots and 44 percent of units total. The Wii took top honors overall, but plummeted in year-over-year comparisons, falling from 803k units in October 2008 to 507k units last month.

Activision's says Modern Warfare 2 raked in an astonishing $310m on its first day of sales, a claim which, if accurate, would make it the biggest and fastest selling entertainment launch in history, annihilating sales records in every other medium.

Beware of banned Xbox 360s loosed in ballooning numbers on auction sites and distribution lists featuring online classified ads. In the wake of Microsoft's ban of "a small percentage" or "around 600,000" or "up to one million players" (depending who you read), the Xbox-excommunicated are apparently leaping overboard to offer their 'modified' Xbox 360 systems rife with dozens of games, extra controllers, special revs of custom firmware, all for anywhere from a buck to the price of a new system on up to boutique (perhaps joke) pricing of over a thousand dollars.

Project Natal will be available worldwide November 2010, launch with 14 games, and sell for less than £50, or about 80 US dollars, according to games biz site MCV. Expect 5 million units for global ship at release, with at least two purchase configurations: As a solo upgrade, or bundled with the Xbox 360 console itself.

Microsoft just zapped the online Xbox LIVE accounts of an unspecified number of Xbox 360 players who modified their consoles to play pirated versions of games.

Marybeth Hicks calls Modern Warfare 2 "barbaric and harmful to the psyche of anyone" who plays it. She wants you to 'reject violent video games' and she's trained her sights on Activision's popular military shooter. The news yesterday was confusing, she argues, because it balanced the memorial service held for the 13 Americans who recently lost their lives in a tragic military-base shooting, against the release of a critically acclaimed military wargame expected to generate record entertainment industry revenue.

Demon's Souls is hard. Harder than sailing through Nintendo's Punch-Out!! cheat-free. Harder than solving a Rubik's Cube blindfolded. Harder than luring CBS to feature you for ranking "top Guitar Hero III player in the world." Harder than scoring a fabled 3,333,360 points in Pac-Man…

If you purchased a copy of Modern Warfare 2 through Steam, caveat emptor, because you won't be able to play it today along with everyone else. Yes, Infinity Ward's operatic military-shooter goes on sale today for Windows, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3 platforms at brick-and-mortar retailers--in fact the game went on sale unofficially several days ago when GameStop corporate loosed the hounds on street-date-snapping mom-and-pop stores and phoned their pre-sells to come in and snatch up copies.

The PC version of Activision's ballyhooed first-person military shooter, Modern Warfare 2--officially available in less than 24 hours--may go down as one of the most contentious launches in games history.