SOE eased worries a few days ago when they confirmed that their upcoming PS3 MMO The Agency wasn't canceled as rumors would have you believe. If that's not enough for you though, then look forward to next summer, when they'll finally show off stuff from the game.

More details after the link.

Between Mars and Jupiter lies the Asteroid Belt, where large chunks of the 170 km wide Baptistina asteroid had strayed to our side of the Solar System and hit the Moon and the Earth. One of the galactic boulders that hit our world may be the one that caused a mass extinction 65 million years ago and had wiped out the dinosaurs.

Scientists from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Charles University in Prague believe that the Baptistina asteroid was hit by another asteroid measuring 60 km in diameter, causing it to spew out about 140,000 smaller pieces measuring 1 km each, and 300 more measuring 10 km each. Some of the fragments eventually broke out of orbit from the main body, with 2% of them hitting the Earth.

Scientists put the huge galactic drama within Earth's timeline, and found that the Baptistina collision may have caused the huge amount of craters whose ages go back 100 to 150 million years ago. They surmise that 20% of asteroid impact may have been caused by asteroids that broke off from the larger Baptistina family.

The event also ties up with a 85 km crater (called Tycho) on the moon, which was formed 108 million years ago. Scientists are excited at the prospects of connecting up the Baptistina collision to events on the Earth, the Moon and even on other planets. They hope to find out the implications the impact had on the geological and biological history of Earth. Maybe even how it affected human evolution.

Xbox 360's failure rate is gaming's holy grail no more. Numbers from all sources are coming up - retailers giving their estimates and users offering their educated guesses. In Microsoft's repair center in Havant, 1,500 to 2,500 units are reported to be sent back daily.

Not only does that shed a light on Microsoft's dark secret, but also reveals that there are some fishy processes going on when UK owners send their consoles back for repair. Lee Sherman testified to 360-Gamer.com about his frustrating experience.

This unsatisfied gamer suffered three weeks without his 360, no thanks to the not-so user-friendly customer reps who weren't able to help. Constant calls asking when he'll get it back only gave him the answer it'll be “returned shortly.” Unable to resist, he asked for the repair center's number but was told that there are no phones directly to where his machine was.

Upon investigation, he found out that the person on the other line did indeed lie - repair center had a number. What's worse, it was in Prague and not in Havant. Lee stated:

A shocking statistic we found out though is that between 1,500 to 2,500 consoles get sent to Havant by three UPS lorries per day, to then be shipped to Prague for repair. [We] phoned up Nora the [customer service] supervisor again, who then admitted my console was in Prague and hadn’t been looked at yet – she seemed amazed that we knew!

360-Gamer also found an old post further supporting this claim. Forum user LordBrown posted on Xbox.com last June 23:

I just spoke to the customer support people because my 360 has been gone since the 8th of June. Apparently because of the backlog in Havant they’re sending 360s to repair centres outside the UK! And that because of this Microsoft are legally allowed an additional ten days to get your 360 back to you.

Do note that we haven't confirmed credibility of these guys. So 'til we hear any official statement from Microsoft on this (if they do give out one), let's leave this one on the rumor mill.

Dedicating to the avid gamers' world of game music devotion, the GCDC 2007 to start this coming August will also be seeing a live performance by the FILMharmonic Orchestra Prague on popular game soundtracks from Starcraft, Final Fantasy IX, Ragnarok 2, Stranglehold, Metal Gear Solid 2: Snake Eater, Secret of Mana and The Abbey Turrican 2.

Conducted by Andy Brick, the orchestra will also perform popular classics in medley form in salute to the Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga as pioneering game platforms for the game industry, as stated by an official press release.

The performance will be held at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig on August 22, 8 p.m. and won't be an official part of the GCDC 2007 opening ceremony. Also to appear at the concert is Japanese star opera singer Izumi Masuda, singer Conny Kollet from Germany fame, and Konami-sponsored percussionist Rony Barrak.

Kollet is popular for her performances at the Symphonic Game Music Concert, of which this concert will be the fifth of the series, although many will know her for her rendering of the title song for SpellForce: The Breath of Winter.

Rony Barrak will be performing his version of Metal Gear Solid 2: Snake Eater together with the FILMharmonic Orchestra. Masuda, despite being an opera singer, is more inclined to pop-opera pieces, and could be identified as the same one who rendered the song "Distant Worlds" from Final Fantasy at the concert "VOICES: music from Final Fantasy." Tickets are already being sold as of this moment.

We all know how great of a title Gears of War is. What we don't know is who's the greatest GoW player out there. It could be you, it could be us, and to officially settle this, we invite you to join the tournament being set-up by Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games. The event is being sanctioned by the World Cyber Games (WCG) and everyone around the world can participate.

Here's how Gears of War Global Xbox Live Tournament works: The event itself runs from April 9 to May 6. During this period, compete in GoW ranked matches over at Xbox Live. The top four eligible ranked players for each participating country will then be competing in their country's 2007 World Cyber Games National Championship event.

After the elimination round, the stakes get higher. The top 11 finalists in the world will then be sent to Prague, Czech Republic in July to slug it out in the Grand Final. "We are thrilled to offer the chance for gamers across the world to come together and share the glories of blowing apart someone into little chunks.May the best man, or Locust, win," quipped Cliff Bleszinski, quite thrilled.

And he should be thrilled because the prizes are rather very, well, rewarding. They include:

• Grand prize(s): The 11 top ranked overall players receive a trip for 2 to Prague to compete in the Gears of War World Finals.
• Secondary prize(s): The top 12-25 overall ranked players (after the Grand Prizes have been awarded) receive an Xbox 360 Bundle (Xbox 360 Pro Console, Viva Piñata, Project Gotham Racing 3, Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Volume 1, Kameo, and Xbox Live Gold 12 month subscription) and Gears of War faceplates and statues.
• World Cyber Games Prize(s): The top 4 overall ranked players in each participating country win a trip and automatic entrance to their country's 2007 World Cyber Games National Championship event.

Registration for the tournament began last March 29 and will end on April 29. To participate and know more about the event's rules and details, just click the Read link below. See you there!

 Deadwood star Timothy Olyphant will be playing the lead Hitman role as Agent 47 (Yes, we know he denied it but he signed a couple of days after as reported by Variety.) Luc Besson confirms another name for the Hitman cast. Dougray Scott.

Remember the prince in Ever After? The one with Drew Barrymore? (Oh, right. Chick flick.) Or better yet you may remember him better as the bad guy in M:I-2. In Hitman, he's reportedly going to play the man going after Agent 47. We'll see how the movie goes under Fox with Chuck Gordon, Adrian Askariah, Daniel Alter, and Luc Besson producing. Xavier Gens will be at the helm for the Skip Woods screenplay.

Hitman's production begins by late March where they will be filming in Prague. Movie hits the big screen on October 12. And the movie is also reported to be a franchise. Hold on to your hats and let's pray that they stay faithful to the original Hitman.

German airline Germanwings and Sony are cooperating to offer something unique to customers of the Airline. Flights to Amsterdam, London, Barcelona, Prague, Rome or Paris have PSPs on board.

Yep, customers (sorry online translation is a bit weird, you can check out the source link we've got below for yourself) get access to a white PSPs with "Sony's Passport to" UMD on it. From what we understand, the user can get access to points of interest about their destination, maps, videos, etc.

It makes sense when you think about it; a white PSP is definitely better than a normal boring travel guide. Especially now that Sony is so popular in Europe (we jest, we jest with the link, all in good fun really).

Thanks to Simon for the heads up on this one.

Recently, one of our staff writers urged a "grassroots" movement to save Pluto, which was recently stripped of its planetary status.  For those of you who agree that Pluto should remain a planet, here's some good news.

It seems as if the the astronomical  community is not about to let Pluto go down without a fight. 300 researchers recently signed a statement denouncing the IAU's recent definition demoting the ninth rock from the sun. A conference is planned next year where they hope to come up with an alternative definition of "planet." Alan Stern, who heads the New Horizons Mission to Pluto at NASA is helping to organize the conference.

"Teachers are writing me saying, 'We don't know how to teach this,'" Stern says. "We've got to help them out of this jam that the IAU has put them in," says Stern.

Another organizer, Owen Gingerich of Harvard University, believes Pluto's planet label could stick despite the IAU decision if most textbook authors choose to use it. "If the conference is broadly enough representative with the key players, then it may well be that it establishes a different nomenclature than what has been officially voted on by the IAU," he told New Scientist. "It might achieve a more satisfactory consensus," Gingerich says.

For many people it was inevitable, but we still didn't think it would have happened...now it has. 2,500 astronomers who met in Prague for the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) general assembly have demoted Pluto's planet status. Who would have thought that in your science lessons that in the future our solar system would have less planets?

Rather than vote that our solar system contained 12 planets (including the discovery of 2003 UB313 by Professor Mike Brown), the IAU voted that Pluto should be demoted and that our solar system contains 8 planets. "The eight planets are Mercury, Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune," said the IAU resolution, which was passed following a week of intense debate.

Pluto has been considered a planet since its discovery in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh, but now it appears that Pluto will have to be ripped out from school textbooks after the IAU resolution. In remembrance of the planet Pluto, here are a few facts that BBC News put together:

• Named after the underworld god
• Average Sun distance: 5.9bn km
• Orbits Sun every 248 years
• Has at least three moons
• Rotates every 6.8 days
• Gravity about 6% of Earth's
• Surface temperature -233C
• NASA probe visits in 2015

The ongoing debate as to what exactly constitutes a "planet" has aroused some ire among astronomers at the meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague. The planet definition committee offered three new definitions in an attempt to mollify the scientists that had rejected the first proposal. However, most of the scientists in attendance rejected these as well.

The latest proposal continues to define planets as round objects that orbit the Sun, but adds the following: "In our solar system, we distinguish between the eight 'classical' planets as the dominant objects in their local population zones, and 'dwarf' planets, which are not." This is an attempt to find common ground with the astronomers who had come up their own definition last week.

"They have presented practically the same resolution as before," says Julio Fernandez of the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay. Fernandez was one of the authors of last week's  proposal.  He added, "Most of the people here think it makes no sense."

It seems like hair-splitting. Everyone agrees that objects in Solar orbit fall into one of three categories: – the big planets from Mercury to Neptune; a number of "dwarf" planets (i.e. Pluto, Ceres, et.al.); and asteroids.  What subject of just what constitutes a "dwarf planet" seem to be the problem. Fernandez says they aren't planets at all, while the Committee says they are.  It's a small thing until you have to answer the question of exactly how many "official" planets actually orbit the Sun. 

A lunchtime meeting turned hostile when Fernandez tried to read his alternative definition.  He was cut off by Ron Ekers, the IAU president.  "I think it was disgraceful treatment," says Brian Marsden, formerly head of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As more questions were prevented, one astronomer cried out: "If there is democracy, listen to the questions. Let the people speak!" More of the scientists became angered when a  member of planet committee, MIT's Richard Binzel, said: "You can vote based on physics, or maybe you have some preconceived idea of what a planet should be."

Irish astronomer Mike Bailey said "With the present state of knowledge, it's impossible to draw the line between dwarf planets and asteroids." A final resolution declaring that a planetary companion can be a full-fledged planet  if its center of gravity of the system is out in space was rejected by most of those in attendance. That resolution would have made Charon a planet, leaving other planetary companions as moons.

Now there is an attempt to reconcile the warring parties' views in preparation of a vote on the subject coming up this Thursday.