Every week we do a quick wrap-up of some news items that may have slipped through the cracks. The wrap-ups will be shorter versions of our articles, lumped together to give you an idea of things you may have missed.

Sony Working on Canadian Video Store

For those who live outside of the United States, not much heed was paid to the announcement of a PSN video store coming, as the difficulties other platforms have had with this feature usually means every other country in the world will be left out of the loop. The bad news for Canadians and others is that, yes, we still don’t have any video store. The good news is, however, that Sony is indeed working on that issue for Canada and Europe and hopes to be able to announce something sooner rather than later. With the massive push to digital distribution as of late, and the growing success of the PSN, being able to rent HD movies through your console would be a great move considering the success Microsoft has had with their service.

Lucky for Sony that they have their own movie studio and video format, so they hold a lot of clout in the industry and it is something that will come, hopefully coming into the new year. Maybe something announced or released around the GDC in Vancouver this coming May.

Fable 2 Will Have Online Co-op

When a game doesn’t launch with all the promised bells and/or whistles, it tends to draw the ire of both critics and the general gaming populace. Peter Molyneux knew this, and asked critics to kindly spare his baby and give it an extra week or so before the co-op is released. This wasn’t the best situation for anyone, and certainly didn’t look like a battle the Fable 2 designer could win, but luckily the team has announced that co-op will be ready for launch.

I’m sure that Mr. Molyneux is breathing a heavy sigh of relief, and while it did draw interesting conversations with some major press on just how their “re-review” policies may work in this case, if at all, it seems those philosophical debates will have to roll on with another major title.

Valkyries Takes 26 Silicon Knights Employees to Valhalla (For Now)

Ontario-based games developer Silicon Knights, makers of the much-discussed Too Human have recently laid off 26 staff from their team of about 180. While it seems reactionary to most people, it is likely to be a part of the greater development cycle and merely the company shaking off contractors and those who were brought in for crunch time. Based on interviews with company head Denis Dyack, SK is a very close knit group and very much values their employees who are based with the company from start to finish, so even though this is being called a “temporary lay-off” for these individuals, it is likely only temporary to the fact that next time they have a big project coming they would be called on again.

There’s a lot of speculation as to the general success of the game, and we’ve made a request to Silicon Knights to see how the team is reacting to the game’s release and some sales info, and we’ll get back to you if we hear anything from anyone down in St. Catherines.