Canada

Electronic Arts has confirmed a "very small number" of layoffs at Army Of Two developer EA Montreal, as the studio switches its focus from packaged to digital products. More >

Mass Effect 3 sold an estimated 890,000 units in its first 24 hours on sale in North America, EA has confirmed. Speaking at the Wedbush Technology, Media and Telecommunications Summit in New York City, EA CEO John Riccitiello said he was feeling "awfully good" about the game, VentureBeat reports, adding: "We anticipated it doing well, so we're happy." More >

Ubisoft has confirmed that it has removed the creative director on upcoming tactical shooter Rainbow 6 Patriots from his position. The publisher has confirmed to Game Informer that David Sears has been removed from the project, and replaced by Jean-Sebastien Decant, adding: "The development team is still hard at work to deliver the next installment of the revered Tom Clancy series, and more details on the game will be revealed at a later date." More >

Electronic Arts has confirmed a "small number" of staff at its Vancouver studios have been laid off. The company says the job losses, which are believed to have hit both EA Canada and Need For Speed: The Run developer Black Box, were necessary as the publisher continues its shift in focus towards digital. In 2011, EA digital revenues exceeded a billion dollars for the first time. More >

More than two-fifths of UK developers who lost their jobs between 2009 and 2011 relocated overseas, according to a report by UK trade association TIGA. The report, "Making games in the UK today: a census of the UK developer and digital publishing sector," claims that the UK game industry workforce shrank by more than 10 per cent between 2008 and 2011. Of those that went overseas, the most popular destination was tax haven Canada, followed by the USA. More >

Canadian import website Videogamesplus.ca has been hacked, with the personal information of 21,000 users leaked onto the internet. Spotted by random_dave on our forums, customer details including names, phone numbers, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were uploaded to the Pastebin website. A link to the entire database has since been removed by download site Rapidshare. More >

Ubisoft has announced the closure of its Vancouver development studio, which worked on various sports titles after being acquired by the French publisher in 2009. More >

A Quebec appeals court has struck down an injunction which sought to prohibit THQ from hiring Ubisoft talent. More >

Square Enix has taken its free community site, Square Enix Members, offline after its security was breached by hackers. The publisher is now working to establish the scope of the attack on the Members site, which is only available in North America and Japan. It stresses that there is no risk of credit card data being compromised because none was stored on the server that was compromised. More >

Indie Game: The Movie, a documentary about independent videogame development, will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The film, which features Super Meat Boy creators Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, Fez developer Phil Fish, and Braid creator Jonathan Blow, has been named an official selection in the World Documentary category at the annual celebration of independent filmmaking. More >

EB Games, the Canadian subsidiary of US retail chain GameStop, has reportedly merged its used and new game sections, with minimal distinction between which is which and new copies of games hidden behind pre-owned ones. An employee informed Kotaku that staff have been told to put the same, white price stickers on both new and used games; in the past, pre-owned games have carried yellow price tags. Although one employee got in touch with Kotaku to dispute the claim, scores more have verified it, and the retailer is yet to comment. More >

Square Enix has revealed plans to expand its operations in Montreal by adding 250 staff across its Deus Ex: Human Revolution studio and a new development outfit whose first project will be a fresh entry in the Hitman series. More >

Ubisoft has announced Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 Patriots for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Patriots, due in 2013, is in development at Ubisoft Montreal with support from the publisher's Toronto and Red Storm studios, and is the first instalment in the 25 million-selling Tom Clancy franchise since 2006's Rainbow Six: Vegas. More >