Joystiq

Well, what do we have here? While visiting lovely and scenic Redmond, WA to spend some time (about two hours, to be exact) with Fable 3, we accepted an invitation to swing by one of the Xbox buildings and check out the new (and, yes, improved) Xbox 360 wireless controller with transforming D-pad. We not only played with a final prototype controller, but also got a first look at the retail packaging, lenticular image and all.

First, the obvious attraction: The new "transforming" D-pad. With a not-so-simple twist of the D-pad, the corner quadrants drop out of the way leaving just the cross-shaped D-pad. I say "not-so-simple" because it actually requires a little bit of effort; after all, you don't want to go from cross-shaped to old-fashioned in the middle of a hadouken. Using two thumbs to spin the D-pad improves the process though, when not being twisted deliberately, it remained firmly in place. We were told that engineering the transforming D-pad was no easy feat and the final product is not only the result of several prototypes, but all sorts of stress testing.

That mysterious Telltale mashup game teased last week? Telltale laid its cards on the table, revealing ... Poker Night at the Inventory, the second "pilot" game from the adventure publisher, which brings Team Fortress 2's Heavy, Penny Arcade's Tycho, Homestar Runner's Strong Bad, and Sam & Max's Max together for a little good-natured gambling. Now, we know what you're thinking. How can Strong Bad play cards with boxing gloves on?

Poker Night at The Inventory features fully voiced characters utilizing Telltale's dynamic dialog system," according to the announcement. "All the characters will talk trash, give unique tells, and react to the game dynamically as it is being played, providing a unique experience with each round played." It also features Steamworks integration, a first for the publisher. Oh, and pre-orders from Telltale for the fall release ($4.95!) come with coupons for 25% off your order. If we knew the first thing about poker, we'd totally relate that to a hand of cards you'd be confident about holding.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Filed under: Podcasts We've just touched down in Seattle for PAX Prime, but we've already made a brief stop in Redmond to check out a few hours of Fable 3 and get hands-on with the new Xbox 360 controller.

Chris and Justin found a few minutes as they waited for a pizza to talk about what they've seen so far. So come, pull a chair, grab a beer and enjoy the calm before the storm with us.

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See all of this week's links after the jump.

We don't think it would really be all that nice to bathe in a hot tub of money. It makes for a pretty memorable image in this Yakuza 4 trailer, though. Head past the break to see the yen-soak. Plus guns! Explosions! Tattooed gangsters fist fighting! Men in black suits looking tough!

When Supergiant Games opened its doors during GDC earlier this year, it revealed it was working on a digital title to be released in 2011. This week, Giant Bomb unveiled that title -- it's called Bastion and should be available for public consumption by next summer.

Supergiant explains Bastion as an "action role-playing game set in a lush imaginative world, in which players must create and fight for civilization's last refuge as a mysterious narrator marks their every move." The "mysterious," somewhat lyrical narrator makes his first appearance in the game's trailer -- which we've dropped after the break. Considering Supergiant's pedigree (ex-EALA Command & Conquer devs) and how beautifully detailed this initial media is, we have high hopes for Bastion.

The game will be playable at PAX Prime this weekend as part of the "PAX 10."

When Super Giant Games opened its doors during GDC earlier this year, it revealed it was working on a digital title to be released in 2011. This week, Giant Bomb unveiled that title -- it's called Bastion and should be available for public consumption by next summer.

Supergiant explains Bastion as an "action role-playing game set in a lush imaginative world, in which players must create and fight for civilization's last refuge as a mysterious narrator marks their every move." The "mysterious," somewhat lyrical narrator makes his first appearance in the game's trailer -- which we've dropped after the break. Considering Supergiant's pedigree (ex-EALA Command & Conquer devs) and how beautifully detailed this initial media is, we have high hopes for Bastion.

The game will be playable at PAX Prime this weekend as part of the "PAX 10."

The bump in cost for a Gold membership on Xbox Live is just the tip of the iceberg, according to game industry seer Michael Pachter. Predicting a $100 plan as the next evolutionary step in subscription options soon to be available to Xbox Live consumers, he told IndustryGamers reports that while the initial extra $10 "translates to around $100 to 150 million per year in additional revenue for Microsoft," the company will "reinvest at least this much in developing other new applications, and will roll out a premium service with $100 to 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."

It makes sense: Xbox Live is easily one of the biggest draws of the console and consumers have already shown they're willing to pay a premium for it. But even if Microsoft were to offer a "Platinum" service, what could justify what is comparably such a heftier price tag?

"For all I know, the Platinum plan might include virtual goods credits for various Microsoft games," Pachter posits. "If members could get specialized Halo armor or weapons worth the extra $40, they might be more willing to sign up, and it doesn't really cost Microsoft anything to offer things like that." You know what? We may know a few people willing to pay for something like that.

[Thanks, Mark]

At last year's TGS, Capcom producer Keiji Inafune had some pretty grim things to say about the Japanese game industry. "I said that comment hoping that the Japanese creators were going to wake up," Inafune told Videogamer in a new interview. "However, there has been no change whatsoever to the situation since last year, so I'm still very pessimistic."

Inafune said that some Japanese developers are "still living the glory of the '80s and '90s," when the NES, Super NES and Genesis delivered a steady stream of hit games from Japan to the world. "So they don't admit that there is a problem to start with." He advised his colleagues to "get humble and start learning what's going on."

Inafune also added that just buying Western companies isn't enough, unless publishers "start working with them properly, rather than just commissioning a game and then putting their name on the final product." One company must be feeling that one in its Extreme Edges.

A feast of XBLA games may be headed to Xbox Live Marketplace soon, but that's not all there is. First up, there are a lot of festivities planned for the launch of Halo: Reach. Microsoft is dubbing September 14-20 "Invasion Week," and plenty of Halo goodies will be available "including new gear, exciting content, spectacular prizes and a chance to play with the creators of the game." Microsoft will also be offering opening up Xbox Live Gold features to Silver members from September 17-20. Finally, "all fans that jump online" can download a free "Invasion" theme. It's a bit unclear exactly what's meant by "jump online," whether it be players that play Halo: Reach or simply anyone that signs into Live. We've contacted Microsoft for clarification.

New Deals of the Week are headed down the pipeline as well, with Resident Evil 5 "avatar outfits and game add-ons" receiving as yet unspecified discounts next week. The week of September 13, several puzzle games will get the DoTW treatment. Bust-a-Move Live, Puzzle Chronicles and Tower Bloxx Deluxe are all being knocked from 800 MSP ($10) to 400 MSP ($5), while Gyromancer will drop from 1200 MSP ($15) to 800 MSP ($10).

If you still have money to spend after all that, some new Rock Band 3 Avatar items are now on Marketplace, as are two new Games on Demand, Bully: Scholarship Edition and Cabela's African Safari.

Poor ol' Hideo Kojima has apparently been on the receiving end of a plethora of demands from his rabid fanbase, all crying out for the integration of some of the PS3's patched-in features into Metal Gear Solid 4. The idiosyncratic developer took time out of his busy schedule of eating bizarre-looking foodstuffs to respond by saying, "I wanted to make a 'Complete Version' with trophy support and 3D, but if I did that I wouldn't be able to work on a new game. I wonder if someone else would make it for me."

Well, gang -- any takers? It really shouldn't be too hard. Just drop a trophy in for completing each boss fight, one for beating the game on its hardest difficulty, and one for beating the game using only your wits and a pornographic magazine. Give them some clever names ("I Only Read It For The Articles," for instance), and baby, you're good to go.

Before you and the many thousands of other yous gets a chance to go hands-on with Killzone 3 this weekend at PAX Prime, Famitsu has a smattering of new images to hungrily dig through for new information. One thing solidly confirmed by these shots? Dusters. Hooded dusters, no less!

And hey, if you ask us, there's a sever underuse of dusters in the world of video games. Unfortunately for the gentleman above, he seems to have been socked in the face several moments before the image was taken, so his duster is fluttering through the air along with his torso. Hopefully you'll fare better this weekend at PAX!

Oh boy -- yes, this certainly seems like an announcement for an announcement, and you know how much we love those (not at all). But 2K Games' blog has posted that "something big is going to happen at the 2K Games booth" this weekend for PAX 2010, and it's got everyone riled up. If nothing else, just consider this a PSA that there will be a live stream starting tomorrow morning at 10AM PDT, in which we'll supposedly see "something big." An elephant? An Ubisoft Toronto game? Tom Hanks after a wish?

If it helps (it doesn't), 2K producer George Broussard has tweeted a link to a picture of pigs flying, which some folks have taken to mean that Duke Nukem For.. -- oh, never mind, we can't even bring ourselves to say its name. Let's just all wait patiently until the live stream starts tomorrow, and then we won't be disappointed when 2K announces that it has convinced President Christoph Hartmann to attend PAX in a silly gorilla suit.

Moving from game development to multidisciplinary writing, Irrational Games' Ken Levine and Shawn Elliott chat with Amazing Spider-Man writer Brian Michael Bendis on the second episode of Irrational Interviews, released this week. Did you know that what became BioShock was heavily seeded by a trip Levine and his wife took to Rockefeller Center? You would've if you'd already listened to the episode! What're you waiting for, dummy?

Direct Download / iTunes Feed / Irrational Interviews RSS Feed

[Image credit: Pinguino]

Nintendo announced the Japanese release date for Kirby's Epic Yarn -- October 14 -- and released a new trailer for the occasion. We've embedded it after the break, but we encourage you to go to Nintendo's site anyway, for the most charming video controls you'll ever, ever see.

Ubisoft Europe managing director Alain Corre isn't one to parse words -- for instance, he told GamesIndustry.biz in a recent interview, "The games that are not triple-A are not profitable anymore. And that's changed in the last 18 months." He admitted that "we are still releasing some new franchises," citing Ruse as a calculated aberration. "It's a niche so we know the size of the market for real-time strategy games ... with niche games it's possible to have a hit more than in the triple-A space, especially in the fourth and fifth year of the console cycle."

To Corre, it's a question of investment risk. "To a certain extent it becomes less risky to invest more in a single game or franchise than spreading your investment between three or four games," he explained. "If those three or four games are not at the right quality level, you are sure to lose money. So the business model has changed and we're changing our way of making hardcore games." He said we might not see a new IP push from Ubisoft until the next generation of consoles, which he foresees to be "less than five years" from now.

Oddly, he doesn't bring up Ubisoft Toronto -- a studio headed by Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond -- that's said to be working on both "AAA-game" and new IP. Nor did he address the fate of the scantly brought up I Am Alive, supposedly coming out next spring. Based on Corre's statements, we've at least managed to come to the conclusion that Beyond Good & Evil 2 (not a new IP) should be getting a release date during this console cycle. That's ... something?

Sony, here's an idea: just let Kevin Butler control your entire company. Seriously, Sir Howard Stringer is a great guy and all, don't get us wrong -- we've been up plenty of nights bawling our eyes out while he cradled us in his big, burly arms, assuring us that the PS3 would in fact be okay -- but Kevin Butler has proven in his latest ad that he's more than capable for the job.

Just look at the image above and tell us the guy isn't CEO material. Heck, even better: watch the new PlayStation Move ad for yourself past the break and try to tell us it isn't the highlight of your day!

Speaking today during Take-Two's quarterly earnings call, CEO Ben Feder commented on Mafia 2's projected profitability. Perhaps directly rebutting one analyst's recent prediction, Feder assured investors, "Based upon the initial launch, we expect this to be another profitable title for Take-Two." He did not offer specific sales or shipment data for the game's first week at retail, nor did Feder note a general timetable for when to expect Mafia 2 to cross over into the black.

Mafia 2 was released on August 24 to somewhat favorable critical reception, following an eight-year development process that began when 2K Czech set to work on a custom game engine. Our first glimpse of the game (pictured above) came just over three years ago.

Take-Two has reported that net revenue for its third fiscal quarter, which ended July 31, 2010, reached $354.1 million -- an increase of $259.2 million over the same period last year. The company attributed the rise primarily to Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption, which has shipped more than 6.9 million units life-to-date. And while several older games, including Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, NBA 2K10 and Borderlands, contributed to overall sales at retail, Take-Two highlighted digitally distributed content as a "meaningful component" of this quarter's outcome.

Operating income for the quarter landed at $12.4 million, a big turnaround compared to the $58.3 million loss suffered in the same quarter during 2009, and a minor dip from Q2 2010's $16.9 million. Take-Two's fourth quarter won't benefit from Red Dead's landing impact, but the company already has an extensive lineup of DLC planned for the coming months.

Update: EA confirmed the inclusion of multiplayer in Dead Space 2 to Joystiq, saying, "Dead Space 2 will feature multiplayer where you'll be able to strategically dismember your friends for the first time." Hopefully we'll hear more soon.

According to reports coming out of the recent GameStop managers meeting in Texas, Dead Space 2 will be getting a multiplayer mode in which players will control either Necromorphs or "soldiers" (presumably not welders, then?). GamerNode claims that the mode will consist of "deathmatch-style combat" and will be just one of several multiplayer game modes when the game launches in early 2011.

Additionally, the source claims that pre-orders of the game at any outlet would net purchasers a free download of Dead Space: Ignition. Alas, if you pre-order it at GameStop, you'll allegedly get another bonus: a rivet gun.

Infamous 2 is set to electrify (hopefully, not literally) the PAX crowd with seven demo kiosks on the show floor this weekend. The demos feature Cole's new glorified cattle prod weapon and will be set up at booth #122, where developer Sucker Punch will be giving away a "limited number" of t-shirts (pictured).

The crew from Sucker Punch will also be holding the "Creating Super Powers" panel in the Seattle Sheraton's Pegasus Theater at 6:30PM PT on Saturday. They'll show off the new Kinetic Pulse power and an enemy known as the "Ravager." It's sure to be electric ... boogie woogie woogie.

Update: EA confirmed the inclusion of multiplayer in Dead Space 2 to Joystiq, saying, "Dead Space 2 will feature multiplayer where you'll be able to strategically dismember your friends for the first time." Hopefully we'll hear more soon.

According to reports coming out of the recent GameStop managers meeting in Texas, Dead Space 2 will be getting a multiplayer mode in which players will control either Necromorphs or "soldiers" (presumably not welders, then?). GamerNode claims that the mode will consist of "deathmatch-style combat" and will be just one of several multiplayer game modes when the game launches in early 2011.

Additionally, the source claims that pre-orders of the game at any outlet would net purchasers a free download of Dead Space: Ignition. Alas, if you pre-order it at GameStop, you'll allegedly get another bonus: a rivet gun.

When Activision drops enough coin to rent out the California Science Center - replete with the Call of Duty: Black Ops logo projected on a real SR-71 Blackbird spy plane - it's only fair that we take pictures and share them with you. Of course, we weren't there for the glitz and glamour, we were busy playing the game's new multiplayer features and interviewing the multiplayer design director (coming soon). Live vicariously through our image gallery below.

According to reports coming out of the recent GameStop managers meeting in Texas, Dead Space 2 will be getting a multiplayer component in which players will control either Necromorphs or "soldiers" (presumably not welders, then?). GamerNode claims that the mode will consist of "deathmatch-style combat" and will be just one of several multiplayer game modes when the game launches in early 2011.

Additionally, the source claims that pre-orders of the game at any outlet would net purchasers a free download of Dead Space: Ignition. Alas, if you pre-order it at GameStop, you'll allegedly get another bonus: a rivet gun. EA didn't respond to request for comment by publishing.

EA's upcoming Medal of Honor reboot has attracted some controversy due to the inclusion of Taliban fighters in the game's multiplayer mode. A source has informed Joystiq that, in response to the backlash, GameStop stores in Army and Air Force bases will not stock the game. According to the notice sent to employees, "GameStop has agreed out of respect for our past and present Men and Women in uniform we will not carry Medal of Honor in any of our AAFES based stores." The notice specifically mentions playable Taliban fighters as cause for the pullback.

The affected stores will have "all marketing material pulled" and will no longer take reservations for the game. While the move showcases GameStop's sensitivity to the hot-topic issue, stores are nonetheless encouraged to direct buyers to a non-military store. "Customers who enter our AAFES stores and wish to reserve Medal of Honor can and should be directed to the nearest GameStop location off base," the note explains.

The full statement can be read after the break.

Red Dead Redemption has been a bonanza for Take-Two, with the company announcing today that more than of 6.9 million units have been shipped to retail. Take-Two stated a couple months back that the title had already become profitable after the western shipped over 5 million units and allegedly recouped six years of development costs.

The breakout hit has been a staple of the NPD and UK sales charts since launch, but it's still got a lot of sales to go before it has the cachet of Grand Theft Auto. And before we stop using that picture above.

Red Dead Redemption has been a bonanza for Take-Two, with the company announcing today that 6.9 million units have been shipped to retail. Take-Two stated a couple months back that the title had already become profitable after the western shipped over 5 million units and allegedly recouped six years of development costs.

The breakout hit has been a staple of the NPD and UK sales charts since launch, but it's still got a lot of sales to go before it has the cachet of Grand Theft Auto. And before we stop using that picture above.

We all saw it coming from down Wiltshire and up the PCH: L.A. Noire has been officially delayed until "the first half of calendar 2011." The announcement was made in Take-Two Interactive's Q3 earnings release. Noire now joins Max Payne 3 as another major delayed game warming the 2011 bench, while Red Dead Redemption, Mafia 2 and Civilization 5 bring in the bucks.

L.A. Noire's delay became apparent after the title made it into some magazine pieces earlier this year with a pre-October release, and then failed to show up at any of the major video game conventions this year.

The latest trailer for EA's Medal of Honor reboot focuses on a segment from the single-player campaign -- one which pits a pair of heavily armored attack helicopters against a village of hostiles. Who will emerge victorious? The results may -- who are we kidding? The helicopters, of course.

Rhode Island gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio, who is also the general treasurer, is working to block the state's $75 million loan to 38 Studios. The Boston Globe reports Caprio wants to stop the loan guarantee, which the studio would receive in exchange for moving from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, until a new governor is sworn in. Several other gubernatorial candidates have also expressed concern.

The multi-million dollar deal, which would leave Rhode Island taxpayers with the bill if 38 Studios was to go under, is key to the company creating a proposed 450 jobs in the state by the end of 2012. 38 Studios currently employs approximately 200 staff.

Next week, we'll finally get to find out what became of Morrigan at the conclusion of Dragon Age: Origins. Well, technically that wasn't the conclusion of the game -- this is the end, but you get our point. Sort it all out for yourself past the break, courtesy of a teaser video from GameTrailers.