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Take-Two reported $142.7 million in net revenue during Q1 2014, down from $226.1 million in Q1 2013. It drew a net operating loss of $61.9 million this quarter, compared with $110.8 million from 2013 - the company contributed part of the loss to software development costs of a canceled 2K game that totaled $29.6 million.

Take-Two attributes its first quarter net revenue to sales within Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13, Grand Theft Auto 4 and BioShock Infinite. Infinite sold more than 4 million units to date, CEO Strauss Zelnick said during Take-Two's financial call.

Zelnick said he expected Grand Theft Auto 5 and 2K sports games to bolster Take-Two's fiscal 2014 numbers later this year.

"With Grand Theft Auto 5 launching on September 17, followed by the releases of NBA 2K14 and WWE 2K14, fiscal 2014 is poised to be one of our best years ever," he said. "Looking ahead, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the upcoming launches of the next-generation consoles."

Take-Two increased its outlook for fiscal year 2014 from $1.775 billion to $1.875 billion in non-GAAP net revenue.

"What would Batman do?" That's a driving principle behind the upcoming game Batman: Arkham Origins. And, sure, that's what the people making any game about a famous character are going to say. Still, how do they do that?Read more...

Disney Infinity features two kinds of real-world Power Discs that offer in-game boons to characters: Circular discs provide power-ups for Play Set and Toy Box modes, while hexagonal discs unlock items, vehicles and themes. When Disney Infinity launches on August 18, 20 Power Discs will also hit store shelves in blind packs of two for $5 - you won't know which Power Discs you're buying, but they'll come from an initial list of four circular and 16 hexagonal discs.

The circular discs are Bolt's Super Strength, Fix It Felix's Repair Power, CHROME's Armor Shield and Pieces of Eight. That's a 10 percent damage boost, 20 percent more health, 10 percent less damage taken, and 10 percent more loot, respectively.

Hexagonal discs include Mickey's Car and Cinderella's Coach for Toy Box mode, alongside Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo and Tangled texture and sky sets for Toy Box. Three hexagonal discs are "rare," designated with a lenticular design. They are the Dumbo Disneyland ride, the elephant version of Abu from Aladdin and the Astro Blaster vehicle from Buzz Lightyear's theme park attraction.

Start saving those quarters, kids.

"If [Sakurai] wants, my body is ready." That's Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime, answering a fan question a month ago about whether he'd be in the next Smash Bros. game. Now, there's a petition asking creator Masahiro Sakurai to actually add Fils-Aime as a playable character—and it's got almost 7000 signatures. [via CVG]Read more...

Ubisoft sent out a new batch of screens from Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag's multiplayer modes, highlighting The Dandy and Puppeteer. The Dandy is a battle-tested fancy man donning a theme-appropriate eyepatch, while The Puppeteer looks like she's more suited to cutting strings than pulling them.

There's now a lovely little message from Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi on the game's official website, and Nintendo has even created a dedicated Wii U Miiverse page for Earthbound news. Hopefully they've got some surprises coming!Read more...

A hero comes out of retirement and runs for his life this week in Cloudberry Kingdom...

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Dishonored and Skyrim: The Legendary Edition are co-headling the latest video game deals over on Amazon, each available for a limited time at a reduced price of $20 and $40, respectively. The Wii U version of Criterion's latest, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, is on sale for under $20 on Wii U, and down to $30 on other platforms.

Other notable game deals include Epic Mickey 2 for between $20 and $25 across multiple platforms, Saints Row: The Third for $25 and under, Zone of the Enders HD Collection for less than $25 and the Mass Effect Trilogy for $35 on Xbox 360. There are also hardware deals up for consideration: DualShock 3 controllers are $40; one year Xbox Live Gold subscription cards are $46; and other Xbox 360 accessories are all on sale.

If you feel like donning your savings spectacles, you can dive into the deals over on Amazon right now.

The cross between Wii U and 3DS seems like a good business idea for just about any Nintendo game, but it also seems like a natural gameplay fit for the garden-based strategy of Pikmin 3, which has you tossing wee Pikmin hither, thither, and yon. As Shigeru MIyamoto laid it down for 4Gamer, using the stylus worked well enough as a control method, but the resulting game just plain didn't feel like Pikmin. "The truth is we were doing prototype tests of Pikmin for the DS and 3DS but it turned into unit management with only the touch pen and no matter what it just didn't seem like Pikmin. We concluded that Pikmin is a game that revolves around action based on its controls and the strategy sits on top that. Although there are elements that are built on the strategy, there are other overall things that have to be well considered. This complete experience is an important elements of Pikmin."

All of which is more than a little vague, but it seems like while Pikmin 3 could've technically worked with the hardware and touch controls, the end result was too far from Miyamoto's vision for the game. Perhaps a portable Pikmin 3 would've required a bit more skill than Miyamoto really wanted for Pikmin 3, which he wants to be considered "a carefree, easy action game."

While other, luckier parts of the world already have Pikmin 3, it won't be be released to North America until August 4.

Toki Tori 2 may have been out on the Wii U for a while, but now we can enjoy Toki Tori 2+ on personal computers. So if you've ever dreamed of being a flightless yellow bird who lives in a world filled with puzzles, then perhaps my video above will pique your interest.Read more...

Look, we can see why you'd think we're the ones at fault here, but "duckumentary" is totally on DuckTales Remastered and Capcom/WayForward's shoulders. All we did was share it with you, which we had to do in order to free our minds from its webbed grasp. It's like a mummy's curse, but with ducks.

Here's more of Platinum's Wii U superhero game The Wonderful 101 in action. I don't know what the hell is going on half the time, but I do know that I'd very much like to play this game.Read more...

Denis Dyack and his group at Precursor Games has relaunched their Kickstarter campaign for Shadow of the Eternals, the CryEngine 3-powered spiritual successor to GameCube horror game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. Shadow of the Eternals is looking to secure $750,000 in funding, half of the requested $1.5 million from the first go around.

Reward tiers are restructured and so is the campaign: Shadow of the Eternals will span thousands of years and highlight numerous characters like Detective Paul Becker, voiced by David Hayter. Becker, investigating a massacre at an asylum, discovers two survivors who seemingly want to kill each other - one a prim Wall Street type, the other a tattooed biker archetype.

Precursor is still aiming to launch on PC and Wii U, and a Steam Greenlight drive is currently seeking votes from the community. After pulling the plug on the Kickstarter campaign last month, Precursor Games' Denis Dyack told Joystiq there was a lot of "noise" surrounding Shadow of the Eternals due to misconceptions of what Precursor Games was promising. This new Kickstarter campaign aims to be more inclusive to the community, with a special area of the Precursor forums dedicated to fan input, unlocked at the lowest backer tier.

Our long national nightmare is over: the next Call of Duty game is indeed, after all, actually coming to Wii U, despite the debate over whether it may maybe may or may not actually have been coming.Read more...

Cloudberry Kingdom sounds like it's right next to the land where Strawberry Shortcake resides, but this gameplay video reveals that's clearly not the case. It's just screens full of death rays and monsters! Maybe we can console ourselves with some Fudgie the Whale.

Kid Icarus flaps his ineffectual wings on the Wii U Virtual Console this week. The 3DS picks up a new puzzler, Picross E2. That's pretty much it for high profile releases, but then who wants to follow Earthbound?

As my hour with Disney Infinity's Toy Box mode at the San Diego Comic-Con came to a close, producer John Vignocchi had dressed up The Incredibles' Dash in the wings from 1981's Condorman and was attempting to recreate the movie's flight scene. Read more...

Will you be a stealthy ghost? Maybe a silent, but deadly panther? Or is mowing your enemies down with a machine gun more up your alley? This new trailer, released by Ubisoft for the newest Splinter Cell, shows that there is merit to each approach. Blacklist hits Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U and PC on August 20.Read more...

Though it's a platform that began with the joystick the dominant control method, over the past twenty years the keyboard and mouse overtook it to become the only way to play most games on the PC. Which is a shame, because there are a lot of them that play better with a control pad.Read more...

Celebrities: They're just like us! They have bad hair days. They hate waiting in line at the DMV. And just like us, they stand around looking uncomfortable when they play Wii U at conventions.Read more...

Ubisoft has constructed a charming new gauntlet for Rayman to run through, filled with sights so vivid you nearly forget it's all a string of perilous pits and narrow escapes.

In our new video discussion of Rayman Legends, we quickly cover the game's glut of content (earned after several delays), its clever incorporation of other genres, and how its fast-paced platforming is paired with the Wii U's gamepad.

Rayman Legends will be available in North America on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and Wii U on September 3.

If, like some of us, you've been peering over the windowsill, staring sadly at all the happy, smiling faces playing with their Skylanders Giants, wishing you had the excuse to say what-the-hey and jump in to some toy-portal-fun-stuffs, then today's Amazon Gold Box might be for you. The online retailer's daily deal squishes the game's starter kit, complete with game, Portal of Power, and three figures, to less than half-price at $29, which is pretty handy.

Elsewhere, the lightning deals aren't quite as exciting as previous Gold Box fare, although unusually the first deal of the day, a $20 PlayStation Move controller, is already sold out. The next deal, starting 6AM PT/9AM ET is the Move navigation controller, so expect a similarly wallet-friendly price and speedy sales. Based on the not-so-cryptic blurbs, we're forecasting flashes of lightning deals in the Epic Mickey 2 and Hitman: Absolution regions among others.

With development inching toward its final curtain, Capcom has unleashed nearly thirty minutes of gameplay of WayForward's DuckTales Remastered direct from the San Diego Comic-Con. Enjoy it because the footage is the closest we'll get to Duckburg until the game begins its staggered launch this August.

Sci-fi and magic collide this week with Shadowrun Returns...

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Earthbound is officially out on the Wii U's virtual console as of last Thursday, and now a whole new generation of gamers gets to experience Nintendo's quirky role-playing game for the first time.Read more...

Pikmin 3 is already out in Japan. It's headed to the U.S. on August 4. The game is the same, but the Pikmin 3 commercials couldn't be more different. Read more...

On the way out of my hour-long hands-on with Disney Infinity yesterday, I was handed a bag, and the collector inside me started to shake. They might as well have handed a junkie a tiny bag of crack. Read more...

Reptilian DC villain Copperhead was unveiled for Batman: Arkham Origins at San Diego Comic Con, but not as you may remember him ... because he's a she now. Origins features the character's new womanly guise, as per DC Comics' New 52 revamp.

As Newsarama reports, DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns told panel attendees the lady Copperhead is coming to "mainstream" New 52 books shortly after Origins hits shelves.

What you're seeing in the trailer, according to Warner Bros. Montreal Creative Director Eric Holmes, is the culmination of a stunt woman, a Cirque du Soleil performer, and a martial artist, combining efforts to capture Copperheads's slithering, venomous motions.

Copperhead joins a host of other baddies out to get the young caped crusader in Arkham Origins, which is set to swoop onto PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Wii U on October 25.

The NPD Group has published its monthly report outlining the performance of the physical sector of the video games retail market, with unsurprising results with respect to both the industry's overall performance and which games sold the most between June 2 and July 6. Nintendo's 3DS remained the best-selling piece of hardware for its second month in a row, while the Xbox 360 held its spot as the best-selling home console by moving 140,000 units.

The overall industry brought in $593.3 million from the sale of hardware, software and accessories (read: Skylanders toys and digital currency giftcards) at brick and mortar retail locations. This was a 15 percent year-over-year decrease from the $700.6 million the industry brought in during the same period in 2012.

The hardware sales segment and its collectively accumulated $142 million suffered the most severe year-over-year loss out of the three subsections, down by 30 percent from last year's $201.5 million.

June was also the first month of availability for the Ouya, the Kickstarter-funded Android microconsole that kicked off a growing craze for Kickstarter-funded Android microconsoles. "Retail sales for Ouya (not counting direct sales through ouya.tv) and were relatively light for a new console," an NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. "This may be due to the lack of a major marquee title driving consumers to seek out the console, low awareness due to Ouya being a new brand, or low inventory volume due to manufacturing constraints."

The period's 10 best-selling games were lead by three different console exclusives: The Last of Us, Animal Crossing: New Leaf and the physical SKU for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition. New physical sales of console and portable games in general were down 10 percent from last year, ringing up $296.1 million at the end of the period.