2K Sports' upcoming professional wrestling game WWE 2K14 has been scheduled for an October 29 release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, parent company Take-Two Interactive has announced.

The date was unveiled in Take-Two Interactive's report for the 2013 fiscal year ending March 31. WWE 2K14 is being developed by Yuke's (Rumble Roses, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw series) and Visual Concepts (NBA series).

Take-Two Interactive acquired the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) license for video games earlier this year following THQ's bankruptcy. The multi-year licensing agreement will see WWE games continue to be developed by Yuke's.

The new partnership nullifies previous WWE and Yuke's contracts, allowing the companies to sign new deals with Take-Two Interactive. As part of the deal, THQ will pay WWE $650,000 in royalty payments for games sold while under bankruptcy protection.

Microsoft's venue construction plans for the May 21 Xbox event are well underway, according to tweets from staff.

The Xbox event will be hosted in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft chief of staff for interactive entertainment business Aaron Greenberg posted a picture of the venue still under construction to social networking site Twitter. Similarly, Xbox Live director of programming Larry Hryb tweeted a photo of what he referred to as "the briefing space".

The event will be hosted at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft has promised to unveil a "real taste of the future" at the press conference. Following the announcement of the event, several rumours have circulated over the past few months regarding the console's name, mandatory internet connectivity, and a set-top streaming device.

Grand Theft Auto parent publisher Take-Two Interactive believes creating compelling titles for next-generation platforms will be complicated and costly.

Despite the challenges, CEO Strauss Zelnick believes his company is up to the task, due in part to a drive to be fiscally responsible and disciplined, as well as the cash it has on hand.

"There's nothing straightforward about making what we hope will be the standard bearers of the industry. And there's no question that developing for what will be next-gen will be complicated and for the type of titles we do, will be costly," Zelnick said today in a post-earnings financial call.

"That said, we have a very strong balance sheet and we align our business with our costs; and one of our three strategic objectives is to be the most efficient company in the business," he added.

Zelnick's comments today don't match up with what the executive said in November. At the time, he did not foresee a significant increase in development costs for next-generation games. In fact, he said the opposite would be the more likely scenario--that games would become easier to make.

"We don't have a ramp up of operating expenses for next-generation," Zelnick said at the time. "Do we believe the titles to be a whole lot more expensive to make for next-gen? And the answer is we do not. In many instances we believe that it may be somewhat easier to make titles for next-gen, depending on how the technology comes together."

Today, Zelnick said that in time, development efficiencies may be reached, but right now it's "too early to say" if that will be the case.

Take-Two's next major project is Grand Theft Auto V, which launches September 17 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation. Wii U and PC versions are "up for consideration." For more, check out an Ask GameSpot video feature on the game below.

BioShock Infinite has sold-in (i.e. shipped) 3.7 million copies worldwide life-to-date, publisher Take-Two Interactive announced today as part of its fourth quarter and full-year earnings report.

From Irrational Games, BioShock Infinite launched March 26 and has seen higher first-month sales than any other entry in the series to date. Take-Two also reported "solid demand" for the BioShock Infinite Season Pass, which offers three upcoming add-ons.

None have been released thus far, though a past rumor suggests the first will add a new companion character.

The news comes as part of Take-Two Interactive's fourth quarter and full-year earnings report for the periods ended March 31. For the fourth quarter, revenue was $303.1 million, compared to $148.1 million last year. The company pulled a profit of $42.9 million for the quarter, up from a loss of $50.9 million last year.

Catalog sales made up 25 percent of net revenue in the quarter, while revenue from digitally delivered content surged 192 percent year-over-year and made up 27 percent of net revenue.

For the fiscal year, Take-Two net revenue hit $1.222 billion, up from $825.8 million last year. The company posted a profit of $33.1 million for the period, compared to a loss of $59.4 million last year.

The largest contributors to Take-Two's bottom line in fiscal 2013 were Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13, BioShock Infinite, Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Red Dead Redemption.

Revenue from digital content jumped 148 percent year-over-year and made up 22 percent of net revenue. Take-Two attributed this boost in digital revenue to offerings from Borderlands 2, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, NBA 2K13, Civilization V, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Take-Two also gave sales updates for two of its major 2012 titles. The company revealed that Max Payne 3 has now shipped 4 million units since launch in May 2012 and reiterated that Borderlands 2 has shipped 6 million copies and is likely to become 2K's most successful title to date.

"Our commitment to delight consumers with the highest-quality interactive entertainment experiences enabled Take-Two to have an outstanding year, despite a challenging environment for many in our industry," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a statement.

"2013 is the 20th anniversary of Take-Two's founding and, today, our Company is better positioned for success than at any other time in its history. With Rockstar Games launching Grand Theft Auto V in September, fiscal 2014 is poised to be one of our best years ever," he added. "Looking ahead, we have an extensive pipeline of next-generation and emerging platform titles in development, including both new intellectual property and releases from our proven franchises."

This is a breaking news story. Additional details will be added

United States Vice President Joe Biden believes it would be no problem to tax violent games. As part of a recent gun legislation strategy meeting with religious leaders, Biden said that an idea brought forth by Reverend Franklin Graham to tax violent media could be a smart move.

Participants in the behind-closed-doors session told Politico (via Game Politics) that Biden said there is "no restriction on the ability to do that; there's no legal reason why they couldn't" tax violent media.

He also said that that he would like to see a comprehensive study done regarding the impact of violent games and movies on young people.

Reverend Graham said that funds derived from the tax should go towards helping victims of gun violence, along with their families. Excise tax on violent media is nothing new, with multiple calls for such legislative action popping up since the Sandy Hook massacre and before the school shooting.

In a landmark 2011 decision, the Supreme Court sided with the video game industry, ruling that games are protected free speech under the first amendment.

[UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, Sony confirmed with Kotaku that the PlayStation 4 advertisement is fake.

The original story follows below

A video published last night on YouTube claims to offer the first look at the PlayStation 4 itself.

The video, titled "Reveal PlayStation 4 PS4 E3 2013," features a series of men and women staring into the camera while the familiar button symbols are shown reflected in their eyes.

A voice asks "You want to play?" while clips of games and the PS4 system itself cycle through.

It is unclear if the video is in fact an official Sony production or a fan mock-up. Sony was not immediately available to comment at press time.

The PS4 itself was not shown during the platform's announcement in February, something competitor Microsoft was quick to point out. At the time, Sony president of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida apologized for keeping the system under wraps, noting its design had not yet been finalized.

"I'm sorry we did not show the hardware," Yoshida then said. "But we have plans from now--in February--through the year for the launch. We like to disclose things based on what we think we really want to communicate first. And next time we will talk about these things."

Sony's E3 2013 presentation is slated for Monday, June 10.

Deus Ex designer Warren Spector and Blizzard president Paul Sams will head up a new postgraduate game development course at the University of Texas in Austin, the school announced today (via Polygon).

The new Denius-Sams Gaming Academy post-baccalaureate certification program will begin during the fall 2014 semester and is designed for "top candidates looking for leadership training the field of video game production."

The University of Texas college of communication, college of fine arts, and department of computer science are working together to launch the program. According to Spector, the course will be "a little different" than the typical game-focused program.

He described the course, which will only accept 20 students, as a "much shorter, 12-month very intense program. It's kind of like the Navy S.E.A.L.s. It's going to be very competitive."

What will differentiate the program from other, similar courses is that it will "focus explicitly on that bigger, creative leadership. Both the management; the production side. And the game direction/creative leadership side. That's a space that isn't being served by a lot of the other development programs."

He made headlines recently by lashing out at the new Wolfenstein game from Bethesda, though he later apologized for saying the world did not need a new "generically dark, monochromatic, FPS, kill-the-Nazi-giant-robot game."

Capcom has confirmed that Ace Attorney 5 will be coming to North America and Europe this fall with the title Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies.

The game will only be sold digitally on the 3DS eShop, according to a Capcom press release, though a price was not mentioned.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies is set eight years after the last game in the series, with protagonist Phoenix Wright returning to a destroyed courtroom. The game will feature a new companion, Athena Cykes, and a mechanic that allows players to pinpoint unusual feelings during a courtroom examination. The game will also be rendered in 3D for the first time.

It is the seventh game in the series, including the two spin-off games about series co-star Miles Edgeworth, and the first to be released on 3DS.

Ahead of its Western release, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies will launch in Japan this July.

Alongside the announcement, Capcom also released a trailer showing off the game's new engine and hinting at its storyline:

A 23-year-old man suspected of assisting in the 2008 PlayStation Network hack has been sentenced to a one year house arrest, but not for the hacking itself.

The The Columbus Dispatch reports that 23-year-old Todd M. Miller, who has completed school to the ninth grade, was sentenced in federal court last week for obstructing a federal investigation by smashing his computers.

According to the report, after the FBI spoke with Miller in 2011, they returned to his home to find his computers had been destroyed, including important information stored on hard drives.

"Without the computers, the FBI did not have enough evidence to pursue hacking charges against Miller and another unnamed Columbus man, according to court records," The Columbus Dispatch reports.

During his hearing, Miller told U.S. District Judge Peter C. Economus that he was "immature and ignorant," noting that he "caught up with the wrong people at the wrong time." Economus sentenced Miller to three years probation and mandated that he get high school equivalency diploma.

According to the report, Miller faced up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The March 2008 PSN breach compromised personal information like passwords, but was dealt with swiftly. A more widespread and long-lasting hack occurred in April 2011, when the PSN was brought down for over a month, with personal information for the service's 75 million members exposed.

Mine 'O Mine, the company that runs Shaquille O'Neal's Shaq.com, has trademarked Shaqfighter.

The filing suggests (via Siliconera) there might be plans to resurrect Shaq's fighting game legacy with "entertainment services, namely, providing online games," alongside "a website featuring electronic and video games and news" alongside "music, videos, television programs, movies, animated series, and other multimedia materials in the field of computer and video games."

1994's Shaq Fu saw the now-retired NBA star feature in a 2D fighting game on Super Nintendo and Genesis. The game was critically panned at the time, leading to the creation of Shaqfu.com -- a website dedicated to finding and destroying every copy of Shaq Fu in existence.

In Shaq Fu, Shaquille O'Neal was transported to another dimension to rescue a young boy from an evil mummy called Sett-Ra.

Earlier this year Shaq appeared in ShaqDown on iOS, which featured a mix of platforming and endless runner style gameplay.

Hacking is a core element in Ubisoft Montreal's modern day action game Watch Dogs and to depict scenes and ideas correctly, the developer has sought help from an established real-world security company.

Ubisoft Montreal senior producer Dominic Guay told Joystiq that the developer is working with Kaspersky Lab, a recognized antivirus and security company. Ubisoft submits concepts to the company and the feedback it receives guides development moving forward, Guay said.

"They have really hardcore experts there on hacking," Guay said of Kaspersky Lab. "We send them some of our designs and we ask them feedback on it, and it's interesting to see what gets back. Sometimes they say, 'Yeah, that's possible, but change that word,' or, 'That's not the way it works.'"

The feedback from Kaspersky Lab, as well as input from Ubisoft engineers, is aimed at presenting a more realistic depiction of hacking, instead of a "sexed up" Hollywood version.

Set in Chicago, Watch Dogs puts players in the shoes of Aiden Pearce, a hacker who uses his smartphone to break into the city's central operating system to control things like security cameras and also to obtain personal information.

Watch Dogs launches November 19 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC. The PlayStation 4 version will be available "at the launch" of the system, while a next Xbox iteration is rumored, but has yet to be revealed.

The movie adaptation of Need for Speed has begun filming in Macon, Georgia.

Local news channel 13MAZ reports that downtown Macon is being used for filming, including a local car wash.

The Need for Speed movie is being produced by DreamWorks Studios and will star one-time Batman Michael Keaton alongside Aaron Paul, who plays Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad. The plot features a street racer taking part in a cross-country race to get revenge on an ex-business partner, who places a contact on his head as the event begins.

The Need for Speed movie is due to be released in March 2014, and is being directed by former stuntman Scott Waugh. The film has already begun filming in Mendocino County, California.

Swedish studio Ghost (formerly EA Gothenburg) has said it is working on a new Need for Speed video game.

Macon also recently featured in Telltale Games' adventure game adaptation of The Walking Dead.

After an accidental release last week, CD Projekt Red today officially launched an open beta for the Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings modding tools, collectively known as the Redkit.

The Redkit requires a copy of the PC version of The Witcher 2, which must be patched up to version 3.3. CD Projekt Red also disclosed a number of known issues with the toolkit, the first of which has to do with cooking.

"Currently, cooking changes to original Witcher 2 story create rather sizable files. We are aware of this issue and are working on it to change cooking process so the files will be smaller," the developer explained.

In addition, there is currently no way to create a lipsync for written dialogues. CD Projekt Red said it is working on a patch that should be available "pretty soon."

No only can gamers begin creating their own Witcher 2 mods today, but they can also play others' creations by either directly downloading a mod or accessing the "Mod of the Month" menu.

Detailed download instructions are available at the Redkit website.

CD Projekt Red aims to simplify the modding process with the Redkit. The goal is to give users the tools to establish their own worlds, quests, and branching storylines. The Redkit is a spiritual successor to the Djinni toolkit for the original Witcher, though the interface and workflow have been refined in the update.

The Redkit includes access to all assets from The Witcher 2, including character models, textures, shaders, animations, and sound effects.

Square Enix has confirmed its expected extraordinary loss for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, blaming an "increasingly competitive and oligopolistic" video games market in North America and Europe for poor sales of its products.

The publisher posted a higher-than-expected net loss of ¥13.7 billion (approximately $134.9m/£87.6m) for the financial year, restating that the company's emergency restructuring--announced back in March--has taken a large chunk out of the company's coffers.

Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs have all failed to meet Square Enix's expectations, though all three games have sold millions of copies.

Right now Square Enix is working on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and HD versions of Final Fantasy X and X-2. Eidos Montreal is also readying a next-gen reboot of Thief for 2014.

Square Enix has also a brand new Final Fantasy announcement at E3 2013.

In response to the financials, Square Enix pledged to increase the turnover of its titles, increase its amount of mobile and tablet games, and create titles more specifically suited for the regions they are primarily being sold in; Square Enix's phone and browser games have been hugely successful in the Japanese and Korean markets, for example.

Square Enix now expects to make a net profit between ¥3.5 and ¥6 billion by this time next year.

Former Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada resigned in March after spending 12 years in the role, and the company has made job cuts at its Los Angeles and London studios.

NetherRealm's DC Comics brawler Injustice: Gods Among Us sold around 424,000 units in the United States last month, according to research firm Cowen & Company. The financial services company believes the game was April's only new release to sell more than 250,000 units.

Other high-profile titles launching to retail in April included Defiance, Dead Island: Riptide, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Research firm NPD Group will release April US industry sales after market close Thursday and it's expected to be another month of declines, according to Cowen & Company.

The firm believes year-over-year software sales will slide 14 percent, due in part to a negative impact by Easter falling in March this year. Overall, total packaged game sales are expected to fall 13 percent, Cowen & Company believes.

The major publishers will all see declines, with the exception of take-Two Interactive, Cowen & Company said. Activision (-25 percent) and Electronic Arts (-32 percent) will suffer, while Take-Two is expected to be up 51 percent year-over-year thanks to "continued solid sales" of BioShock Infinite, which released in March.

The industry may be hurting right now, but Cowen & Company believes the trend will turn positive beginning in August with Madden NFL 25. Growth will then began to balloon in September and October thanks to high-profile blockbusters Grand Theft Auto V and Battlefield 4.

BioShock designer and Irrational Games cofounder Ken Levine is writing a new game.

"Game writing this afternoon. This is something else," Levine said on Twitter today.

Asked by a Twitter user what he looks to for inspiration, Levine called out period drama Mad Men, as well as the work of film directors Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood,) the Coen brothers (No Country for Old Men) Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket), and Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's 11).

Levine also said he is inspired by the work of British playwright and film writer Tom Stoppard (Brazil), as well as composer Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd).

On the eve of BioShock Infinite's launch in March, Levine said he had no idea what Irrational Games would create next.

"I don't have a thought for our next game, so it's kind of hard to even think about that," he said at the time.

Irrational Games currently lists 17 open positions on its website running the gamut of development. However, some appear to be outdated, as a requisition for level designer states the studio's current project is BioShock Infinite.

A new entry for something called the Steam Trading Card has appeared in the Steam database.

An image accompanying the listing shows the text "Steam Trading Card beta access" in a style similar to the other community tools currently available on the PC, Mac, and Linux digital distribution platform. The Steam Trading Card entry was previously filed in the Steam database as CookiesTestApp20352.

Users can already trade in-game items and Steam gifts with each other, as well as sell certain items for Steam Wallet money using the Steam Marketplace.

One popular theory on the Steam Forums is that Valve is making an easy-to-use method of identifying reputable traders across its various community marketplaces.

Another common idea is that Valve might be working to introduce support for trading card games into the Steam framework. Blizzard is currently working on a trading card game of its own with Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and other TCG's like Magic the Gathering are already available in some form on Steam.

Valve has recently been experimenting with the VR headset Oculus Rift, patching support for Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2 for the device. The company is also working on producing a Steam Box computer designed to sit under a television in a living room.

BioWare has offered a new tease concerning possible spin-offs to the Mass Effect series. Executive producer Casey Hudson, who is leading development on the next Mass Effect, told OXM it would be "cool" for an upcoming game to tell an entirely new story, separate from the main arc.

"There's so much that could be told in the Mass Effect universe," Hudson said. "It'd be cool to do something completely unrelated to the larger storyline, like a story about a private investigator on the Citadel. Or maybe something detailing Garrus' time in C-Sec."

Other BioWare staffers like Mac Walters (lead writer), Dusty Everman (level designer), Mike Gamble (producer), and Preston Watamaniuk (lead designer) said characters like Aria, The Illusive Man, Kai Leng, and Javik would all be deserving of their own spin-offs.

BioWare announced the next Mass Effect game last September. It will not feature Commander Shepard, as his story came to a close in last year's Mass Effect 3. The untitled game will run on the Frostbite 3 engine and according to Hudson, will be "fresh and new."

In addition to a new Mass Effect, BioWare is building an all-new IP and continues to work with Legendary Pictures on an upcoming Mass Effect film.

Bungie's relationship with NASA has been a "constant source of inspiration" during the development of upcoming shared-world shooter Destiny. As part of the studio's latest Mail Sack feature, Bungie said it is in awe of the aerospace agency.

"We don't speak to NASA, they speak to us," Bungie said. "We’re pretty star struck, and they continue to be a constant source of inspiration for us."

Dr. Craig Hardgrove, from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, visited Bungie's offices in January. Hardgrove has worked in planetary space exploration since 2004, assisting on the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. He is also a self-professed gamer.

Writing on Twitter this weekend, Hardgrove said, "Just saw the Mail Sack. Here's 1/2 of your wish," with an accompanying link showing a sunset on Mars.

It is not clear what Hardgrove and Bungie discussed during his trip to the developer or what the other half of the developer's wish may be. A Bungie representative was not immediately available to comment on the nature of the NASA-Bungie relationship.

Bungie's Destiny is an all-new universe from the studio that created Halo. It will be published by Activision Blizzard and is expected to ship in 2014 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and potentially Wii U, PC, PlayStation Vita, and the next Xbox.

The game features a number of extraterrestrial locations that NASA would have a refined knowledge of, including Mars and Venus. More information about Destiny is expected to be divulged at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo next month.

GameCube RPG Tales of Symphonia could be getting an HD re-release on PlayStation 3, a new report claims.

Its Wii-exclusive follow up Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is also reported to be included, with the PlayStation 3 game being packaged as the Tales of Symphonia: Perfect Edition.

Hideo Baba, manager of the Tales series, told Spanish website Koi-Nya the two-game collection would be "a representation of the dreams and hopes of the fans, who have long been wanting it" but would offer no addional details.

GameSpot awarded Tales of Symphonia an 8.8 upon its original release in 2004. "Fans of Japanese role-playing games will take to its style and the depth of its battle system, and those curious about the genre and who loathe the idea of turn-based battle and scads of random encounters will appreciate the quick fighting pace. While the story may rely a bit too much on cliché, the ride is still worthwhile. If you have a GameCube and like RPGs, you definitely need to check out Tales of Symphonia," said the GameSpot review.

GameSpot has approached Namco Bandai for comment.