Earlier today we wrote about the bizarre story of the Ubisoft/Gearbox collaboration, Brothers in Arms: Furious 4. Essentially, the companies raised some eyebrows after they allowed their trademarks for Furious 4 lapse after saying next-to-nothing about the game publicly for nearly a year since its reveal at E3 2011.

However, we contacted Ubisoft for clarification on the issue, and they've said that the lapsed trademarks were intentional.

"Initially, Ubisoft submitted the trademarks on behalf of Gearbox with Gearbox and Ubisoft as co-applicants," said Ubisoft's legal team according to a representative. "The [United States Patent and Trademark Office] rejected this approach (about 9 months ago), noting Gearbox's exclusive registrations for all Brothers in Arms trademarks. Given the USPTO choice between abandonment or continued administrative confusion on the matter, we simply opted for administrative abandonment until re-filing becomes necessary. To avoid confusion with the USPTO, Gearbox will be filing its future Brothers in Arms-related trademarks directly and individually."

However, Ubisoft stopped short of saying Furious 4 development is continuing normally. When we emailed with them, they only gave out information regarding the trademark issue, not about the rumors of Furious 4's cancellation or shelving. We're still contacting them for further information, and we'll update the story when we receive further information.

Matt Firor, Game Director of the Elder Scrolls Online, the upcoming MMO based on the world of Oblivion and Skyrim, said today in a video interview that the main storyline of the game would actually be a solitary experience.

In order to stay away from awkward situations where multiple players are lining up to kill a boss, they decided to make most of the single player game instanced, so that you'll be alone, away from other players during confrontations.

"The last thing you want to do is have the final confrontation with Mehrunes Dagon as he's stomping across the Imperial City, and you see like 15 guys behind you waiting to kill him because they're on the same quest," said Firor.

"As MMO online designers, the thing we wanted to make sure we hit the most was that feeling that you're awesome, you're the hero," he continued. "And we do that through a mix of technology, where when I am confronting a major foe in the game, I'm doing it in an instance where I am alone."

"And we have a whole part of the game that is 100 per cent solo, which is the main story, where the world focuses on you - you are the hero, everything you do is solo and the world reacts to you that way."

Though it sounds radical, the approach is somewhat familiar in other MMOs. World of Warcraft has utilized single-player instanced quests for years, and Star Wars: The Old Republic was designed to be played entirely solo.

Rumors are circulating today that EA might be prepping to make an announcement regarding a premium subscription service for Battlefield 3 that might mimic Activision's success with Call of Duty Elite.

Battlefieldo is reporting information they say comes from a confidential but trustworthy source, it also came with a few other bits of information, including a March 2013 release window for an as-yet unnanounced fifth DLC pack after the "End Game" pack.

"Battlefield™ Premium will land you a number of content drops with unique in-game items not available anywhere else," says the report. "First out is the one-of-a-kind Premium knife and black dog tag, plus a set of soldier camos, weapon camos, dog tags and Assignments that will make sure you stand out and get more personalization options."

We currently don't know for sure whether the information is accurate, however they've pegged June 4th as the date for the announcement. So we'll find out at E3 whether this report will come true.

E3 rumors: Nintendo teaming up with Eminem to present new mature game. Called Acid Ghost. What, quite frankly, the hell?
ACID GHOOOOOOOOOST!

Some rumours are a bit run-of-the-mill, but thoroughly believable for it. Some rumours are outlandish, and a bit dubious as a result. But some rumours - the best rumours in fact - are so flat-out guano crazy as to punch right through the very walls of plausibility and launch themselves into hitherto unexplored realms of probability so unstructured and unfathomable that anything and everything suddenly becomes possible. A bit like Inception's Limbo, only using varying levels of feasibility instead of dream bits.

And that friends, is where we are today. The particular Schroedinger's E3 Event in question? An appearance by Eminem (in video form at least) at Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference, to promote a new game called Acid Ghost, which is aimed at a more mature audience. Originating with a anonymous-source-fuelled story at GoNintendo, the tale professes that the video is currently being made by a Sacramento marketing agency, and is due to go into post-production next week.


Above: How the hell am I the first person reporting this story today to use this Photoshop gag? You're letting me down, internet

Mad as it sounds, this one does fit in with Nintendo's recent, frequent courting of celebrity endorsements, as well as the increasing frequency of Satoru Iwata's claims that the Wii U is very much going to be aimed at the core gamer market.

But if all of this is true, what manner of game will Acid Ghost be? off the top of my head, I can think of several options:

You will either control or fight a ghost who spews acid, a bit like Slimer in Ghostbusters, but far more dangerous. That scene where Peter lies on the floor and laments "He slimed me" would not happen because Peter would not have a head to lament anything with.
It's a game in which you play either a cool hacker or a cool rapper with the kind of name that 'cool' rappers and 'cool' hackers got in 'cool' '90s films.
It's a dark, gritty, hallucinogenic reboot of Pac-Man, based on this image.
The rumour's mention of the game being for an 'older audience' actually refers to a much older audience than you might think. The Acid Ghost of the title is the metaphysical spirit of the '60s and '70s, and personifies the lost ideals of that period. The game is an existential musing on counter-culture, youth and maintaining the vitality of the soul despite physical age, aimed at 60+ year-old former hippies and beatniks. Eminem is totally down with that shit.


Above: I like to think that this is what Acid Ghost looks like

Amid a conference call full of bad news, THQ announced that they've set a firm date for the release of the highly anticipated title, Darksiders 2. According to THQ CEO Brian Farrell, the game will be launching on August 26, 2012.

It's been a pretty bad day in the news for THQ. First we heard they delayed South Park: The Game into 2013, then the news that they lost hundreds of millions of dollars this year, and finally that Devil's Third may be sold off.

In some good news though, THQ's Farrell mentioned that Darksiders 2 has now been pre-ordered five times more than the original Darksiders. Here's to hoping Darksiders 2 can be an asset to a new and healthy THQ as the company restructures.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC goes out with a bang



Coming off the news that Final Fantasy XIII-2 was a strong seller for Square Enix, comes the announcement that they have released their final DLC packages for the game in North America.

There are two new stories going up for sale today, "Lightining's Story: Requiem of the Goddess" and "Snow's Story: Perpetual Battlefield." Both stories star their titular protagonist and will unlock those characters for the main game once you've finished them. Lightning's Story will cost 400 Microsoft Points while Snow's Story will cost 320 MSP.

Also, if you're a rabid fan of mogs, we're getting word that 16 new costumes have been released for the adorable little critters, kupo.