In 2011, Level-5 sat out TGS in favor of its own "Level-5 World" event. TGS organizer CESA sent out a list of exhibitors for the 2012 edition of TGS today, revealing that the Professor Layton developer is back on board this year. Whether that means the usual giant, crowded booth remains to be seen, but Level-5 is no longer sequestering itself to the "business meeting area."

The total number of exhibitors is up to 171 companies, including 63 from outside of Japan. That's more than the 146 total companies who signed on for TGS 2011, even without Microsoft. Of course, that may not necessarily lead to an increased profile or importance, as we totally haven't heard of a lot of these companies.

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Sega's European arm is closing offices in four European regions and Australia, the company announced this morning. The move is part of Sega's continued "restructuring" toward a smaller company – a result of "extraordinary" losses incurred over the past few years. Sega offices in France, Spain, Benelux, Germany, and Australia are being closed.

Taking up distribution responsibilities in lieu of Sega is Koch Media, parent company of Dead Island publisher Deep Silver, who will handle things in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and Spain. Handling Benelux and Australia are Level03 Distribution and 5 Star Games, while Sega's London office will remain open in an oversight capacity.

Sega Europe COO Jurgen Post reconfirmed Sega's commitment to its core IPs in the announcement. "SEGA is entering a new and exciting phase that will position the company as a content led organisation maximising sales with strong and balanced IP such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise." He also noted Sega's "confident that this will lead to a successful future."

It's at this time unclear how many Sega employees were let go in today's office closures, but we've reached out to the company for more info.

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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow studio MercurySteam will be ready to leave Castlevania behind after Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2, Konami EU head of development Dave Cox tells VG247. "Well, I think it's about wanting to leave a legacy," Cox said. "And I don't want to be in charge of a series that perhaps over a certain time is going to decline. I'd rather go out with a bang and leave that as our legacy in the Castlevania universe."

Cox said he didn't want to be known as "Mr. Castlevania," nor for his team to be "the Castlevania team." Should Lords of Shadow 2 be even more successful, another team can take on the momentum.

However, Cox doesn't want to move away from the established Konami canon entirely. "I love Contra. I'd love to do Contra. At Mercury Steam we've got an original idea that I think is really awesome. We'd love to bring that idea to market and I'm hoping that the success of Lords of Shadow 2 will allow us to do that."

Konami teased a Contra revival at E3 2011, but it's unclear whether that project is the same as MercurySteam's Contra. If so, that would alter the proposed timeline a bit, as it would suggest that Cox and his team have already been working on the "awesome" idea.

Konami is bringing some treats to Germany's Gamescom this August, whipping up playable versions of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for attendees. The company will also have a studio on the show floor, where it will broadcast news, interviews and other content; all available through various social media networks.

Gamescom will be the first time the public has the chance to cut up the competition in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which will be avaiable "in the beginning of 2013" for Xbox 360 and PS3. This fall's 3DS game, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, which takes place 25 years after the events of the console Lords of Shadow, will also be available in a "playable version".

There's also a soccer game called PES 2013. You know, if Europeans would be into such a thing.

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Nintendo announced this morning Pokemon Black Version 2 and Pokemon White Version 2 will arrive October 7 on North American shores. UK copies will be held in quarantine until October 12 (gotta check the Pokemons for ticks).

Coinciding with the launch dates, Nintendo will also release into the digital wilds Pokemon Dream Radar on the 3DS eShop. The augmented-reality "shooter" allows trainers to find Pokemon around their homes to transfer into Black 2 and White 2.

Sure, Nintendo could've made the 3DS XL even larger by attaching a second analog stick to it, but what fun would that be? Instead, Nintendo's launching an evolved Circle Pad Pro attachment for the larger 3DS "some time this year," according to Famitsu (via Andriasang).

The attachment was outed in the latest issue of the Japanese game mag, though it sadly lacked images (perhaps they were too large for a standard magazine?). Nintendo hasn't confirmed the attachment for North American retail just yet, but it's a safe bet it'll arrive here as well.

And yes – stop worrying – the 3DS stand from Kid Icarus is said to still work with this new, supersized attachment. Whew.

Toys R Us' loyalty program will undergo a few changes starting July 1, as announced in a press release today. The Rewards "R" Us system rewards buyers with points for each dollar spent online and in stores. Points no longer expire in the revised system, and there are no more exclusive periods of time (like holidays) where points cannot be earned.

In the new program, every dollar spent on entertainment products (such as video games) is rewarded with one point. Members receive a $5 certificate every time they reach 500 points earned.

To put that into perspective, rewards program members get $5 in "R"Us reward money for purchasing 17 Nintendo DS games at $30 apiece. Totally worth it, right?

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As revealed during today's Google I/O event, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 is now available for download on Android devices. You can grab it in both normal and Tegra-compatible formats for $6.99.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 initially launched on Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, iOS and Windows Phone devices. The Android version includes co-op over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You weren't going to let Tails sit this one out, were you?

EA Sports partnered with the University of Central Florida's FIEA (Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy) to create an "innovation lab" for students to work on projects in the games industry. EA Sports will offer additional internships for students, in which they will work on "the latest products for the latest platforms, using the latest tools and technologies."

"By establishing pipelines directly into existing Orlando-based digital media businesses, including our local EA SPORTS studio, EA-Tiburon, we can keep creating jobs in the state of Florida," EA Sports VP and COO Daryl Holt said in the announcement.

Florida Governor Rick Scott echoed Holt's sentiments. "Preparing Florida students for high-tech jobs, along with our state's competitive economic incentives, gives Florida an advantage over other states and ensures high-value businesses open their doors in our state, instead of somewhere else," he said.

The relationship between EA Sports and FIEA dates back to March 2005, when former EA VP and COO Ben Noel became the executive director of the academic program.

Square Enix and Los Angeles art/gaming collective iam8bit are teaming up to create a new web-based game show in association with the dimension-bending Quantum Conundrum, out next month. The show will be hosted by Kevin Pereira (formerly of G4's Attack of the Show), and will feature contestants battling it out in "real-life fluffy, heavy, anti-gravity and slow motion dimensions" somehow.

The show, which is called "The Super Dimensional Quantum Learning's Problems and Solutions Gametime Spectacular!!" (no, really; here's the trailer) will also feature Ike, a character from the game who will appear in live-action puppet form. It certainly looks and sounds wacky, depending on your various definitions of the word "wacky."

The show will be available to watch soon. In the meantime, if you need something Quantum Conundrum related to watch, try our livestream! We'll be playing the game live on the Interwebs at 9:30pm EDT.

The Shootmania Storm beta is revving up to begin, with registration ending July 2 and the beta starting soon after that. Sign up with a valid email address through the Shootmania site.

Shootmania Storm is a "ManiaPlanet" game, meaning it has a powerful, accessible editor, though rather than being used to create race tracks, Shootmania's emphasis is on laser-based weaponry and arcade-style-shooter environments.

Every person who has so far registered for the beta will get a key to participate in the seven-day trial. The beta will introduce a new mode, Seige, which is a five-on-five competitive round. Other modes include one-on-one, three-on-three, free-for-all and free-for-all with a shrinking map.

At least 1.2 million people have been enjoying Tribes: Ascend directly from Hi-Rez Studios (including us), but now it's available to Steam's audience of more than 40 million, still for free. Tribes: Ascend is a sci-fi, fast-paced, free-to-play PC shooter featuring jetpacks, skiing and multiple classes. It's almost like the Winter Olympics' biathlon competition, but with more guns and flying.

The game itself is free, but it does have weapons and upgrades for sale, of course. Steam is offering a 50 percent discount on the Starter Pack, which includes a lifetime 50 percent XP boost, two special classes and 12 weapon unlocks, four perk unlocks and 800 Tribes Gold, all for $10 through July 4 at 10 a.m. PT.

Square Enix had 180 artists, 30 programmers and 36 designers working on Final Fantasy 13, and that many people on board made its development complicated, director Motomu Toriyama told Gamasutra.

"With a large-scale development team, we didn't use our time well," Toriyama said. "How do you communicate to everyone in the department what the drive of the game is?"

Toriyama and his team tried to keep the game as secret as possible within the massive workforce, which led to playtesting happening "way too late in the process," he said. Square intended to fix those issues with Final Fantasy 13-2, and implemented production-based milestones as opposed to story-based ones it used at the beginning of FF13's development. Still, more needs to change.

"We are also thinking that we will not do large-scale internal development any longer," Toriyama said. "We have a lot of great creators in Square Enix, but for larger-scale development we will be doing more distributed and outsourced development to reach our targets on time."

It feels like it was only yesterday that Mass Effect 3 producer Mike Gamble teased a new installment of DLC for the final game in BioWare's epic trilogy (oh wait, it was). Rather than wait for official word, some crafty folks from the BioWare Social Network cracked open the Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut DLC and found a file that may shed light on upcoming content for the game. Reportedly, what they found makes reference to a character by the name of "Leviathan."

While the file in question didn't describe Commander Shepard summoning an enormous water serpent to his crew's aid (we wish!), it noted that Leviathan is a traitorous Reaper that indoctrinated a Batarian colony for an entire decade.

Whether details on this DLC pack are legitimate remains to be seen. As always, we advise taking leaks like this with a grain of red sand. Joystiq has contacted BioWare to get their side of the quest line.

This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer.
First things first about my history with Final Fantasy 7: I was spoiled on the death of Aeris before it even came out. Before I even really knew what Final Fantasy 7 was, honestly. My friend, who had been obsessively following its development on the fledgling internet, described the scene in all its gory detail for me. I'm still kind of mad at him for that, even if at the time I didn't really care. Of course, as I eventually discovered, I was hardly alone in being spoiled on the event that helped signal the beginning of gaming's modern era.

The death of Aeris is but the greatest example of the lore that has been built up around Final Fantasy VII over the years. There are countless others that have circulated around the proverbial playground over the years: the fact that it's possible to go on a date with Barret, for example. Or all the persistent rumors that Aeris can be resurrected without a hack. This stuff is legend at this point – the result of outsized popularity and a somewhat ambiguous story.

When word hit last week that Square Enix may be reviving the PC version of Final Fantasy VII with a smattering of extras, my first thought was how fertile the ground is for achievements.

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