The plan is for Disney's Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two to launch on Xbox 360, PS3 with Move, Wii, PC and Mac on November 18, Junction Point founder Warren Spector said today at San Diego Comic-Con. The launch date was previously confirmed for consoles alone, including the 3DS tie-in title, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Illusion, which is also slated to drop on November 18.

The Power of Illusion will pay homage to forgotten and rejected gaming features, drawing inspiration from 16-bit graphics and the 1990 Sega game, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.

Spector said it was "totally dumb" that he had none of the characters speak in the first Epic Mickey, and he's rectifying that by having characters not only talk, but sing in Epic Mickey 2. Actor Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride, Robin Hood: Men in Tights) voices Gus, while Frank Welker (Nibbler in Futurama, at least one character in every cartoon you ever loved) plays Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Epic Mickey 2 is mature on a level comparable to one of Spector's earlier titles, Deus Ex, backed up by the fact that 54 percent of Epic Mickey players were 18 or older, he said.

A second iteration of the Epic Mickey digital graphic novel series, penned by comic veteran Peter David (The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man 2099), is due out this fall.

The latest celebrity to be featured in a Ubisoft dance "Experience" game is ... nobody in particular. The Hip Hop Dance Experience, rather than focusing on the work of a single artist, is a dancing game built around a collection of hip hop tracks, representing everything from the "Rapper's Delight" to Flo Rida.

The Hip Hop Dance Experience will be out on Kinect and Wii in November. It'll debut at this weekend's Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, which is attended by plenty of people who have experienced hip hop dance already.

Like last year's Black Eyed Peas Experience, Ubisoft has placed development in the hands of Elite Beat Agents creator iNiS. Unlike last year, however, we know iNiS is also working on an original music game, so this isn't as much of a crisis for iNiS fans.

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This year's overall downward trend in software and hardware sales continued through June, according to the latest set of data released by the NPD Group. The whole industry (hardware, physical software and accessories sales) brought in $699.8 million, 29 percent less dough than the $989.5 million earned in June of 2011.

Year over year, hardware sales were down a staggering 45 percent -- $201.3 million in 2012 versus $364.9 million in 2011. That being said, all platforms (except the PS2 and PSP) saw increased sales over May due to Father's Day and high-school/college graduation gift shopping, although the "Dads and Grads" effect was less potent than it was in 2011, according to the NPD Group's Anita Frazier.

Conversely, accessories were up year over year, if just barely, due mostly to sales of points cards (XBLA points, Steam Wallet cards, etc), which is indicative of a trend towards digital gaming spurred on by a lack of new titles at retail, says Frazier. The segment pulled down four percent more in 2012 ($169.8 million) than in 2011 ($163.00 million). Physical software sales, totaling up at $328.7 million for the month, contributed 29 percent fewer funds to June's totals than they did last year, when software equaled $461.6 million.

As far as specific software is concerned, a list of the 10 best-selling games in June is tucked away after the break, as per usual. List topper Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes sold 450,000 units across all consoles in June, which the NPD Group attributes to an increased amount of Batman mind-share in the public consciousness due to the impending release of The Dark Knight Rises. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Diablo 3 came in second and third for the month, with the rest of the list being a mish-mash of the surprising (Pokemon Conquest? Batman: Arkham City?!) and predictable mainstay entries like Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3.

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We could get used to this – there's a lot to download on Nintendo platforms this week! The "8-Bit Summer" brings two 3DS Game Boy games, one you likely know and one you probably don't. You'll also find some new games, Johnny Kung Fu and Sweet Memories - Blackjack. The latter is, for real, about connecting with a high school sweetheart over blackjack games.

Mighty Switch Force is cheap this weekend, while DSiWare offers the fascinating-looking math-platformer Ace Mathician, by Flipper creator Goodbye Galaxy Games.

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XSEED has announced an August 14 release date for Mistwalker's anticipated, petitioned-for Wii role-playing game, The Last Story.

All launch copies will include an art book; in addition to that, XSEED revealed the above soundtrack disc as a pre-order bonus from Amazon, GameStop and EB Canada. That's some deluxe treatment for what is sure to be one of the last big Wii games, and it seems to deserve the attention.

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You and your buddy Peter always go to San Diego Comic Con, sure, but do you always get a chance to be the first people in North America to touch Nintendo's next handheld? The answer is no, because you don't. But this year, you totally will, as Nintendo's bringing the 3DS XL.

The Japanese game publisher's also bringing a variety of games for you to play, including New Super Mario Bros. 2, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, and ... uh, Kid Icarus. Okay, okay – outside of those three and a couple others, the rest of the games are kinda not so new. But hey, Just Dance 4 on Wii will also be there! Yeah!

Head past the break for the full list.

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Nintendo reportedly posted its 2012 Club Nintendo Elite prizes briefly, before taking them down. The evidence remains in a screencap taken by NeoGAFfer Pappasman and a post on IGN, revealing the prizes that "Gold" and "Platinum" status holders will be able to choose this year.

The Platinum-exclusive prizes include a fancy Mario playing card set or a collection of three posters. Both Gold and Platinum have the option of the usual desk calendar, or – a first for the Elite prizes – a Virtual Console game (Super Mario Kart, Metroid 2, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again, or The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask).

All of these games are available on the normal Wii (or 3DS) shop, so we only recommend opting for one of those if you really, really don't like any of the exclusive prizes.

Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition is set to run into XBLA, PSN and WiiWare during the week of July 10, this week's PlayStation Blogcast confirms.

Zombie Studios, the team behind Blacklight: Retribution, is developing Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition. It will feature traditional and new game modes, and a few different skins, including sprites from classic Castlevania and Contra games.

The "Summer of 8 Bit" begins with two downloadable 3DS releases of NES games that were, until now, exclusive to "Ambassadors:" The Legend of Zelda and NES Open Tournament Golf. Each game will get eShop release updates, such as save states (Ambassadors can update their existing games). Also available on this spectacularly packed day are Family Tennis 3D and a demo for Square Enix's Heroes of Ruin.

Nintendo's "Game of the Weekend" promotion continues with a special $4.99 price on Sakura Samurai, from 12pm EDT Friday through midnight Monday morning. There's more, on 3DS, DS, and Wii, so check it all out after the break.

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Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter has weighed in on recent speculation suggesting Vivendi would get rid of its stake in Activision Blizzard, following mounting reports that the French conglomerate is trying to sell the game publisher.

Although a sale is "likely the preferred route" for Vivendi, Pachter wrote in a investor note, there aren't any "readily apparent buyers." Running through the list of suitors, it's noted that companies like Tencent Holdings have reportedly payed out $400 million and $600 million to acquire Riot Games and a minority stake in Epic Games, respectively, but those numbers still pale in comparison to Activision's worth at over $10 billion.

Acquisitions by Electronic Arts, Time Warner and Disney usually stay below a billion. Viacom did a $500 million write-off on its Harmonix debacle. It's also unlikely that any of the console manufacturers would purchase Activision Blizzard, since they would have to cannibalize sales. Activision's franchises du jour, like current champ Call of Duty, make so much money because they are available on every major platform.

Pachter believes the more likely outcome is a spinoff of Activision Blizzard. It would require some fancy financing on the back end, but it would give Vivendi an estimated $5 billion in cash, easing its personal burden. After the spinoff, Pachter feels Activision's shares would rise according to how much cash the company generates every year, paying off its debts. Wedbush maintains an "outperform" rating for Activision Blizzard.

Last year EA went on record calling the NPD's sales reports "a misrepresentation of the entire industry," and this year EA Labels president Frank Gibeau is taking that sentiment one step further, saying EA largely ignores NPD reports.

"An occasional bad report from NPD, which measures a sliver of what's actually happening in gaming, gives people an erroneous impression," Gibeau tells Games Industry International. "My point is it's an irrelevant measure on the industry. It's totally irrelevant. We don't even really look at it internally anymore."

NPD reports track retail games sales from stores such as GameStop and Wal-Mart, but don't provide a comparable breakdown of digital sales. In Q4 2012, EA saw digital sales generate $419 million, while packaged goods made more than double that, with $949 million.

David McQuillan, president of NPD Games, is "surprised" by Gibeau's comments for a few reasons, provided in a statement to Joystiq. The first: "While we will not comment on the specifics on our long-standing relationship with EA, we can say with confidence that we have daily dealings with all of our major publisher clients. And we know for a fact they're using the data."

The second reason McQuillan cites is the continued prevalence of physical sales, making up 56 percent of industry sales in 2011. "The current games industry is still largely rooted in retail and any industry player involved with AAA content simply can't take their eye away from the retail environment," he writes.

NPD Group's David Riley adds, "We do cover digital. Granted, it's not near the level of granularity that we provide via physical point of sale, but physical POS is still huge and needs to be taken seriously. In my opinion, you do a disservice to our industry when you dismiss the value of retail sales research."

EA's Digital sales are growing rapidly, Gibeau says, and EA is focused on riding that streaming, cloud-based, downloadable wave into the future, with or without NPD sales reports.

"We're going to be a 100 percent digital company, period," he says. "It's going to be there some day. It's inevitable."

Market research firm NPD Group has released a handful of details about the video game industry's most recent spending habits, showing a sharp decline. Compared to last year's Q1 2011 estimation of $5.9 billion, total consumer spend in the first quarter of 2012 was down to $3.40 billion. With rapidly declining sales, things may continue to get worse before they recover.

The 'Q1 2012 Games Market Dynamics: U.S.' report reveals that while spend on new physical software was on the decline versus last year – with Q1 2012 achieving an estimated $1.5 billion spent on new video and PC game software tracked by the NPD Group – total spend on other forms of physical software, such as used games and rentals, only saw a minimal drop.

"The declines in the physical market for new physical software are well documented," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said, noting that "broader view of the industry" showed other forms of physical spend, specifically the used game and rental market, "declined by just five percent and digital format content sales grew by 10 percent as compared to Q1 2011." The one-two punch of used games and rentals reached an estimated $525 million in Q1 2012, the report says.

"While the growth in digital format sales does not yet offset the declines in physical format sales, clearly the changes occurring within the industry are reflected in the trends we are seeing in the research," Frazier added.

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Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes "comfortably" kept The Amazing Spider-Man away from the highest spot on Chart-Track's UK sales chart. There were three new entries in the top five last week: the web-slinger swung into second, and Spec Ops: The Line and London 2012: The Official Video Game (about... London??) landed in third and fourth place, respectively.

The launch of Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC helped propel sales of the game up 121 percent. The launch of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on PS Vita had a similar impact, shooting the game into tenth place on the charts and sales of the game up 532 percent - making it the top selling Vita game last week "by a large margin."

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This is not just a great week for the 3DS eShop, but it's an important one. Last weekend, Nintendo discounted Super Mario Land temporarily; this weekend's sale on VVVVVV proves that these limited-time discounts are an actual thing. For a digital Nintendo platform, two sales is a giant leap forward.

That discount is joined by a demo for Rhythm Thief, which appears to actually be coming out, and interesting new eShop games Bomb Monkey and Marvel Pinball 3D.

It's not so great for the Wii this week, with absolutely no releases of any kind on the Wii Shop, but it can't all be good news.

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Nintendo of America announced the creation of a new "senior vice president of Network Business" position this morning, and hired Duncan Orrell-Jones to staff it. Orrell-Jones will "spearhead the development and evolution of Nintendo of America's digital strategy for the company's Nintendo 3DS and Wii U video game systems," as the company describes it. At very least, he'll be the one to point fingers at if the Wii U's eShop isn't to your liking.

His last employer was Disney, where he worked on expanding the Disney Interactive games business across multiple platforms outside North America. Orrell-Jones begins the new gig on July 1.

Nintendo has been showing a new interest in the online market recently. Most notably, of course, it's planning to sell retail Wii U and 3DS games digitally, but we've also seen promotions and discounts on the 3DS eShop today, something that only happened once in the Wii's lifespan (to date).

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