Developer Polytron issued a statement two days ago, saying that a save issue affecting a small number of Fez players would no longer be resolved with an additional patch. Microsoft, who Polytron laid the brunt of fault on for demanding an expensive fee to certify and issue the new patch, has now shared its side with Giant Bomb.

"Polytron and their investor, Trapdoor, made the decision not to work on an additional title update for Fez," the statement starts. "Microsoft Studios chose to support this decision based on the belief that Polytron/Trapdoor were in the best position to determine what the acceptable quality level is for their game. While we do not disclose the cost of Title Updates, we did offer to work with Trapdoor to make sure that wasn't a blocking issue. We remain huge fans of Fez."

That last part is perhaps the most interesting, since Polytron claimed Microsoft's price for a new title update was $10,000 – this statement makes it sound like Microsoft may have been willing to negotiate on the price.

In the meantime, you can keep playing an improved post-patch Fez, in the hopes that your save makes it through the whole adventure. Polytron says less than one percent of players have succumbed to the bug.

Borderlands 2 has been completed and sent off for certification, according to an update by Gearbox community manager Chris Faylor, which means the studio is free to begin work on other things -- specifically, the Mechromancer.

In addition to being an awesome hip-hop name we totally can't prove we came up with years ago, the Mechromancer is a class of character that will be made available as free DLC to those who pre-order the game. Faylor anticipates the class' release to come "roughly 60 to 90 days after launch." He also stated that the Mechromancer is "just one of the many bonuses" that will be made available to pre-order customers.

The now independent Valhalla Game Studios has found another studio to assist with the multiplatform development of former THQ project Devil's Third.

Doobic Game Studios, the Korean developer of Combat Arms, has entered into a joint venture with Valhalla Game Studios called "Valhalla&Doobic Co., Ltd," which is handling the development of the PC and tablet versions of Devil's Third.

The technical collaboration agreement we have reached with Doobic will greatly help in accelerating the expansion of the "Devil's Third" franchise," Valhalla CEO Satoshi Kanematsu (the one dressed like Steven Tyler in the above picture) said in the brief announcement. Valhalla's expansion plans call for Devil's Third content for other media in addition to games.

Minecraft for Xbox Live Arcade has now surpassed 3 million units sold. The announcement comes via Twitter from Mojang's lord of the blocks, Markus "Notch" Persson, who wrote this morning: "I got told Minecraft for XBLA passed three million sales today!"

The $20 downloadable title launched on May 7 and sold a million units in five days. It then reached two million sales in early June. Minecraft for XBLA has also enjoyed significant support through updates, the latest (v 1.73) having gone live last week.

EA altered the tone of Dead Space 3 from solo chills to co-op thrills based on market research, a company executive stated in a recent interview. EA Games' marketing exec Laura Miele told MCV the company was really proud of the work on the first two games, but wanted to see how the franchise could reach more consumers.

"We were hearing feedback that they love the thriller game, but it was pretty scary, and the obvious next step was that they wanted to play with someone. So we introduced co-op into the game," said Miele.

Miele added Dead Space 3 was "no less scary" and "true to its roots," but that research found people were more comfortable playing the game with someone else. She said the implementation of co-op to share the scares was to "reach out to consumers that perhaps were not open to Dead Space 1 and 2." Sales of the franchise have been solid, but EA CEO John Riccitiello previously stated the company hopes the franchise will reach the "five million unit cadence" with Dead Space 3.

A new location-based check-in app for Darksiders 2 has been launched on the App store. Once you install the oh-so-tasteful iOS app, you "harvest the souls" of others who have checked in at the same locations on Facebook. If it's a Best Buy, you get bonus points.

The ultimate prize is a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula; lesser prizes include an in-game weapon, digital comic, wallpapers and trailers. Never mind that THQ is throwing money behind a promotion like this right now – at least you could possibly win a trip to an exotic location on the beleaguered publisher's dime, before we have to start using worse adjectives for THQ.

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Tekken Tag Tournament 2 isn't above adding a few gimmicks to sell more copies – some may even call its tactics "fanservice" – but with the Wii U, its additions feel a little more innocent. Tekken leader Katsuhiro Harada describes one Wii U-specific mode for Tag Tournament 2 to Gamesradar:

"There are going to be some modes that will be interesting, because they are very Nintendo-like," Harada says. "Some of this was shown at E3, where a mushroom drops down and Heihachi eats it and gets bigger. You know Nintendo fans hearing and seeing that just exploded with excitement."

Harada can't go into more specifics about other Nintendo modes, but he describes the Snoop Dogg and swimsuit inclusions as "hooks," ways to appeal to new crowds.

"We tried to add several different kinds of hooks," Harada says. "One of them was Snoop Dogg, to appeal to people who wouldn't normally play Tekken – a more casual audience – and we got the desired affect with that. The swimsuits were just another hook to appeal to a different crowd. From the Japanese standpoint, it's an interesting costume that a lot of people would be interested in. We didn't know about the Western market that much."

Apparently the American offices were confused by the swimsuit DLC at first, but the reaction to its trailer at Comic-Con convinced them it was just fine. As long as the swimsuits are an equal-species option, of course.

"We do have swimsuits for the bears actually. Even True Ogre has a swimsuit," Harada says.

Jake Muller may have an excuse, what with him being a newcomer to the Resident Evil series and everything, but you'd think Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield would be better at killing things by now.

You'd be wrong, though, as this latest trio of trailers for Resident Evil 6 show the game's hapless heroes struggling desperately to properly aim and fire their weapons at the various baddies and boogie men on tap in the sequel. Leon's trip through underground wherever (above) proves that he still hasn't quite mastered the art of the headshot, while Chris and Jake (after the break) both decide that the giant monsters facing them don't necessarily need to be shot all that often.

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Consolidation news now, as THQ has announced it plans to close its Phoenix, Arizona QA facility. "Montreal is a prime location for industry talent, has favorable economics, and is a big part of our future game development plans. With those considerations in mind, we have made the business decision to consolidate our two Quality Assurance operations into one location at THQ Montreal," a THQ statement issued to Game Informer reads.

A total of 57 employees will be affected in Phoenix, some being outright dismissed while the others will be offered the chance to move to Montreal. "The transition will occur gradually throughout the remainder of 2012 while we continue to manage QA for our FY'13 release slate." The statement goes on to say that the decision was "driven by industry, market and economic trends."

It's a smart move to consolidate to Montreal, which THQ's newly appointed president Jason Rubin told us is important to the future of the company. And with THQ needing all the help it can get right now, the tax breaks must be a godsend.

Daniel Way, the current author on the Deadpool comic series for Marvel, will also pen the story behind High Moon Studios' upcoming game slated for 2013. One of Swords revealed as much in a primer for those who are unfamiliar with the "merc with a mouth."

"One of Swords" Dan Amrich suggests fans catch up on Way's current Deadpool run, Volume 3. "Daniel Way is also writing the game, so this series will likely sync up with the game's definition of Deadpool," Amrich says – for further information, you could just read Deadpool's massive Wikipedia entry, we suppose.

Microsoft's quarterly revenue for the period ending June 30 hit $18.06 billion, with an operating income of $192 million and a loss of $0.06 per share. This is compared to revenue of $17.37 billion for the same quarter in 2011. Microsoft also posted a net loss for the quarter of $492 million, compared to last year's gain of $5.87 billion for the same quarter.

Revenue for Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division grew 20 percent for the quarter, aided mainly by its acquisition of Skype. The Xbox has now been the top-selling console for 18 consecutive months.

Find more coverage of Microsoft's financials at Engadget.

Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD, the recently announced remaster collection of Dragon Ball Z Budokai and Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3, will also be launching in North America this winter. Previously, only a European release had been officially revealed.

Look, we're gonna level with you. In our younger days, we may have legitimately and with complete sincerity tried to do a kamehameha. Sometimes, we even felt like we were pretty close to getting it. We never did, though, but part of us still believes we could if we just trained harder and ate bigger meals with our mouths open.

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We're sure there are plenty of people who still think of Virtua Fighter characters in Dead or Alive 5 as some kind of sacrilege but, man, pairing Akira and Kokoro looks like just about the best thing ever. In other, completely unsurprising news, Tecmo has revealed that both Jann Lee and Tina will return in Dead or Alive 5.

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Ubisoft sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2012-2013 (which ended June 30) are up 27.2 percent over the last year, coming in at €131 million ($160.6 million). The company attributes the better-than-expected performance to surprisingly high sales of Ghost Recon Future Soldier, indicating that Ubisoft didn't think to ask the title character about the future of his own game. In addition, digital distribution was a boon for Ubisoft, including free-to-play games and the phenomenon of Trials Evolution.

For the second quarter, Ubisoft expects to come in short of last year's performance, because Driver: San Francisco did so well last year.

Battlefield 3's "Armored Kill" expansion, coming this September, finally gives fans of the franchise the expansion they've been waiting for, featuring vehicular mayhem like that shown in today's trailer.

Armored Kill has five new vehicles, "including mobile artillery, tanks, ATVs," along with 20 vehicle-specific unlocks and the ability to spawn in the all-new gunship. The premiere trailer above features the "Alborz Mountain" map and "Bandar Desert, the largest map in Battlefield history."

The 800,000+ BF3:Premium members will have two weeks early access to Armored Kill before the rest of the grunts come in. The next two Battlefield 3 expansions "Aftermath" and "End Game" are expected in December and March 2013, respectively.