Monaco, the award-winning indie heist game from Andy Schatz will miss its launch date tomorrow on XBLA.

"We just discovered that there is an issue which requires that we push back our Xbox Live Arcade game release date a little," reads a missive posted on Facebook. "We've already submitted an update to Microsoft to fix the problem, and as soon as we know that the issue is fixed we'll have a new release date. I know our fans have been waiting a long time for the game, and hopefully they'll have the patience to wait just a little while longer. What's mine will be yours very, very soon!"

Monaco will still launch on PC via Steam tomorrow, April 24, as scheduled. Monaco won the IGF Seumas McNally Grand Prize in 2010, and we've been playing it in various stages of development in the years since.

Majesco is in charge of publishing the XBLA version, while Schatz and Pocketwatch Games are self-publishing the PC version (eventually to be joined by Mac). This is the final day to pre-order Monaco on Steam and grab that 10 percent-off price.

The PlayStation Store update this week includes four full games, two new for PSN and three Vita games. The full games are Star Trek, SoulCalibur 5, Dead Island Riptide and Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII, while PSN gets God Mode and Thomas Was Alone.

Thomas Was Alone is a Cross Buy game, making it available on Vita today as well, along with Draw Slasher and Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R.

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns is out as a PS2 Classic and PSP gets Black Rock Shooter The Game. The Spring Sale is still on, with discounts on Resident Evil 6 and Thomas Was Alone this week.

Batman: Arkham Origins will reportedly be the first game in the series to have a multiplayer component. Kotaku, citing two sources, notes that one mode will place players in Joker or Bane's gang to bring down The Batman and Robin.

"The villains involved - who may be playable and customizable - include Killer Croc, Deadshot, Firefly, Black Mask, Deathstroke, and 'some kind of Electroman character,'" reports the site. "This could be one multiplayer mode, or it could be the only one. We don't know."

Batman: Arkham Origins will launch on October 25 for current generation platforms and PC, alongside a portable version for 3DS and Vita called Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate.

The Wii U Virtual Console launch list is slim and trim, largely mirroring the initial list of games we got earlier this month: Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong Jr., Excitebike, Ice Climbers, Kirby's Adventure, Punch Out, F-Zero and Super Mario World. A handful of these games were already available on the Wii U, via the Virtual Console's early preview.

If you've forgotten what all of these games look like (it has been a long time, after all), check out some screens on the Wii U Facebook page. Virtual Console is scheduled to launch this week.

Born Ready Games has announced a new standalone "Strike Suit" game, coming to PC via Steam on April 30. The score-driven Strike Suit Infinity jettisons most of the objectives of the original Strike Suit Zero, save for the obvious one: shoot things in space.

Strike Suit Infinity recognizes success by placing you higher in competitive leaderboards, and hopes to augment the destruction of enemy spaceships with extrinsic rewards like points, chains, multipliers and credits to purchase reinforcements.

This $7 deal nets you an infinite number of interstellar vehicles, and the eternally relevant reminder that they, as with all things in outer space, are coming to kill you.

Vanillaware's pseudo-retro side-scrolling hack and/or slash game Dragon's Crown will launch for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 on Tuesday, August 6, at $39.99 and $49.99 respectively, publisher Atlus has announced. Can you imagine getting a new crown put in for $50? You'd figure dragon dentistry would be a lot more expensive than that, what with the size and plentiful nature of their teeth.

... Get it? Because it's a Dragon's Crown, like one you get when ... You know what? Fine. Be that way about our dentistry jokes. Here's some screenshots of various things getting hacked/slashed/exploded.

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If Far Cry 3's grim tale of survival was a poor fit for the game's exotic, often preposterous antics, there are no such fears for its seemingly disconnected spin-off. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is nothing short of ridiculous, and deliberately so. Ubisoft's standalone shooter celebrates the endearingly excessive sci-fi action of a bygone era in entertainment, when men wore cyber-armor over cyber-arms and when eyes glowed red.

An animated introduction transports us to the post-apocalyptic near future... of 2007. Our new cyborg hero is sent to an island to take out a rogue terrorist group – full of evil cyborgs. The intro has music so pungent of Terminator 2 that I half expect it to tell me it'll be back, and the first 10 or so minutes are filled with references to sci-fi and action movies from in and around the 1980s. Blood Dragon pays homage to an era full of sci-fi missteps and overblown heroes exuding machismo.

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Indie developer Moise Breton turns to Kickstarter this week to fund A.N.N.E., a 16-bittish blend of shoot-'em-up action and Metroidvania-style exploration.

Similar in premise to Sunsoft's NES classic Blaster Master, A.N.N.E. features horizontally scrolling shooter levels that bridge smaller-scale, on-foot sequences. The game also boasts physics-based puzzles and a level-up system, further sweetening an already tempting package.

In its first few days of funding, A.N.N.E. has already earned over $10,000 toward its initial funding goal of $70,000. While the project is currently Windows-only, ports for Mac, Linux, PSN, Ouya, and Wii U are under consideration, pending stretch goal support. A.N.N.E. is also up for vote at Steam Greenlight.

Harmonix laid off a handful of employees today, a spokesperson told Polygon.

"We can confirm that a small number of Harmonix employees were let go today," the spokesperson said. "This decision was made due to shifting staffing priorities for Harmonix's multiple future projects."

In March, Harmonix secured investment from venture capital firm The Foundry Group, which confirmed Harmonix was working on three new games using variations of player input, beyond standard keyboard and mouse controls. This month Harmonix snagged BioShock 2 lead designer Zak McClendon as a design director, superannuation cited today from McClendon's LinkenIn profile.

Everything in moderation, dear. The Daily Mail reports Activision UK public relations executive Kathryn Kirton has admitted to stealing £18,963 ($29,000). Her co-defendant, Jamie Kaye, who worked for third-party firm Frank PR, admitted to taking £5,000 ($7,600). The thefts occurred back in 2011 using money intended for promoting the Call of Duty franchise.

For her part, Kirton used the money for a romantic £2,000 two-night stay at a luxury countryside estate, a £1,500 engagement party and spent £9,437 in "one of three shopping sprees." It appears things started falling apart when Kirton, using the Frank PR corporate card for one of the sprees, had Kaye bill Activision for it as Modern Warfare 2 launch expense. Kaye admitted using the money to send his family on a £3,500 family vacation to Florida. He also stole six iPads.

Both pleaded guilty to one count of fraud. The judge sentenced Kirton to 18 months, but suspended it due to the "devastating effect" it would have on her young son. Kirton's marriage is reportedly on the rocks and the stress of the past two years caused her two-year-old son to be born prematurely because of the strain of the investigation. Kaye was sentenced to nine months, but that was suspended for 12 months. He's been ordered to 80 hours of community service.

Earlier this year, former Gamestop VP of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Chris Olivera was sentenced to 51 months in US federal prison after he plead guilty to embezzling over $1.7 million.

Seriously, folks, the accountants will catch up with you eventually. Well, you know, unless they're in on it.

Nordic Games picked up most of the IPs in THQ's back catalog auction, dishing out $4.9 million for Darksiders, Red Faction, MX vs ATV, Titan Quest and a slew of unannounced games from THQ's long list of for-sale properties. Nordic was a surprise to some, especially next to Gearbox, which picked up the Homeworld franchise, and 505 Games, which snagged Drawn to Life and its sequel. But Nordic isn't new.

"We've been in conversation with THQ since January," Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors told Game Informer. "We signed all the NDAs in January."

Wingefors has been in the gaming industry for 20 years, he said, and has handled "a lot" of THQ products during that time. In November 2011, Nordic acquired publisher JoWood, in charge of Painkiller and Torchlight, and also ended up with Canadian publisher Dreamcatcher, spawning Nordic's publishing focus.

Nordic took part in the first THQ auction as well, which sold off properties such as Saints Row and some development studios for upwards of $20 million. That sale was too rich for Wingefors: "Saints Row went for $22 million and Koch bought that development studio with that burn rate on a daily basis. Even though I do have financial resources, I don't have those kind of resources."

Wingefors didn't want a studio. Nordic is a "middle man" looking for the right team to make some new sequels; there's already been plenty of interest in Darksiders, he said.

"We have to be very honest," Wingefors said. "I am a business man within the games industry. We are not the creative, talented developer that brings out new versions in house. I understand the potential of the IPs. I respect the original creators and the creative people who are able to create sequels. In the past 24 hours, we have been contacted and there have been a few discussions (but I can't confirm names)."

Nordic took home more than 50 former THQ games, but has yet to release the full list.

"As we still have some open points with regards to a couple of titles we will not publish a comprehensive list at this stage," a Nordic Games representative told Joystiq yesterday. "However, once everything is fixed and the ink is dry – around mid-May – we will go out with a comprehensive list of titles which we have acquired in the process."

Nordic will hold talks this summer with different developers, during E3 especially. Don't expect any sequels too soon, though.

"You won't see a new Darksiders this year," Wingefors said. "I don't believe in bringing out a shitty sequel."

XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Civilization series developer Firaxis Games hits the App Store today with Haunted Hollow, a free-to-play strategy game in which players command an army of semi-fearsome ghouls and ghosts.

Haunted Hollow takes place over a series of one-on-one, tug-of-war style matches in which players compete to scare the residents of a nearby village. Multiple unit types are available, and you'll need to plan carefully in order to claim territory and fend off your opponent's attacks. The town itself isn't too pleased with the sudden influx of hauntings, either, and players will need to carefully route their creatures in order to avoid pitchfork-wielding mobs.

Haunted Hollow features a Game Center-driven asynchronous multiplayer option, along with single-player and local multiplayer pass-and-play modes. Firaxis is also working on an iOS port of that other strategy game, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, coming this summer.

Update: 2K has pulled the game from the App Store, sending out the following statement: "Some of our fans may have noticed our latest mobile title, Haunted Hollow, pre-maturely appearing on the App Store this morning as a result of a testing error. We have removed this build to add a few final updates, so the game can be as polished as possible when it launches globally. But fans won't have to wait long – Haunted Hollow will be available for free to download from the App Store next Thursday, May 2, 2013! We apologize for any confusion this may have caused, but please stay tuned for more information."

Death has always been an integral part of Dragon's Dogma. From the intoxicating notion that it could come at any time while travelling the world of Gransys to the corpses that litter an area once you've torn through it, death permeates the narrative like a foul odor. The punishing difficulty ensures defeat in most cases, making it an absolute certainty that a restart will be necessary at least once. That same frustration, however, is what attracted the droves of players to Capcom's open-world RPG in the first place.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen ups the ante by introducing Death personified. Your first sighting could end up being your last, though with persistence, even Death itself can be cheated. And that's just one small piece of this sprawling hunk of supplemental content. The austere world of Dark Arisen is a meaty expansion pack that serves up a substantial amount of new material, opening up welcoming arms to veterans and enticing new players with what will inevitably be billed as the definitive Dragon's Dogma experience.

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As scheduled, the 'Redemption' DLC for Assassin's Creed 3 comes today to the Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 - tomorrow for European PS3s - but Wii U owners must wait a bit longer to redeem it. The final part of the 'King Washington' trilogy reaches the Nintendo console on May 16.

Before you can stop the madness of King George, you'll have to cough up 640 MSP on Xbox 360, or $7.99 on PC and PS3. If you have the Season Pass then you've already paid for it, so you'd best get going to old New York - just don't forget the straitjacket.

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Independent developer Bryan Lunduke, creator of what is almost certainly the world's only Linux distribution sim, raises eyebrows again this week with the release of The Lunduke Experimental Artificial Intelligence Terminal (or "L.E.A.I.T."), a text-based game for Windows, Mac, and Linux starring Ruby, a friendly, lovable AI engine.

You won't have long to bond with your new pal, however. Shortly after the game begins, Ruby goes nuts and starts infecting your files with a virtual virus. The only way to stop Ruby's rampage is to track its activity through your computer's actual file system, deleting infected documents and cornering it between emptied directories.

You won't damage your personal files while playing L.E.A.I.T. – Ruby's in-game destruction is fictional, and players don't risk losing or infecting real files. Still, the game may still inspire a twinge of panic whenever it pops up a notification that Ruby's infection has spread to, say, your work documents, or your collection of kitten .gifs.

You can download a demo of L.E.A.I.T. at Lunduke's site for free, while the full version will set you back $3.

The once Wii U exclusive Rayman Legends may be leaping, running and helicoptering to yet another platform: The PlayStation Vita. According to a listing on Spanish retailer FNAC, the gorgeous platformer is headed to Sony's handheld. It's not too big a leap to make, as Rayman's last (excellent) outing, Rayman Origins, was also available for the Vita. Gamepur notes that FNAC lists a release date of August 29, though that appears to have been removed as of this writing.

The Wii U, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Rayman Legends are slated for September.

Paypal froze Lab Zero Games' account briefly today, due to risk that a significant number of Skullgirls crowdfunding pledges would be revoked. Lab Zero allowed backers to vote on new DLC characters, leading to the theory that if their chosen character didn't make it into the game, some fans would pull their "vote." "Basically, they are terrified of chargebacks," CEO Peter Bartholow told Venturebeat. "If we spend all the money and don't deliver and everyone [requests] chargebacks, PayPal is concerned they will be on the line for [the money]. So, they are effectively treating it as a loan."

After discussions with PayPal, the company has "unrestricted" Lab Zero's account, but continues to hold around $35,000, which Lab Zero CEO Peter Bartholow had planned to use for payroll. "They've only got $35k of our money frozen, so we're not in any real danger," Bartholow said on NeoGAF. "It's just an inconvenience at the moment."

Update: In other Skullgirls news, Bartholow tells XBLAFans the "Slightly Different" patch should arrive in the next two weeks on Xbox.

Telltale Games went all-in this week on release dates for Poker Night at the Inventory 2, showing a full house of tweets for all the announced versions. Inventory 2 twists first onto XBLM tomorrow, April 24. Steam (PC and Mac) takes its place at the table on Friday, April 26, and it's followed by PSN on April 30 - at least in North America. A May 1 arrival for Europe's PSN is estimated but not yet finalized.

The new roster for the card game sequel features Sam from Sam and Max, Ash Williams from Army of Darkness, and sadistic AI GLaDOS from Portal as the dealer - which at least means you won't have to try to read her, which we really wouldn't recommend.

Ratchet & Clank isn't the only Sony franchise from which Blockade Entertainment is adapting an animated film. As almost a footnote on Variety's article about the Ratchet movie, the publication reports that Blockade is producing a CG animated movie based on Heavenly Sword, for a direct to video release.

Heavenly Sword was a PlayStation 3 exclusive way back in 2007, an action game by Ninja Theory about a warrior, Nariko, who wields the magical sword protected by her clan in a campaign against an evil tyrant.

Insomniac Games announced a Ratchet & Clank animated film today, and it's coming to cinemas in 2015. The movie has Insomniac partner up with digital media studio Blockade Entertainment and computer animation company Rainmaker Entertainment, who recently produced 3D CGI flick Escape from Planet Earth.

A Rainmaker press release from February 2013 indicates their next film, a collaboration with Blockade, entered pre-production in January; production was then scheduled to begin on March 4. Rainmaker notes completion "remains on schedule for third quarter 2014."

"One of the biggest questions we've gotten in the last few years is 'When are you going to make a Ratchet & Clank movie?" Insomniac Community Lead James Stevenson wrote on the PlayStation Blog. "The truth is, we've wanted to do a movie for a long time! Ratchet & Clank's action, humor and galaxy-spanning adventures have really been the basis for a fantastic game series, and we think it'd translate perfectly to the big screen."

Stevenson also revealed Ratchet & Clank writer T.J. Fixman is scripting the film, while Insomniac also has a "hands-on role" with production and animation.