A quick look at the highlights among the games coming out in Japan this coming week, courtesy the review pages of Famitsu magazine: Game & Wario (8/8/7/8, 31 out of 40 points): This Wii U minigame complication came out on March 28, but — as with a lot of WiiU titles — Famitsu didn't publish their review until pretty well after the game hit stores. One wonders if that has anything to do with the general disappointment that seeps through most of the reviewers' text blurbs. "Only four out of the 16 games included are multiplayer," wrote editor Atsuhiro Fujiwara, "which may not feel like enough for some people. However, each game gets harder and offers up new gimmicks the more you get into them, so it's all pretty enjoyably. The game where you have to draw pictures based on topics...

Reports of layoffs continue to come in from various global branches of Electronic Arts following last week's news that the publisher was "reducing team sizes". The Journal reported last Friday, EA let go of aproximatley 20 employeees from its customer service center in Galway, Ireland. The layoffs come after EA announced a 300 person expansion last September, to join the 200 employees already established at the Galway branch. In addition, MCV India reported that about 50 employees from EA's Hydrabad studio in India were laid off last week. EA later confirmed the layoffs to MCV India but would not confirm how many people were impacted. MCV India reports the Hydrabad layoffs were tied to EA's decisions to shut down three Playfish titles. Develop also reported earlier this week that the...

The developer of 2D "sweep-'em-up" platformer Dustforce, Hitbox Team, offered detailed sales data on its PC game today, illustrating how Steam sales and inclusion in a Humble Bundle had a substantial impact on the financial success and exposure of the game. Hitbox Team's Terence Lee wrote in a post on the developer's website that the small team developed Dustforce from prototype to full game over the course of a year and a half, primarily living — rather frugally — off $100,000 in proceeds won from a game development contest. To sustain themselves and fund development of their next game, Hitbox estimated they'd need to bring in around $300,000 to $400,000 with Dustforce. On the game's first day on sale through Steam, Lee wrote, "we sold 4,796 copies — a revenue of $44,141." "It...

Kachina, a game about manipulating a hole in the ground, is being backed by the Indie Fund, according to a post published today on the organization's blog. The game, which is in development for Windows PC, Mac and iOS, began as part of Molyjam and is being developed by Ben Esposito, who worked recently at Giant Sparrow as a designer for The Unfinished Swan. Kachina was featured at GDC's Experimental Game Design Panel last month. For more on the game, be sure to check out our hands-on impressions from Indiecade 2012 Indie Fund is an organization designed to "support the growth of games as a medium by helping indie developers get financially independent and stay financially independent," according to its official description. Co-founder Aaron Isaksen of AppAbove Games recently said...