While Microsoft hasn't yet announced an Xbox Live iPhone app of its very own, it has taken a well-intentioned step towards validating the handful of apps currently available on the service: it's required that the developers make their apps free. Now, before you go off about mean ol' Microsoft keeping the independent developer down, consider the reasoning here: these developers are given access to the Live functionality through the Xbox Community Developer Program and, as such, are beholden to Microsoft's rules.

In this case, Microsoft evidently has no problem with the applications themselves, just with developers charging cash money for them, so it's really looking out for you here. If you've held off on trying one out, we've included links to the three we could find (one isn't free yet, but we expect it will be shortly). Take 'em for a spin around the 'net and report your findings back here.

Source – 1337pwn XBOX Live Friends List AppStore Application is now FREE
iTunes – 1337pwn (now free)
iTunes – iLive (still $1.99)
iTunes – Xbox LIVE Friends (formerly iXboxLive; now free)

It's the hottest thing for Hollywood fat cats to do: In-between making things explode and vacationing, they'll attach their name to a video game so, as long as the young people of the universe are spending more and more time away from the movieplex, at least they're spending time with your (brand) name. Peter Jackson; Steven Spielberg; John Woo; Jerry Bruckheimer; Vin Diesel – you get the idea.

Variety is reporting that Tony "Top Gun" Scott was similarly attached to Midway's recently canceled – albeit never announced – Austin project, Career Criminal. Of course, Midway won't confirm the information since, well, it never announced that the game existed in the first place, remember? The silver lining: Scott's free to work on our long-dreamed-of video game adaptation of The Last Boy Scout. Think about it: Bruce Willis' likeness and voice, that's the stuff hits are made of.

Long gone are the days when Mario, Sonic, and Crash battled each other in hastily constructed plywood arenas in the dimly lit back corners of edge-of-town warehouses. Now, we've got Sonic and Mario sharing box covers while Crash ... well, at least he's still around.

But don't think the marketing mavens at Sony haven't taken notice of LittleBigPlanet's lovable Sackboy who, as luck would have it, is exclusive to the PS3. "We want LittleBigPlanet to lead the charge into a new genre of gaming and turn Sackboy into the next emblematic character for the PS3," says SCEA's LBP marketing maven Mark Valledor. There are plans that include tiny billboards, exclusive pre-order Sackboys and girls (Kratos and Nariko), plushies and, one can only hope, pajamas with feet.

[Eurogamer via PS3 Fanboy]

We were a bit caught up in Braid hysteria earlier this week, so we thought we'd table this post until the scalding heat of our passion cooled down a little bit ...

And here we are! Braid artist David Hellman tipped us off to a pair of adorable Braid-themed papercraft projects depicting the game's time-manipulating hero Tim and his ubiquitous foe ... uh, Creature thing. Print out one of Tim, thirty of the Creature, figure out how to control the immutable march of time, then reenact all your favorite scenes.

[Thanks, David]

Source – Braid papercraft, Tim
Source – Braid papercraft, Creature

We already heard that third-party devs were nonplussed by Nintendo's surprise MotionPlus reveal at E3, but we really wanted to hear about one developer in particular: LucasArts. Game Informer follows up its earlier online posting with a writeup in this month's issue (the Arkham Asylum one) specifically referencing the Star Wars dev: "LucasArts in particular wasn't happy at being kept in the dark."

Something tells us that's an understatement. The developer's Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels game was not only built specifically for the Wii and shown off in Nintendo's E3 presentation, it was built in response to the intense clamoring from fans hungry for a 1:1 lightsaber game. With the game set to hit retailers this November, and the Wii MotionPlus arriving the following Spring, if you're holding out for 1:1 Jedi-ing, your only hope now is a sequel.

[Via NWF]

You wanna know how we know that cannonball jumping (cannonballing?) is going to be an Olympic sport soon? Not because 29-year-old Doug Bermann said, "This is going to the Olympics, baby," after splashing his way to victory at the Trident Splash National Cannonball Championship in Canada. No, because he did so in a Mario outfit (seen right).

Here's what we know: Olympic aquatic gold medalists play Mario games; cannonball champ Doug Bergmann dresses up like Mario sometimes; ... actually, that's it. But really, what more do you need to know? London. 2012. Cannonballs.

[Thanks, Kspraydad]

Further details on the fate of two of Sierra's four internal studios: Radical Entertainment and High Moon Studios. While new parent-company Activision Blizzard pledged to "realign staffing" at Radical and High Moon, it's been unclear what form this realignment would take.

Leah Rubin, Radical's vice-president of human resources, told Canada.com, "Activision Blizzard is committed to making the best games possible and has elected at this time to reduce the number of titles that Radical is developing from four games to two. Therefore, we will be proportionately reducing the size of our studio." The status at High Moon is less official, with "multiple independent" sources confirming to Gamasutra that "a notable portion – as many as 60 – but not a majority of the developer's more than 150 staff" has been laid off.

So, the sorta good news: Radical and High Moon will stay inside the Blizzavision family, as will Radical's two games remaining in active development and whatever High Moon has in production. By our best guesses, Radical's two games are Prototype and Crash: Mind over Mutant though we're not certain about the other two, now canceled, titles in development: One was rumored to be a multiplayer installment in the Jason Bourne franchise titled Treadstone and the other a sequel to the developer's 2006 Scarface title (the license recently reverted back to Universal). As for High Moon, with the loss of the Bourne license, it's possible that whatever title it's currently developing will be the fifth, unannounced title retained by Activision Blizzard.

Source – Radical layoffs at Radical Entertainment
Source – High Moon Lays Off Staff, Post-Vivendi Merger

SCE London was on hand at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival to show off two new EyeToy games that take advantage of a newfound ability to track specific colors and – as excited as we are about EyeToy: Pom-Pom Party (we don't know what it is) – it's EyeToy: Hero that we're really here to talk about. You see, the first-person game not only comes with a "real toy sword," it promises 1:1 swordplay with that sword by tracking its fluorescent-green foam.

You can use the sword to block enemy attacks, light your way in dark areas, and of course to attack. You'll even have to hide your sword behind your back in those dark areas if you want to avoid detection. Clever! The technology may sound like magic, but it's not without its limitations. Compared to Nintendo's new Wii MotionPlus upgrade, the 1:1 EyeToy tech is limited to two dimensions, has difficulty picking up subtle movements, and probably won't work in the dim light of your parent's basement. You can hit up some more pics and a full rundown of the presentation by clicking on that Source link.

[Via Engadget]

Ever since the iPhone App Store launch last month, we've been on the hunt for apps we can load on our fancy phones and not forget about immediately. Occasionally something pops up but, sure enough, we manage to forget about it in a matter of days. But here ... this is different. Frotz we'll keep around for a long time.

Some of you may be familiar with Frotz; it's a Z-machine, used to read and, therefore, play interactive fiction. Yes, that's "text adventures" for you old timers. Now that the app has made it to the iPhone, we can explore Zork's Great Underground Empire from anywhere. The app is free, comes with a bunch of public-domain IF titles, and you can "specify other download repositories" if you're more interested in nabbing some of those Infocom classics. Might we recommend Steve Meretzky's classic Leather Goddesses of Phobos?

[Thanks, Hank]

[Update: NCsoft has confirmed 21 layoffs, saying the cuts are coming from "positions on the Dungeon Runners team after deciding not to port the client to other platforms at this time" and "products which we have not previously announced and were in prototype phases." The number is much smaller than previously rumored numbers, lending context to earlier responses that the rumors were "pretty outrageous."]

Just a few short days after rumors that NCsoft would be cutting jobs at its Austin, TX location first bubbled to the surface – rumors that NCsoft told Edge were "just crazy" and "pretty outrageous" – comes word of several high-profile layoffs. Massively reports that April 'CuppaJo' Burba – an associate producer on Dungeon Runners and a popular community member – and Scott Jennings (aka Lum The Mad) – a project lead on an as-yet-unannounced MMO being developed in Austin – have both been laid off. Jennings also writes on his blog that his entire "team was let go as part of 'refocusing'" though he doesn't specify if the MMO they were all working on has been canceled or not.

There's no word yet on the fate of Tabula Rasa – rumored to be moved from Austin to Seattle, and placed under ArenaNet's watchful gaze – or of the sorta-recently acquired City of Heroes/Villains, but you know the drill: we'll let you know when we know.

It's the first question everyone has when confronted with an MMO targeted for both PCs and consoles: "Will console and PC players be on the same servers?" Lucky for us, the MMO nerds at Cryptic expected your (frankly) predictable inquiry and met it with the following response, helpfully contained on Star Trek Online's official FAQ page: "We would like that to be the case. There is nothing technologically keeping us from making it so." The more astute amongst you will undoubtedly taken note note that the above response is not technically the same as "yes" but it perhaps gets us one step closer to having an MMO besides Final Fantasy XI that actually plays across platforms.

Until then, we'll toss Star Trek Online into the same pile as other MMOs that are considering cross-platform play but have yet to actually deliver it: The Agency, DC Universe Online, Age of Conan, and Cryptic's own Champions Online. Wanna make it off that list, Cryptic? Make it so.

If you've been curious precisely how you were going to import all that virtual gold you win in the Fable 2 Pub Games over the next ten weeks into Fable 2 proper, Lionhead is here to sate your curiosity and even assuage your skepticism. Eurogamer has the breakdown, but it goes something like this:

1. Buy Fable 2 Pub Games (either outright, or through a pre-order)
2. Play the three games contained therein to earn gold
3. Merge your Pub Games gambler with your Fable 2 hero in a permanent, one-way process
4. Then "gain access to all the Live Arcade gambling funds you previously accrued"
5. The process works the other way around also: you can take your Fable 2 money back into Pub Games
   

There are some additional details for those of you really interested in the nitty-gritty (ie: merging several gamblers together) but if you're like us, you'll be content knowing that your predilection for virtual gambling has a safe spot somewhere between "no money" and "real money."

Huh, looks like EA doesn't have everyone ... covered. Less than a week after Madden 09's cover athlete Brett Favre jumped ship for the Jets (single-handedly thrashing millions in Madden marketing materials) EA has come through with its "plan": you can now download a replacement cover (in handy PDF format) for your copy of Madden NFL 09 featuring Favre donning his new team's colors ...

... that is, if you happened to purchase either the Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, or PS2 release. Those of you that bought the Wii or DS versions, sorry. And for the four of you that bought the Xbox version ... you should know better.

Also released today: a "new online roster download" for Xbox 360, Xbox, PS3, PS2 and Wii which "features Favre as the starting quarterback on the New York Jets." Rocking something a little more portable, are we? EA advises you hit up Franchise Mode, transfer "NFL Great" Favre to the free agent roster pool, and then scoop him up "on any of the 32 NFL teams for the 2008 season."

[Update: If you don't want to blow all of your green ink printing out the new cover, stop by either Sam's Club or Wal-Mart to pick one up in-store. It's unclear if you'll need to purchase the game there as well but our money's on "probably."]

Blow explains, "I talked to some folks at Sony but they were not interested in carrying the game. Later on I talked to someone from a different division who *was* interested, but by then I had signed with Microsoft and started the XBLA port." Sounds like Sony may get a second chance of having the downloadable hit on its PSN service. In an interview with GameFocus, Braid creator Jonathan Blow says that a PlayStation 3 port "might happen in the future." He explained, "It's a limited exclusive, so if I were to try to make a PS3 or WiiWare version of the game, I would have to wait a little bit."

While Blow did not elaborate on how long the Xbox 360 timed exclusivity would last, he did reiterate that a PC release – presumably outside the limitations of any exclusivity contract – will "definitely happen this year" while a WiiWare release "is not going to happen for this game." With over 30K downloads already logged on Xbox Live Arcade, adding two additional platforms should go some way towards obviating that whole price dilemma situation.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

While it's not true that the entirety of Joystiq operates as a single hive-mind, singularly bent on delivering gaming blog posts straight into your skull, we do often share a common sentiment. This past week, that sentiment has been this: Braid is awesome. If you share our sentiment, you may be disappointed to learn that game creator Jonathan Blow is "not going to do a sequel to Braid" regardless of "how many copies it sells." Those are his words, people. What about fresh new levels, ala Portal: Still Alive, you ask? "I'm not waiting in the wings with a level pack, or DLC or anything," says Blow, appearing to take a peculiar satisfaction in dashing your hopes. But Blow knows better than to say "never" so he offers this caveat: "... maybe in five years when I'm motivated, if I have a really fresh idea for it." Deal!

While Braid 2: The Pony Tale might not be in the cards for creative reasons, an XBLA followup might not be in the cards for financial reasons – Blow cited the recent royalty adjustment on the platform as an impediment, stating, "If it's as I've heard that it is, I couldn't even necessarily break even." And while Blow was quick to point out that Microsoft isn't "Bad" (seriously, he's the first commenter) he was particularly frustrated with the oft-cited XBLA certification process, which he felt was time that could have been used to make Braid a "little more polished, little bit better." So if jumping to conclusions is your thing, you can blame Microsoft for whatever shortcomings you see in the game. To us, it sounds like business as usual and, despite any misgivings about the XBLA platform, it still managed to deliver a very polished, and very impressive platformer to a relatively huge audience for the not unreasonable price of $15.