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Steel Battalion is coming back for controller + Kinect? As an employee of Microsoft I’d just like to say WHAT THE FUCK? Steel Battalion on the original Xbox was $200 and came with an enormous control panel covered in buttons and switches. It was punishingly complex and if you failed to activate the ejection seat when your giant robot exploded, it would erase your save file. I’m not kidding: single-player permadeath!

This is the New Kinect-Only Steel Battalion

Take a look at the debut trailer for Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, coming to you from Gamescom in Germany. New details are hitting as I write this as well, so refresh this for an update. The short-short version:

Our friend Darla played Call of Cthulhu last night for the first time and the adventure was Grace Under Pressure, which I designed with Jeff Barber twenty years ago. I’m glad my two-decade-old monster is still bringing the chills!

Shane kind of buries the lede here but the news is simple: we’re making a standalone Delta Green RPG.

GenCon 2011: An Unspeakable Return

GenCon is the one convention that I make sure to attend every year. There are plenty of local and regional conventions that I miss, either for lack of time (deadlines…

Our book Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity took home two Silver ENnie Awards at GenCon 2011, for Best Writing and Best Adventure. Congrats to our awesome team of writers: Warre Banks, Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Kenneth Hite, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze.

And The 2011 ENnie Awards Go To…

The 2011 ENnie Awards, celebrating the best in tabletop roleplaying, have been announced with a whole collection of fabulous games, publishers, podcasts and more making the list. The winners are (from the ENnie Awards website):

Time to pull the pin out of the grenade for my talk at next month’s PAX Dev:

“Why Roger Ebert Was Right” – John Scott Tynes of Microsoft – An examination of how as game designers we have almost entirely failed to integrate games with stories. It’s time to blow it all up and start over!

PAX DEV Speakers, Sessions Detailed | GamePolitics

PAX Prime organizers today revealed the various panels and discussion planned for PAX Dev on Wednesday, August 24 and Thursday, August 25 at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. Some of the speakers and panelists taking part in PAX DEV include John Scott Tynes of Microsoft, Mike Selinker of Lone Shark Games,

I’m glad to see EA is living in a reality-based world. 3D TV isn’t taking off, they have no dog in that fight, and they’re walking away. When the audience is there, they’ll come back.

Gamasutra – News – EA Sees 'Poor Returns' On 3D, Focuses On Social Instead

EA has seen poor returns when allocating its resources to displaying its games in 3D, according to CEO John Riccitiello, who says that the company would prefer to use those resources focusing on social features.

Crimson Alliance is a four-player cooperative dungeon crawler coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade on September 7. This was one of my incubation projects. Mitch came up with the concept of Left 4 Dead meets D&D, brainstormed it with me and Ray, and eventually we hired Certain Affinity to make it.

We don’t always come up with great game titles here, but I have to applaud our latest effort: KINECTIMALS: NOW WITH BEARS. This uses the porn-movie philosophy of titles, which is to ensure the title tells you exactly what you’re getting. In this spirit Mitch and I once dreamed up a project here, which got as far as appearing on a slide in a meeting with senior management, called MONSTER TRUCK ZOMBIE GRIND.

You Know What Kinectimals Needs? Bears

Kinect launch title Kinectimals was a fine showcase for Microsoft's motion-sensing technology, but it was all about cat. They should have just called it Kinecticats.

Gamasutra reports that my game Full House Poker is the best selling Xbox LIVE Arcade title of 2011. All in!

Gamasutra – News – In-Depth: Xbox Live Arcade Sales Analysis, First Half Of 2011

Gamasutra contributor Ryan Langley examines the first six months of 2011's Xbox Live arcade sales, pointing out the well-promoted top sellers, poorly reviewed releases that people bought anyway, and and more.

I wish I cared about basketball because the coverage I read of NBA 2K11’s Michael Jordan campaign really impressed me. And now this: NBA 2K12 is featuring Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. They hired a terrific sports artist to paint the covers and they’re just gorgeous. At least I can admire the craftsmanship.

NBA 2K12 Cover Adds Magic and Bird to Michael Jordan

When your last game cover features your sport's greatest player ever, what do you do for an encore? If you're 2K Sports, you get three of the greatest players ever. Michael Jordan will return as the cover star for NBA 2K12, and will be joined by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.