Spellirium – the graphic-adventure, wordsmithing puzzler from Ponycorn overseer Ryan Creighton – successfully raised $10,000 through a pre-order fundraiser that he describes as a "Kickender." Pre-orders at all tiers – $15 to $1,000 – get into the Spellirium alpha for PC and Mac. The game is almost done, and all funds go toward finishing the final cut scenes and adding sounds and polish.

"That was the hardest ten grand I've ever made. And I was a paperboy," Creighton tweeted.

Pre-orders are still open, and the Kickender is now on goal two, which is "Act 3, Adequately Animated." Check out Creighton's pre-order pitch video on the Spellirium site, but be warned – once you open the page, it auto-plays some intense medieval folk music.

Spellirium is also up for a run on Steam via Greenlight.

Forget everything you know about Tearaway and focus on this one fact: It has an in-game, rideable pig. This little piggy is only accessible through pre-orders at participating retailers, Media Molecule Community Manager James Spafford writes on the PlayStation Blog.

Pre-orders in the US get a slew of swine-related and assorted goodies: the Tearaway soundtrack with a bonus song, iota and atoi costumes for LittleBigPlanet, a Vita wallpaper, iota and atoi avatars for use on PSN, and a skin for a rideable pig and matching, real-life printable papercraft.

These pre-order perks sound suspiciously similar to those announced for Europe, but those were split into two packs; one with the soundtrack but without the pig, and the other with the pig but no tunes.

Blacksmith and propmaster Tony Swatton documents the creation of a replica Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword in the latest episode of the Man at Arms web series. Cloud Strife himself would be proud of the results.

This isn't some cardboard-and-foil job that you'd see at an anime convention; the finished product weighs around 80 pounds, and Swatton burned up three portable drills during its assembly. Swatton proves the sword's impracticality by "wrecking" his back and arm while attempting to wield it, but stick around until the end to see the blade taste the flesh of unsuspecting soda bottles and fresh produce.

Swatton previously produced replicas of Minecraft's diamond sword and the Kingdom Hearts keyblade, among other bladed bits of nerdery.

It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future.

What's your game called and what's it about?

Our game is called Jamsouls. We took inspiration from the famous tale of Pandora's Box to create crazy battles between naughty evil creatures in a vivid and colourful arena!

How have sales and visibility been on XBLIG? Is $1 a good price point for Jamsouls?

XBLIG has poor visibility compared to other games featured on the Xbox Marketplace. We feel that the platform is dying slowly, and that Microsoft is not really interested in this indie scene anymore, which is a shame.

We chose the price of $1 because we wanted the game to have maximum exposure. The price of 80 points is very reasonable for anyone wanting to try the game out.

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The NFL will receive $400 million from Microsoft over the next five years, according to an Associated Press source. The partnership was announced during Microsoft's Xbox One unveiling yesterday and will see NFL content coming to Microsoft's next-generation console.

As for the NFL side, fans will see Microsoft branding on-field during live games starting this upcoming season. Coaches and other team officials will be provided Microsoft Surface tablets, with the possibility of further technological innovations coming from Microsoft throughout the longevity of the deal.

The Xbox One will have interactive features integrated during broadcasts, including SmartGlass, group Skype calling and fantasy stats available during live NFL games. Recently, Amazon announced a limited edition version of Madden NFL 25 bundled with a free DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket subscription.

Altered Beast is about to wise fwom its gwave on 3DS. Sega has announced that Altered Beast 3D will arrive on the eShop next week in Japan, bringing with it several new features, according to Tiny Cartridge. Like the Japanese eShop re-release of Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast 3D will include both the Japanese and western versions of the game, button remapping and an optional mode that emulates CRT monitors.

None of Sega's 3DS re-releases have been confirmed for a North American release, including Space Harrier, Super Hang-On, Sonic the Hedgehog and, now, Altered Beast. Tiny Cartridge does note, however, that Space Harrier was recently confirmed for Europe, so there may be hope the game will be added to North America's growing Sega eShop library.

Downtrodden horror author Alan Wake stars in the latest Humble Weekly Sale, which offers up downloadable Windows versions of Remedy's third-person shooter Alan Wake and its follow-up American Nightmare for a buyer-chosen price (minimum $1).

Bundle buyers will receive DRM-free downloads of Alan Wake: Collector's Edition and Alan Wake's American Nightmare, along with Steam keys for both games. The package features a bevy of bonus material, including digital comic books, a playthrough video, and standalone episodes of the Remedy-produced "Night Springs" fictional television series – new episodes of which Joystiq debuted last year.

Xbox Live hosts its own Alan Wake series sale this week. Through May 29, the Xbox 360 Games on Demand version of Alan Wake is priced at 400 Microsoft points ($5), while the Xbox Live Arcade follow-up American Nightmare is a dollar cheaper at 320 points. Alan Wake DLC and avatar items are also on sale through next week.

In the announcement video above, Remedy's Sam Lake (who you might recognize as Max Payne's face model) reveals that the Alan Wake series has sold over three million units to date, and addresses fan reaction to the company's decision to develop the upcoming Xbox One-exclusive title Quantum Break, rather than an Alan Wake sequel.

"We definitely want to keep on working on Alan Wake," Lake assures. "I definitely want to create something new for Alan Wake, when the time is right."

Cheesy-awesome retro news today, as Ubisoft has announced the release of a Blood Dragon asset pack for the Far Cry 3 map editor. The "Mark IV Style" pack for the editor allows players to create levels with the same neon-drenched visuals as Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (pictured).

The pack is available now for free on Xbox 360 and PS3. We haven't spotted it on either Steam or Uplay, but we're checking with Ubisoft regarding a PC release.

A boxed retail collection of PlayStation Network titles will hit store shelves on June 25, bringing four games and a $40 price tag with it. Best of PlayStation Network Vol. 1, the first in a series of "Best of" releases according to the announcement, includes When Vikings Attack, Sound Shapes, Tokyo Jungle and Fat Princess.

No word on when Vol. 2 will follow or what games will be included with it, but for the time being this seems like a pretty legit way to save "nearly $15." Folks interested in internetless PlayStation Networking might also want to check out Journey's Collector's Edition, which is also a collection of acclaimed PSN games on physical caveman media for cavemen.

Owners of the original Kinect on Xbox 360 had the ability to unplug the device, but that won't be the case with the ever-vigilant and always-listening Xbox One version, Corporate VP of Microsoft Studios Phil Spencer told Joystiq.

"Kinect has to be connected to Xbox One," Spencer said. "That, from a creator standpoint, I love, because I like to have a common platform that I can target."

Spencer did take the opportunity to note that just because Kinect is always connected now, it doesn't mean Xbox One games are going to integrate physical activity at every opportunity.

"What I'm seeing in the creation process is more subtle uses of Kinect. I think when Kinect first came out on 360 everybody felt if you weren't doing jumping jacks in the middle of the room it wasn't a Kinect game," he said, going on to describe various everyday uses, such as watching television, for the product.

If you have concerns about Microsoft installing an always-on microphone and camera in your living room, better invest in a veil for the camera and some way of muffling Kinect's "ears." Owners of the next-gen console will need to accept Kinect is watching thee and there's little privacy.

Microsoft isn't prepared to share how used games on Xbox One will be handled – which had adverse effects on retailer GameStop's stock price yesterday – but the company is definitely going to be in the market.

"We understand the secondary market is incredibly important today in the current generation. It will be incredibly important in the next generation," Phil Spencer, Microsoft Corporate VP of Microsoft Studios, said in an interview with us. "I love the fact that my identity, my saves and my content can go with me to any console I move to. The ability to have me and my content save in the cloud who I am, and I can move around, that obviously requires some capability to know what content you own, associated with you and how you move."

He also danced around the always-online issue, something that already caused one public firing at Microsoft.

"We also understand that sometime people's internet goes down and I shouldn't stop watching a movie or stop playing a single-player game when that happens. We'll support a tolerance where we can," he noted, but we were seeking specifics on how long the console could be offline. "You asked about the boundaries, how long will that work? I'll just tell you we don't know yet. We'll tell you when we have the answer and we can tell everybody. But we understand that secondary market is important to the ecosystem, no doubt."

Asked about the game trading that Microsoft previously mentioned, Spencer said, "Yeah, these are some of the specifics... honestly, I'm not really dodging, I just don't want to tell you something we haven't fully baked yet.

"We basically set this reveal up so we could show the hardware, announce the name, talk about worldwide launch this year, show EA and Activision on our stage during our announce – which I think was a pretty compelling point to have both – with their biggest franchises in FIFA and Call of Duty," he concluded the topic. "Then we're gonna use E3 to game, game, game."

In Madden 25's Connected Franchise career mode, players can take on the role of team owner and perform a number of new tasks, including relocating teams to new cities. Madden's Creative Director Mike Young told Joystiq today that the mode is designed to limit the franchise relocation option to 17 different markets. The 17 cities include Brooklyn, London, Dublin, Toronto, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Austin, Columbus, Orlando, Portland, Oklahoma City and Memphis.

Additionally, some locations with an already-established NFL presence can receive a second team, such as Chicago and Houston. Players will have the option to retain their team name, logo and uniforms when moving or select from three different preset options for each city, including the Brooklyn Beats. The mode also grants players the option to reboot now-defunct teams from the NFL's history, such as the Columbus Panhandles, London Monarchs or the Houston Oilers. Players can opt to turn off the team relocation feature, disabling the option entirely.

EA Sports provided us with a new trailer for the game in which Young discusses the move from Madden 13's Connected Careers mode to this year's Connected Franchise mode. Madden 25 will launch August 27 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

EA revealed some pretty significant news last week, with a spokesperson saying the company currently has no Wii U games in development. Now, it appears that EA may have some Wii U games in development after all, according to EA CFO Blake Jorgensen. The news comes by way of comments made by Jorgensen at the Stifel Nicolaus 2013 Internet, Media and Communications Conference.

"I'll let the consumers ultimately vote on PS versus Xbox," said Jorgensen, weighing in on the major console players. "I think Nintendo's business was more [an] extension of their last console. We are building titles for the Nintendo consoles but not anywhere near as many as we are for PS or Xbox." Jorgensen's comments would seem to indicate that EA is, in fact, still developing Wii U titles, though it's possible he's referring to the slate of already available games.

If there are Wii U games in development at EA, it's hard to say what they might be. The publisher has definitively stated that many of its biggest 2013 games are not planned for Wii U, including Battlefield 4, Madden 25 and, most recently, FIFA 14. We've contacted EA to see if we can clear things up.

The Xbox One won't play Xbox 360 discs or XBLA games, and that doesn't really bother Microsoft Head of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick.

"If you're backwards compatible, you're really backwards," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Mattrick said only 5 percent of customers play games from previous generations on new consoles, so spending time to make that possible isn't worth it. Sony's PlayStation 4 isn't backward compatible from a hardware standpoint, but with cloud service Gaikai, it should offer a way to play games from the PS3 and older consoles.

It's been eight years since the previous generation transition, meaning players have had longer than ever to build up their libraries. That's a lot to lose – and even more so with the onset of downloadable games in the middle of this generation.

Metro: Last Light developer 4A Games is planning to release four different content packs throughout the summer, all bundled together today in a season pass available on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam for 1200 MS Points ($15).

The Faction and Chronicle packs are the first listed, each aimed at continuing the single-player story of Metro: Last Light. Faction is due first, in June. The Tower pack will be aimed at Metro veterans, offering "a unique solo challenge." Finally, the Developer pack aims to offer some additional tools aiding in exploration. All season pass purchases will also unlock an exclusive semi-automatic shotgun rifle, while each piece of DLC will be available for individual purchase.

Metro: Last Light launched on May 14, with our review placing it in the company of another story-driven shooter, Half-Life. The game was originally set to be published by THQ, but after the studio's fall Deep Silver came in and acquired the game.

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While no such thing is planned for the Xbox One launch window later this year, Microsoft Studios VP Phil Spencer isn't ruling out the possibility of video game shows like 1 vs 100 for the Xbox One.

Microsoft learned "a ton" from 1 vs 100 about bringing "hundreds of thousands of people together in a virtual game environment and have them play with each other and give away real prizes," Spencer told OXM. "I think that's a category that lends itself to our kind of community and interactivity," but he added no such thing would likely make launch. "We'll see how our timelines go."

1 vs 100 was a big hit with the Joystiq staff when it launched in 2010. 1 vs 100 was a weekly free game show played through Xbox Live at a specific time, where contestants could win real prizes. Microsoft pulled the plug in July of that year, though ex-host Chris Cashman was kind enough to produce a goodbye video of sorts.

Video and music purchased through the Xbox Live Marketplace will transfer to the Xbox One for storage and playback, Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison confirmed to Polygon.

Harrison noted the cross-platform media compatibility when asked about the Xbox One's reported inability to play Xbox 360 discs and downloaded games. "Actually, to be clear music, movies, television will [transfer]," Harrison said. "All that comes across. Anything that you've acquired from Xbox Video or Xbox Music will move across."

Currently, Xbox Live Marketplace movie, television, and music purchases are playable across an individual user's Xbox 360, PC, and tablet and smartphone devices.

FIFA 14 on PC won't use Ignite, the new engine EA Sports announced at yesterday's Xbox One conference. Ignite will power FIFA 14 on Xbox One and PS4, EA Sports Global Communications Manager Steve Frost told Joystiq.

"Ignite will be the engine that drives our sports games on PS4 and Xbox One," Frost said. "It will not be used for FIFA 14 on PC."

Ignite also runs Madden NFL 25, EA Sports UFC and NBA Live 14, as EA Sports said on the Xbox One stage – right before it showed off pre-rendered footage of all of these games.

"The video uses assets pulled directly from the in-game engines, and was rendered to create this first look multi-product trailer," Frost said. "It's representative of where we expect our games will be when they launch."

EA Communications Specialist Brad Hilderbrand promised us a closer look at Ignite at E3.

"Yes, given the timing and planning required for the Xbox One reveal event the EA Sports Ignite video was developed in a pre-rendered video format," Hilderbrand said. "We'll be showing off the game using in-game assets at E3."

After clearing its $70,000 goal more than a week in advance, the A.N.N.E. Kickstarter has concluded at $100,272. The total is enough to unlock three of ANNE's stretch goals, namely Mac & Linux versions, gender swap mode and achievements, and New Game+. While stretch goals for Ouya, PSN/Vita and Wii U versions were not met, creator Moise "Mo" Breton promised in a previous update that these versions will still be made, though it will take longer.

Mo, whom we interviewed back in April, also posted an inspirational thank you video on YouTube, which retells the whole experience and, more importantly, heavily features his adorable children. "From now on, it's all about making the game," said Mo, thanking supporters for allowing him to develop full-time. He is planning to make monthly updates throughout development. ANNE is planned to launch in early to mid 2014.