During the week of E3, on June 6, Video Games Live will take over the Nokia Theater L.A. Live arena. Being E3 and all, and L.A. being one of the most frequently played venues for Tommy Tallarico's live video game concert, this year he wanted to add some special scores – like Austin Wintory's Journey score, conducted by Wintory himself.

It's just one of the more recent audio accompaniments added for the June 6 show. There are also select tunes from Skyrim, which will be handled by a secret guest conductor; composer Russell Bower will conduct some Diablo 3 tunes. Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox and even a Street Fighter segment – to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Capcom's fighter – are planned. Akira Yamaoka will also play guitar at some point.

Finally, there's Earthworm Jim to consider, a game that Tallarico himself worked on. Apparently folks have been asking him to add it to Video Games Live for quite some time now, which we're totally in favor of – as long as we get that thrash metal remix of "Use Your Head" we've been waiting our entire lives for.

If you've got Mighty Switch Force, go download it again from the eShop later today. WayForward is updating it to a "New Edition" featuring the vocal stylings of a young Bobby Brown. Actually, it features five new levels, upgraded 3D effects, and a "retry" button.

If you'd like to buy something else while you're on the eShop, the Game Boy Game & Watch Gallery 2 is on the shop today, as is the DSiWare game Snakenoid Deluxe, which is, of course, Snake plus Arkanoid. And this Friday, you can get a Madagascar 3 trailer on Nintendo Video, to bring Chris Rock's voice with you everywhere.

And on Wii this week: nothing.

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Every month, the NPD Group releases a report on the previous month's US sales in the game industry, both consoles and software. While that monthly report is already "projected to 100% of the market," according to NPD Group's David Riley, next month, it'll get bolstered by the nation's largest retailer: Walmart. Despite being revealed this past February, the past several months of NPD reports haven't included Walmart's numbers.

"Our enhanced retail coverage, including the addition of several new retailers, begins with May data released on Thursday, June 14," Riley told me in an email yesterday. While he couldn't supply a list of all of the retailers involved, he told me, "Yes, it does include Walmart."

With any luck, the addition of Walmart to NPD's stable of retailers reporting – which already includes America's largest game retailer, GameStop – will help to thwart claims of NPD being a "very poor indicator of the industry's performance." Then again, between the lack of digital sales accounted for in NPD's monthly report and the urge of publishers to spin poor sales numbers, those complaints likely won't stop anytime soon.

Peter Molyneux's new studio is going to create his greatest game ever, but first it plans to make 22 of the almost greatest games ever. 22 Cans, Molyneux's studio, is rolling out a project called 22 Experiments, a series of digital releases leading up to the "final product," Molyneux told Beefjack.

The first experiment could drop in as few as six weeks for undisclosed platforms. Molyneux said the projects are "very very different, unusual, I think very intriguing things," probably because that's his thing. During a talk at Imperial College London's GaME12 event, Molyneux provided a vague vision for the direction of his studio, saying he wants to use current technology in ways no one else has, and sharing the following idea:

"I love this one thought, and I have experimented with this in previous games, that you find out more about yourself while being engaged with this experience than [you would] with anything else. And we all love finding out about ourselves – whether it's through personality tests, or someone turning around to you and saying X, Y and Z."

We look forward to a seriously introspective game of 22 Questions starting in six weeks.

In January, 2012 was looking like the year to beat for its sheer volume of high-profile games. But 2012 has quickly become the year many developers have set aside as one for polish and refinement. It has quickly become the year of the delayed game.

With so many projects being moved to 2013, Joystiq decided to put together a list of the major names you'll have to keep track of for at least seven more months. Did anything on your "Most Anticipated" list get pushed to 2013?

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Guild01 is an upcoming 3DS cart by Level-5, collecting four small games by Suda 51, Seaman's Yoot Saito, Yasumi Matsuno, and comedian Yoshiyuki Hirai. Even before the (so far Japan-only) release of this game, early Famitsu info reveals the existence of a second collection called Guild02, this time involving the outspoken and suddenly very busy Keiji Inafune.

Inafune's game translates to "Insect Tank," and puts the player in the role of a miniaturized WWII tank fighting giant insects. His game is joined by "Alone," a "suspense game" by Chunsoft visual novel writers Takemaru Abiko and Kazuya Asano, about someone who wakes up in a dark room with no memories, and "The Friday When Monsters Appear" by Kazu Ayabe, creator of the My Summer Vacation series. True to the title, monsters show up every Friday in a '60s-era town full of children who love the giant Ultraman-style heroes of the day.

Guild02 will also have some kind of connectivity with the previous collection, allowing Guild01 owners to get passwords to unlock material in Guild02. We suppose that's one advantage over releasing these games one by one on the eShop, but seriously, Level-5, release these games one by one on the eShop. That's what it's for.

Update: Famitsu has screens of all three games. Above (obviously), Insect Tank.

NBA 2K13 is set to launch on October 2 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP and PC, Take-Two Interactive announced today. This is in line with the October precedence set by previous NBA 2K titles. Developer 2K Sports has yet to reveal any details about the game, but our best guess is that it will feature an orange ball and some tall dudes.

2K13's direct predecessor, NBA 2K12, shipped 5 million units, Take-Two said.

The 3DS has crossed six million units sold in Japan, according to Enterbrain data reported by Enterbrain-owned magazine Famitsu. The last news about Japanese 3DS sales milestones came when it passed 5 million after less than a year, more quickly than any system to date. The system has sold 17.13 million units worldwide as of March 31.

Regional sales totals are not available for the 3DS's main competitor system, the PlayStation Vita, which was released in Japan about ten months after the 3DS and two months later worldwide. However, the 1.8 million systems sold to date worldwide provide contrast.

The 3DS suffered similarly slow sales in the period before its price drop and holiday releases; as of April of last year, it was at 3.6 million worldwide. That's slow, even if it is twice the Vita's current life-to-date total.

Cox did tease that he was spending time "in the land of Dracul" last April, though his Twitter responses to this latest rumor call the idea "misinformed," reiterating that "the truth is ALWAYS better than fiction!"

The Super Famicom Classic Controller for Wii remains out of reach for everyone but Japanese Club Nintendo members (and eBay users, of course), but ThinkGeek is stocking a very close facsimile for $20.

In fact, the Classic Super Famicom Controller for Wii is functionally identical to the Club Nintendo version. It plugs into your Wii Remote and lets you play Virtual Console games (or anything else that supports Classic Controller use and doesn't require analog sticks) with a controller designed to replicate the SNES pad. It even has the colorful face buttons of the Japanese controller.

Right now seems like a questionable time to buy a Wii accessory, but you'd already be using it to play old games. The impending obsolescence of the Wii isn't necessarily a deal breaker. Besides, the Wii U uses Wii Remotes; a Classic Controller might come in handy with that as well.

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What will you be doing on June 5 at noon ET? Nintendo sure hopes your answer to that question revolves around its impending E3 2012 press conference, and it's got a whole bevy of options should that be the case. Beyond partnering with Viacom to broadcast the show live (and commercial-free) on Spike TV and MTV2 (there's still an MTV2?!?!), Nintendo will offer the conference via internet on its usual E3 site.

Nintendo's E3 presentation this year will focus on its next home console, the Wii U, though we'll no doubt hear a few new nuggets about the 3DS. As always, we're hoping for a triumphant return from Ravi Drums. Don't keep breaking our hearts, Nintendo! Let Mr. Drums free!

Sony and Microsoft are also streaming their respective press conferences; more info can be found on each here and here.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines launches on February 12, 2013, Sega announced this morning. The Gearbox Software-developed game was previously given a "fall 2012" launch window, and was planned as a Wii U hardware launch title (the game is also planned for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC), though no hard date was ever given before. In fact, despite the February 12 date announcement, the game's Wii U version still doesn't have a date. "A release date for the announced Wii U version will be revealed at a later time," the press release reads.

Upset? That's understandable, but Sega's hoping to deflect some of that rage with a new trailer, which we've dropped just above.

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An animated trailer showcasing the plot of the upcoming Pokemon Black and White Version 2 games was released on the official Pokemon website, and features the return of the villainous N and Team Plasma. Though the website notes that the video is not intended to be used during the games, the Japanese trailer sheds a little light on the characters involved in the DS sequels.

In addition to the familiar foes, it seems players can expect to see friends-of-the-hero Bianca and Cheren. The games are due out on June 23 in Japan and will launch some time in the fall in North America.

A QA tester at TT Games (Lego Harry Potter, Lego Star Wars, et al.) has tweeted an image of a Wii U tablet that appears to have undergone a redesign since we saw one out in the wild during last year's E3.

Most importantly, the concave 3DS-esque circle pads have been replaced with Wii-style analog sticks. The Wii U logo has been moved to the bottom left-hand side of the unit, while the plus and minus buttons have been moved to the right. Two mysterious button-ish indentations exist below the d-pad and between the power button and battery life indicator; their function, if any, remains unclear. Click here for an omega hyper resolution version.

Update: Well that didn't take long! The tweet in question has been removed, but a screenshot of said tweet has been safely ensconced after the break.

Additionally, eagle-eyed commenter Anthony noticed a couple more disparities between this unit and those seen at E3, namely that the Home button appears to be surrounded by an Xbox 360-style ring light, and that the tablet's edges look more dramatically beveled than previously seen. We've also noticed that the gates surrounding the analog sticks are circular, rather than octagonal, as seen on the Wii Nunchuk and Classic Controller.

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EA's request to dismiss a class action lawsuit from former NCAA athletes has been denied, meaning the trial will movie forward and EA stands to lose more than $1 billion if found at fault.

The former NCAA athletes claim EA conspired with the NCAA and the CLC to have players sign away their likenesses and names to be used in video games without compensation. The players allege that in order to participate in NCAA sports they were required to sign a form allowing EA their likenesses in games, even after their college sports careers ended.

The federal judge previously dismissed other claims in the lawsuit, but denied EA's attempt to have an antitrust claim thrown out.

EA is facing more than a few lawsuits at the moment, but it did recently settle a two-year-old lawsuit with Activision, with as-yet undisclosed concessions from either side.

The "Maiden Epics" pack of Iron Maiden tunes coming to Rock Band next week has things that sound like they wouldn't be metal, but are, in fact, totally metal.

Like "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Sounds like some old epic poem, right? Well, it is epic in that sense, as well as in the sense of being thirteen minutes long.

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A patent filed by Nintendo in October of last year has just surfaced online, suggesting a neat feature for the Wii U. The patent outlines a feature in which the player can use the Wiimote to grab things from the television and transport them over to the Wii U tablet.

In the example provided, the player is under attack from a UFO and uses the Wiimote to move a character from the TV to the safety of the tablet. Sounds like an interesting feature, though we're not looking forward to taking a bath in radioactive liquid so we can grow that extra arm to use all this stuff.

Mario Tennis Open, like most of the Mushroom Kingdom's forays into the world of athletics, isn't really a sports game. All of the pieces are set in place to look like a tennis game, with a layer of Mario's signature whimsy on top, but the game itself is all rhythm and pattern recognition.

This simplicity makes it easy to pick up and play, with the unfortunate side effect of making it lose its challenge too quickly. It's a satisfying game and packs some exhilarating moments, but it exhausts its mechanics too soon.

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