Like the game that shares half its name, Street Fighter X Tekken will receive a free post-launch update aimed at the tournament crowd. Capcom hopes this patch will alleviate the concerns around the controversial gem system. In Street Fighter IV, it was a free update that added replays and other matchmaking features, but the exact nature of the free DLC in Street Fighter X Tekken is still mostly unknown.

"A lot of players were saying, 'I have to do button checks. Do I have to do a gem check now before a match?' With regards to that we plan to release a free post-launch tournament support mode," producer Yoshinori Ono told Eurogamer. "Hopefully from that we'll get feedback from the community, and then we'll have a better direction of exactly what we should do with this mode." Just so we're clear: The free mode will be released, and then based on how the mode is received, the mode will be changed? Crystal.

Ono also says that players shouldn't expect DLC gems at launch. Instead, Capcom is adopting a wait-and-see approach, gauging community reaction before plotting its next move. "In terms of DLC gems, we don't have any set plans on selling gems like this or like that," Ono said. "We're waiting to see what the user reaction is first, because we think a lot of users still don't understand the gem system completely. They're not power-up items. That's not how we see them. We put gems into the game which are default. As long as you have these default ones you'll be fine. If you want to get more gems down the road from the pre-order bonuses, you can definitely do that, but it doesn't make you stronger, it doesn't make you a better player, it doesn't mean you'll have an advantage."

1986 marked a legendary era in humanity's astronomical focus. Russia launched the Mir space station, Halley's Comet lit up Earth's February skies, the Antarctic ozone hole came under intense scrutiny, and America's Challenger space shuttle exploded in a fiery cloud 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven of the astronauts on board in clear view of their family, friends and the world.

1986 is also the era that Tequila Works' chose for its upcoming horror-puzzle platformer (coming to XBLA this summer), Deadlight. The two aspects could be completely unrelated, of course, if Tequila Works CEO and creative director Raul Rubio hadn't gone out of his way to mention the astronomical significance of the year to Deadlight's larger, seemingly robust story in an interview with Joystiq.

"The choice of the time frame was not random at all," Rubio said. "If you think about it, 1986 was the year that had a lot of lunar events. And if you put that with movies like First Blood or Day of the Dead, it's a strange mix and you can get a unique visual."

Rambo: First Blood and Day of the Dead both came out in the '80s, one as a hyperbolic action film and the other a zombie cult classic, and Deadlight draws on both of these tropes in a unique way, Rubio told us.

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Square Enix Europe continues its Hitman trademark spree with Hitman Sniper Challenge. Siliconera dug up the latest trademark, which comes a month after the site found a Hitman: Profession trademark lurking in the European database.

What is Hitman Sniper Challenge? Much like Hitman: Profession, any guess is purely speculative. What we do know is that a new Hitman game is under production (with IO supervision) at the Square Enix studio in Montreal. IO is currently finishing up Hitman: Absolution for its 2012 launch.

Square certainly has plenty of transmedia opportunities for Agent 47 that could cover angles beyond games.

GameStop continues its closure of brick-and-mortar stores and conversion to a digital business in certain European markets, with recent moves in Portugal and Northern Ireland.

"GameStop plans to close our 13 stores in Portugal due to macro economic conditions," a company spokesperson told Joystiq. "Customers in Portugal can visit www.gamestop.es -- our E-commerce site in Spain -- for their gaming needs.

"And as announced last summer, GameStop is closing our four remaining UK stores -- thus finalizing our plans to exit the UK market. Our focus is to run an e-commerce only operation in the UK. Customers can redeem outstanding trade credits and gift cards on line at www.gamestop.com/uk."

Don't take this to mean the company is closing up storefronts on the continent. GameStop added 25 stores to "better performing" markets, such as Italy and France, during the last quarter.

Mojang's Notch is a smart guy, not only in game design terms but also when it comes to managing his company's 20 million or so Minecraft players. The designer has posted a poll on his personal blog to discover whether his cuboid constituents would feel comfortable with the company collecting various types of anonymous data from its players.

Currently, Mojang only tracks when a player logs into the game. Notch's proposal is to also track "non-private data" like gameplay-session length, your PC's OS type, whether you're playing in single or multiplayer mode and whether you're playing via the client or the web applet. The collected information would then be shared with the community, "as usual."

"Naturally, the data sent will be fully anonymous," said Notch. "So it wouldn't contain any session information or your user name, and it wouldn't send any sensitive information that you might not want to share." To be perfectly honest, we're fairly surprised this kind of data wasn't already being collected. If you're part of the Minecraft nation, you can let your voice be heard by voting for or against anonymous data collection here.

It's not really a followup to the Neo Geo Pocket, but it is a portable device with a bunch of Neo Geo games on it. Currently known only as "Neo Geo Portable Device" (not the product's final name), the handheld is a bit bigger than an iPhone and comes packing two gigs of storage, plenty of buttons, a 4.3 inch screen, SD card slot, headphone jack and an A/V out jack, according to Japanese site Famicom Plaza.

And, thanks to official SNK licensing, it comes pre-loaded with 20 Neo Geo titles -- North American versions, no less -- including classics like Metal Slug, Fatal Fury Special, Sengoku, King of the Monsters, Magician Lord and more. Famicom Plaza provided no details as to when or where the device will be released.

That's assuming the product is real at all, of course. The select button above is labeled "menu" in a different picture, for example, which seems a bit odd. We've contacted SNK to confirm the device's existence.

Three games in, the true meaning of "Mass Effect" is revealed: it refers to the masses of stuff you're tempted to buy for in-game DLC. Joining the recently announced DLC-laden action figures is the "Art of the Mass Effect Universe" artbook, which includes a download code for "the collector's rifle, among other cool content to beat out your opponents" when pre-ordered from Barnes & Noble.

The "collector's rifle" refers to the Collector Assault Rifle, described by artbook publisher Dark Horse Comics as a gun whose "power source appears to be an internal organ with biotic capacitance; its ammunition resembles pellets of metallic enamel that strip shields off enemies with deadly efficiency." Strangely, Dark Horse also specifies that the codes work only on PC and Xbox 360, so PS3 owners will get nothing for their book purchase but the book they purchased.

[Thanks Mark!]

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The PSN releases for this week went up quite late last night, so we're telling you about them now to make sure you don't miss out! Highlights include the sole new game release, Scarygirl, along with downloadable versions of retail games Mortal Kombat and *cough*Dukenukemforever.

Demos include The Darkness 2, Scarygirl, UFC Undisputed 3, and just in time for the 12 for 12 sale to be over, PixelJunk SideScroller. You can also download the Gotham City Impostors beta.

We also must mention what we think is the best PlayStation Plus deal ever: a Capcom "Super Pack" of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, 1942 Joint Strike, Age of Booty, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Flock!, Rocketmen, and the "It Came from Uranus" expansion for $12.50. Total. See all the new content on the PS Blog.

This is a column by Jesse Gregory all about his primary obsession, video game music. He feels that despite how core to the experience soundtracks often are, they aren't as large a part of gaming discussion as they should be. Let the discussion begin!

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NimbleBit, the three-person indie team responsible for the iOS hit Tiny Tower, is voicing its displeasure with Zynga's Dream Heights via passive aggressive infographic. Posted by NimbleBit's Ian Marsh, the graphic wishes Zynga luck with its new iPhone game that shares more than a passing resemblance to Tiny Tower.

"We wanted to thank all you guys for being such big fans of our iPhone game of the year Tiny Tower," NimbleBit wrote to Zynga's 2,789 employees. "Good luck with your game, we are looking forward to inspiring you with our future games!"

Marsh does note that Zynga did try to acquire NimbleBit first, but seems to have decided on a different route. The iOS scene, with its shorter development cycles and lower barrier to entry, has seen numerous examples of games the blur the line between "inspiration" and blatant theft.

Activision has come closer to identifying the specifics of the Modern Warfare 3 DLC schedule for Elite members, posting a calendar that shows what kind of content will be available every month through September. Don't worry: it's just text and images, not a video of Rob Riggle reading the schedule out. Yet.

February offers just one map, and April and July will have two maps each; aside from that, every month has some combination of maps, missions, and modes (modes in June and August). You can see exactly which combination will be available each month after the break, but Activision isn't revealing names until the current month, it appears.

Update: See a walkthrough for downloading Elite content in the video above.

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An anonymous letter sent to media and THQ's board of directors, allegedly written by a former employee of THQ, rains fire on the company's management and, specifically, CEO Brian Farrell. The letter arrives the same day as THQ announces another strategic realignment, a little over a week after the company had to spin a major cancellation rumor and over a month after THQ's stock dropped below $1.

"It is to the point where having [THQ] on your resume is not a point in your favor. And that shouldn't be the case," the "Formerly Mismanaged" writes. "I'm/We're sending this note anonymously because some of us are still awaiting final checks and others know how little corporations like employees who air their dirty laundry. We feel the need to say something to combat the partial misinformation being written."

The Formerly Mismanaged lays out its belief that the beginning of the end came when the cash rich company went on an acquisition spree years ago, allegedly "with no plan" -- many of those studios have since been shuttered or sold off. Then came what the accuser(s) call bad licensing deals and the most recent business miscalculation with the uDraw tablet, which caused the company to lower its fiscal outlook for the year.

The scope of THQ's problems is expected to come into slightly better focus when it announces its current financial position on February 2. Wedbush Morgan Financial Analyst Michael Pachter has pointed out he believes THQ will generate a "substantial loss" at the end of its fiscal year and that "THQ is at risk of running out of cash by the June 2012 quarter."

You can read the entire letter by "The Formerly Mismanaged" after the break.

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