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Crack open a fresh copy of Mass Effect 2, The Saboteur or Dragon Age: Origins and you'll see it: A code to download some piece of game content that those suckers buying used will have to pay for. It's not just coincidence that EA is shipping so many games with these bonuses/punitive measures (depending on your perspective). It's what CEO John Riccitiello calls "Project Ten Dollar," a bid to take back a portion of revenue from the estimated $2 billion in annual used game sales. That and the rest of Riccitiello's strategy to to make EA more reliant on digital content is detailed in a new BusinessWeek report.

All we know is, with a 25 percent decline in revenue for Q3, the company needs to find some way to fill the gaps sooner rather than later. Though Riccitiello seems convinced the digital strategy will patch the hole, some remain unconvinced. Former EA consultant Eric Goldberg told BusinessWeek, "While it's possible EA can make the extremely difficult transition from providing a shiny disc in boxes to [leading] in digital, history suggests it's rather unlikely."

Creat Studios is rumored to be working on a wakeboarding game for the PlayStation Network simply titled Wakeboarding HD. It appears the very first footage of this PS3 game has found its way online via a rather unusual source: a random posting on the Gamespot forums. A look at the thirty seconds of gameplay seems to suggest that this is indeed Creat's next PS3 game, with gameplay and graphics that resemble its last PSN game, Smash Cars.

Embedding has been disabled for this video, so check it out on YouTube. After watching the video, is this something you'd like to play? Let us know in the comments.

[Via PSN Stores]

There's no doubt about it -- Q-Games head Dylan Cuthbert is very much interested in making more content for the latest in the PixelJunk series of games, PixelJunk Shooter. When he spoke recently to G4TV, Cuthbert said, "for PixelJunk Shooter we still have a ton of ideas on the drawing board and the engine has lots of potential we want to use before moving onto our next idea." He also teased the possibility of a full-on sequel, front-loading his last statement with, "normally sequels are just a re-hashing of the ideas in the original."

Given the PixelJunk's all-over-the-place history with DLC and re-releases and Encore versions, we poked Cuthbert for clarification. When we asked which of the aforementioned options we might see for PixelJunk Shooter, Cuthbert told us: "It hasn't been decided yet, as it depends on how much content we end up making. Whatever we end up making, though, it will be even better than the first installment with loads of new stuff. (Obviously I know what some of that stuff is, but I can't say -- all I can say is that fans will be extremely pleased.)" So, there you have it, folks! We're gonna see ... umm ... something else from Shooter.

Co-op platformer Trine has received a magical 25 percent price chop on the European PlayStation Network, making it €15. There's currently no word of a stateside drop, but we're aiming for some answers.

Considering the second delay (following a three month holdup) between Trine's European and US release was about a month, maybe it's the theme that's being used for the discount? Then again, €15 converted to USD is $20, so this "price drop" is actually bringing price parity with Trine's current cost in the States.

Halfbrick Studios, the Minis-producing development factory in Brisbane, has announced a new title: Age of Zombies. Not to be confused with the Age of Aquarius or the beloved children's film Ice Age, Halfbrick's game is decidedly more macabre -- with a pinch of cute tossed in. (We never thought we'd call zombies both those things, but there it is.)

Age of Zombies follows time-traveling protagonist (and delicious side dish) Barry Steakfries, doing his best to eradicate the hungry undead looking to get a mouthful of his tasty vittles. The debut trailer nestled above gives us a vibe akin to a cross between Robotron and Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which kinda sounds like a good time. There's also the promise of zombified T-Rex dinosaurs, which hardly seems possible in the real world, but, hey, we'll take it.

Age of Zombies will be available to download from the PlayStation Store on Thursday, February 25 for $4.99. In the meantime, fight your way through a horde of new screens in our gallery below.

This week's PSN update is all about PS3 demos. The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Aliens vs. Predator demos bring online multiplayer slaughter by the buckets of blood, acid and ... whatever blood-esque fluorescent compound Predators have coursing through their veins. PSP owners don't get very much this week in terms of games, but there are plenty of comics to download. Check out the full PSN update after the break.

In the land of Twitter, Just Cause 2 developer Eidos is a fairly new entrant. Having just, 10(ish) hours ago, joined up via Square Enix Europe community manager Keir Edmonds, the company account has already dropped one bombshell: a Just Cause 2 demo is "on its way." Though the account merely alludes to "details to follow," we'd be downright surprised if the demo hit any later than the game's March 23 release date.

Just to make sure Eidos didn't want to say anything else, we've reached out for more information and we'll update this post if we hear anything else.
[Via CVG]

The Rocketeer raconteurs at Capcom have announced downloadable content for January's critical crash-and-burn, Dark Void. Dubbed "Survivor Missions," the pack allows you to "relive key events" from the third-person shooter, modified by increasingly difficult waves of enemies and a points multiplier. Think: Gears of War 2's horde mode, only you're alone and ... can turn into a plane?

The DLC should be available on Xbox 360 next week, February 10th, at 400 MS points ($5). It'll land on PlayStation Network the following day, February 11th, for $4.99 -- that's one cent cheaper than DSiWare's Dark Void Zero. And if you're looking for even more ways to spend money on Dark Void, Bear in mind the soundtrack, which launches on February 9th.

Wait, you're telling us you still haven't played that demo for God of War III which we got our hands on like, eight months ago? What, did you not get one of the download codes that came bundled with District 9 and the God of War Collection? We're trying not to be too condescending, it's just ... look, we're already playing the demo for God of War IV. If you don't make the effort to catch up, then what are we even doing here?

Consider this your last chance: According to a recent Playstation.Blog post, the next episode of Qore will land on the PSN alongside a God of War III demo, which will be available to the program's subscribers. Why not pick it up, and attempt to close the ever-widening gap between us, dear readers? We miss you.

A quick note for anyone out there still clinging to the first iteration of EA's Skate: It's time to move on. EA has updated the page for Skate's Reel service, which allows users to upload and share videos of their in-game exploits. The update reads, quite simply, "Servers for the skate.Reel feature will be shut down on March 1st, 2010." It also notes that the game itself will still function properly, but users will no longer be able to upload videos to share either in-game or via the Skate website.

As tipster Cal points out, there are some Achievements related to uploading videos, so you'd better start capturing those sweet runs and massive bails before it's too late.

It's long been known that "Project Needlemouse," announced by Sega last September, was the codename for a new 2D, console Sonic the Hedgehog title. It was subsequently revealed (much to our delight) that Sonic would be its only playable character, and we now know that the game will be, in fact, a direct sequel to 1994's Sonic & Knuckles on Sega Genesis. Not only that -- it'll be (wait for it) episodic.

We also know that the officially titled Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 looks like a proper Sonic game -- i.e., there's hope for it yet.

GameSpot, which has a first look at the blue bolt's new downloadable XBLA, PSN and WiiWare adventure, reports that "episode 1" will be available on all three platforms "this summer." Additionally, Sega confirmed to the site that the game will support online leaderboards and motion control on Wii and PS3 (Sixaxis for the latter; sorry, "Arc").

You can watch the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 after the break. What do you think?

Yep, it says it all right there in the headline, folks. Gameloft swiftly took $122 million from consumers in 2009, roughly equating to 15 million digital copies of DSiWare Oregon Trail. Alright, alright, the digital distribution-based publishers probably sold some of its other games too, we guess -- mobile games (in general) represented a whopping 94 percent of the company's sales in 2009. And despite our voracious habit for mobile games here at Joystiq, North Americans were second place in terms of worldwide sales at 32 percent, with Europeans leading at 39 percent and the rest of the world trailing at 27 percent. Good luck catching up, rest of the world!

And yes, even amidst the global economic recession, Gameloft predicted "further growth in 2010 in terms of revenue and profitability." The publisher also pointed out its strong position in the long term, saying it will "benefit from the rapid emergence of digitally distributed video games on mobile phones, tablets, consoles, and from major technological innovations." You catch that tablet reference in there? Yeah, we did too. Hey, it's 2010, right? The future. We're in it.

THQ announced a bit of restructuring today, which means, sadly, layoffs. The publisher announced that it's refocusing Juiced developer Juice Games and MX vs. ATV/Deadly Creatures developer Rainbow Studios for content intended for digital distribution. The studios will be renamed THQ Digital Studios Warrington and THQ Digital Studios Phoenix, respectively. About 60 total staff are being laid off as part of this restructuring. Juice Games was already subject to layoffs in late 2008.

The studios will develop games for "all major digital platforms, including Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iPhone and iPad" -- so much for WiiWare and DSiWare -- and will also work together on a community platform to be used across THQ's lineup of core games.