Marvelous USA (formerly Xseed) announced that it has secured the North American publishing rights for Game Arts' PlayStation 3 and PS Vita action-RPG Ragnarok Odyssey Ace. A European release is also in the works, courtesy of Japanese publisher GungHo.

An expanded version of last year's PS Vita release Ragnarok Odyssey, Ace boasts numerous gameplay additions and includes all of the original game's DLC. Ace additionally supports cross-platform play, giving PS3 and PS Vita players the ability to party up and quest for loot together.

Ragnarok Odyssey Ace will launch this winter in North America and Europe. Marvelous USA plans to show off the PS Vita version at E3 in June.

Class of Heroes 2, MonkeyPaw's PSP game from 2009, is finally coming to North America on June 4. PSN users can snag the fully localized JRPG dungeon crawler – which is playable on both PSP and PS Vita – for $25 from the PSN store.

The effort to localize Class of Heroes 2 began in 2012 with a Kickstarter campaign seeking $500,000 in funding. Ultimately, only $96,951 was raised, though MonkeyPaw CEO John Greiner wasn't too down in a follow-up interview with Joystiq.

Greiner said that even though the Kickstarter campaign failed, "we were able to educate people about the game and its features. That will help immensely when we release the digital version."

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Gamestop's financial data for the first quarter of its fiscal 2013 have arrived like a pizza with nearly 25 percent fewer toppings than the pizza you ordered during the same 13-week period last year. Also, cheesy bread sales are way up? This may not be the strongest analogy.

In non-allegorical terms, gross revenue (overall sales) and net income (post-tax profit) were both down year-over-year, at $1.865 billion and $54.6 million, respectively. As far as net income, that's a 24.69 percent decrease from the $72.5 million Gamestop reported at the end of Q1 2012.

Meanwhile, mobile device sales were up 290 percent, though this massive increase was largely due to the fact that Gamestop's mobile trade-in/sales program was just getting started during Q1 of 2012. Digital sales also increased, to the tune of 47.3 percent year-over-year, while new software sales, both physical and digital, fell 3.8 percent.

As was the case during Q1 2012, used hardware and software sales accounted for the majority of Gamestop's pre-tax profit, with new hardware and software sales making up just 29.5 percent of the quarter's overall gross.

Sony executives are considering splitting the company's entertainment and electronics divisions, following billionaire Daniel Loeb's proposed initial public offering of its entertainment business. The entertainment arm includes all PlayStation properties, alongside Sony's film and music businesses.

Loeb, with Third Point LLC, owns a 6 percent stake in Sony worth $1.1 billion, and is Sony's biggest investor. Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai confirmed that the top brass is considering Loeb's offer, but didn't say when it would come to a decision, Bloomberg reports.

"It's only a start," Hirai said. "It's important that the board will discuss this and come to a decision that represents Sony's stance." Following Loeb's offer yesterday, Sony stock surged 9 percent.

Square Enix America CEO Mike Fischer left the company this month and is now vice president of digital music and video for Amazon in Japan, Polygon reports. This follows news in April that Square Enix America eliminated "a number of positions" and Fischer was expected to leave in May. Those same reports said the head of marketing should be gone after E3, along with other employees in public relations.

In March, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada stepped down and the company announced widespread restructuring that it expected to cost $106 million. Square Enix posted a net loss of $134 million for fiscal year 2013, citing "weak" sales of major console games, including Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution and Tomb Raider, the last of which sold 3.4 million in its first month.

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two charges onto Vita in a few weeks time. SCE America announced a release date of June 18 this morning. The Vita port of the co-op game is also confirmed for Europe, although that remains undated for now.

SCE America says the Vita version, being handled by Blitz Game Studios, features ad hoc network support. Lots of the additions center on the touchscreen, including being able to control paint, thinner, and the electric beam of Oswald (the one that's not Mickey). The touchscreen can also be used to command AI and navigate the user interface, among a number of other actions.

Disney closed original developer Junction Point earlier this year. The game sold 529,000 units in the US across November and December 2012, having launched for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and Wii on November 18.

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.

At one point, Slant Six Games was apparently working on a Medal of Honor game for PS Vita. Some concept art for the game showed up over on an artist's portfolio site, spotted by the @supererogatory Twitter account.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter was the latest entry in the Medal of Honor series, developed by EA's Danger Close studio. Following that game's poor reception, EA's Peter Moore announced the franchise is now "out of the rotation."

Slant Six Games' last release was the lackluster Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City for Capcom - a spin-off that takes place during the outbreak of Raccoon City, first seen in Resident Evil 2. In April, Slant Six Games issued temporary layoffs, a stopgap measure to help keep interim operating costs down in-between contract work. Slant Six issued similar layoffs in 2010 and after shipping RE: Operation Raccoon City last year.

The Vita and iOS devices are set to receive a new dose of horror courtesy of Dying: Sinner Escape. The game is being made with help from the creator of Saw, according to developer Nekcom Entertainment, though the announcement neglects to name exactly which creator it's referring to. Neither Saw's director, James Wan, nor its screenwriter, Leigh Whannell, are mentioned specifically.

Regardless, Dying clearly has a Saw vibe. It's story revolves around characters being trapped in foreboding environments, forcing them to solve strange puzzles and try to escape. The game will be released episodically with the first episode, "Last Hour," slated to arrive on May 25.

This week's PlayStation Store update brings the release of Techland's first-person shooter Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, along with an upgraded, HD version of Insomniac Games' PlayStation 2 platformer Ratchet: Deadlocked.

PS Vita owners can opt for the budget-priced janitor sim Men's Room Mayhem or the Cross-Buy enabled tower defense game Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, which includes a free copy of the PlayStation 3 version with purchase. Reminder: Ratchet: Deadlocked is available as a free download for players who purchased the retail PlayStation 3 version of Full Frontal Assault.

Pinball Arcade and Germinator headline this week's PlayStation Plus update, and subscribers also have access to discounts for ten DLC-bundled Ultimate Edition titles.

The full list of this week's store additions is available on the PlayStation Blog.

Sony's Japan Studio followed up last week's mysterious 'Panopticon' trailer with a second offering today, unveiling the project a a Vita multiplayer action game called Freedom Wars. The trailer also revealed it's coming to Japan sometime next year.

The new trailer is an embellishment of the first one, providing more context. Panopticon seems to be the region Freedom Wars takes place in, a totalitarian dystopia in the future. The world is devastated by dwindling resources and zero population growth - maybe because hundreds of millions are dying in war.

The YouTube blurb denotes Freedom Wars as a "multiplayer action" game. A collection of screens on the game's website show what looks like skirmishes taking place across regions in Japan. One screen is a Yahoo Maps snapshot of the Shibuya region in Tokyo, but with icons superimposed on it indicating particular in-game locations.

Freedom Wars remains shrouded in mystery - although at least we now know it's a Vita game. The website indicates more info will be spilled later this month.

Update: Here's a bit more info, courtesy of a press release translated by NeoGAF. According to it, Freedom Wars supports 8-player co-op and competitive modes, supports both Adhoc and Wi-Fi, and use the Vita's GPS and Near tech - which may explain the Yahoo Maps screen (see above).

Freedom Wars is a brand new game which aims to offer a new gaming experience in the popular multiplayer action genre by taking advantage of the PS Vita's unique functions. The player is a criminal in a post-apocalyptic near future, sentenced to a million years of hard labor, fighting for his freedom. By completing missions where you rescue civilians and allies who have been captured by huge enemies known as Abductors, you can reduce your sentence. The game supports a maximum of 8 players at a time in both co-op and competitive modes, and supports Adhoc and Wi-Fi Online functions so players all over the country can play together. The game will also support the GPS and Near capabilities of the PS Vita to enhance the gameplay experience.

Starting tomorrow, PlayStation Plus members in North America can download FarSight's Cross-Buy pinball sim Pinball Arcade and Creat Studios' PS Vita puzzler Germinator free of charge.

Pinball Arcade, regularly priced at $10, features the classic tables Tales of the Arabian Nights, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Theatre of Magic, and Black Hole. PlayStation Plus members will have access to both the PlayStation 3 and Vita versions of the core four-table download, and 24 additional machines are available as paid DLC.

Vita owners also receive free access to Germinator, which originally premiered in March at $10. Similar in premise to Taito's bubble-bursting puzzler Puzzle Bobble, Germinator challenges players to match like-colored germs, causing them to grow and eventually explode in a gooey mess.

Member-exclusive discounted items for this week include Metro: Last Light's season pass, the newly released Vita janitor sim Men's Room Mayhem, and Capcom's Darkstalkers Resurrection and Super Puzzle Fighter 2, along with a collection of DLC-bundled Ultimate Editions.

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The once-delayed PlayStation Vita version of Insomniac's hybrid tower defense-action game Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault will launch next week as a downloadable PlayStation Network title in North America and Europe.

Full Frontal Assault was originally released as a retail and downloadable PlayStation 3 title back in November, boasting cross-play features with a Vita edition that was subsequently hit with a series of delays. Buyers of the retail version of Full Frontal Assault – and its renamed European counterpart Ratchet & Clank: QForce – will be able to download the Vita edition for free starting May 21 in North America and May 22 in Europe by accessing the game's "Disc Benefits" option.

Those who purchased Full Frontal Assault's retail edition will also receive an additional bonus after redeeming the PS Vita version when it launches next week. Ratchet Deadlocked HD, an Idol Minds-developed PlayStation 3 port of the fourth PS2 entry in the Ratchet & Clank series, will be available as a free download for Full Frontal Assault buyers when it launches in the PlayStation Store.

A release date for Deadlocked HD (also known as Ratchet: Gladiator in Europe) has not been announced.

Killzone: Mercenary, the upcoming PS Vita installment in Sony's shooter series from Guerrilla Cambridge, has had its release bumped up a week. Previously pegged for a September 17 launch in North America, Killzone: Mercenary is now due on September 10.

In addition to moving up the date, Sony has revealed some pre-order incentives for Killzone: Mercenary over on the PlayStation Blog. The first perk is a 48-hour double XP boost, which spans all in-game contracts, bonuses and payouts. Joining that is additional in-game cash at the outset and a pre-order exclusive machine gun, the M224-A1.

The former Sony Liverpool devs at Sawfly Studios are bringing Men's Room Mayhem to Vita next week, via PSN. It should arrive on May 21 in North America, although as always with news revealed by the PlayStation Blogcast, dates can be subject to change.

If you're curious about the curiously named game, Phil Gaskell from publisher Ripstone describes it as "Flight Control meets Carry on at Your Convenience." – No, it's not the flight paths of... that stuff, but about getting patrons to where they need to go.

"In Men's Room Mayhem you're hired as the janitor of your very own chaotic men's room," said Gaskell on the PlayStation Blog. "You're responsible for directing patrons, keeping everywhere sparkling clean and steering patrons away from trouble! You need to get your customers safely to the urinals and cubicles in time – otherwise there'll be a few nasty accidents for you to clean up!"

The Blogcast also outed a wee (ahem) bit of other content in next week's PS Store update. A "smattering of DLC" is coming to Aliens: Colonial Marines, although the podcast wasn't any more specific than that. A digital PS3 version of Mugen Souls is also due.

Roll7, a development studio located in London, is working on a 2D pixelated infini-skater for the PS Vita called OlliOlli. Due in November, OlliOlli combines infinite runner style of play with the trick-heavy chains made famous in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series.

OlliOlli is built on a trick system of over 100 moves, with customizable characters and daily challenges on top of the usual leaderboards. You can see an early build of OlliOlli running in the video above, posted to YouTube by developer Roll7.

OlliOlli will be exclusive to the PlayStation Vita, thanks to funding for the project that was provided by Sony. OlliOlli will be playable at Sony's E3 booth, so we'll be sure to get our hands on it next month between June 11-13 when the 19th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo kicks off at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Foosball 2012 and One Epic Game developer Grip Games announced the upcoming PlayStation Network release of Atomic Ninjas, a multiplayer action game for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.

Atomic Ninjas is a competitive 2.5D platformer in which up to four players compete in trap-filled arenas to be the last ninja standing. The twist is that players aren't able to harm each other directly; instead, you'll need to make clever use of environmental hazards, hiding spots, and item pick-ups in order to lead competing players to their doom. The game offers seven arenas and multiple gameplay modes, including a selection of team-based competitions.

Creator Grip Games describes Atomic Ninjas as the theoretical love child of Fat Princess and Crash Commando -- a worrisome mental image, for sure, but potentially a worthwhile gameplay mix. Atomic Ninjas is set to launch this summer.

British publisher/developer System 3 has announced an enhanced remake of its blue-blob-based action platformer Putty Squad, available sometime this summer on Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Vita, 3DS and Windows 8.

The original Putty Squad was initially released on Super NES back in 1994, as a sequel to 1992's Putty for the Amiga. A demo was also released for Amiga and DOS systems, but the full game never dropped for either of those platforms. This new version, beyond offering obvious graphical improvements, will also include free downloadable levels and "location-based services used for extra content."

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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?

Guacamelee! is all about kicking ass and saving the girl.

Sell Guacamelee in one sentence:

Guacamelee is a Mexican-themed cross-platform cooperative multiplayer metroidvania dimension-swapping brawler. Warning: reading this sentence out loud may cause seizures or loss of bowel control.

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