One of our favorite talks from GDC was Brian Provinciano's session, in which the indie developer discussed bringing his game, Retro City Rampage, to just about every platform known to man. It's a valuable talk for many reasons, giving a clear picture of what it's like working with The Big Three™ and the types of hurdles a determined indie developer will inevitably hit.

Provinciano's determination to port Grand Theft Auto 3 to NES hardware escalated into a love letter to video games and pop culture. While Provinciano hasn't announced his next project yet, he says we should expect more humorous open-world games.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare, the standalone follow-up to the original psychological action thriller, is now 800 Microsoft Points ($10) on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The game was previously 1200 MSP ($15), which continues to be its price on Steam.

Developer Remedy has moved on to Quantum Break, but there is the possibility that Mr. Wake's influence will be felt in the upcoming game.

If Crimson Dragon is successful, developer Grounding Inc. hopes it will become a franchise, creator Yukio Futatsugi told Joystiq during E3. When asked if he would ever return to role-playing games, Futatsugi told us he'd like to see Crimson Dragon spun out into a full-fledged RPG.

Futatsugi is best known for creating the Panzer Dragoon series, notably the much loved but hard to find RPG, Panzer Dragoon Saga, so the prospect of a Crimson Dragon RPG should be an exciting one for fans.

Right now the team is focused solely on finishing the current game, he said, but the story and atmosphere of Crimson Dragon have been crafted in such a way that it could easily be turned into an RPG. Grounding already has many team members who worked on the likes of Panzer Dragoon Saga and Panzer Dragoon Orta, including Crimson Dragon's programming lead, design lead, art lead and sound team. When the decision was made to bring Crimson Dragon to Xbox One, the team also acquired the art designer from Futatsugi's original Xbox cult classic, Phantom Dust.

Of course, few people have played Panzer Dragoon Saga, and many may not understand what all the fuss is about. The game was released at the end of the Sega Saturn's lifecycle, and only 30,000 copies were produced for North America. I asked Futatsugi if he'd like to see Panzer Dragoon Saga re-released as a downloadable game, especially given Sega's recent retro push with games like Jet Set Radio and Nights.

He would like to see Saga re-released, he said, and the subject comes up from time to time at the Grounding offices. Usually, these discussions end with the team realizing that the game would be very difficult to remake. Still, Futatsugi said he would love to play it again.

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State of Decay developer Undead Labs can't begin working on its follow-up game, an MMO called Class4, until it agrees with Microsoft on a series of terms about future technology, support and goals, Undead's community director Sanya Weathers told Eurogamer.

Microsoft owns the IP for Class4, following a deal that funded and developed State of Decay, Weathers said: "We cannot begin working on Class4 without a greenlight from Microsoft ... and a mutually agreeable contract." Undead is still talking with Microsoft about the specifics of Class4.

State of Decay was originally called Class3, and Undead viewed it as the first step toward that larger MMO project, Undead founder Jeff Strain told us in 2011. "The minute-by-minute core of the game will all be there in Class3," Strain said. "The only thing it won't have is the massive player participation the sequel will have."

Today, Weathers explained the negotiations with Microsoft regarding Class4. "We have to agree on where we think the technology is going to be in a few years (since the game will take a few years to develop); we have to agree that we have the same goals; and we have to agree on how we'll collectively run and support the final game," Weathers said.

State of Decay is doing well – since its launch on June 5, it's been crowned the fastest-selling original game on Xbox Live Arcade, ever, with 500,000 sales. We found State of Decay's premise and vibe to be tense (in a mostly good way), but we ran into some technical issues that Undead is currently having problems patching.

No development process has been as interesting to watch than the multi-game pile-up known as Final Fantasy 13. It's not that these RPGs have been of poor quality, per se; they just represent the totality of Square Enix's resource mismanagement during the first HD generation of consoles. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Lightning Returns wasn't the only Final Fantasy 13-related product on the show floor during E3 2013, as Square unveiled the long-awaited Versus 13 under an entirely new (though slightly predictable) name: Final Fantasy 15.

This rebranding – combined with the Final Fantasy 13 name getting second billing to its lead character – provides some compelling evidence that the developer might be a little ashamed of that "lucky" number these days.

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State of Decay has sold over half a million copies since launching on Xbox Live Arcade on June 5. This makes the Undead Labs developed game the fastest selling original title ever on Xbox Live Arcade, according to Microsoft.

But everything isn't headshots and restful nights with State of Decay, as the game's first title update did experience some hiccups. XBLA Fans reports the patch on Friday night didn't do everything as intended. Undead Labs' founder Jeff Strain went to the company forums and said, "Reports started coming in that other bugs we had verified internally as fixed were apparently not fixed on the live version of the game." No word yet when that patch will be patched.

The game is currently in development for a PC release on Steam. Strain says Undead Labs "just need to integrate with the Steam platform and add native support for keyboard and mouse control."

The $500 price tag for the Xbox One elicited audible gasps during Microsoft's E3 press conference. Speaking to Bloomberg, Xbox head Don Mattrick defended the hefty price, saying that Microsoft is "over-delivering on value" with the Xbox One.

"It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecasted," Mattrick said. "We're over-delivering value against other choices, I think, consumers can get. Any modern product these days, you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think that they're going to love it when they use it."

What will convince consumers to opt for Xbox One, he said, is the breadth of services the console will have available. Specifically, he mentioned Twitch streaming, Skype and SmartGlass.

During the same interview, Mattrick also referred to the next Halo game as Halo 5. At Microsoft's E3 press briefing, a reveal trailer referred to the game simply as "Halo."

Despite being "an important IP to EA," there is no new Dead Space game in development; instead, Visceral Games is working on something else right now. "Is that team working on a Dead Space game today? No they're not," EA executive vice president Patrick Soderlund told Eurogamer at E3 last week.

"They're working on something else very exciting. You have to think of it from that perspective. Is it better to put them on the fourth version of a game they've done three previous versions of before? Or is it better to put them on something new that they want to build, that they have passion for?" This isn't the end for Dead Space, however, as Söderlund reiterates that it's "a brand that is close to Electronic Arts' heart."

"I am of the utmost opinion that we have to put the best possible games in the hands of our fans," Söderlund added. "How you get to a great game, the first thing you need is a great development team that have a passion for building what they're building. That's a simple parameter. Everything else follows. Money, time, everything else follows. It's less relevant. That's ultimately how you get success. It's as simple as that."

Dead Space 3, which launched earlier this year, failed to meet EA's sales expectations at launch and has had fewer sales than Dead Space 2.

The Last of Us represented several accomplishments during its first week of sale in the UK, where it took the number one spot on the region's sales chart. According to Chart Track, the game is the first Sony exclusive to take the top spot since Uncharted: Golden Abyss on Vita in early 2012. It's also the third fastest selling game of 2013 behind Bioshock Infinite and the "weak" Tomb Raider, along with being the biggest launch for a new intellectual property since L.A Noire in 2011. Overall, a fine start to developer Naughty Dog's swan song for PlayStation 3.

The cash infusions for the UK retail market didn't end with The Last of Us, as Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Leaf debuted in second and became (wow, y'all love your Tom Nook debt programs) the biggest non-Mario 3DS launch ever. The UK top ten indentured to Tom Nook can be found after the break.

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Comedian Lewis Black took to his "Back in Black" segment on Comedy Central's The Daily Show to discuss what he sees as growing privacy concerns related to Microsoft's Xbox One. Black specifically pokes fun at the expected improvements to the Kinect's detection capabilities.

Privacy concerns related to the Kinect were addressed by Microsoft earlier this month, which said that users "will determine how responsive and personalized your Xbox One is to you and your family during setup." Black's satirical take on the Kinect, as with his comments related to other products such as Google Glass, still make for an entertaining video to check out, not one to take at face value. Be warned, the video also contains mature language.

Users banned on Xbox One will not lose access to the games they've purchased, Director of Programming Larry Hyrb (Major Nelson, colloquially) told Reddit Games during an E3 video interview.

This became a popular question following an Xbox Support Twitter answer from June 13 that read, "If your account is banned, you also forfeit the licenses to any games that have licenses tied to it as listed in the ToU." The question specified Xbox One, but later, Xbox Support said this answer was in reference to Xbox 360.

Major Nelson had a clear answer for future banned users on Xbox One: "Absolutely not, you will always have access to the games you purchased."

As for what will happen if, down the road, Xbox One's authentication servers are shut down, Major Nelson couldn't say. "I'll get the real answer, I just don't know it yet," he said.

There are always a lot of buzzwords and phrases at E3. One of the big ones at this year's show was the "second screen experience," using phones and tablets to enhance a game in one way or another. Whether it's through Microsoft's SmartGlass or Sony's PlayStation app, it seems that one screen just isn't enough for next-generation games.

Spotting this trend, Nyko was on the scene at E3 to showcase one of its cleverer peripherals, the Smart Clip. Attached to an Xbox 360, Xbox One or PlayStation 4 controller, the Smart Clip adds a cradle for mobile phones – similar to the Moga Pro controller. We were told it would accommodate anything up to and including a Samsung Galaxy Note 2. It seemed kind of silly in person, but we couldn't deny the convenience of it, especially if second screen gaming becomes ubiquitous in the next few years.

Nyko has created some other accessories for the PS4 and Xbox One as well. Both consoles exclusively use HDMI for audio and video, so Nyko is preparing an HDMI pass-through adapter that will allow users to connect audio receivers and headphones that require traditional red and white RCA inputs. Finally, Nyko is crafting controller charging docks for both consoles.

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Pyramids don't have a monopoly on terrifying head shapes, at least not if The Evil Within has anything to say about it. You might be wondering what's inside this fellow's safe-head. We got as close as we dared to take a few pictures and, frankly, we're not sure we want to know.

E3 2013 is officially at an end. There was a lot to take in, so join Joystiq Reviews Editor Richard Mitchell and Engadget Senior Associate Editor Ben Gilbert as they do their best to encapsulate everything that went down this year.

They talk about the showings from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, as well as some of the industry trends that are cropping up and the Oculus Rift's surprising ability to crack through the jaded, cynical shell of game journalists.

We'll have more E3 previews and coverage over the next few days, so be sure to stay tuned to Joystiq!

Sherlock Holmes Crimes and Punishments is a departure from Frogwares' previous investigation game, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, in a number of ways. Crimes and Punishments aims to put players inside the mind of the world's greatest detective, to see the world as he sees it and deliberate the moral choices within Holmes' logistics of justice. It's emotional and dark, and in a demo showing off the story as told in Unreal Engine 3, it already appears insanely effective.

One of the most obvious changes is the new "Character Portrait" ability, which allows Holmes to take a moment and examine a suspect or witness with his keen, investigative eye. As he scans the person, words in white appear over certain features, noting how expensive or worn down certain articles of clothing are, noting scrapes or signs of labor on limbs, and deducing relevant, personal information.

This ability in particular is inspired by the BBC show Sherlock, designer Olga Chalovskaya told me. Sherlock is, itself, a dramatic interpretation of Holmesian detective stories, and Crimes and Punishments draws on many of the same, human-driven tones.

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I can name the exact moment that I fell in love with Harmonix's latest game, Fantasia: Music Evolved, at this year's E3. Periodically throughout the game, you're presented with an on-screen globe, and you can wave your hand over it to create a tune. The science of how it works isn't exactly clear (you're adjusting the pitch and rhythm of a tone somehow), but the tool is simple, it works, and the game will periodically play back your creation to you, and then allow you to redraw it over if you don't like it. Once the tune is set, you can swipe both your arms outward to zoom out to the game's "overworld" level, which in this case was a beautifully rendered, very animated robot factory, with various pipes and pistons jumping up and down in time with a rhythm.

This was the moment Fantasia showed me just how magical it was. As I tried to navigate around the stage and solve a problem by manipulating the world with the Xbox One's new Kinect sensor (a group of robots needed to get into a small doorway, so I had to swipe over some magic to shrink them down to fit), I suddenly realized that I recognized the tune that the pipes and valves were dancing to in the background. It was the one I'd just made, subtly mixed into the rhythms of the stage itself.

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Harmonix's Fantasia: Music Evolved will include "Night on Bald Mountain," one of the most iconic segments from Disney's 1940 classic Fantasia.

"It's one of the first songs we're announcing from the heritage of the Disney Fantasia film, bringing some of that music into the track list that runs the gamut from the original classical music from 1940 to contemporary pop today," said John Drake, head of communications at Harmonix. "Music is a living, breathing thing and we want to respect the entire canon of music, that's what Fantasia is all about."

It's not entirely clear how "Night on Bald Mountain" will be used in the game, whether it'll be a standalone track or used as a part of hub world. Harmonix is going for a different type of music game experience with Fantasia and Drake tells us the reactions have been all across the spectrum, saying some folks during the E3 presentation actually cried.