Development on the game is said to be at around 80%, according to a Famitsu report (as translated by Siliconera). As such, it could end up being delayed out of this summer and into the fall in Japan.

Disappointing as that may be, Tetsuya Nomura indicated that Type-0 could see an overseas release, though it doesn't sound like any final decisions have been made yet or if the U.S. in particular falls into those plans. Additionally, it may be released on PSN in addition to its UMD release, where it'll be sold on two UMDs due to space restrictions.

According to a report by Gamesindustry.biz, the Sony PlayStation Network, which was taken down at the end of April due to attacks on the service by hackers, will finally become fully functional in Japan on Wednesday, July 6. Sony's motherland will mark the last country to regain access to the service, a month after functionality began restarting in other territories.

Mercenaries is an arcade-style shooter; it's not as if the inability to delete saves prevents players from replaying any content. But it's decidedly anti-consumer; after all, why restrict an option when there's no technical limitation or real reason to do it?

Whatever the case may be, don't expect a situation like this to arise again with a Capcom game. In a Capcom Unity video interview (via Eurogamer), senior VP Christian Svensson said, "I think it's fair to say there was never quite the malicious intent that the conspiracy theorists out there would have you believe. I think it's also fair to say in light of the controversy it's generated I don't think you're going to see something like this happening again."

A DigiTimes report today says Taiwanese component makers have indicated PlayStation 4 production will begin towards the end of 2011 with the goal of having the system ready to ship sometime in 2012. Not only that, but the system will feature "movement based control," which is compared with the Xbox 360's Kinect, when it goes on sale next year. Two PlayStation 3 manufacturers, Pegatron Technology and Foxconn, are said to be assuming their roles once again for the PS4. Upwards of 20 million PS4 units are planned to be shipped in 2012.

Given all we've heard about Sony's ten-year life cycle and extending the current generation of consoles, it's difficult to believe this is true. One previous report pegged new Microsoft and Sony consoles as likely coming in 2014, or possibly 2013. Nintendo is already planning to release the Wii U next year, and the expectation has been that the company would have one to two years before facing any new competition.

The PlayStation Blog brings word of the FFVII costume pack, which will be out next Wednesday, July 13, in North America and Europe. For $5.99 you can get Sephiroth, Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa costumes, plus a bonus Vincent costume. Alternatively, you can buy them (sans Vincent) individually for $1.99.

Other game-themed costume packs are on the way. One based on Infamous 2 will be out this week for $2.99 and includes good and bad versions of Cole McGrath. On July 20, a Killzone 3 pack featuring Rico Velasquez and Hazmat Trooper costumes will be released, also for $2.99. Details on the Toy Story-themed DLC revealed at E3 are promised to be coming soon.

As announced earlier today in Japan, PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be fully resumed -- meaning the PlayStation Store is back -- on July 6. After two-plus months of waiting, users will be able to download content, redeem any download codes they may have, and so on.

They'll also be able to download the free, aforementioned Welcome Back games. The selection, first revealed back in May, includes five games for PS3 and PSP each. PS3 users are entitled to any two of the following: The Last Guy, Echocrome, LocoRoco Cocoreccho, Wipeout HD (pictured above), and Hustler King. PSP users can get any two of these: LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival; LittleBigPlanet; Patapon 2, What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? 2; and Hot Shots Shorties.

Two free PlayStation 3 and/or PlayStation Portable games await anyone with a PSN account from before the breach occurred in April. In addition to users' personal data being compromised, PSN was taken offline for several weeks. It would return on May 14, followed by the PlayStation Store on June 1.

The Welcome Back package was announced at the beginning of May; users would be provided with a year of free identity theft protection, free PlayStation Plus time, and free games. The games began being offered on June 3. The original deadline for downloading them was yesterday, but Sony has since announced that it has extended the deadline until July 5 at 9am Pacific. That's less than a day from the time of this writing.

"We have seen the reports of Gears of War 3 content being propped on the Web and working closely with our security teams and law enforcement to address the situation," a Microsoft statement sent to IGN over the weekend reads. "This content is not from a final build and is not representative of what fans will enjoy when the game launches."

The leak is said to contain only early campaign content and multiplayer. The leak requires a modded Xbox 360 to play. Since it began being distributed, spoiler-filled videos have shown up on YouTube and elsewhere. If you're keen on avoiding anything related to the game's story, be wary of what Gears of War videos you watch over the next few months.

As revealed at the ongoing Anime Expo 2011 in Los Angeles, the feature-length animated film is on its way to North America, Anime Your Way reports. For the cynics who assume it's not any good, it was actually fairly well received and did well enough that Professor Layton developer Level 5 has already commissioned a sequel and would like to have a new movie out annually.

A new Layton title for smartphones, Layton Royale, was recently announced. There are also two more games, one for DS (The Last Specter) and one for 3DS (The Mask of Miracle), that are out in Japan and have yet to be localized in the U.S. And, lest we forget, Layton is also to be featured in a new game collaboration between Level 5 and Capcom alongside Phoenix Wright -- whom himself is getting a movie of his own, albeit a live-action one.

GamersGate has the most recent Civilization game, Civ V, for $16.98, which is a terrific price for a terrific game. Perhaps even better than that is Impulse's $9.99 offer for the complete edition of Civilization IV.

And of course there is Steam's ongoing summer camp sale. Today's daily deals aren't quite as excellent as yesterday's, but Just Cause 2 is a lot of fun, particularly for just $4.99, or you can dive into five classic Grand Theft Auto games for $7.49. Each of them offers up dozens of hours of content, so I can't even imagine where that deal would rank on my imaginary dollars-to-potential-hours-spent-playing scale.

Duke has starred in more than a dozen games since his debut, including titles on PC, N64, Game Boy, PlayStation, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and more. He's best known for either the perpetually-delayed Duke Nukem Forever or his FPS debut, Duke Nukem 3D, which was released in 1996. (The XBLA version is pictured at the bottom of this post.) The game is what really made Duke Nukem a well-known name; it stood out with its interactive and destructible environments, ill-mannered and crude protagonist (voiced by Jon St. John), and no shortage of strippers.

It struggled to find what to do next, although Eurogamer reports what it had been in pre-production on before its shut down was a free-to-play game called Champions Alliance. It was to be similar to Riot Games' Defense of the Ancients-inspired free-to-play game, League of Legends (pictured above).

"The idea was that you had to do PVP and PVE to gain XP to somehow escape," a source told Eurogamer. He or she also said, "The game was intended to be released quite quickly, in beta anyway, in about six months or so."

A listing for an Xbox 360 version of Crysis showed up today on the Korean game rating board, as noted by a member of the MyCrysis forums. Since then, an EA Korea representative has supposedly confirmed (via Kotaku) that the game is coming to 360. No release date was announced.

The ESRB's website (as pictured below) also now shows an Xbox 360 version of Crysis, as well as a PlayStation 3 version, to go along with the PC game. Crysis Warhead, a PC-only spin-off, is still shown with PC as its only platform.

While it won't be completely abandoning the series it made its name on, the company has said it is looking to develop something different, although it wasn't specified it that meant a new or existing IP. At Gamelab 2011 in Bareclona, Spain, studio director Siobhan Reddy said, "We're stepping away from LittleBigPlanet to focus on some new ideas," according to Edge.

The U.K.-based developer followed up with a reassuring tweet for LBP fans that stated, "Loyal sackfolk - please be reassured that we will always be involved with LBP, at least a bit, and there's lots more fun yet to come!"

Happy 4th of July! With the 3-day weekend just around the corner, enjoy the sun with a tall glass of lemonade in hand and this week's batch of community-driven content!