It looks like the U.S. Postal Service will have to rethink how it handles GameFly's mailers in the future. The Verge reports that the game rental service has won its appeal on a lower court ruling, forcing the USPS to rethink how it will deal with GameFly's mailers in the not-too-distant future.

Stardock Software has released the 2012 edition of The Political Machine. Political Machine 2012 is a strategy games that lets players choose their favorite past and present political candidates in a bid to win the most prized position in U.S. politics: the presidency of the United States. Players can choose to play as President Barack Obama, Republican presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, or former Republican primary candidates Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich. If you think all those choices are horrible you can create your own candidate from scratch.

The Indie Gala 7 has launched today, offering seven games and with 2 unlocks to be revealed in the second week. The pay-what-you-want game bundle offers Steam-compatible versions of such games as Rig'n'Roll, Space Rangers, Reign, and one unlocked game. Those consumers willing to cough up more than $5.00 will also get Death to Spies, Death to Spies: Moment of Truth, King's Bounty, UFO, and another (currently secret) unlocked game.

Polygon offers some details on Critical Path, a documentary that takes an in-depth look at the art of game development using a series of interviews with a who's who of game developers and game industry luminaries. The documentary is being called an "open documentary" project and it is being put together by Los Angeles-based entertainment group Artifact.

Electronic Arts has confirmed that the beta for Battlefield 4 will take place sometime in the fall of 2013 - we assume prior to its release shortly thereafter (in time for the 2013 holiday shopping season). As is the new custom with publishers, getting the privilege of testing an unfinished product will be part of a pre-order bonus. Access to the Battlefield 4 beta will be a pre-order bonus included with the early purchase of Medal of Honor Warfighter Limited Edition.

While the OUYA Android-based home console may be doing pretty well on Kickstarter (it's inching towards the $5 million mark), the creators of the console say that they plan to look for additional funding outside of Kickstarter. Some might balk at this new-found need to raise additional cash because the original crowd funding goal on Kickstarter was $950,000.

CD Projekt RED announced that The Witcher series has managed to hit a major milestone: over 4 million copies sold to date. The numbers come from the collective worldwide sales of The Witcher for PC and Mac, and The Witcher 2 for PC and Xbox 360. The Witcher 2 will soon be available on Mac systems. The Witcher games on PC and Mac are DRM-free, which we'd like to believe was a contributing factor in the strong sales for the series...

Katsuhiro Harada, the man in charge of Namco Bandai’s Tekken series, says that he would quit working for the company if he was put under pressure to introduce character downloads as DLC.

The official blog for Bethesda offers a reminder that the first major expansion to Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim will be released tomorrow in English speaking territories. While fans in the U.S. and other countries surely welcome this news, players in other parts of the world where English is not the main language (and French, Italian, German, or Spanish is) will have to wait a few more weeks - or sometime in mid-July.

States across the Union are passing or debating laws that will make online gambling legal, either for their entire state, or – as is the case being discussed in New Jersey, presently – just in certain cities/areas. These legislative changes may represent a shifting in the ideals of voters, but the impetus is most certainly tax revenue and perceived job creation.

According to an announcement made by Funcom this morning over one million users have registered to take part in the beta test for its upcoming MMO The Secret World. This "impressive number," they say confirms the game’s position as one of the "most highly anticipated massively multiplayer online games in the world." They also note that the number of players who want to try this game out early is much higher than the volume its previous MMO Age of Conan enjoyed.

Blockbuster UK has launched a rewards program specifically for gamers called "Blockbuster VIP Gamer" and just by signing up members receive 2,500 points. The idea of the program is to earn these points that can then be used for a variety of perks including discounts on purchases, free rentals, free software, and - if you can amass a large amount of points - free hardware.

Social game network Raptr has launched a rewards program for its members that offers them in-game rewards, discounts, and other discounts and freebies for using their services while playing their favorite games.

The 12 million member strong gamer community has launched Raptr Rewards, a program to reward active gamers with real rewards. The company claims that its Raptr Rewards is on track to offer over 350,000 free rewards totaling $1.3 million in value in its first month of launch.

A new crowdfunding platform dedicated exclusively to game development will launch this June at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. Dubbed an "alternative to Kickstarter," the new platform is being built by Dutch company Gambitious.

Streaming video game service Gaikai has launched a beta trial of its new Facebook app, allowing users to play demos while logged into the popular social network. For now users can play demos on Facebook including Saints Row - The Third (USA), Dead Rising 2 - Off the Record (USA), Magicka (USA & Europe), Sniper - Ghost Warrior (USA & Europe), The Witcher 2 - Assassins of Kings (USA & Europe), Orcs Must Die! (USA & Europe) and Farming Simulator 2011 (USA & Europe).

Speaking to GameSpot, Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski defended the practice of including DLC on retail discs, saying that it is "an ugly truth of the gaming industry." Capcom recently came under fire for including 13 extra characters for Street Fighter X Tekken on disc as extra DLC that gamers had to buy to get access to. Gamers felt that, since they already paid for the disc at retail, they should be entitled to get the DLC content for free.

At a panel last week during the Game Developers Conference a former Mass Effect designer pleaded with the public at large to stop complaining about downloadable content and to judge developers like BioWare on their work instead. The comments were made by ex-BioWare designer, Christina Norman, who now works at League of Legends maker Riot Games. She spoke out during the panel discussion to stress the need for downloadable content to follow a game's release in rapid fashion.

Troubled UK retailer GAME will not be stocking Street Fighter X Tekken and Asura's Wrath, according to an MCV report. Both were scheduled for release this Friday in the UK. The Capcom titles join other high profile titles that were recently passed over including Mass Effect 3, Mario Party 9, The Last Story and FIFA Street.

GameFly released its annual list of the most requested console games, revealing what fans loved the most on the PS3, Xbox 360, 3DS, DS, and Wii. The most popular titles for the year were Batman: Arkham City, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Dead Island in the "all formats" category. 

GameIndustry reports that IDG's popular print magazine, GamePro, will shift from being a monthly publication to a quarterly release. Beginning with the Winter 2011 edition of the magazine hitting newsstands on November 8, GamePro will become a quarterly magazine.

The new GamePro will offer "a visually stunning, tactile experience and rich, engaging editorial." Obviously being quarterly, much of that information and editorial will be timeless in nature. On the plus side, the new magazine will be 15 percent larger in size and feature more than 50 pages of additional content compared to the monthly format.

You may recall that earlier this year Electronic Arts shut down a number of Ultima IV remakes, but wouldn't publicly say their reasoning for it. After all, EA was well aware the game was widely available on the Internet for a long time, and several indie developers had made remakes or reworked the old code to work better on modern operating systems. Today they revealed why: because they wanted to give it away free as part of its 30 year anniversary of the series.

To that end, EA and BioWare Mythic are offering a free PC download of the classic RPG Ultima IV, one of the most heralded RPGs in gaming history. The download is available at the newly launched Ultima heritage site, www.UltimaForever.com.

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) and Red Bull have teamed up to give anyone who signs up for a membership via the RedBull Site a one-year membership with the ECA, free of charge. Membership is normally $19.99 annually. The offer is open to gamers of all ages who are residents of the U.S. or Canada. Full press release below:

Crytek will soon release the latest version of its game engine technology to the public, joining fee offerings from the Unreal Development Kit and Unity. The Crysis series creators say that the new SDK will be available in August and will be free to use for enthusiast developers.

Company CEO Cevat Yerli hopes that the new SDK will "reignite the modding community." In an open letter to fans, he admitted that Crytek has had few resources to support this area of its business in the past.

"In recent times our focus has been heavily on the development of Crysis 2, however our modding community has been, and remains, very important to us," Yerli said. "In August 2011 we will be launching a free CryEngine SDK. If you want to use it for fun, like all our previous MOD SDKs it will be completely free of charge, to anyone who wants to play with it," he added.

Epic Games president Mike Capps says that $1 game applications are a real threat to full priced games, going so far as to say that they are "killing" companies like his. While Epic Games has jumped into the space with games such as its popular Infinity Blade on iPhone and iPad, Capps expressed concerns when it came to his company's full priced games:

"We have not been this uncertain about what's coming next in the games industry since Epic's been around for 20 years," he told Industry Gamers. "We're at such an inflection point. Will there be physical distribution in 10 years or even five? Will anyone care about the next console generation? What's going on in PC? Can you make money on PC if it's not a connected game? What's going on in mobile? Tons of really scary things."

According to NPD Group, Guitar Hero III is the bestselling video game of the "current generation." Other games in the top ten list include Call of Duty: Black Ops, Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Wii Fit, Wii Plus, and Mario Kart Wii. The data goes all the way back to 1995, and does not include games bundled with systems or digital sales. Those factors probably make a big difference in what games appear in the list.

Top Ten list below:

1. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops
3. Wii Fit
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
5. Rock Band
6. Wii Play
7. Guitar Hero World Tour
8. Wii Fit Plus
9. Mario Kart Wii
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Source: ShackNews

Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford has been speaking to the media today to clarify the recently announced delay of Duke Nukem Forever. Speaking to Eurogamer, Pitchford said that trying to meet the May launch deadline would not have done justice to the game or those who have waited over a decade to play it. He also noted that this was not some slick PR trick - they intended to release the game in May when they announced the date.

"No trick - we believed May when we announced it," Pitchford said. "There is always uncertainty and we use experience and trends to help us be predictive. We are not perfect when it comes to predicting uncertain outcomes, but we are perfect at being committed to our goals and working relentlessly towards them. I think we may have been able to force May, but we think that would've introduced risks that would not have served gamers who have waited as long as we have to finally play Duke Nukem Forever."

Runic Games announced today that the launch of Torchlight for Xbox LIVE Arcade resulted in the game's best sale day in the company's admittedly short history, but did not disclose sales numbers. Torchlight for Xbox LIVE premiered as part of Microsoft’s House Party lineup on Wednesday, March 9th. The game is an action-RPG based on the PC game of the same name. The XBLA version has been streamlined for Microsoft's platform, though much of the content remains mostly the same. New features include a revamped user interface, streamlined inventory management, new items, Achievements and Avatar awards.

"We're very excited to bring Torchlight to the 360, and have been really gratified by the positive reaction. It's affirming to know that console players love this genre as much as we do. We think the experience translates pretty well to the couch," said President Travis Baldree.

Last year Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch and Kirsten Forbes of Vancouver launched Silicon Sisters, a game company dedicated to creating games made by women for women. Soon they will release their first game, School 26. School 26 is a casual role-playing game that puts players in the shoes of a high school student who helps her peer with personal problems.

"The core game world has not moved aggressively into the female space," says Gershkovitch. "The casual and social gaming world has."

"We're not concentrating on building games for those gals because they've figured out what they want," Gershkovitch added – addressing those gamers that play hardcore games like Call of Duty. "We're building games for the rest of the girls out there - the girls who haven't yet broken into traditional gaming."

It looks like the team developing future Homefront titles will be in Montreal, and not Manhattan exclusively. According to a report on Joystiq, THQ Montreal/Kaos Studios collaborated on the first game. Senior VP of Core Studios Dave Davis mentioned the Montreal/Kaos Studios collaboration during a studio head roundtable this afternoon at GDC.

"Wherever the talent is, we will have our studios," Davis told , though he admitted that "Manhattan is an incredibly expensive place. There isn't a talent pool -- most of the people we have there are imported to NYC."

Davis said that, while it is expensive to develop games in Manhattan, he doesn't see the Kaos Studio offices closing anytime soon. But at the same time, he admits that there could be some consolidation of the two studios:

There will not be an Online Pass code in the retail console versions of Crysis 2, according to a Eurogamer report (citing a recent Gamertag Radio new story). The reason for the omission of the one-time code for online play that EA has used in other games is simple enough: developer Crytek didn't want it. Crytek is an independent studio who uses EA Partners to distribute its games. As such it has the right to refuse using Online Pass.

Crytek wanted as many people to play multiplayer as possible when it is released and they don't care if those players are playing a new or used copy of Crysis 2. Further, the company indicated that it felt that the Online Pass technology is just too young.

Whatever the reasons, we are delighted that Crytek opted not to use this.

Crysis 2 is due for release shortly on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

Source: Eurogamer