Earlier in the week we briefly mentioned former NSA contractor and leaker Edward Snowden's interview with the Washington Post where he noted that his mission "was already accomplished" because the press and the public are talking about the spy agency's various intelligence gathering operations.

Speaking to The Washington Post, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said that his "mission's already accomplished" after leaking NSA secrets that have caused a reassessment of U.S. surveillance policies. Snowden told the publication in a recent interview published online Monday night that he was satisfied with the results of his disclosure because it has enabled journalists to tell the story of the government's collection of bulk Internet and phone records.

In the latest issue of The Advocate, Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald talks about his work on unearthing the massive domestic surveillance programs run by the Nation Security Agency and how it has affected his and his husband David Miranda's life.

More importantly (for us at least), the article reveals what inspired former NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden (now exiled in Moscow) to reveal information on the NSA's questionable activities.

In the early hours of the morning IndieGameStand expanded its operations from offering small indie 96-hour flash sales of select games to a full blown catalog. We thought it was an interesting move given all the competition in the space, but we wondered why over 72 indie developers jumped at the chance to be part of the catalog and why 14 of them wanted to be part of the very first sale.

In an interview with Siliconera, Q-Games President Dylan Cuthbert says that Nintendo needs to create a new "super IP" to put the Wii U on the map once again, just like it did with the Wii (for example, Wii Sports, Wii Fit, etc.)

"If they are going to win they are going to have to figure out the games," Cuthbert told the publication. "They probably need like new super IP, a special IP that makes people really interested."

In a recent PC Gamer interview Ultima series creator Richard Garriott said that he has never met anyone who is as good a game designer as he is and that the only one that comes close is his old friend and colleague Chris Roberts. Garriott acknowledges that there are proficient game designers in the industry but none that have the skillset that would put them in the category of being "great."

In an in-depth interview with the artist formerly known as CliffyB (he asked everyone to call him Cliff Bleszinski, and not his nickname as you may recall), GamesBeat grills the former Gears of War designer about the game franchise, perceptions in some circles that he was a bit of a douche, and what he thought about former EGM editor Dan Hsu calling him a d*ck in a cover story.

Recently Valve Software co-founder Gabe Newell sat down with Chris Hardwick of The Nerdist Podcast to talk about the company's plans to take over the living room entertainment space with Steam's Big Picture Mode and with hardware like Steam Box. Some of that conversation was transcribed by Games Industry International.

Winda Benedetti from NBC News conducts an interesting interview with two child psychologist to ask them about the effects of gaming on young children. She interviews Dr. Tyler Black, Clinical Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Emergency Unit at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, BC, Canada; and Dr. Matthew Chow, the Clinical Director of Telepsychiatry at BC Children’s Hospital.

In a six minute interview with Joystiq, Irrational Games boss and lead on BioShock Infinite Ken Levine talks about why it is important to not be afraid of using topics that some might consider controversial as vehicles for a story. In BioShock Infinite, Levine has weaved a narrative around a number of belief systems and ideals, and all of these things come together in the floating city of Columbia to create tension and drive the narrative.

Minecraft creator and Mojang co-founder Markus 'Notch' Persson said in a recent article on Develop that he worries about Mojang growing too big. If that were to happen he thinks that the company could lose the independent spirit it is known for. Persson also said that he did not want Mojang to work on what he called "super polished games," as those tend to require larger teams and bigger budgets.

With the Wii U launch less than a week away, many game publishers have strong opinions about Nintendo's newest platform. In an upcoming interview with GamesIndustry International, CEO Yves Guillemot offers his. While Ubisoft is one of the biggest third-party supporter of Wii U at launch, the company's CEO Yves Guillemot acknowledges that Nintendo may have to lower the price of the console.

Former Joystiq editor-in-chief Chris Grant, who left the publication at the end of 2011 to join what is now known as Polygon, tells GamesIndustry International in a new interview (to promote the official launch of the site on its own domain this week) that Joystiq parent company AOL has no "gaming appetite." AOL acquired Joystiq as part of its buyout of Weblogs in October 2005. Grant went on to say that AOL didn't seem to notice or care about the success that he and his former colleagues at Joystiq had in building up the site over the years.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is not happy with the direction of Apple. He has called the company "arrogant' while speaking out against the iPhone 5's design in a recent interview with Tech Central.

Wozniak says that Apple is arrogant for refusing to make the iPhone 5 larger. The phone is a bit smaller than competitors' phones - like Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Wozniak thinks this is a big mistake.

In a recent interview with Forbes Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime tried to calm fears that supply for the Wii U would not be enough to meet demand when the new console is released in mid-November.

An interesting article on GamesIndustry International gathers the reactions of several high profile games industry luminaries to the retirement of BioWare founders Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka. The duo announced yesterday that they were leaving the company. Later on Facebook Muzyka said that they both had made the decision to leave way back in April.

Cryptic Studios transitioned Star Trek Online to a free-to-play game recently and Perfect World Entertainment's wholly owned development studio revealed a little more on why they shifted the game from a subscription-based model to free-to-play in an exclusive interview with [A]ListDaily. Star Trek Online executive producer Dan Stahl and Perfect World vice president of business development and corporate communications John Young said the following:

A former OnLive employee (who spoke on the condition of anonymity) described to GamePolitics the last meeting the cloud-based subscription gaming service will ever hold. Earlier in the day this source confirmed a rumor that the company had laid off its entire staff and ceased to exist as a company.

First, our source describes the meeting where employees learned that they had all been let go:

While many would like to see Sony slash the price of its PS Vita hand-held - mostly because it's the same price as a brand new PS3 - the company says that this is unlikely to happen in 2012. Speaking with Eurogamer, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida says that the company has taken that option off the table for 2012, but it is trying to find new ways to bring value to customers.

In an interesting interview with CNBC, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello says that the company's recent decline in its stock price isn't due to the business, but to a lack of understanding in how the business works on the part of investors. For starters industry's focus on NPD's packaged game sales numbers is "misguided," and ignores the current strong shift towards digital sales - which NPD doesn't have a handle on yet. He points to their success with games on Apple's platforms as well as on Facebook.

Valve Software's business development chief Jason Holtman finally offered a response to what EA Origin boss David DeMartini said last month about Steam sales "cheapening intellectual property." At the time DeMartini said that EA's digital distribution platform would not copy Steam's frequent and deep discounting sales tactics.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick admitted in a recent interview with CNBC Asia’s Squawk Box that bringing Call of Duty Online to market in China is a risky proposition. While Kotick expresses confidence in Tencent Holdings in making the game based on its popular first-person shooter series successful in Mainland China, Kotick also knows that there is a risk when bringing a Western game into a new market with different business models and player tastes.

Quantic Dream founder David Cage thinks that the video game industry needs to learn to innovate or it will inevitably die a slow and painful death. In an interview with GamesIndustry International, the Heavy Rain creator said that creating innovative and new kinds of experiences for consumers is paramount to the survival of the industry.

In an interview with IGN UK, Junction Point founder and Epic Mickey and Deus Ex creator Warren Spector says that games are shaped more by what ideas developers cut out than they are by what is left in.

"I always say games are not about what you include in your game, they’re about what you cut; they always are," said Spector. "Ideas are easy. Everybody in the game business just has more ideas than they could possibly put into every game they ever work on in their lives."

THQ CEO Brian Farrell knows his company was in a bad way and part of getting back onto the road to recovery is proving that they know what to do next. The company was in freefall after it announced that its little UDraw experiment had failed miserably, costing the company millions of dollars. Ultimately that led to a series of studio closures, layoffs, and sales of major licenses like UFC. On Monday the company announced that it would do a one-for-ten stock split July 9 to keep it from being booted off the NASDAQ.

Speaking to sports radio station WEEI, former Red Sox pitcher and founder of the now bankrupt 38 Studios Curt Schilling said that he is "tapped out" after his company filed for bankruptcy. Schilling said that he lost $50 million of his own money and is personally responsible for paying back a $2.4 million loan from Citizens Bank parent RBS Citizens.

In Episode 5 of the Super Podcast Action Committee, James Fudge talks to GaymerCon organizer Matt Conn about the first-of-its-kind LGBT-focused gaming event (find it at 12:36 mark - you can also find a transcript here). Meanwhile hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk way too long about E3, Nintendo, the Wii U and the Game Genie (the segment begins at 25:48 mark).

In an interview with GamesBeat, Square Enix’s Mike Fischer says that Activision was crazy when it made the decision to abandon True Crime: Hong Kong. Mike Fischer is the president and chief executive of the U.S. division of Square Enix, who also happens to own Eidos. Here's what he had to say about Activision letting the game now known as Sleeping Dogs go:

Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) President Hal Halpin talks to Destructoid about SOPA, PIPA, the importance of advocacy, his thoughts on the VGVN and League for Gamers, Kickstarter, what the gamer advocacy group has planned going forward, and much more.