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Back in February we brought you the sad news that True Crime: Hong Kong would not be released. Despite apparently being pretty much finished, Activision canned the project. United Front Games’ open world action-them-up was put into a locked cupboard because Activision believed it wasn’t competitive with other games in the genre. Which is to say, they thought it was poop. And this came after almost a six months’ delay to add polish. Polish that Acti CEO Eric Hirshberg rather confusingly explained in November last year had “paid off”. However, clearly not enough. But now, release the party poppers, Gamasutra reports that Square Enix have announced they’ve acquired the game and plan to release is.

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#finalfantasytactics Awesome news: after a long wait, Final Fantasy Tactics is on its way to the App Store, with the classic strategy title due out this Thursday. Only, there's a catch: it's expensive. More »

While it may have missed the "July...twen..blah..blah.." release window that was promised before, Square Enix will finally bring menus and moogles to mobiles this Thursday. That's when the strategic wizards-on-a-grid simulator, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, lands on Apple's iPhone.

It's important to note that the game will only be compatible with iPhone 4s and 3GSeses, and that iPad players will need to wait for the iPad-specific version, which should be launching around a month from Thursday. Historically, though, it's never been a good idea to count your chocobos before they've hatched.

Playing an FPS like a sneaky, underhanded rat will never be as rewarding as in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, according to the above developer diary, titled "Stealth." Deus Ex devs delve into the secrets behind sneakery, which include a cloaking device, x-ray vision, silenced snipers and a crossbow, and suggest players eavesdrop on guards' conversations instead of shooting them at first sight.

Deus Ex already offers up to 40 hours of gameplay, but crawling on the floor and crouching behind every box you see might just bump that number up to 80. Or 800, depending on your crawl-speed.

Did you know that you can download handheld games now? That's amazingly convenient! The only inconvenient part of it is finding the right games to buy -- and that's where we come in, with our Portabliss column. In each installment, we'll tell you about a downloadable game on the iPhone, iPad, Android device, DSi, 3DS, PSP, etc. Today: Groove Coaster! Groove Coaster takes the flashy style of Space Invaders Infinity Gene, a game that turned music into shmup stages, and applies it to a straight-up rhythm game that takes no time to learn and, perhaps, too long to bring myself to stop playing. It's really fun! And, before I go any further, it's temporarily 99 cents, so go buy it.

OK, now back to the game. Groove Coaster takes its name from roller coaster-like lines, dotted with, well, dots that indicate when to tap the screen. When your avatar crosses one of these dots, you tap anywhere, or occasionally swipe to the side, hold, or "scratch," corresponding to the beat. It's pretty easy to understand! And, at first, it's pretty easy to play.

#deusex In SoHo, New York City, down among the art galleries, there is an exhibition for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's in the Wooster Street Social Club, where they have a wall of posters promoting the virtues of human augmentation and a wall of posters that protest against it. More »

#deusex You can charge through Deus Ex: Human Revolution guns ablaze, but you'll miss out on the special moments shared by the game's characters when they don't know you're there. More »

#gamingappoftheday Just when I was certain there was no new way to combine tapping fingers and music on the iPhone, Reisuke Ishida marries the aesthetic of his award-winning Space Invaders: Infinity Gene with an equally gorgeous collection of tracks in Groove Coaster. More »

We've gone from not knowing the release date of Taito's iOS rhythm game Groove Coaster to having the date -- and discovering that it's today. You can get Space Invaders Infinity Gene creator Reisuke Ishida's new game from the App Store right now, as a universal app, for 99 cents.

It'll go up to its normal price of $2.99 soon after launch, so if you have any kind of predilection toward rhythm games at all, you should jump on this without hesitation. That'll free up a couple of bucks that you can put toward the soundtrack, which has also been released on iTunes.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Mike Fischer, recently appointed president of Square Enix's US operations spoke at great length about the current state of the game industry. Fischer noted that Square Enix is necessarily focused on building games for "gamers," primarily because he believes that the definition of gamer is "very subjective."

As an example, Fischer pointed to television networks canceling soap operas because their primary audience are spending time playing games. "If they're playing more games an hour than a college student, who is the gamer?" he asked.

That said, even though social games are "hot" right now, Square Enix won't abandon traditional game development for the sake of a trend that Fischer believes may not last. The company has, according to Fischer, a "strong lineup and strong IP" that gives him "confidence in a long term success" and an opportunity to take part in current trends outside of core games.

Check out Gamasutra for the full interview, which covers Square Enix's strategy going forward and Fischer's thoughts on new IP, the console development cycle and more.

Taito teased Groove Coaster, from the creator of Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, earlier this month. Today, two new trailers reveal the nature of the game. Groove Coaster is a touch-controlled rhythm game for iOS -- one that looks exceedingly simple. You just tap anywhere on screen when a circle icon lines up with a glowing icon in the middle of the screen.

Of course, being from Infinity Gene's Reisuke Ishida, the rhythm gameplay takes place in a wireframe, vector graphics-esque world with original dance music and beautiful lighting effects. Check out one gameplay sample above via Famitsu and another, after the break, posted by Taito.

Just in time for Comic-Con, Square Enix has released a live-action trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution which warns of the perils of bodily modification. You probably thought those Swiss Army Knife-arms were pretty cool, didn't you? According to the creators of this video, they are anything but.

Final Fantasy Type-0 (formerly known as Final Fantasy Agito XIII) will launch in Japan on October 13. Andriasang says the game, which comes on two UMDs, will cost ¥7,700 -- a hike from the regular ¥5,040 for most PSP games.

Square Enix also released a new trailer, but to get a better idea of Type-0's fast-paced battles (one of its facets that prompted the change in name) you should check out the 20-minute demonstration. The game currently has no announced launch plans for North America.

#watchthis Final Fantasy Type-0 is a big game—so big that it's coming on two UMDs. Big games need big trailers. More »

Namco Bandai is leading the pack in boxed retail software revenues in Japan, according to a surprising report in Japanese gaming mag Famitsu. Topping the likes of Nintendo, Square Enix, and Sony Computer Entertainment, Namco Bandai (known as Bandai Namco in Japan, where Bandai is king) is finding success with giant robots -- namely, Super Robot Wars Z 2, a PSP strategy game that sold well in April, and Ore no Imōto, a PSP adventure game.

Second and third place are occupied by Nintendo and Square Enix, respectively, with the former representing 15.5 percent of Japanese software revenues and the latter taking 8.2 percent (a massive decline for both companies compared with last year). Meanwhile, Sony Computer Entertainment and Spike make up the bottom of the list, likely due to their total lack of games about super robots and the wars that said super robots continue to fight.

#finalfantasy Square Enix will start off the new year with the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 in North America. The publisher of all things Final Fantasy has nailed down January 2012—2011-2, if they could get away with it—for the continuing adventures of the lady Lighting and her party. More »

#deusex In the latest behind-the-scenes video for Deus Ex: Human Revolution the development team demonstrates the most explosive of the game's four pillars: Combat. More »

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions was delayed until sometime late this month on iPhone. We don't know exactly when that is, but we do know you'll be able to download the game as soon as tomorrow ... on PSP.

The PlayStation Blog revealed that the PSP version of the strategy remake will be available on PSN tomorrow, July 19. It has new cutscenes, characters, and items not seen in the PSOne original.

In other retro-ish PSN news, you'll also be able to download a bunch of "Mini" versions of old SNK games that were all released as part of a single UMD in Japan, as well as a PSOne Classics version of Kyuiin, a shmup starring a kid on a flying vacuum cleaner.

#dragonquestix It usually takes some kind of achievement or trophy you can show off to your friends to compel people to 100% complete a video game. For Steve Tolin, however, all it took was the pursuit of true completion. More »

#japan This year isn't over. It's more than half over. Time to look back and see which game maker is doing the best in Japan. So far. More »

Sorry good readers, I have no news about that new Tomb Raider game. I was hoping to share some useful information about the game, but all I have is a 12 minute making of behind the scenes of the CGI trailer. Wait, what? (more…)

If you were capable of watching the E3 2011 Tomb Raider trailer without fully freaking out, well, frankly, we're worried about your health. For the rest of us, Square Enix and Eidos have released a near 15-minute-long "making of" to walk us through all the gory details of its creation.

#finalfantasyxiv Square Enix makes Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Making those games might not be easy. It might be hard. Really hard. No fun hard. More »

The first Parasite Eve was released on PSN as a PSOne Classic on March 15, two weeks before The 3rd Birthday continued the series on PSP. Now, long after any hype for The 3rd Birthday has evaporated, Parasite Eve 2 is set to appear on PSN.

The ESRB has rated Parasite Eve 2 for PSP and PS3, indicating an intent to re-release the game on those two platforms at some point in the future. Whoever did the new rating decided to alter the content warnings from "animated blood and gore" and "animated violence" to just "blood and gore" and "violence." Regardless of the wording, the "mature" rating holds.

#fantasyland Never one to shy away from porting a game, Square Enix talked about doing just that in the latest issue of Japanese game mag Famitsu. The choice, this time is rather odd. More »

Something seedy is going on behind the scenes in the world of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Even after watching the game's latest, conspiracy-rich trailer, we're not quite sure what that seedy situation is -- but we'll be gosh-darned if it's not seedy as all-get-out.

#conspiracytheory Body modifications that turn regular human beings into terrorist puppets? I knew it! Deus Ex: Human Revolution is just another clone of Square Enix's masterpiece, MindJack. More »

Thanks to the release of some new Final Fantasy XIII-2 screens, we can directly compare the approach of Square Enix's hi-def sequel to another recently announced game, Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy. Above is Final Fantasy XIII-2's interpretation of a "Feral Behemoth," next to the "Behemoth" seen in the 3DS rhythm game. They're both kind of purply, but it's tough to see the family resemblance beyond that.

Looking through the gallery, we can also see FFXIII-2's version of Lightning -- which, like the Behemoth, is so much less cute than Theatrhythm. That's probably just because it's built on the FFXIII assets. We're sure Square totally would have gone in and made her chibi otherwise.

#thistimeitsfinaler This latest set of screenshots for Final Fantasy XIII-2 are more than just the selection of character faces and random battle scene we've grown accustomed too. There's also a giant metal hand. Hello, giant metal hand. More »