The PlayStation 4 is a consumer-focused machine, and that's why it will not limit used games or require users connect to the Internet once a day, according to executive Jack Tretton.

"We're most concerned about the consumer. And we really appeal to consumers on a worldwide basis," Tretton told Bloomberg TV. "And I think in the United States, we realize there's a high degree of broadband adoption, but we're in a lot of countries where people don't have the ability to connect on a daily basis and we want to appeal to consumers worldwide."

Speaking about used games, Tretton said the ability to freely share titles with friends or resell them to retailers creates value for the initial purchase. If this flexibility were to be taken away, consumers would be less likely to buy games, he argued.

"The other thing as it relates to the ownership of the game, if people pay a lot of money for that, they equate the value with the flexibility they have in that," Tretton said. "To do with it as they choose; to give it to their friends, sell it to their friends, trade it in to another retailer; that creates value in the initial purchase that they make."

Competitor Microsoft has adopted a policy for the Xbox One that requires users to "check in" with a broadband connection once a day. In addition, though the system will allow used games, decisions will ultimately be left up to individual publishers.

Also in the interview, Tretton spoke about the PS4's design. He called it "beautiful" and "very, very sexy."

"People looked at it, and their jaw just dropped," he said.

Regarding the PS4's $400 price point, a full $100 below Microsoft's $500 Xbox One, Tretton said Sony hit the sweet spot with balancing technological power and a consumer-friendly price point.

"The goal is always to reach the most consumer-friendly price point so you can drive volume as quickly as possible," Tretton said. "But you walk that line between wanting to deliver the ultimate technological experience at a reasonable price and we think we hit a really nice chord at $399 with PlayStation 4."

A leaked promotional poster suggests that the next DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be titled Vengeance.

If the images obtained by Call of Duty Online prove true, Vengeance would be the third map pack for Black Ops II, following Revolution in January and Uprising in April. Four map packs are planned for the game in total.

The artwork shows four new adversarial maps--Cove, Rush, Uplink, and Detour--alongside Zombies map Buried. The map pack also contains the Ray Gun Mark II for use in Zombies.

All Call of Duty map packs are timed exclusives for Xbox, with PlayStation and PC releases traditionally being made available about a month after Microsoft platforms.

The next Call of Duty title, Call of Duty: Ghosts, is being developed by Infinity Ward and will be released for current and next-gen platforms later in 2013.

Adventure role-playing game Fable III is now available on Xbox Live as a free download as a special lead-in to Microsoft's new Games With Gold promotion.

The Fable III freebie offer ends June 30.

As announced during Microsoft's E3 briefing last week, the Games With Gold promotion will begin in earnest on July 1. The Fable III offer is an unrelated bonus, Microsoft said.

As part of the Games With Gold promotion, Microsoft will offer up two free Xbox 360 games per month, available beginning on the 1st and the 16th day of every month.

The first two games after Fable III will be Assassin's Creed II and Halo 3, though it's not clear which will release first. Once downloaded, players can keep these titles "no matter what," Microsoft said.

Microsoft's future ambitions may revolve around the Xbox One, but the company does not plan to abandon the Xbox 360 anytime soon. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said last month that he believes the platform will "be very vibrant for many years."

A redesigned Xbox 360 model was announced during Microsoft's E3 briefing last week and is available now.

Sony has confirmed that the pricing for its first-party PlayStation 4 titles will be $59.99 in North America, the same price point as PlayStation 3-era titles.

Speaking to Shacknews, a Sony representative said "we have announced the pricing for our first-party lineup of PS4 launch and launch window games. All four titles, Killzone: Shadow Fall, DriveClub, Knack, and inFamous: Second Son are all $59.99." Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton previously said in February that PS4 titles would range from 99 cents to $60.

Microsoft recently confirmed that first-party Xbox One titles would also be sold for $59.99.

Third-party publishers--such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Activision--have yet to formally price their PlayStation 4 and Xbox One titles.

During its E3 2013 press conference last week, Sony confirmed that the PlayStation 4 would launch later in 2013 for $399/€399/£349. The Xbox One, meanwhile, will launch in November for $499/€499/£425.

Open-world zombie survival title State of Decay has sold over 500,000 copies on Xbox Live Arcade since its release two weeks ago, Microsoft has said.

Microsoft adds that State of Decay has become "the fastest selling original game" on XBLA.

Jeff Strain, founder of developer Undead Labs, added that the PC version of State of Decay will be coming to Steam and that the game will be getting its own sandbox mode. "I can tell you we're working on a sandbox mode designed to be a pure survival simulation," he said.

"Beyond that," added Strain, "all I can say is we pay very close attention to what fans of the game are asking for, and their needs will largely guide our development priorities, so stay tuned."

After a broken update previously caused problems, Seattle-based Undead Labs is currently working on State of Decay's second title update, which should shortly be sent off to Microsoft for certification.

Hotly-anticipated VR headset Oculus Rift will be getting an erotic adventure game. The title, Wicked Paradise, is being developed by a team of "seasoned" developers who have reportedly worked on Rage, Call of Duty, Lost Planet, Madden, and PlanetSide 2.

Road to VR" />

Image Credit: Road to VR

"We are all very excited about the future of digital entertainment and are using our years of experience creating the highest quality video games to create an erotic virtual reality adventure game that will blow your socks off," reads the game's official site, which also states that Wicked Paradise is due for release in 2014.

"Imagine playing Leisure Suit Larry but instead of watching a screen, you are inside the game," reads the Wicked Paradise site. "Imagine the world and its inhabitants look highly realistic. Imagine walking into a bar in Wicked Paradise, noticing a beautiful lady, talking to her, and seducing her. Imagine playing your cards right and having passionate wild sex with her."

In an interview with Road to VR, the game's founder Jeroen Van den Bosch said "I was always fascinated by the fact that we have hundreds of beautifully crafted shooter games but not a single well designed erotic video game. Sure there have been some attempts in the past, but they all have been ridiculously bad. There is nothing sexy about unrealistic models that move like rusty robots with faulty servos. If you want to genuinely create an erotic atmosphere in a videogame you need to convincingly cross the uncanny valley."

Elsewhere in the interview, den Bosch points to the kind of titillation seen in BioWare's Mass Effect as inspiration for Wicked Paradise. "Also, story and setting is everything. The non-explicit sex scenes in Mass Effect are much more erotic than current available explicit adult video games. This is because you care about the characters in Mass Effect. A player will never feel very attracted to a virtual character if he or she doesn’t care. I believe that virtual reality is the perfect medium for an erotic video game because you can make the player feel really connected to your computer characters."

"When the Oculus Rift Kickstarter happened, I realized the opportunity has come to put my plan in motion, so I did. I moved to Irvine, founded a company, secured financing, and started developing the world’s first erotic virtual reality experience."

Yesterday Oculus VR announced it had received $16m in venture capital funding to "accelerate" the headset's release as a consumer product.

Injustice: Gods Among Us was the best-selling title in the United States during May, a month that saw steep overall industry declines, according to data published by the NPD Group today. The fighting game from Warner Bros. was also April's best-selling game in the US.

Rounding out the top five best-sellers were Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Donkey Kong: Country Returns, Dead Island: Riptide, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.

Overall, total industry sales slid a significant 25 percent to $386.3 million. According to the NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan, however, this data represents only about half of the true consumer retail spend for the month.

"These sales figures represent new physical retail sales of hardware, software, and accessories, which account for roughly 50 percent of the total consumer spend on games," Callahan said in a statement.

"When taking into account our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in May such as used and rentals at $91 million, and our estimate for digital format sales including full game and add-on content downloads including micro-transactions, subscriptions, mobile apps, and the consumer spend on social network games at $339 million, the total consumer spend in May is $787 million."

On the hardware front, total sales dropped 31 percent to $96 million. The Xbox 360 was the top-selling console platform for the 29th straight month, moving 114,000 units in the period (down from 270,000 last year). The 3DS posted the best year-over-year trend, Callahan said.

"Nintendo's 3DS edged out the 360 as the top selling platform across hardware and portables. However, the 360 was the top selling console hardware platform this month for the twenty-ninth consecutive month," Callahan said. "The 3DS had the best year-over-year trending for hardware units, with units sales essentially flat from last May."

Sony has not disclosed PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita sales for May.

As for software, this category saw the most precipitous fall, diving 44 percent to $187.6 million.

"Softness in new physical entertainment software sales stemmed from a decline in the number of new launches, with over 30 percent fewer new SKUs, as well as poor performance of the new SKUs that were released," Callahan said. "New SKUs generated over seventy percent less units on a per-SKU basis, and a decrease of over eighty percent revenue per SKU."

Nintendo 3DS software sales were a bright spot for the month, up 60 percent from May 2012. In addition, three 3DS titles factored into the top-ten chart for May.

"Overall entertainment software declines, down forty-four percent, were driven partly by sharp year-over-year declines within PC games due to poor comparisons to last year's Diablo III release," Callahan said.

"In May 2013, the top 10 games represented a lower percentage of sales compared to games from the previous few Mays at 18 percent of overall unit sales and 25 percent of overall dollars, compared to 30 percent of units and 45 percent of dollars in May 2012," Callahan continued. "This is contrary to trends we've been seeing over the last few years with the top ten games generating a larger percentage of overall sales and may be indicative of the weak new launch performance this May."

The accessories category posted the smallest declines, falling only 6 percent to $115.3 million.

"This is best May for point and subscription card sales on record for both unit and dollar sales," Callahan said. "Year-to-date, Skylanders accessory sales are trending positively, up close to fifty percent in unit sales and sixty percent in dollars compared to last year."

MAY US GAME SALES (May 5-June 1, 2013)
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total retail sales: $386.3 million (-25%)
Non-PC hardware: $96.0 million (-31%)
Non-PC software: $175.1 (-31%)
Accessories: $115.3 (-6%)
Total software: $187.6 million (-44%)

TOP 10 GAMES FOR June 2013
Title (Platforms) - Publisher

1. Injustice: Gods Among Us (X360, PS3, Wii U) - Warner Bros.
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (X360, PS3, PC, Wii U) - Activision Blizzard
3. Donkey Kong: Country Returns (3DS, Wii) - Nintendo
4. Dead Island: Riptide (X360, PS3, PC) - Deep Silver
5. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS) - Nintendo
6. Metro: Last Light (X360, PS3, PC) - Deep Silver
7. NBA 2K13 (X360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC) - Take-Two Interactive
8. BioShock Infinite (X360, PS3, PC) - Take-Two Interactive
9. Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) - Electronic Arts
10. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (X360, Wii, DS, PS3, 3DS, Wii U, PS Vita, PC) - Warner Bros.

[UPDATE] The NPD Group has now published its full report for the month of May, which provides greater depth into how the industry fared in the United States during the period.

The original story follows below.

Microsoft sold 114,000 Xbox 360 units in May in the United States, the company announced today, citing data from the NPD Group. The Xbox 360 has been the top-selling system in the US for 29 straight months now.

That figure is well below the 270,000 Xbox 360 units Microsoft sold during May 2012.

Total retail spend for Xbox 360 (hardware, software, and accessories) for May 2013 came in at $149.8 million, more than any other console, according to NPD data.

Microsoft's future ambitions may revolve around the Xbox One, but the company does not plan to abandon the Xbox 360 anytime soon. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said last month that he believes the platform will "be very vibrant for many years."

A redesigned Xbox 360 model was announced during Microsoft's E3 briefing last week and is available now.

Microsoft's Xbox boss Don Mattrick has spoken out to defend the Xbox One's $500 price point, saying the company is in fact over-delivering value with the next-generation system.

"It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecasted," Mattrick said on Bloomberg TV. "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 they're going to love it when they use it."

Competitor Sony will offer its PlayStation 4 at $400 this holiday season, but Mattrick believes consumers will choose Xbox One for its suite of exclusive services and applications like an improved Xbox Live, as well as Skype, Twitch TV, SmartGlass, and Kinect.

"We're really making the living room your center of fun for your family," Mattrick said.

Also in the interview, Mattrick refers to the new Xbox One Halo title as Halo 5. This game was announced during Microsoft's E3 briefing last week only as "Halo Xbox One."

Every Xbox One will include a Kinect 2.0 sensor, while PS4 gamers will need to pay $60 to purchase a PlayStation Eye camera.

A new report from The Entertainment Software Association has found that women make up nearly half (45 percent) of all gamers. The findings are part of the 2013 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry, conducted by Ipsos MediaCT and based on a poll of more than 2,000 "nationally representative" households.

The report also found that adult women (31 percent) represent a "significantly" greater portion of the gamer population that boys 17 and younger (19 percent). In addition, according to the group's findings, women are 46 percent of the time the most frequent game purchasers.

The report also highlighted trends regarding how closely parents monitor what their children purchase. According to the findings, parents are present when games are purchased 89 percent of the time, while children receive parents' permission to purchase or rent a game 80 percent of the time.

Overall, 52 percent of parents believe video games are a positive part of their child's life.

Other notable findings from the Essential Facts report include 58 percent of all Americans describing themselves are gamers in one way or another. In addition, 51 percent of all United States households own a dedicated game console; and those that do, own an average of two.

The full report is available at the ESA website.

Virtual reality company Oculus VR has announced it has secured $16 million in venture capital funding, co-led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, with additional money from firms Founders Fund and Formation 8.

The funds will be used to "accelerate" development of the Oculus Rift hardware, software, and services, the company said.

"Oculus began with a single mission: to put players inside the game," said inventor Palmer Luckey. "This investment allows us to deliver immersive and affordable virtual reality to players everywhere."

As part of the funding allocation, Spark founder Santo Politi and Matrix general partner Antonio Rodriguez will join the Oculus VR board of directors.

In a statement, Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe explained that many challenges still lie ahead for the company, but the extra funding should help it achieve its goals.

"There are still many challenging problems to solve, but with the support of these great investment partners, and our passionate community, we will continue to hire the brightest minds and stay laser focused on delivering the very best virtual reality platform possible," Iribe said.

The Oculus Rift headset was successful on its first day on Kickstarter, raising a total of $2.4 million at the close of its crowd-funding campaign. Development kits are available now for game makers, though no release date has been set yet for a public release.

Oculus VR cofunder Andrew Scott Reisse was killed last month in Santa Ana, California. Reisse was crossing a sidewalk when a Dodge Charger carrying suspects fleeing police struck and killed him. He was 33.

Bungie's all-new shared-world shooter Destiny has been confirmed for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4, but not PC.

Writer and design director Joseph Staten has acknowledged that this news is "painful" for some gamers, but wouldn't say more about the possibility of the new shooter coming to PC.

"Well, I can't talk about it. I mean, obviously we'd love to be on as many platforms as possible," Staten told GameSpot. "We want to get the game into as many hands as we can. But we're not talking about PC right now. I know it's painful; every time someone asks me that question I can see it in their eyes."

Bungie commented on the possibility of a PC version of Destiny last month, saying "We haven't said yes, and we haven't said no." A PC version of Destiny previously appeared on Bungie's website.

Destiny launches next year published by Activision. For more, check out GameSpot's full conversation with Staten below.

Peter Molyneux, who led development on the original Fable and its two sequels, has played the upcoming high-definition Fable Anniversary overhaul and has given it a "thumbs up."

Lionhead Studios lead designer Ted Timmins told GameSpot that Molyneux, following his departure from the studio and Microsoft altogether, remains a friend of the company.

"He popped over, had a play, gave a thumbs up, and then went back on his way," Timmins said.

Fable Anniversary launches later this year only on Xbox 360; a PC version is not in the works. The package includes the 2004 original role-playing game and its Lost Chapters expansion.

The game will have an entirely new lighting system, powered by the Unreal engine, as well as all-new character models, textures, materials, and new facial and cutscene animations. It will also feature widescreen support and remastered audio for surround sound setups.

All content found in Fable and its Lost Chapters expansion will be included in Fable Anniversary, though Lionhead said no additional quests or content will be added to the new version.

Respawn Entertainment's upcoming online shooter Titanfall will "most likely" not feature cross-platform play, cofounder Vince Zampella has told GameSpot.

The decision was borne of a desire to keep the playing fields level, he said.

"Most likely not," Zampella said in response to a question of the possibility of cross-platform play. "I don't think it's locked yet, but to me, I'd like to keep it segregated so there's no advantage or disadvantage."

Titanfall launches during spring 2014 only for Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC. For more, check out GameSpot's interview with Zampella below.

A source close to Respawn Entertainment has told Vanity Fair (via Superannuation) that "revelations" about Jason West's behavior upset Vince Zampella, leading to a rift between the longtime colleagues and Call of Duty creators.

"Vince felt that Jason was sabotaging the company," a source said.

West reportedly "barely" came into the office during development of Titanfall, before leaving for good in March to "take care of some family issues" in North Carolina.

Speaking with Vanity Fair in April, Zampella would not go further into detail regarding the nature of his relationship with West, only saying, "It's hard to work with one person for 15 years."

A Respawn Entertainment representative told GameSpot today, "All the comment we have is what is already in the article. Vince put out an official statement about Jason leaving on our blog a few months ago and that's all I got for you."

It does not appear West will return to the industry anytime soon, telling Vanity Fair in August that he is "soured" on the game business, due in part to being "strong-armed" by executives.

"It does sort of sour you on the industry," West said. "It's tough. If we can't get treated well, what possible chance does a newcomer have? How do they prevent themselves from being strong-armed by the guys with the money? I wish I had the answer to that question, but I don't."

West and Zampella formed Respawn Entertainment in early 2010, following the pair's split from Infinity Ward and Activsion over claims of broken promises and an internal investigation, which eventually led to a lawsuit against Activision.

The case was settled before going to trial in May last year.

Respawn's new game, Titanfall, launches next year exclusively on Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC.

The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red is expanding. The Polish studio confirmed with Eurogamer that it will open a new office in Kraków next month where it will work on a "smaller" game, estimated to be 20 hours in length.

This studio will be staffed by 20 people and aims to create one of two "premium quality" games that CD Projekt Red plans to release in the future. No further information about these games was divulged.

The company currently has one open position for its Kraków office.

Kraków and Warsaw are about 180 miles apart.

CD Projekt Red is currently working on next-generation games The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077.

Singer-actress Beyonce Knowles has settled a $107 million lawsuit over supposedly backing out of a deal for a motion-based dance game called Starpower: Beyonce.

The New York Post reports (via Gamasutra) that papers were filed in Manhattan Supreme Court recently from lawyers for the singer and for gaming company Gate Five dismissing "all claims and counterclaims" related to the suit.

Gate Five's lawyer Peter Gallagher said, "We've settled amicably. I can't discuss the terms of the settlement, but it was resolved.

The lawsuit dates back to June 2010, when Gate Five alleged that Knowles entered into a "services and exclusive license agreement" to make the new game. Gate Five filed suit in April 2011, claiming Knowles made an "extortionate demand" for a new compensation package.

This maneuver reportedly backfired, driving away the financier and leading to Knowles pulling out of the project and thusly breaching the agreement. As a result, Gate Five said that Knowles "destroyed Gate Five's business and drove 70 people into unemployment, the week before Christmas."

Hitman: Absolution studio IO Interactive has cut half its staff and canceled multiple projects as it makes "significant changes" to its business strategy.

A Square Enix representative confirmed the cuts with Games Industry International and then with GameSpot, saying the studio--under the direction of new boss Hannes Seifert--will refocus "resolutely" on a new AAA Hitman game going forward.

"We are making significant changes at IO Interactive as we align our business against a changing and challenging market," the Square Enix representative said in a statement.

"The studio will focus resolutely on the future vision for the Hitman franchise and is in pre-production on a new AAA Hitman project," the statement goes on. "However, we have taken the difficult decision to cancel other studio projects and initiatives at IO and reduce the workforce in this studio, which will impact almost half of the employees currently at IO, as we make internal adjustments to face the challenges of today's market."

Square Enix said it is "extremely grateful" for the affected developers' hard work and, where possible and appropriate, will try to relocate staff to open internal and external positions.

IO Interactive is based in Denmark. The studio's most recent game was last year's Hitman: Absolution. The company also created the Kane & Lynch franchise.

Microsoft has revealed the chat headset for Xbox One.

The new headset is similar in appearance to the existing product for Xbox 360. It is wired to the controller and is designed for "long gaming sessions and clear voice chat," Microsoft said.

The mono chat headset sports wideband digital audio and a unidirectional microphone. In addition, players will be able to access mute and volume controls without taking their hands off the controller.

Microsoft has also revealed a new play and charge kit for the Xbox One controller. It packs in a "long-lasting" rechargeable battery that Microsoft said can be juiced up fully in under four hours. Recharging can be done during gameplay or when the Xbox One is in standby mode.

The Xbox One launches this November for $500. Xbox boss Don Mattrick recently spoke out to defend the price point (a full $100 above the PlayStation 4), by saying Microsoft is in fact "over-delivering value" with the new system.

The Dead Space series is a "great brand" for Electronic Arts, but a new entry in the series not in active development, the publisher has confirmed with Eurogamer.

"I wouldn't say [the Dead Space franchise is] cancelled at all," EA Games boss Patrick Söderlund said. "Dead Space remains a brand that is close to Electronic Arts' heart. It's been a great brand for us done by a very passionate team."

Söderlund explained that Dead Space 3 developer Visceral Games is now working on an "exciting new project," which he believes is a better fit for the studio than a fourth entry in the action-horror series.

"Is that team working on a Dead Space game today? No they're not," he said. "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?"

Visceral Games is one of three EA studios working on all-new Stars Wars games, joining DICE and BioWare.

In March, a report claimed the Dead Space series was canceled outright after Dead Space 3 failed to meet sales expectations. EA called this report "patently false."