A scrum board fills the entrance hallway, showing everyone who walks in exactly what the team are working on. The team gather here every morning for a 15-minute stand-up meeting to update where everything sits in the current two-week sprint.

The studio walls are covered with boards showing concept art, gags and other ideas for upcoming levels.

And most amusingly, everyone in the office uses their desk in-tray to store toys. Lemons with faces are also a popular item, presumably from developing the Life Gives You Lemons episode in the game. Here’s a video of what goes on in the studio.

Microsoft have completely rescinded their policy for always-online and pre-owned policies for the Xbox One. In the wake of E3 and Sony’s brilliant parody marketing, Don Mattrick, President of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft announced that the Xbox One will no longer be required to check in every day and that preowned gaming will work just as it does today. You will need to verify your games online once before playing, as currently happens with Steam, Origin and other PC online services.

This does mean that we’re returning to the days of needing discs in the console tray, to verify that we’re not running filthy pirate versions. We also won’t be able to share games across household accounts – i.e. between Xbox Ones.

Mattrick also announced that the Xbox One will be region-free.

Of course, there was no mention of a price drop, so at £429 it’s still a whopping £80 more than the PS4 at £349. They’ve also not addressed the ongoing concerns over Kinect privacy – that the device is constantly listening out for commands even while your Xbox is supposedly off.

This is very much a victory for gamers. Yes, we’re back to swapping discs per game but I can live with that. I just hope they design this properly so there’s none of that swapping discs during an installed game, as with Mass Effect 3.

From the Xbox website:

So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:

• An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
• Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console — there will be no regional restrictions.

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.
Don Mattrick, Your Feedback Matters, Xbox.com

The playable demo at E3 2013 featured a new grey “rock” Pikmin alongside the classic red species. There are new pink, white and purple Pkimin to be found in the full game, but not present in this demo. I was able to instantly switch between and control multiple types of Pikmin using my Wii remote, another new feature of the game. Using the grey Pikmin I could smash down nibble away at any large barriers blocking my path and free lots of fruit from their icy tombs.

Gameplay remains largely unchanged from previous games. You wander around a level, collect Pikmin, chuck them at every monster you encounter and collect fruit to prevent the Pikmin race dying of starvation. However, this time I was playing with Colin (our camera guy) using the new co-op mode.

We were both armed with Wii remotes and nunchucks as the Gamepad was off limits in this demo, something about Nintendo wanting to show off the Wii remote controls apparently. Anyway, I did glimpse it showing a map of the level, which should prove handy. Once we’d started playing, it became apparent that Colin is a skilled Pikmin kidnapper, amassing a large army with effortless speed leaving me with a few plucky stranglers.

Fortunately for me, in co-op game mode you can gift Pikmin to each other by throwing them for the other player to pick up, something Colin did…eventually. Via a single vertically split-screen we went about our business of collecting fruit until our food retrieval mission was halted by the level timer.

Pikmin are lot more controllable this time around with each one acting as a separate entity rather than just a drone in a larger group. This allowed me to attempt a rudimentary creature ambush rather than simply attacking it head on as I would have done in previous games.

I still found it hard to ignore the pangs of sadness every time one of my little troopers died at the hands of some nasty jellyfish or because of an accidental suicidal command from me. Drowning or burning-to-death Pikmin are not pretty things to watch. Now, thanks to the increased limit you will be able to kill up to 100 of them in one foul swoop. Eeek!

Pikmin is back, in beautiful HD and as cute as ever. Look out for it at launch.

Pikmin 3 is due for release on the 26th July 2013 for Wii U.

We’ve uploaded a ton of photos from the show floor of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo to our Facebook page. From the new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles and games, the McLaren P1 supercar and giant statues of Wolfenstein: The New Order enemies the show floor was buzzing with activity. Go take a look here.

Check out the 360 degree panoramas we took of the Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Activision, Konami booths and of the iconic South Hall entrance.

We also got video interviews with the developers behind The Elder Scrolls Online, Saints Row IV, World of Tanks (360) and hands-on previews for games including E-VR, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Pay Day 2, Mario Kart 8, Dead Rising 3, The Crew, Bayonetta 2, Pikmin 3, Driveclub gameplay video and more coming to the site.

To prove the point further the only additional attempt to appeal to, well… me, was a matter of seconds taken from whatever Capy Games have brewing in their office now. Sure, it was amazing hearing someone on a stage say the world “roguelike” with the kind of confidence usually reserved for a statement similar to “I’ll have the tagliatelle” or “my wife and I share our partners”, but it didn’t also come with the assertion this was something that their audience actually wanted to see. A concession to a market they know exists, but not one that they really understand.

You compare that to Sony’s presser, though? One that had Amir and Greg from Supergiant up on stage to display a console reveal trailer for Transistor? One that showed off Mercenary Kings? Had Divekick in the opening montage? Even briefly mentioning that Octodad is a thing? It was like the two companies were playing chess by mail and only one of them actually read the letters.

I don’t want to sit here and say that Sony inherently give more of a shit about fostering a DIY community than Microsoft. They’re not exactly about to put Even Cowgirls Bleed onto the Vita and pitch it as the explosive start of the Q3 release line-up. What they’ve smartly recognised instead is that there’s a low cost way to provide interesting new experiences and they’ve done everything they can to be receptive to passionate small creators.

Up at the start I could have easily said that my favourite moment was Sony revealing that they’re going to allow self publishing, which is a great in its own right, allowing for a lack of reliance on a model that isn’t necessarily conducive to greater success. It makes the platform a more viable option for teams that don’t want to get tied down in restrictive deals that potentially mean losing rights to their IP and not being able to have input on variable pricing.

But it wasn’t. My favourite moment was knowing, absolutely knowing, that the Microsoft team don’t share that same perspective. That board rooms full of Men in suits costing 100 times the budget of Gunpoint have thrown around the word “Indie” as if it’s synonymous with “Vermin” or “Cock Wart”.

Indie games aren’t going to inform mass purchases of a Sony platform. The public at large don’t want to play Hohokum (I’m not even sure I do and this sort of shit is my job), but they’ve recognised that it’s a value add and easy to include. Microsoft haven’t recognised the necessity. It’s fantastic. What a shitshow.

[I played Hohokum. It is lovely - Ed.]

Oh, Also

If you are at Rezzed in Birmingham this weekend I will definitely hang out with you. I look like the guy in the photo somewhere on this page (I’m not going to be specific, Debbie likes her re-designs). [I really do - Ed.] I’ll be there working, by which I mean probably crying my eyes out playing That Dragon, Cancer or seeing what the fuck is even up with Gun Monkeys

Please stop me at any time on the show floor. I want to play a game of The Resistance with you. They’ll have a copy there. Let’s play it. Let’s play it together. I’m not a spy.

The Sims 4 will be properly revealed during the EA press conference at gamescom this year, on 20th August. Scheduled for release in 2014, the lack of Sims 4 information was one of my disappointments of E3. That and no Dragon Age 3. Come on, EA.

During today’s The Sims Live Broadcast, lead concept artist Albert Truang showed off the character style of the new Sims game. Well, he revealed a sketch and talked through some of their concept principles.

What we’re trying to go for is a little bit of a sexier cooler design, a little bit more appealing,” said Truong. “Our art director has this term, he calls it Stylised Realism.

“We put a lot of thought into the colour and the design of the characters, a lot of lighting and mood for the characters too, and a little bit of storytelling. If you take a look at her [pictured above], she’s probably a teen rock star or a musician trying to get into a band.”

Ryan Vaughan, Sims Guru and producer on the series told us what we can expect from the show at gamescom. “We’re gonna reveal what The Sims look lke, how they interact with each other and getting into some of the details I know you guys have been clamouring for.”

We’ll also hear a little more about The Sims 4 during the next Sims Live Broadcast, scheduled for 9th July at 6pm BST. During today’s broadcast they were giving away limited edition signed concept sketches, so put that in your calendar now.

Here’s the full list in alphabetical order:

• Alien Rage
• Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag
• Battlefield 4
• Bayonetta 2
• Blackguards
• Bound By Flame
• Call of Duty: Ghosts
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
• Contrast
• Dead Rising 3
• Defiance DLC
• Destiny
• Deus Ex: The Fall
• Driveclub
• EVR – Oculus Rift
• Fantasia: Music Evolved
• FIFA 14
• Forza 5
• Goodbye Deponia
• Gran Turismo 6
• Hohokum
• Killzone: Mercenaries
• Killzone: Shadowfall
• Knack
• Lords of the Fallen
• Mario Kart 8
• Murdered: Soul Suspect
• Need for Speed: Rivals
• PayDay 2
• Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
• Pikmin 3
• Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
• Puppeteer
• Saints Row IV
• South Park: The Stick of Truth
• Super Mario 3D World
• Tearaway
• The Crew
• The Elder Scrolls Online
• The Playroom
• The Witcher 3
• Titanfall
• Wind Waker HD
• Wolfenstein: The New Order
• World of Tanks on Xbox 360

Disney Interactive have announced their newest mobile game – Where’s My Mickey? Building on the foundations of Where’s My Water? (200 million installs and counting), the new Mickey-based game will use the same style of physics-puzzler gameplay, based around the classic characters we know and love; Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie, Daisy, Goofy and more. It will be available for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile very soon.

Where’s My Mickey? will launch with over a hundred levels available. Three episodes will ship with the game, which two more available for purchase. Each episode will be themed around a story of Mickey or his friends in their attempts to get water.

In Life Gives You Lemons, Mickey runs a lemonade stand. Shenanigans ensue, as they always do with Mickey, leading you to chase the water across 20 levels per episode. Others available at launch are called Fanning The Flames and Growing Pains. Another one called Ship Wrecked can be bought as DLC at launch, along with a Goofy-themed episode called Van Goofy. The team are working on future downloads as well – during a tour of the studio we saw concept art for The Menace of Venice starring Mickey and Minnie, and A Glass Half Empty, in which Mickey battles a goat in a desert.

Disney have developed the puzzles beyond the original Where’s My Water? There are now clouds to carry water, wind to blow them across the sky and plants to… plant. You’ll be using wind to move the water where you want it and raining down on “fizz” to increase the volume available to Mickey and friends. There’s a gameplay video and studio tour coming to our YouTube channel soon.

Where’s My Mickey? is out now on iOS, Android and Windows Mobile.

Mickey Shorts

Disney have also been working on a new series of animated cartoon shorts. Executive produced and directed by Paul Rudish (Dexter’s Laboratory, Star Wars: Clone Wars) and directors Aaron Springer (SpongeBob SquarePants, Gravity Falls) and Clay Morrow (Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls) Mickey will find himself in a variety of ridiculous situations.

Across Santa Monica, Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, Venice and a host of other locations, he and his crew will find themselves in modern challenges familiar to each city. In each episode you’ll see them be battling the crowded commuter trains of Tokyo or negotiating the hot dog stand etiquette of New York. Each cartoon will have its own unique art style – The Santa Monica short is heavily inspired by the classic 30s Mickey Mouse cartoons while Tokyo evokes the historic artwork of Japan.

While the idea of updating Mickey for modern sensibilities sounds horrifying, this isn’t the case at all. I saw two of the shorts and they are just as charming and silly as the classics ever were. Also, Mickey has toes. Has Mickey always had toes? They’re quite disturbing.

The new series of shorts will start on 12th July on The Disney Channel with No Service, the Santa Monica-based episode in which Mickey and Donald attempt to buy snacks from a beachside hut but are stymied by their lack of shirt (Mickey), and shoes (Donald).

This will be followed on Saturday by Yodelberg, where Mickey and Minnie attempt to reunite in the Alps, amid threat of avalanche. Further episodes will be broadcast throughout July.

After five long years, we’re finally getting a new Phoenix Wright. Dual Destinies sees the return of Wright, his apprentice Apollo Justice and a new rookie, Athena Cykes. In the 10-minute demo playable during E3 I was shown Sykes’ special power/minigame; she can sense people’s emotions.

Acting as an extension to Wright’s cross-examination in court, Cykes uses her holographic analysis tool to show people’s emotions. During the witness testimony, a series of face icons light up to show their emotions at the time. Find the emotion that doesn’t correspond and Got It! There’s your inconsistency.

Here’s a quick hands-on gameplay video I took at the E3 demo that shows it in action.

It’s not complex but then again, the Phoenix Wright games never were. Solving the courtroom drama is fun but occasionally brain-bendingly frustrating, thanks to localisation ambiguities. The appeal for me has always been the slow unravel of the stories, the madcap characters and poor Wright’s charming internal monologue. You’ll see familiar prosecuting attorneys like Payne, though there was no sign of Miles Edgeworth in the demo. The judge is his usual slightly-detached-from-reality self, while the courtroom…

The courtroom is actually imposing for the first time in the series. Dual Destiny continues the Ace Attorney series’ art style of cel-shaded characters on top of beautifully hand-drawn backdrops and it’s an easy transition to 3DS. Witness perch on their stand, surrounded by the eyes of the court while the judge looms over everything from his bench. The demo didn’t show an gameplay enhancements that used 3D but it’s a nice addition.

Between the recent release of Animal Crossing New Leaf and this upcoming Phoenix Wright, I may finally get myself a 3DS.

Sorry, it is mostly a black screen but there is some pretty b-roll in there to feast your eyes upon every so often.