That's where this industry is going though. Between Project $10, micro-transactions and "premium services," large publishers are looking to mitigate the ballooning costs of AAA development any way they can. If you don't like it, then hey, it's not like you have to plunk down $60 on a new copy of Call of Duty year after year...

Trust the Japanese to come up with goofiest name possible for the feature that may end up defining both the NGP and the PlayStation 3 going forward. It rolls off the tongue, but it also sounds like something out of the Newspeak Dictionary. Pretty soon the English language will be made up entirely of PR jargon.

I call it a "defining" feature because Transfarring seems to pointing to a world in which identical games are released simultaneously on PS3 and NGP. In this world, Transfarring would make it possible to play, say, Metal Gear Solid Rising on the PS3, then switch over to the NGP during a commute. A cool possibility that would have the side benefit (for Sony) of encouraging customers to buy two copies of the same game.

A brave new world, in other words, of selling the same game twice. We'll see what Sony has to say on the subject during E3.

I've gone on at some length about what a great year it's been for RPG fans, but what about mecha fans? If you're a fan of giant robots and even more dakka, the year 2012 will include the Chromehounds-like Armored Core 5, the Zome of the Enders HD Collection and possibly even the Kinect-enabled Steel Battallion update. And that's to say nothing of import-only gems like Super Robot Taisen OG for the PlayStation 3 and the console version of Gundam Extreme Vs (whenever it's finally announced).