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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a single-player action-RPG, but that hasn't deterred publisher Electronic Arts from locking some of the game's content behind a single-use "online pass." Folks purchasing new copies of Big Huge Game's newest title will find their codes in their boxes, but folks procuring used copies will be in a different boat.

As noted by Destructoid, the "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Online Pass" unlocks the "House of Valor" faction quest, which includes "seven additional single-player quests."

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's online pass revealed

Warner Bros. received some flak for locking Catwoman behind an online pass in last year's single-player Batman: Arkham City. Those without a new code would be able to buy her campaign for an additional $15. EA implemented "online pass" features in Mass Effect 2 as well, locking an extra character and additional missions behind a DLC pay wall.

It's likely (but not confirmed) that the "House of Valor" faction quest will also be available for purchase separately. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning comes out for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on February 7.

We've seen some of the Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer, but a new trailer shows off the combinations of races and classes available as "Special Forces." In it, we see Commander Shepard giving the space-warfare version of the St. Crispen's Day Speech, encouraging the allied alien forces to stop the invasions or die trying.

Taking part in these (seemingly doomed) battles will contribute to your Galactic Readiness as part of the Galaxy at War system. Check out the trailer below.

THQ has laid off an unspecified number of employees today, following the announcement of a new strategic realignment. This round of layoffs impacted the administrative and publishing departments, but didn't touch any of THQ's five internal studios. This latest in THQ's strategy shifts involves shutting down its various child-friendly properties to focus more on "core" games.

Joystiq reports that the unaffected studios are THQ San Diego, Relic, Volition, Vigil, and THQ Montreal -- all studios that focus on core games.

This follows an announcement from earlier this week, in which THQ announced it will focus on core games on existing consoles, emerging platforms, and expand its digital properties. The announcement included the revelation that the company would exit its various licensed kids' properties, while continuing to sell some previously released licensed titles.

"As recently announced, the company is exiting the kids' licensed games category, and is focusing on its core game franchises and developing its digital initiatives," THQ said in a statement. "The company will provide greater financial detail regarding the costs and organizational benefit on its third quarter 2012 conference call scheduled for Thursday, February 2, 2012."

When the publisher began closing studios last year, its silver lining was healthy projections for Saints Row: The Third and the uDraw peripheral game. Saints Row managed to sell through 3.8 million copies, but the uDraw saw weak sales that led to layoffs. Given these results, it's not surprising that now THQ is leaning more on core games, and less on family-friendly titles.

Plenty of game developers publicly expressed their opposition to SOPA and PIPA, but perhaps none quite so fiercely as Red 5 founder Mark Kern. His company pulled the beta in protest, canceled E3 plans, and launched a non-profit protest group called the "League for Gamers." Now that the controversial bills are effectively dead in the water, Kern has shared some thoughts on his motivation for such vocal opposition.

"If you hold an opinion that differs from the gamers, and you think that it will benefit them in the long run, that's okay," Kern said. "But the fact that you're not saying that to them, when you've enlisted their support in the past and are now completely unresponsive, I think that was disingenuous.

"And as the outrage grew - this is conjecture on my part - I think they found themselves between a rock and hard place. 'Oh my gosh, we really do have competing values here.' To me, it looked like they went into paralysis mode, and then afterwards when both bills were shelved, that was kind of damage control, to come out and say, 'Actually, we're withdrawing support.' They were trying to have their cake and eat it too," Kern told GamesIndustry.biz. He says he was "disappointed" that the withdrawal was "wishy-washy."

That withdrawal he's referring to came several hours after major backers of the bills, like Senator Harry Reid and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, publicly stated they were putting the bill on hold.

Kern suggests these pieces of legislation, and others in the future, are the product of old thinking. "What you're seeing is a reaction to try and preserve the old business model, and so you've got big companies lining up on one side and a lot of small studios lining up on the other," he said. "Small studios are tired of being reliant on publishers, for distribution, for finance, for everything else. It doesn't have to be that way any more."

As for the League for Gamers, Kern says that his lobbying group and gamers need to be mindful of future attempts to make similar legislation. He warns that ACTA is being pushed under the guise of "anti-counterfeiting," and that lawmakers might try to split the bills into component parts. "So it's going to be a lot more subtle next time, and we're going to have to be that much more attentive," he said. "It might involve looking at multiple pieces of legislation and figuring out if they're coalescing into something that would be detrimental to the internet and to gaming."

Q-Games' PixelJunk Eden is on its way to Steam next week. The game will cost $9.99, and will include the "Encore" expansion pack for free.

New to the PC release is the ability to warp back to your last resting position, helpful for when you take a one-minute long fall off the top of the level. Plus, you can save your progress within each garden, so you can pick up where you left off rather than restarting from the beginning.

Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert hinted at future Steam releases in the PixelJunk series, citing Eden as merely the first one. He describes why he chose to make Eden the Steam series debut. "When I was thinking through the catalog of PixelJunk games, Eden was the one that stood out to me as perfect for the Steam audience," Cuthbert said. "The beautiful graphics and colors are striking on a PC monitor especially at higher resolutions than the standard 'HDTV' 1080p and the game is perfect for the more point/click style that comes with mouse control."

The game and its soundtrack will be available on February 2. Q-Games teased that early purchases will be available for 20% off.

Having fallen out of vogue for a few years, the 'fast cars, big guns and loud rawk music' racing subgenre may be staging a comeback. lead by the new Carmageddon and Twisted Metal. While Carmageddon is still a while out, Eat Sleep Play's Twisted Metal is speeding towards stores soon, and next week you'll get to give it a bash it with a multiplayer demo.

The revelation came on this week's episode of the PlayStation Blogcast (via Joystiq), but about all we know is that it's a multiplayer demo coming on January 31. More details are promised soon.

Twisted Metal is headed to PlayStation 3 on Valentine's Day, February 14. The first print run comes with a free code to download 2001's Twisted Metal Black, but, unfortunately, the game another code that's far less welcome--an 'online pass,' which creator David Jaffe is not happy about.

Look, here are some real people pretending to be video game characters, and, more importantly, ridiculous vehicles attempting to destroy each other:

If today's Nintendo news has you sweating with anticipation for the Wii U, you won't have to wait much longer. The Japanese games maker promises to showcase the system in its "final format" at E3 later this year. If you want to buy the system, you'll be pleased to know that the Wii U will be on sale "in time for the year-end sales season."

While we will undoubtedly have to wait until E3 to see the system's launch library in action, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says that it will be key to launch the system with key games. He points to the 3DS, which many pointed to as a disappointing follow-up to the DS line. Nintendo blamed the lack of key launch titles as a reason for the handheld's sluggish start. "The company is aiming to firmly complete the development of the entire system and prepare sufficient software so that the Wii U will be at its best at the time of the launch," Nintendo's Satoru Iwata promised. "Needless to say, we have learned a bitter lesson from the launch of the Nintendo 3DS."

3DS sales have surged over the recent months, thanks to a price cut and the launch of two Mario games.

Nintendo is expected to post a massive 45 billion yen ($575 million) loss for the fiscal year ending in March 2012. How did it get there? The plummeting value of the dollar versus the yen certainly impacted the company's bottom line. An even more significant factor was the drastic, sudden price drop implemented on the 3DS over the summer, which caused Nintendo to sell the handheld at a loss.

That's expected to change in the next fiscal year. "In the first half of the next fiscal term, we are now anticipating to get out of the situation that we sell the hardware below cost," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said.

When the system launched, the materials cost of the 3DS was about $101, excluding the cost of R&D, marketing, retail, etc. It's likely to cost significantly less now. By Nintendo's estimate, the company will stop losing money by September of this year.

While investors will have to brace for a rough fiscal 2012, Nintendo predicts the next fiscal year should offer far better news. Sales of the 3DS have "drastically increased," and once Nintendo returns to being profitable on hardware again, the momentum will only help the company. According to their investor's report, the platform is selling at a faster pace than the original DS or the Wii in first-year sales. "This brought a pleasant surprise to the video game industry and changed the thoughts of third-party software developers for the better," Iwata gloated.

3DS sales surged past Wii, DS in its first year

Nintendo has announced plans to implement NFC (near field communication) technology into the Wii U controller. This will allow Wii U to communicate with other noncontact devices, such as NFC-enabled phones and credit cards.

By adding NFC support into the controller, Nintendo is hoping it will be able to create "cards and figurines" that can exchange data with the system, and even enable direct payments.

NFC is widely used in Japan for payments and metro access. In America, the technology can be found on American Express ExpressPay cards, MasterCard PayPass, and more. While NFC can be found in most modern Japanese phones, only a select American phones currently have the tech embedded. It's expected to become standard in future smartphones in the US. The Wii U will adhere to both FeliCa and MIFARE standards, making it compatible with most NFC devices. Here's a demonstration of NFC tech used in the Nexus S:

Activision's Skylanders game also takes advantage of NFC by embedding the tech into its collectible figurines. It's clear that Nintendo sees value in that lucrative toy/game hybrid market.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata called two games the "centerpiece of evergreen titles for the 3DS." They were Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7. (Given their sales, it's easy to see why!) But that's just the beginning for Nintendo's 3DS strategy. "There will be more and more highly-anticipated titles for the Nintendo 3DS," Iwata promised.

The next fiscal year, which begins in April, already has a number of key titles: Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion 2, Mario Tennis, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, and more. But of course, everyone's favorite Italian plumber will be making a return.

"We are planning to release a totally new side-scrolling action Super Mario in 2D as a key title for the Nintendo 3DS in the next fiscal year," Iwata promised. He offered no other details, but given the mention of 2D, it is likely to be similar to the New Super Mario Bros. series. A fiscal year release means it will be available for sale before March 2013.

As opposed to the end of last year, when Nintendo's heavy-hitting 3DS games seemed to come all at once, this year's line-up is expected to be a bit better planned. "We intend to release these various titles without any extreme interruptions." Plus, "in addition to what you can see here, a number of titles unannounced from third-party developers will be available."