Over the past few years, Square Enix has become something of a force in mobile gaming. The big Japanese publisher, best known for making console role-playing games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, has also found success making solid games for tablets and phones. Some of them are ports of old classics; others are new, original experiences. Many are excellent.

But Square has also faced a ton of criticism for their unorthodox pricing model. Fans have called it the "Square Enix Tax"—to play their games, you'll have to pay a premium. Two of Square's most recent releases—Final Fantasy Dimensions and Demons' Score—cost $30 and $44, respectively, to play in their entirety. Ports of old games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy III both cost $17-18.

In a marketplace like iTunes, where you can get a near-endless number of good games for under $10, this sort of high-end pricing can sometimes seem insane. So I asked Square Enix about it, and after some exchanges, they agreed to set up an e-mail Q&A with one of their executives in Japan. They wouldn't take follow-up questions for clarification or elaboration, so after each of their answers, I'll give some of my own thoughts.

Kotaku: Most of Square Enix's old RPGs—games like Final Fantasy Tactics, The World Ends With You, and Final Fantasy III—run for $16-20 on iOS. That's significantly more expensive than the majority of games on the iTunes store, and in some cases, more expensive than versions we could get on the PlayStation Network or DS. Why does Square Enix charge so much for iOS versions of their games?

Square Enix: The games you mention and several of our other mobile titles were originally intended for the consoles, and we've reconfigured and optimized them for the mobile platform, releasing them at a lower price than their original console or handheld versions. Square Enix does provide other casual titles in the lower price range, and as the market evolves, we'll take all different price points into consideration on a game-by-game basis.

While it might seem reasonable to treat console ports like console games, what Square Enix has to realize is that iTunes has its own ecosystem, its own set of fan expectations. Twenty-dollar games are an anomaly there. Charging such divergent amounts for those games not only makes those games less appealing, it builds ill will with fans. It makes them say things like "Square Enix Tax."

Even worse, it makes these games impossible to sell to a new audience. People who don't buy game consoles or handhelds might be interested in something like Final Fantasy Tactics. It's an excellent game. One of my all-time favorites. But why would they want to spend $18 on it when they could get so many other good games for lower prices?

Kotaku: None of Square Enix's mobile games (other than the free-to-play Guardian Cross) are currently in the 200 top-grossing apps on the iTunes store. Would you say that the current pricing strategy has been a success? If not, is Square Enix considering a different method?

Square Enix: The mobile marketplace is maturing and frequently changing. As the devices increase in capability, the quality of gaming experiences we provide increases as well. Each game is priced individually and evaluated based on the type of game, depth and overall experience it provides for players. Some of our higher priced titles offer more than 60+ hours of game time with rich storylines, high quality graphics and challenging, diverse combat.

However, we are aware that the market in North America is accustomed to the lower priced or free to play games. Guardian Cross was our first significant title to utilize the free-to-play pricing model and we've been very happy with the community reaction to the title. The gameplay lent itself very well to the free-to-play pricing model.

Moving forward, we're looking forward to the challenge of utilizing our strengths in creativity, world-building, and gameplay mechanics and matching those with a pricing model that are consistent with the market and provides players with a sense of overall value.

Interesting. Based on that list of top-grossing games (which you can see for yourself on iTunes), Guardian Cross, which came out September 13, might be Square's only recent success on iOS. It's comforting to hear them admit that the marketing is evolving. Could we see future Square Enix games follow that same free-to-play model?

Kotaku: Final Fantasy Dimensions costs $29 to play in full. It's a good game, and I've enjoyed it quite a bit, but I find it very difficult to recommend that people spend $29 on a mobile RPG when they could get so many other great RPGs on the same platform for a fraction of that price, many of which look a lot better (including Square's very own Chaos Rings). Why charge so much for Dimensions? Has it sold well so far? Is Square planning to reduce the price?

Square Enix: Final Fantasy Dimensions feels and looks like a nostalgic 2D title that offers dozens of hours of gameplay. We're very proud of the game and feel that is has the same high quality of a console or handheld platform title.

We wanted to provide players flexibility in the way they experienced Dimensions by letting them download the prologue for free, and then offering each chapter as an incremental in-app purchase. If players did not want to invest the time and energy into completing the game, they were able to make that decision at no cost. However, if they wanted to experience the full game, they could either purchase the chapters individually as they progressed or as a bulk download at a reduced cost.

We've been very pleased with the community feedback we've received regarding players' experiences and the game itself.

I worry that Square might be missing the point here. The chapter system is a smart way to divide content, but many players hate feeling like they have to pay money in order to keep playing a game. It's that sort of FarmVille-esque model that has turned countless gamers against Zynga, the company that popularized it.

Most interested players will just buy the full package, at $30. That's what I did. And I don't regret it: in fact, if Dimensions cost closer to $10 or $15, I'd be shouting from the rooftops, screaming for old-school RPG fans to come check it out. Instead, every recommendation has to come with an asterisk. Play this game... if you don't mind spending $30 on something that looks straight out of RPG Maker.

Kotaku: The U.S. version of Demons' Score is $6.99, with $37 in additional paid content. The Japanese version is only around $20 for all of that content. Why is the U.S. version so much more expensive?

Square Enix: We wanted to offer U.S. players the opportunity to purchase and experience Demons' Score at a lower price than the Japanese version. This allowed U.S. players the opportunity to play the game and decide whether or not they wished to proceed by purchasing additional IAPs as they progressed within the game.

It's too bad Square dodged this question. Hard to tell what they were thinking here.

Kotaku: Why doesn't Square Enix use universal applications for iOS? If I spend $20 to buy The World Ends With You on my iPhone, why shouldn't I be able to play it on my iPad too?

Square Enix: Depending on the device, some games may or may not be universally compatible. Moving forward, we plan to do our best to accommodate games that are universally compatible.

Again, too bad they're not giving us straighter answers here. Universal applications are extremely common, and it's infuriating that Square wants me to pay ~$20 for a game on my iPhone and then another ~$20 for that same game remade in HD for my iPad. And again, maybe this would be less awful if it didn't cost so much damn money.

Look, it's great that Square Enix is cornering the mobile market. I love playing RPGs on my iPad, and Square has pretty much mastered the whole "no buttons" problem—once you get the hang of the touchscreen controls in games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Dimensions, they're delightful to play. Some ports, like The World Ends With You, actually feel better on a touchscreen than they did on consoles.

But Square, like many Japanese companies in 2012, needs to realize that the type of fundamental gameplan that worked ten years ago won't work today. We have different expectations. More options. And nobody needs to play Square Enix games like they did back in the 90s, when Final Fantasy VII and other Square classics helped turn the PlayStation into a gaming giant. The tepid response to Final Fantasy Dimensions is proof of that.

Square needs to be looking at Steam, at Xbox Live, at Torchlight 2, at all the companies that have found massive success charging affordable prices for their games. Valve's Gabe Newell has talked quite a bit about how discounts make game sales jump astronomically. They also build fan loyalty. They get us wanting to support those game makers. They encourage gamers that companies are on our side.

As Square Enix is happy to admit, the market is evolving. But they need to do a better job keeping up. Or they're going to be left behind.

Did you ever go to school with a kid that was way too into horses? Like, waaaaaay too into horses? I'm talking about the kind of kid who has horse posters on the wall, a horse lunchbox and a horse backpack. Because Fable: The Journey feels like a game made by and for that kid. Throw in janky, motion-controlled combat, and you get the most horrifyingly confusing entry in the series to date.

Going into Lionhead Studio's latest Xbox 360 exclusive, Kinect-only installment of the Fable series, I guess I was naively expecting a Fable game. What I was not expecting was a stagecoach simulator that makes me self-inflict a repetitive stress injury half the time. Perhaps I should have known better.

I would not be exaggerating if I said that fifty percent of the gameplay is focused around your horse. For half of the game you're driving a stagecoach between pre-determined paths by holding motion-controlled reins. During the more placid parts of the journey, you're not actively doing anything: You can put your hands down when the horse is going in the right direction, occasionally making course corrections to pick up experience orbs. When the road gets rough, the experience becomes a podracing game; using the Kinect to steer your carriage away from obstacles on the road.

You can also stop to magically heal your horse, feed him apples, brush the dirt off of him and make sure he's got water. Side note: Have I mentioned this game has a lot of horse gameplay in it?

WHY: Fable: The Journey is a frustrating, inaccurate and exhausting experience that I cannot recommend to anyone.

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Fable: The Journey

Developer: Lionhead Studios
Platforms: Xbox 360 with Kinect
Released: October 9

Type of game: Kinect-only Rail Shooter/Carriage Simulator

What I played: Played the entire game to completion, roughly 12 hours including every optional side-path offered to me.

Things I Liked

• Brushing the horse was kinda nice.
• The brief moments when the Kinect understood me and the combat worked.

Two Things I Hated

• Sitting at my couch, realizing I was a grown man driving an imaginary carriage.
• The sensation of my arm giving out after trying to throw a switch fifteen times and missing.

Made-to-Order Back-of-Box Quotes

• "Fable: The Journey is possibly the greatest carriage-riding simulator you'll play all day." —Chris Person , Kotaku.com
• "Accurately simulates sitting behind a unbathed horse at 10 miles an hour with a blind woman". —Chris Person, Kotaku.com

The plot goes something like this: You're a charming, cockney raggamuffin named Gabriel who dreams of being an adventurer with his best friend, (a horse named) Seren. You're brushing your horse one day when your friend comes over and tells you to stop talking to your horse and start driving your carriage in the caravan. You end up falling asleep at the reins (of your horse), and are separated from your group. Lightning strikes the only functioning bridge to the city you have to get to, and you're then forced to drive (your horse) through the nastiest part of the Fable universe.

While there, you pick up Theresa the Seer and narrowly escape a creeping, unknown evil known as the Devourer. Upon escaping, you find out that your horse has been fatally wounded by the evil entity, and that the only hope of saving your horse is a pair of magical gauntlets that may or may not turn you into a hero. You then have to drive your poisoned, dying horse who's still carrying two people and a 3000 pound house to a mystical cave of secrets where you are given the ability to shoot lightning bolts out of one hand and Force-push creatures and objects. It is at that point that you are told that you are humanity's last hope.

From then on the game falls into a very basic pattern: You drive your carriage down a predetermined road, stopping occasionally to fight bad guys, explore temples, take care of your horse & fight optional road-side missions. There is no real exploration or sense of choice, aside from the ability to steer your horse or to lean from side to side during combat.

If the combat in the game worked liked it was supposed to, there might be something to it. The problem is it doesn't: No matter where I played it or how many times I calibrated it, the Kinect struggled to accurately register what I was doing more than half the time. This is infuriating enough when you're trying to kill monsters, but you'll really start to pull your hair out when the game throws simple puzzles at you and it takes you fifteen tries just to flip a simple wall-switch.

I think the most puzzling thing about the game is how very un-Fable the basic premise of it feels. What has always defined Fable as a series is choice: Choice between good and evil, marriage partners, play-style, etc. Fable: The Journey is the polar opposite: A motion controlled, on-rails hybrid of Time Crisis and the Desert Bus segment from Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. It feels like a mini-game Peter Molyneux thought of and scrapped, except given a budget.

That this game fails is not entirely Lionhead Studio's fault. As far as big budget, Kinect-only games go, it's a better narrative experience than Steel Battalion or Star Wars: Kinect ever could be, and when the combat does work, it feels good. The problem is that the very idea of making a hardcore Kinect game is flawed. The Kinect is an interface that works best when used sparingly and forgivingly in short bursts; in non-intrusive party games like Dance Central and as an accompaniment to other games like Skyrim. Asking the player to play a full game using exhausting motion controls does not make for a fun experience and even if the game controlled accurately and the Kinect worked like it was supposed to, it still wouldn't.

If there is one overwhelming theme to gaming in 2012, it seems to be the rise of eSports and competitive PvP. MOBAs attract millions of players and tens or even hundreds of millions of watchers logged into livestreams. Prize pools for competitions grow ever larger, and more and more games are jumping into the fray. Including, apparently, Guild Wars 2.

For players like me, GW2 is primarily about the PvE experience—the normal arc of leveling a character from 1 to 80 and exploring the world and story while I'm at it. However, GUild Wars 2 also includes a fairly robust PvP experience, and today ArenaNet announced the first steps they're taking to build it out into a competitive esport experience.

In addition to the current free automated tournaments, the baseline PvP that exists in Guild Wars 2 today, ArenaNet is adding a system of paid automated tournaments, designer Jonathan Sharp explained on the game's site. The paid tournaments require tournament tickets, which can be purchased or won in free tournaments, but award not only more tickets, but also gems, the secondary currency used in GW2's real-money shop.

Teams training for paid tournaments will also be able to rent and use custom arenas, Sharp said. The arenas can be set to public or private, and can be used for training, practice, and so on.

Although ArenaNet is moving slowly and carefully on adding features to the game, clearly they have the end intention of making Guild Wars 2 into a name on the streaming scene. ESports, Sharp said, are, "a big part of how we think here at ArenaNet." He continued:

We design sPvP maps with commentators in mind. We think about streaming and how our game will do on streams when being learned by new players. We watch eSport replays/streams in the office. We watch GW2 gamecasts on Youtube. We think about how people will organize tournaments (small and large) within custom arenas. We talk about eSport matches while we're at lunch. We think about how to best get new players into the game, while also making sure professional players have a way to grow their fame. We think about the best way to show high-level matches to the masses. Really…we just think a lot about eSports. Not just for GW2, but we think about growing eSports around the world.

Paid tournaments and custom arenas are coming online "in the near future," so if you want to turn your skill into gem rewards, now's the time to find four friends and start your team.

Structured Player vs. Player: The Iceberg [Guild Wars 2 official site]

AOL's destination for competitive casual gaming features more than 5,000 games to play. Today a sleek new multi-platform redesign for Games.com makes it much easier for players to find and play them.

The problem with having several thousand web-based games in one spot is giving users a way to sort through and discover them without leaving them overwhelmed. That was a problem with the old Games.com. There was a search box, but if you didn't know what you were searching for it wasn't that helpful. There was a featured games selection, but who chooses those? Certainly not the end user. The new games section was helpful, but did nothing to highlight the older titles on the site.

Games.com general manager John Fox wanted to change all that. During a recent interview he talked about a Games.com that would bring to bear the full power of the AOL brand to attract players while giving independent developers an easy means to publish and monetize their offerings. Back before the days of the world wide web AOL was one of the only online destinations for gaming—it was America Online, CompuServe or Prodigy. One of those is still around.

But before Games.com can become an even bigger force in the casual gaming space, it has to be more accessible, so here we are.

What's new? For one, the page has been optimized in HTML 5 to conform to any browser window, from a widescreen monitor to your cell phone. Games are displayed in dynamic boxes, flowing about the screen to conform to your view.

Next to the search box at the top of the page there's the arbitrarily picked Game of the Day and the new site's coolest feature, Random Game. Hitting the button shuffles through the entirety of the Games.com library and sends you to a title that, odds being what they are, you probably never heard of. This is easily the most compelling feature of the site—it's a little addictive.

Finally we've got a bar on the right side that displays your user info, leaderboards, and game suggestions—recommendations based on the titles you play the most.

It's a pretty drastic change, and it's definitely one for the better. The impenetrable curtain of curious casual titles has parted, giving players looking for a quick fix several options to get into a game and... well, I'd say get out but seeing as the site has an average of 29 minutes per visit, leaving might be a little tough.

And it doesn't look like John Fox plans on making it any easier in the future. The new Games.com is a great place to get a quick casual single or multiplayer fix and an attractive destination for independent developers, and it's only getting better.

Starting at 1pm ET, 10am PT folks from the Maxis studio behind The Sims 3 and next year's very promising SimCity revival are going going to be showing off the newest stuff in their games.

This is a two hour event and at some point, the Maxis folks have promised, they're going to be playing SimCity live. Plus, they'll have developer roundtables, news and more... but, yeah, the SimCity gameplay should be the highlight.

Watch it in the UStream player below.

Live video by Ustream

Players on both the 360 and PC platforms (PS3 seems to also now be available appears to not be available for download yet) are reporting bug issues with the latest patch and download necessary to play as Borderlands 2's latest character, Gaige.

According to threads on both the official Gearbox forums and Giant Bomb's, some players are experiencing a loss of their Badass rank, which was actually a problem players had even before this update. Whether this is a return of the bug, or simply previously unaffected players experiencing the bug for the first time isn't clear.

Others are reporting more extensive issues, like the loss of character skins, golden keys, and full saves.

We've tried replicating the problem on our end on the Xbox 360, but everything appears in order. Let us know if you have problems in the discussions below, and maybe hold off on downloading the patch and Mechromancer until this clears up.

Update: Mike Fahey says his progress on the PC version seems just fine, too.

We've reached out to 2K on the matter and will update if we hear back.

Update: 2K responded to Kotaku with this official statement, clarifying that the patch/Mechromancer download that released today have nothing to do with the bugs in question:

2K and Gearbox have been working steadily to fix a bug reported to us by fans that resets Badass Rank, and while this bug has only been affecting a very small number of players worldwide and does not affect the ability to play Borderlands 2, addressing this issue is still very important to us. We ask that players who have experienced this issue to email us at profiles@gearboxsoftware.com with as many details as possible to help us gather additional information so that we can squash this reported bug.

Coincidentally, a patch was released today and the fifth playable character class, Gaige the Mechromancer, became available for purchase and download today across PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC via Steam. The patch and the Mechromancer downloadable character class are in no way related to the Badass Rank issue, and fans can feel confident when downloading either item. A further compatibility update will follow in the coming days to address connectivity issues between those who have the Mechromancer and those who do not. Full release notes for today's patch can be read here: Xbox 360, PS3, PC.

We still haven't heard a peep from Square Enix's North American offices about Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, a lovely-looking 3DS RPG that's out in Japan this week.

Which is a real shame. I really want to play it.

Yesterday, RPGLand posted an interesting interview with Bravely Default producer Tomoya Asano. It's got a lot of neat details about the game, but more importantly, it has this little nugget:

RPGLand: Is there anything you'd like to say to our readers, in closing?

Mr. Asano: I know that we don't have plans to bring the game over to America yet, but thank you for your interest in the game. Keep talking about it on Facebook and Twitter, and keep watching for new info from us!

You heard the man. Let's never shut up about Bravely Default: Flying Fairy (and its ridiculous title) until Square agrees to bring it here. Deal?

Bravely Default "Now THAT's an RPG!" – Square Enix Interview with RPG Land [RPGLand]

Gearbox surprised fans with an early release of the Mechromancer DLC that was originally planed for an October 16th release. But instead we get it a week early.

And get it you should, because the Mechromancer is a powerful, versatile, spunky character with an amazing robotic bodyguard at her disposal.

But a specific time when the DLC would be available wasn't initially announced. So this is your friendly public service announcement that you should now be able to download the DLC from the game's menu (we've tried on PC and Xbox 360). Let us know if there are any difficulties!

Update: Proceed download with caution.

With DJMax Technika Tune bringing a different take on Korea's premiere rhythm game to the PlayStation Vita later this month, fans of the original can score a heavy dose of track-based tapping with DJMax Ray on the iPhone, if they don't mind dealing with a bit of bugginess.

DJMax Ray is essentially an evolution of Neowiz's Tap Sonic, a DJMax derivative, with a few tweaks and without the need to connect to the internet to play. Downloading the free app gives players immediate access to four songs, with a fifth unlocked by completing all the challenges associated with that song pack. Five additional songs packs are available for $1.99 apiece, bringing the grand total to $10 for a selection of 30 different songs, each with three track settings (4, 5 and 6 line) and three difficulties.

Gameplay consists of tapping the bottom portion of the screen as notes descend. There are simple tap notes, sustained notes, and the diabolical slide notes, which require the player to follow a jagged path of notes in a line.

All the earmarks of a good DJMax game are here—brutal difficulty, gorgeous artwork and an eclectic mix of music. It's everything I wanted from a mobile entry in the series.

And a bit buggy.

I've lost my challenge progress three times since I started playing. I've had to remind the game that I purchased all the song packs at least three times. It's amazingly frustrating not being able to just boot up and play without worrying about losing everything.

But I still play, and I play ravenously. The problems with the title are pretty substantial, but it still gives me what I need. It's an abusive relationship, but I can handle it.

DJMax Ray - Free [iTunes]

Lots of reviews have compared Dishonored to Valve's classic Half-Life 2. Both titles enjoy richly-drawn gameworlds with play mechanics that let you get creative. And they've both got lead characters who don't talk. So, you'd figure that Gordon Freeman served as a model for Dishonored's Corvo, right? Not exactly.

"I hate what Valve does with the silent protagonist," said Austin Grossman, who served as writer on Arkane's action/stealth hybrid. "I find it incredibly awkward and really creepy. I find Gordon Freeman creepy as hell. The difference between Dishonored and how it works in Half-Life 2 is that it's a lot more personal. I think you get that involvement because the character has personal relationships with people from the beginning. And it's very clear that people have fucked with you in a very personal way."

Grossman offered these opinions to me when I spoke to him over the phone last week, and he made it clear that he was speaking solely for himself and not for either developer Arkane or publisher Bethesda. When I noted that Valve's crowbar-wielding hero gets a lot of people talking at him, Grossman agreed and took it a bit further. "It's people talking at him, about him and sometimes even for him. He just happens to be in the middle of this whole thing."

"I'm biased, of course, but I think Dishonored grips you much more viscerally, more emotionally. And that's on purpose. Corvo doesn't talk and I think it works because everybody knows what Corvo would have to say," Grossman continued. "His actions form a sort of speech, something like "If I could kill the people who screwed with me… And if that includes you, then I'm going to kill you right now."

Grosman may have a point when comparing Corvo to Gordon. To be fair, more is shown of Corvo's relationships in Dunwall than of Freeman's in his backstory. But you could also argue Corvo's quest for vengeance is a much more personal motivator than Gordon Freeman's guilt. Part of the reason why one silence feels so different from the other might lie in the protagonist's backstories, too. If Freeman's muteness carries an element of cold detachment, it might be because he's a scientist who's been shifted through time and space. And Corvo's quiet could seem like it contains more menace because we're told he's an assassin. Still, silence is golden in each instance, even if each game finds its shine a different way.