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The Madden franchise may not be known for significant core changes in its every iteration, but Electronic Arts hopes its investment in Madden NFL 13 will buck that trend. EA Sports executive Andrew Wilson said in an interview with GamesIndustry International that the series has fallen short when it comes to fresh thinking.

“I do believe that Madden did not have the level of innovation that some of our other franchises have had,” Wilson said. “I think [Madden games] were still doing great things, they were great playing games and they were significantly more than roster updates.” He said the team behind the core gameplay in this year’s edition was 50 percent larger than last year, and the budget was the largest ever in the series’ 20-year history. The game’s new Infinity engine, which allows procedurally generated animations to affect the outcome of plays, is chief among the in-game alterations, as well as Kinect voice support before and during plays. Peripheral elements such as connected-careers mode and online seasons have also received attention.

EA’s earnings report released last week revealed that preorder figures for Madden NFL 13 are up 25 percent from last year’s edition, but Wilson said the franchise still needs to stay on its toes. “We recognize a need to fundamentally innovate in Madden. We have a brand new leadership team: Cam Weber, Roy Harvey and these guys. Roy Harvey did a fantastic job with NCAA; he made it the best football game on the market at the time. I think he did it this year with Madden.”

BioWare has revealed the upcoming Wii U version of Mass Effect 3 will use an interactive comic to give players the opportunity to get up to speed on the series’ backstory and characters, and carry forward in-game decisions.

In an interview with GotGame, BioWare’s Melanie Faulknor told the site that since Wii U owners will not be getting the first two Mass Effect games, a Dark Horse-created interactive comic will guide players through the first two titles, and allow them to make story choices that will carry forward when they begin Mass Effect 3. No specific details were provided on how the story branching will work.

During the interview, Faulknor said the Wii U version of Mass Effect 3 will be developed by an external third party developer with previous Nintendo experience.

Last month, EA revealed the Wii U version of Mass Effect 3 will come bundled with the Extended Cut DLC; it was also revealed BioWare is preparing new single-player DLC for the game, most likely centering on Commander Shepard.

The Wii U is due out worldwide this holiday season, but Nintendo has yet to announce a price or a release date for the console. Speculation regarding the platform’s release window has ranged from November to December, and Nintendo has promised a “reasonable” price for the console.

After significant speculation spread over the span of years, Microsoft has finally spoken on-record about its next Xbox. During an interview with The Verge focused on Microsoft’s new Outlook email service (embedded below), general manager Brian Hall name-dropped a “new Xbox.”

“We’ve had Hotmail and operated Hotmail for about 16 years, we obviously have Exchange, and Outlook, that people use at work. We just decided it was time to do something new and bring the best from each of those and put them together and release it right in time for the new wave of products that we could have coming out with Windows 8, with the new version of Office with the new Windows phone and the new Xbox,” Hall said.

Hall did not share further details on the next Xbox. Windows 8 will launch on October 26 alongside Microsoft’s new Surface tablet line.

[UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, Microsoft issued a statement to GameSpot on the matter.

“Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend the console lifecycle by introducing controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships,” reads a line from the statement. “We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention.”

The analyst consensus is that the next Xbox, as well as the PlayStation 4, will be on store shelves for holiday 2013. A recent 56-page document supposedly originating from Microsoft said the next Xbox would launch in 2013 at $299 bundled with the second iteration of Kinect, among other updates. As for the PS4, PlayStation executive Andrew House said in June that Sony’s new console would not be shown until a “significant leap” over the PlayStation 3 could be demonstrated.

THQ has given up on inSane. In a post-earnings conference call today, THQ president Jason Rubin announced that Volition has stopped preproduction on the Guillermo del Toro game collaboration and returned all the rights to the intellectual property to the filmmaker. Originally announced in 2010, InSane was not expected to debut in the market until as late as 2014.

InSane is the latest in a string of high-profile cancellations and reconfigurations for THQ this year. The publisher had already washed its hands of Devil’s Third, returning all rights to the game’s developers, Tomonobu Itagaki and his team at Valhalla Studios. On top of that, THQ took its long-in-development massively multiplayer online role-playing game Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millenium and announced it was converting it to a more traditional RPG, laying off 118 employees in the process.

Beyond the InSane cancellation, Rubin also said THQ would not be pursuing any future casual Facebook or mobile games, instead focusing all its efforts on the core gamer market. Although THQ last year sold off its THQ Wireless division, it has stayed involved in the Facebook and mobile markets with efforts like the Jimmy Buffet-licensed social game Margaritaville Online and the WWE arcade-style title WrestleFest HD.

The cancellation of Insane may overshadow some good news for THQ, as the publisher today posted its first profit for a quarter since the final three months of 2009. For the three months ended June 30, THQ posted a net profit of $15.4 million. However, sales for the quarter were down roughly 32 percent year-over-year, with THQ reporting net revenues of $133.7 million. THQ’s results also included a $4.3 million expense “related to decisions made to cancel or reconfigure titles,” a charge executives said in the call included Insane, but not Devil’s Third (which hit the books in the preceding quarter).

Despite DICE’s encouraging comments last year on the potential of the Wii U, the Battlefield developer has reportedly stopped work on a version of Battlefield 3 for Nintendo’s console.

According to Wii U Daily, which cites an anonymous source, EA and DICE began work on a Wii U version of Battlefield 3, but stopped late last year, due to a “feud” with Nintendo over Origin’s integration on the Wii U.

The site reported that the development team from the shelved project was merged into the team working on Battlefield 4, which is reportedly working on a “straight port” of the game for the Wii U, featuring touchscreen controls.

The site’s source also reportedly told Wii U Daily that it remains unknown whether DICE is working on next-gen versions of Battlefield 4.

Last month, EA confirmed that it is working on Battlefield 4, and that a beta for the game will take place in late 2013. Gamers can secure a spot in the beta by pre-ordering Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which is set to debut in October.

GameSpot contacted EA for comment. The publisher replied:

“This is an old rumour. Battlefield 3 is available for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The exclusive Battlefield 4 beta will be available in […] 2013. Additional details regarding Battlefield 4 will be revealed at a later date.”

Ubisoft hosted multiplayer beta periods for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, but no such pre-release trial will be held for this October’s Assassin’s Creed III. Explaining the decision to XboxGameZone, Ubisoft Annecy multiplayer game director Damien Kieken said that while betas can be helpful, they also take up time that he said would be better spent adding more elements to the game.

“To be honest, it’s something we want to do every year because we get community feedback that helps us tune the game. It is also a good reward for the community that has followed us from the beginning. But doing a beta takes a lot of time,” Kieken said. “We’d need to polish a version, submit it to the platform holders and support it when it’s out. And all the time put into the beta doesn’t go into the final game. Because we wanted to push so many things into the game, we took the hard decision to favor the final game content instead of doing a beta and we believe it will be favorable in the end.”

Set during the American Revolution, Assassin’s Creed III features a new protagonist with a mixed Native American-English heritage. Named Ratohnhake:ton but going by Connor, the hero of Assassin’s Creed III will inject himself into the ongoing struggle between the Templars and the Assassins. The game is being built by Ubisoft Montreal and six collaborating studios on a new engine called Ubisoft-AnvilNext.

Assassin’s Creed III will arrive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on October 30. A Wii U version is also in development, though its release date remains unknown. For more on Assassin’s Creed III, check out GameSpot’s latest preview.

Over the weekend, Ubisoft forum user blueobelix posted a “leaked screenshot” to the official Ubisoft forums, claiming it comes from a new entry in the Prince of Persia series. The screenshot (below right) is labeled “POP_ZERO_2” and its focus is a muscular, dark-skinned character.

The screenshot appears to stem from an early build, as the image shows the game running at 13 frames-per-second, suggesting the game is not ready to be shown publicly.

In a 2010 interview with CVG, former Ubisoft art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête used the term Prince of Persia Zero as an internal title for the 2008 reboot-like action game.

The “POP_ZERO_2” screenshot would seem to indicate an additional reboot or series spinoff or simply the second in a series of images. A Ubisoft representative told GameSpot, “Ubisoft does not comment on rumors and speculation.”

In February, a supposed Ubisoft 2012 release calendar indicated a new Prince of Persia game would ship in 2012. Ubisoft called this schedule inaccurate.

The Prince of Persia series has been dormant since 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. A film–Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time–released in May 2010, but fell short.

LucasArts president Paul Meegan has stepped down from his role at the game publisher, a statement from parent company Lucasfilm provided to Polygon reveals. Meegan joined LucasArts in June 2010, and oversaw the launch of Lego Star Wars III, the reveal of Star Wars 1313 in May, and was responsible for general Stars Wars brand management.

“Development on all current LucasArts projects will proceed,” reads a line from Lucasfilm’s statement. “Paul has been a valuable member of the Lucasfilm leadership team and we wish him the best in his future endeavors. We remain committed to our current projects and will be re-evaluating LucasArts’ leadership needs to ensure that we make the right decisions to keep the studio focused.”

In his own statement, Meegan said LucasArts has “come a long away” and he is “extremely proud” of what the teams at the studio have accomplished. He said there are a number of projects that have yet to be announced, and that he wishes the company “all the best” moving forward.

Before joining LucasArts, Meegan served as CEO at Epic Games China, where his duties included outsourcing Epic’s game development and content production services, as well as licensing the Unreal Engine in greater China and southeast Asia.

In addition to his work at Epic Games China, Meegan has served as executive vice president of production at Ubisoft Shanghai, studio director at Jaleco Entertainment, executive vice president at Ubisoft Montreal, and as president and founder of Sinister Games, Inc, which was obtained by Ubisoft in 2000.

LucasArts has not yet said who will replace Meegan as president.

Meegan’s departure from LucasArts follows news from last month, when creative director Clint Hocking announced he was planning to leave the company after two years. Hocking now works at Half-Life and Portal studio Valve.

Bethesda’s upcoming stealth-action game Dishonored will be the latest to tap Hollywood voice talent to bring its characters to life. The publisher announced the voice cast for Dishonored today, revealing Star Wars hero Carrie Fisher, Thelma & Louise actress Susan Sarandon, and a host of others.

Fisher will be heard in Dishonored over a loudspeaker in the game’s city of Dunwall as the broadcaster of government propaganda. Academy Award winner Sarandon will play former aristocrat Granny Rags, an elderly blind woman who has become deranged after years of living on the streets.

Other Hollywood actors lending their voices to Dishonored include Brad Dourif (Lord of the Rings, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest), who will take on the role of an inventor named Piero. This character creates a number of devices that main character Corvo can use.

Rounding out the voice talent for Dishonored is John Slattery (Mad Men, The Adjustment Bureau), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy), Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Hugo), and Lena Headey (300, Imagine Me & You).

Bethesda also announced today that the he soundtrack for Dishonored was composed by Daniel Licht, who previously provided music work for Dexter and Body of Proof.

Set for release on October 9 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, Dishonored is a first-person action game that puts players in the boots of Corvo, an assassin tasked with protecting the empress of a stylized steampunk city known as Dunwall. When the empress is murdered and Corvo framed for the killing, sinister forces grant the accused assassin supernatural abilities to pursue his revenge.

For more on Dishonored, check out GameSpot’s latest preview.