Wired columnist and Smarter Than You Think author Clive Thompson posted some thoughts on his blog about Jesper Juul’s fab book The Art of Failure. It’s a nice reminder of why we love to lose, and of how amazing(ly hard) Robotron 2084 is.

Speaking of losing, do y’all know how difficult Donkey Kong Country Returns was? Its sequel is coming this fall compliments of Retro Studios, and Jeremy Parish of US Gamer spoke with producer Kensuke Tanabe and others about the big ape’s reprisal.

Even though E3 is over a week in the past, i.e., ancient internet history, we can’t stop thinking about the big Sony vs. Microsoft showdown. Remember with us as games aficionado Conan O’Brien reports from the showfloor without being creepy one bit. (Or just read the transcript.)

Send in the demon lawyers: Atlus, publishers of the Persona series and Catherine, among many other favorites from the East, are in possible financial trouble as their owner goes through what’s called “Civil Rehabilitation,” a kind of Japanese bankruptcy.

John Carmack spits some wisdom about Doom, iD software, and how Nintendo almost changed the course of first-person shooters forever.

Barcelona held their annual Gamelab event yesterday, and Mark Cerny was there to talk up the PS4. By talking down the PS3. R.I.P., Cell processor.

To soothe you as another work-week ends: Behold, Morphopolis.

Don’t forget to floss.