The Electronic Frontier Foundation is making a submission to the US Copyright Office, under the exemptions for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, to legally allow you to mod your game consoles. A previous EFF submission resulted in it being totally legal to jailbreak your iPhone, and so there is reason to believe that their attempt to allow you to alter your consoles stands a good chance of success. Even if the measure works out, however, it would still be illegal to play pirated games on your modded systems. DMCA exemption submissions will be considered in the spring of 2012, so hold in your creative urges until then.

Bethesda has confirmed that their latest game’s full dev tools will release in January. “Beginning in January, PC players will be able to freely download the same development tools we used at Bethesda Game Studios to create Skyrim,” said the developer on its blog today. Green to tool development? Fear not; Bethesda added, “in tandem with the Creation Kit’s release, we will roll out a new Wiki and videos to help you get started.” The kit will also integrate Steam Workshop, which will allow you to publish your creations for others to download.

A t-shirt has been spotted by Chandana Ekanayak, art director and executive producer at Uber Entertainment – the studio behind Super Monday Night Combat – who posted a picture of it on Twitter along with this message: “All I’m saying is I saw this at a local game developer event worn by a Valve employee.” Ekanayak used the hashtag #ValveTrolling, rightly pointing out this could be Valve fanning the flames of desire with some good old trolling. Adding fuel to these rumours was Valve’s recently leaked DOTA 2 beta client by a tester. In it was a folder called “ep3″ and resources for new weapons for the game.

The full list of changes and add-ons for World of Warcraft version 4.3, entitled Hour of Twilight, has gone up on Blizzard’s blog. New dungeons, raids and items have all been added. Specific new features include the new Raid Finder, Transmogrification, which allows for gear customization, and Void Storage, which provides access to deeper storage. There’s also the Darkmoon Faire which features new quests, recipes, toys, souvenirs, achievements, titles, and more. There should be enough here to keep the most enthusiastic WoW player happy.

Seattle-based developer Zipper Interactive has announced that it is developing a new shooter for the PlayStation Vita called Unit 13. The game will allow players to choose one of six operatives in the game, each with unique abilities, as they fight through 36 missions across nine locations. Unit 13 also utilizes the Vita’s WiFi and 3G capabilities in a variety of ways, including leaderboards and co-op play.

Diablo III director Jay Wilson has confirmed that the development team isn’t planning to simply port the game to consoles. “We don’t want to port it,” Wilson said. “We want to build it for console. Our goal is to make a game that feels like it’s natively made for a console. If we make it, we want it to feel like a Blizzard game and that we built it for that platform from the ground up.” Wilson also admitted that Blizzard has never invested in consoles to the degree it plans to with Diablo III.

An intrepid Skyrim explorer has travelled beyond the invisible walls of the game and discovered that Bethesda has included Morrowind and Cyrodiil in the game’s already vast landmass. The lone adventurer, who posted his findings on Tumblr, journeyed to Stendarr’s Beacon, located at the south-eastern edge of Skyrim, along a path that comes to an end at a stone archway and an invisible wall. The land beyond that point is Morrowind. It seems that Bethesda has actually gone to the trouble of recreating these other lands, albeit in a scaled-down, low-res form. One would expect that future expansion packs may well open up these closed off areas!

World of Warcraft is seven years old. To celebrate, Blizzard is giving away a “Celebration Package.” The package consists of a few fireworks, a “feat of strength” added to your achievements, a tabard and a 7% bonus to experience and reputation gains while active. To get the package, you’ll need to log in between now and December 3. Happy birthday WoW!

The first batch of Dead Island DLC, “Bloodbath Arena,” will arrive on November 22. The DLC adds a survival mode, pitting you and your friends against waves of zombies in four different arenas. Survival mode can also be played solo. A new weapon, dubbed the “brain wave bomb,” is rumored to make an appearance in the DLC as well. Leaderboards are also promised, as is the ability to carry experience earned in survival over to the campaign. Bloodbath Arena will cost 800 MS points or $9.99, but will be free to anyone who pre-ordered the original game.

Atlus has announced a Game of Thrones action-RPG for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, which is due to be released early in 2012. The game will be made in collaboration with HBO and Cyanide Studios, who worked on the Game of Thrones RTS. The press release states:

“In this 30-plus hour action RPG, players will enter the gritty and medieval fantasy world of Westeros. As one of two original characters with disparate motivations, both former soldiers of Robert’s Rebellion, players will forge alliances and wage battles as they play a pivotal role in the ongoing war for power of the Seven Kingdoms. Their journey will span numerous quests, during which they will interact with many characters and make key decisions that impact the realm.”

Fans will also be pleased that George R R Martin, author of the A Song of Ice & Fire series, will supervise the story to make sure it stays faithful to the series. You can find out more at the official website for the Game of Thrones RPG.

BioShock Infinite takes place on Columbia, an enormous airship city in the sky. It was created by the American government in 1900 as a symbol of exceptionalism, and launched as a floating “World’s Fair” that could travel across the globe. After an incident where the airship fired upon a group of Chinese civilians, the United States disowned it and Columbia took to the clouds.

Like BioShock, Infinite is predominantly a first-person shooter with a few RPG elements added in. In Infinite you play as Booker DeWitt, a former agent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, who has been sent to Columbia to rescue a lady named Elizabeth. She’s been kept aboard the floating city for the last 12 years, and although DeWitt finds her quickly, he discovers that both sides are trying to use her mysterious ability to create tears in space and time to break the stalemate that has paralyzed the city.

Take-Two announced today that XCOM, which was projected for a March release, has been delayed until sometime between April 2012 and March 2013. Take-Two hasn’t provided an explanation for this new delay, though it could be that it doesn’t want XCOM to not get lost in the release of a few other shooters, including The Darkness II and Max Payne 3. The delay, while upsetting to gamers, was received with some relief from the world’s cattle population.

Earlier today, Bethesda’s Community Manager Nick Breckton revealed that there will be a day one PC patch for Skyrim when it is released this Friday. The patch for Skyrim on consoles went live today for those who already own the game. Bethesda revealed the details of the 1.1 patch and confirmed the patch fixes “some minor stability” and “quest progression issues.” For those who are picking up Skyrim Friday, you can expect to download the patch immediately to your console. The patch will be available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

According to this Canadian GameStop page, Diablo III has a release date of February 1, 2012. The collector’s edition is being sold for $99.99. The collector’s edition will include the game itself, exclusive in-game content, a behind-the-scenes DVD & Blu-Ray, the soundtrack, an art book, and a 4GB USB drive shaped like a Soulstone.

Despite predictions that Lego Universe would have a bright future after its launch, things are looking far more grim. The Lego Group has announced that the game will end in the new year, on January 31. Lego Universe vice president Jesper Vilstrup addressed the decision to close the game, saying that although it has a healthy user base of 2 million players, the company simply has not been able to set up a satisfactory revenue model for its target user group. Specifically, it has proved difficult getting gamers to make the leap from the title’s free-play zone and into content reserved for paying subscribers. More serious perhaps will be the casualties of this closure, Colorado-based Play Well Studios, along with Lego Universe‘s marketing division located in Denmark. A total of 115 positions will be affected. The Lego Group said it looks forward to future projects in the digital space.