Yes, Telltale has finally launched its website for Sam and Max Season 3: The Devil's Playhouse.

The site includes the recently-leaked-and-then-removed official season trailer, plus several screenshots from the first episode, whose title is, as we had already guessed, The Penal Zone. Incidentally, a couple of the new images showcase the new direct control system in action!

The website also includes the names of all five episodes in the season.

• Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak
• Episode 3: They Stole Max's Brain!
• Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls
• Episode 5: The City That Dares Not Sleep

Also of note: The Tales of Monkey Island Collector's DVD is finally available to pre-order!

As well, there's now a boatload of new Monkey Island merchandise available, including a second set of TMI buttons, a replica of the Voodoo Lady's tarot card set, a TMI drinking mug, a TMI T-shirt, a portfolio of concept art by Telltale's Ryan Church, and best of all, a "treasure chest" of TMI swag. This last item includes, among other things, a replica Piece of Eight, a "Trial of the Century-y-y-y" souvenir button, and a copy of Reginald Van Winslow's beloved map.

The trailer that leaked earlier for Telltale's Sam and Max Season 3 (aka The Devil's Playhouse) claimed the first part of the five-episode season would come out in April. Now IGN brings us word that the first chapter's release date is, more specifically, April 15.

Apparently, Season 3 will come with an in-game notebook designed to get new players up to speed on the events of previous seasons. Also, the article confirms that the direct control scheme which Telltale first debuted in Tales of Monkey Island will now be ported to Sam and Max. Other technical improvements, such as real-time shadows, have also been implemented.

The pre-order price will be $29.95, a five-dollar savings from the standard season price $34.95, much as with other Telltale titles. (As happened with Tales, Telltale will be selling only the season package, not individual episodes.) Plus, as with the Tales pre-orders, those who pre-order will get access to a special forum to chat with the game developers until the first episode goes out.

The series is scheduled to debut on three platforms--PlayStation Network, PC, and Mac--simultaneously. For those who want to experience The Devil's Playhouse on PSN, pre-orders will be available through the PlayStation Store.

Oh, and do beware: the IGN article contains a few SPOILERS for the first episode's beginning.

Edit: Updated to reflect the actual pre-order price, as opposed to IGN's speculation.

Mojo is all about timely reviews. Go read our Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space review, then be enlightened. Again. Because you were probably already enlightened when you first played it.

It pales in comparison to our previous announcements, but at some point in last night's exciting press conference, LucasArts announced that the clothing of various Monkey Island characters would soon be available for your PlayStation Home avatar to wear.

This Joystiq article includes a photo. It appears that most of the costumes are taken from the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition.

Sadly, it would seem that Stan's coat features a realistic plaid pattern! Shocking, we know.

"LeChucks Revenge: Special Edition is official! New puzzles, new enemies, new hair!"

New Puzzles? What?

And... is there an announcement Three?

Update by Jason: While clarification of the features will no doubt come in the morning in the form of a press release and an official site launch, it's been confirmed that, like with Monkey Island 1, there will be full voice acting, and the original game will be included. "Developer commentary" has bizarrely been alluded to as a bonus feature - who knows what that means, but Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert were on-site for the announcement. Also, here's the cover art.

Further Update by ATMachine: According to LucasArts' Twitter feed, MI2:SE will feature voice acting both in the high-resolution updated-graphics mode and in the low-res, original-graphics mode. Plus, Guybrush's hairstyle has been changed, so hopefully there will be fewer complaints about that this time round.

Update 3: According to LucasArts, MI2:SE will be available for PSN, XBLA, Mac, iPhone, and PC.

Update 4: This Joystiq article suggests that the game will be released "this summer." Also, there will be a new direct control scheme implemented in addition to the previously used point-and-click method.

Finally, it notes this about the extra content:

"They've also added never-before-seen art from Peter Chan and Steve Purcell and developer commentary (!) for you Monkey Island fanboys out there (that's you)."

Update 5 by Jason: Official site launched and here's the press release.

LucasArts has revealed via its Twitter account that The Secret of Monkey Island (Special Edition) is heading to the Playstation Network and to Mac. That's "Announcement One", apparently.

Expect more details in the coming hours from the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco.

And bring on "Announcement Two"!

Update by ATMachine: Reports trickling out from the LucasArts press conference suggest that SOMI:SE will soon become available for purchase from Telltale's website. However, this has not been confirmed yet.

Update 2: In addition to the earlier Twitter report, Kotaku has now picked up the news of Telltale selling SOMI:SE in their online store, so it seems pretty official.

The trailer for Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Telltale's latest Sam and Max game, is now up on G4TV.

Of note is that the game is coming to PSN, debuting Telltale's games on the PlayStation - and, err, only to PSN? Well, no, but that's the only logo slapped at the end of the trailer. Anyways, the first of the five episodes hits April (which is embarrassing).

Enjoy! And remember: 100 Mojo Cookie Pirate points for each reference you spot.

Update: Trailer's down! Guess it was put-up too early?

Update by Remster: Former Mojoer and now head of the Telltale Illuminati, Jake, has confirmed on the TTG forums that it was posted before it was supposed to and thus removed.

Graham Annable, formerly of Telltale Games (and who still supplies the Telltale website with Dank/Dunc/Dunk comics) is having a 'best of' book "The Book of Grickle" published by Dark Horse comics.

Comic Book Resources interviews Graham about the publication.

My current main focus is a project I'm hoping to be able to announce sometime in the near future. I'm extremely excited about it and the direction it's been going in. But right now it's all top secret I'm afraid. Kind of a cryptic answer I know, but I really shouldn't say more just yet.

Check it out.

Today is the shipping date for Atari's slightly belated retail release of Sam & Max Behind Beyond Time and Space for the PC and Wii. Head on over to the product's official page for a 20% off deal - both versions retail for a reasonable $19.99, by the way. So, awesome! And I wonder what the exclusive bonus content is?

Incidentally, today is the first day of GDC, and while there are still a number of upcoming conventions for epic reveals to be spaced out across, I would expect a pretty big announcement or two to be coming our way this week. The only variable when it comes to the LeChuck's Revenge special edition is the "when?" and Telltale still has to launch their The Devil's Playhouse pre-orders and maybe announce the mysterious new series they've been tantalizing about for a year now.

And there's plenty of other possible announcements for both companies to make. Handsome Halibut? More back catalogue re-releases? Those crazy Telltale iPhone rumors? Be sure to keep up with us throughout the week (with your malware software running, ideally) as we keep you on top of all the madness.

As reader BillieJoe86 informs us, Michael Giacchino picked up a golden statuette at last night's Academy Awards for his musical score for Disney/Pixar's Up. In addition to his movie and TV credits, Giacchino is an experienced game composer, having worked on such LucasArts titles as Secret Weapons Over Normandy, Mercenaries, and Thrillville.

Though I'm guessing he wasn't at the ceremony, also worth noting is the fact that Best Animated Feature Film nominee Coraline featured the storyboarding talents of Graham Annable, former LucasArts animator and Telltale Creative Director, not to mention the father of Dank/Dunk.

Eurogamer have put-up a retrospective on the LucasArts classic Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, with special emphasis on how difficult the game was. Alternatively, read Mixnmojo's own retrospective, written a full two years ago - back when Jim Ward was alive!

A couple of minutes ago, I decided to visit the official Deathspank website and see if they had anything new. It didn't look like it; so imagine my surprise when I clicked the play button on the video and found an updated, something-like-70%-different-with-loads-of-new-footage trailer. Talk about silent updates. It starts out the same, but then goes off on a tangent. I think the little demon who laughs was intentionally placed there to make fun of any "Wha-?" noises you may pipe out.

Anyways, you should check it out. Maybe read Mojo's interview with Bay Area Sound afterwards.

It's actually somewhat shameful that it's only now that we're posting an interview with BA Sound, the guys who handle the audio for the titles of LEC as well as Telltale and the other spinoffs.

Depending on the project, their services range from a game's sound design, music composition, and voice direction, and given the particular importance those things have in a story game, and considering that the studio's resume of them is longer than a Double Fine development cycle, it's clear that they're owed a lot for what makes some of our favorite titles so awesome. And that you owe it to yourself to read the interview.

Turns out that following someone's twitter feed benefits more than serial killers. For example, the twitter page of Alexandra Boyd, voice of Elaine Marley, reveals the following February 21st tweet:

Alexandras ep of New Tricks on BBC1 mon 9pm. FROM PARIS WITH LOVE opens fri & new series of Monkey Island starts recording on Tuesday!!

Which would certainly gel with the existence of the all-but-announced Monkey Island 2 special edition. (She probably means "series" of recording sessions - it seems a wee early for this to be Telltale-related.)

Of course, Boyd isn't the only one sharing things best kept behind closed doors. Take David Boyll, voice of Hugh Bliss and Philo Pennyworth (not to mention D'oro the Explorer in Tales), who reveals a disquieting openness about the frequency of his bathroom visits in the latest interview snagged by samandmax.co.uk.

The first word on Monkey Island 2: The Special Edition has emerged from the muddy swamps. We don't usually report rumors, but we can report reporting on rumors. From Kotaku:

We've heard from sources that the game is due to be announced very soon, perhaps even next week at the Game Developer's Conference, and that like the first game's special edition, will contain all-new graphics and audio.

Unlike the first game, however, this one will be reaching a few more consumers, with versions planned for not just the Xbox 360, PC ad iPhone (like Monkey Island), but the PlayStation Network as well.

(Highlights by me.)

There's a lot to look forward to this GDC: Tim Schafer and Sean Vanaman will banter about the funny, Telltale will be there with "big news" (regarding Sam and Max 03? There's no Mr. Featherly in that, by the way), and finally there's the GDC awards that Brutal Legend got nominated in.

Lastly, there was a lot of clamoring yesterday after EA announced the list of consoles they'd be bringing Deathspank to - a list that excluded "PC". This does not mean a PC version is not coming. As EA's Jeff Green said yesterday: "DeathSpank: If you're freaking out about no PC version announce yet, stop freaking out. EA wants as many people as possible to play it..."

It seems that Mixnmojo has been targetted once again by vile hackers: details here.

You may remember that a few years ago some Brazillians hacked into Mojo, essentially killing the site.

A team of Mixnmojo engineers have been dispatched to the server core to try and contain the infection. We wish them the best of luck.

We urge you all NOT TO PANIC. Everything is under control here. DO NOT PANIC.

Update: The "All Clear" signal has been given from our tech experts (Zaarin). It is now safe to visit the site (but not the hosted sites which will still make your computer explode).

We have plugged all the leaks in the code with some more old code that we found in a store room. That should stop the hackers for now (probably).

EA Partners today announced that they will be publishing Ron Gilbert's new downloadable game DeathSpank, for PSN and XBLA. Kotaku has the details and two new screenshots.

Before anyone gets in a flurry over the lack of a PC version, however, please note that this does not mean the game will be console-exclusive. Ron Gilbert has stated, in the past, that the game is also coming to Mac. You PC lovers still have a chance.

Special thanks to Clone2727 for the tip-off on the forums.

Update by Jason: Gamasutra's write-up includes a response from EA regarding a PC version:

Asked about potential PC plans for DeathSpank, a game drawing from genres with strong PC heritage, an EA representative declined to comment conclusively, but told Gamasutra, "EA and Hothead want as many people as possible to experience DeathSpank," and advised gamers "not to read too much into the [announced] SKUs just yet."]

While it's heartbreaking to think that we won't get anymore Bone games from Telltale, the epic saga's upcoming animated film version seems to be chugging along nicely. The evidence is this new interview with Jeff Smith. Although it admittedly doesn't offer a wealth of information you don't already know if you've been following the production along with us, Smith provides a progress update and describes the level of involvement he will have to ensure that the cinematic adaptation of Bone doesn't turn out calcium deficient:

For more than 10 years, Hollywood has been interested in putting Smith's entertaining epic on the big screen. At one point, Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount held an option. In 2008, Warner Bros. acquired the rights for producer Dan Lin (Sherlock Holmes). Animal Logic, the Australian visual effects company (The Matrix, Happy Feet, 300) will turn Smith’s drawings into CGI. Despite a recent kerfuffle with Warner—a potential train wreck that instead became “one of those fires that gets put out”—Bone, the movie, is on track and a director will soon be announced. Smith is the film’s executive producer. And although he is not writing the screenplay, all quality control decisions pass through him. “I’ve seen everything,” he says. “It’s their project. But they’ve been very good about keeping me in the loop and showing me everything and it’s pretty exciting so far.” He admits that he is “kind of stubborn when it comes to Bone and animation.”

The film will apparently utilize motion capture in some way, though considering the production company's pedigree (Happy Feet), you have to think that there will be plenty of, erm, "traditional 3D animation" involved as well.

A new interview with Telltale CEO Dan Connors has been published by Develop. Dan hints at the ways his studio will continue to evolve the episodic format, and he talks a bit about the company's future as well:

What's next?

We're looking to engage more franchises, including those that are more topical and relevant in the current entertainment world.

Sounds like we can expect to see Telltale working on something super high-profile in the near future. Anyhow, read the whole article for more. Key tidbits include a 1.5 million unit tally for episodes sold so far across all franchises, and the suggestion that The Future could see Telltale deploying on some unconventional channels.

Update by Kroms: Here's a video interview with co-founder Kevin Bruner, which also deals with the future of the company, and a never-seen-before interview with Sean Vanaman ("Muzzled!"), who discusses Wallace and Gromit.