Stephen “Stepto” Toulouse, the former Director of Policy and Enforcement for Microsoft’s Xbox Live service, is rejoining the company as the Director of Community Engagement at Black Tusk Studios, the Microsoft-owned studio currently working on the next Gears of War project.

Jokingly known as the the “Head Banhammer,” as Director of Policy and Enforcement Toulouse was in charge developing and implementing policy for Xbox Live, as well as working with developers, press, and customers.

Toulouse explained that his new role will be key in coordinating gamer feedback into future titles as well as keeping things fun and exciting with existing games.

“I've been shadowing the Gears forums and looking at people’s thoughts,” Toulouse said on his personal blog. “I don’t just want us to make the best next generation Gears of War game ever, I want to make sure that everyone playing the game today feels just as good today and down the road in their investment into our amazing world as we do. There’s a Gears nation out there. I’m a part of it and it’s amazing.”

You can hear more about Toulouse’s return to Microsoft and what he’ll be doing in his new role on the latest Major Nelson podcast.

Valve has revoked an unknown number of Steam keys for the recently released Sniper Elite III after developer and publisher Rebellion said they were stolen from one of its retail distributors.

We still don’t know how many buyers were affected, but at the time of writing the Steam discussion thread where Rebellion made the announcement is almost 700 comments long.

Many of the comments are from understandably angry customers, who didn’t know they were buying stolen keys. As Rebellion explained it to one of these angry buyers on its Facebook page, Rebellion asked Steam to revoke a batch of keys that was stolen from one of its distributors of the retail, hard copy version of the game. Rebellion believes these keys were sold to third-party key resellers like Instant Gaming.

However, a post to Instant Gaming’s Facebook page claims that it bought the revoked Sniper Elite III Steam keys legitimately.

“The resellers are NOT the problem,” Rebellion said on Facebook. “Those stores affected are NOT shady…The keys supplied to them were not as they seem - they were unlicensed, and unpaid for. This was reported to Valve and they revoked the keys.”

Rebellion is offering Sniper Elite III’s Target Hitler DLC for free to all those affected by this issue. To be eligible for that, you’ll have to contact Rebellion by Friday, July 4 by following the instructions here.

As for the price of the game itself, Rebellion is encouraging customers to contact the sellers in question and seek a refund immediately.

Back in May, Activision Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick revealed that the publisher will invest $500 million in Bungie’s upcoming shooter, Destiny. Since then, that figure has been associated with the development and marketing budget of the game, but Bungie recently said it isn’t accurate.

Responding to a question from a fan, Bungie’s Eric Osborne repeated the developer’s Chief Operating Officer Pete Parsons’ explanation: “For marketing you'd have to ask Activision people, but for development costs, not anything close to $500 million,” Parsons told GameIndustry International in an interview. “I think that speaks a lot more to the long-term investment that we're making in the future of the product.”

“We’re pouring everything it takes into Destiny to ensure it meets our fans' expectations, and our own,” Osborne added. “Activision is, too. But the budget for Destiny, including associated marketing costs and pizza Wednesdays, is nowhere near 500 million dollars.”

Bungie’s most recent weekly update also makes clear that Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage’s voice acting for Ghost has already been updated for Beta, and that it will be updated again before the game launches. Some players in the Destiny Alpha found his voice acting stiff and awkward, especially the now infamous “that wizard came from the moon” line, which Bungie has since turned into a t-shirt.

In case you missed it, yesterday Bungie also detailed Destiny’s 40 Achievements and Trophies.

Destiny launches for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 on September 9. We thought that the game looked promising when we got our hands on the alpha build earlier this month.