Kotaku
Marty O’Donnell, the former audio director at Bungie who worked on _Halo_and Destiny for years, was forced by a court to upload a video yesterday asking folks to stop sharing and publishing video game music he uploaded online without legal permission and against court orders. In the short video, the composer even asks…
Kotaku
On November 19, 2006, Nintendo released the Wii, the GameCube successor. It would end up becoming one of the best-selling video game consoles of all time and would push the other console makers to add motion controls to their current machines too. And while the whole motion control thing didn’t pan out, the Nintendo Wii
Kotaku
It’s getting closer and closer to Thanksgiving, which means it’s getting closer and closer to Black Friday. And before that big day of sales, many stores, publishers and retailers are already offering up discounts on games and consoles. For example, Switch game_Membrane_is regularly $9.99, but now it’s on sale for...…
Kotaku
_Forza Horizon 5_is a very good game. It’s also a very popular game. Your Twitter feed might be currently filled with people sharing screenshots and videos from the open-world drive ‘em-up. Mine is. And now it’s been confirmed that the latest _Forza_title has become the biggest launch in Xbox history, with over 10…
Kotaku
A California lawsuit earlier this year alleged sexual harassment, discrimination, and a pervasive “frat boy culture” at Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard. At least in one instance, that culture included an employee signing all of his work emails as “1-800-ALLCOCK.”
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A new Pokémon is out in the wild. Well, an old Pokémon is out in the wild, resprayed to look and feel like a new Pokémon. Yes, _Pokémon Brilliant Diamond_and Shining Pearl, released for the Switch on November 19, are by all accounts faithful but unimaginative remakes of the 2006 generation-IV DS games. That means they…
Kotaku
Here are some words I never thought I’d type: the hedge fund CEO that bailed out GameStop short sellers earlier this year just secretly outbid a hyped-up bunch of crypto lords for an ultra rare copy of the original U.S. Constitution. Earlier this year, billionaire Kenneth Griffin became public enemy number one for…
Kotaku
Players are once again on the hunt for shiny Pokémon, those incredibly rare, incredibly sought-after variants, in the latest batch of games. And while Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl only just came out today, thanks to leaked early copies and the efforts of dataminers, we already have a pretty good idea…
Kotaku
From Software, as you may already know, has a new game coming out early next year. It’s called Elden Ring, and after spending a few hours with it during last week’s preview, I’m here to say that it’s shaping up to be something really special.
Kotaku
It’s rough being a demon in Shin Megami Tensei V. The demonic netherworld is a barely hospitable wasteland even when there’s not a blue-haired anime boy beating up your friends and collecting them like Pokémon. Honestly, I can’t even blame these creatures for occasionally getting cheeky.
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Halo Infinite has had one hell of a week. On Monday—the sci-fi franchise’s 20th birthday—series stewards 343 Industries surprise-releasedHalo Infinite’s multiplayer mode, weeks ahead of schedule, to instant-zeitgeist reception. Today, various sites publishedglowingpreviews of the first few hours of its campaign. (…
Kotaku
I said at the beginning of the year that it felt weird to talk about video games as a right-wing mob stormed the United States capitol building. Sad to say, that feeling hasn’t let up in the last 10 months and change, especially with the news currently dominating today’s headlines.
Kotaku
While Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy -The Definitive Edition is a dumpster fire that Rockstar Games is finally addressing, those playing the San Andreas remaster have found a detail that some think may be a clue to the setting of GTA 6. The “clue”? Among images depicting recognizable locations from various Rockstar…
Kotaku
Do you have old Satellaview cartridges lying around that were last used 24 years ago to play an obscure, Japan-exclusive F-Zero game? Well, that aging data is now worth a good chunk of cash thanks to a pair of fans intent on preserving the franchise’s history.
Kotaku
Sure, cars are cool. Yes, they go fast. But cars have also fundamentally altered our cities and civilizations in ways that we still haven’t recovered from. Large sections of our world are just permanently off-limits because cars need that space. It sucks. And in the world of Forza Horizon 5, the cars are everywhere…
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Today, Rockstar Games released a statement where the publisher apologizes for the various technical and visual issues players have documented in the recently released Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition. More importantly, Rockstar is promising updates to fix these issues. The publisher also announced…
Kotaku
When Microsoft released its next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S, nearly a year ago, it was tough to want for much. After all, both machines used the same interface and UI as their seven-year-old predecessor, the Xbox One. Familiarity allows little room for desire. Why change what (mostly) works?
Kotaku
Some Warhammer 40,000 players think the game’s fascist Imperium of Man faction is awesome, and actually has a few good ideas. It does not. To clarify this point—which more than one Warhammer 40K fan appears to have missed—maker Games Workshop put out a statement saying that you do not, under any circumstances, “gotta…
Kotaku
Nonprofit organization Girls Who Code, which specializes in teaching computer science to young women and other marginalized groups, will no longer affiliate itself with Activision Blizzard, after the multibillion-dollar corporation came under fire yet again in a scathing new round of allegations.
Kotaku
In October 2021, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi confirmed he was leaving the studio he helped found. Joining him in the departure was long-time series director and producer, Daisuke Sato. In a new interview with Weekly Famitsu, the studio’s new boss Masayoshi Yokoyama talks about how these departures have impacted…
Kotaku
Are you a big Lucario fan? If so, and if you’re in Japan, you can order a large version of the Fighting-Steel type Pokémon. A life-sized one, to be exact.
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I remember the first PlayStation I ever had wasn’t even really mine, it was one that me and a bunch of guys I was living with in England had bought and shared. And while it worked, it was also in the worst shape imaginable, covered in stickers and chip dust and beer stains and God knows what else.
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Earlier this week, Ethan rightly called out Battlefield 2042 as being the “wrong game at the wrong time”. A similar piece on _Eurogamer_says Battlefield 2042's opening weekend was “a disaster”. User reviews of the game are in the toilet. Imagine my confusion, then, when I realised last night that I’d been logging onto…
Kotaku
The ABK Workers Alliance, a group of Activision Blizzard workers formed in response to the company’s treatment of its employees, began circulating a petition earlier today for anyone working at the publisher’s studios and offices to sign. It has now been endorsed by over 1200 workers.
Kotaku
It’s quiet in _Destiny 2_at the moment, but big changes are right around the corner. Last week, Bungie outlined major balance changes coming to weapons next month. Today, it revealed it’s completely overhauling how ability cooldowns work. Destiny 2 is going to feel like a very different game when the 30th Anniversary…
KotakuEarly access Battlefield 2042 players are seemingly having an amazing time with the game ahead of its official launch on November 19, though not always in ways the developers may have intended. One source of tremendous absurdity and enjoyment is the game’s hovercraft, in which players are doing delightfully impossible…
Kotaku
The ongoing lawsuit against Activision Blizzard has made public some truly terrible and horrendous behavior that occurred across multiple studios and offices. Many women were allegedly sexually harassed, assaulted, and psychologically traumatized while the folks in power at the companies involved seemingly did little…
Kotaku
Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, sent an email to staff calling the latest wave of allegations about Activision Blizzard deeply troubling, as first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed to _Kotaku_by Microsoft PR. Spencer joins a growing list of developers, shareholders, and game industry executives speaking up about reported…
Kotaku
At this juncture it’s almost comical that Halo was once upon a time treated as second fiddle on PC. These days, it’s an undeniable juggernaut. Case in point: Earlier this week, Microsoft surprise-released a beta for Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode on Xbox and PC. It instantly rocketed up the Steam charts, topping …
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Hours ago, a website appeared online with the express purpose of hosting a nearly 20TB torrent (that’s terabytes, folks, the big boys of digital data measurement) containing every NFT available through the Ethereum and Solana blockchains.