Kotaku
Remember the anal bead cheating controversy? As much as I’d like to forget, it turns out that a lot of people are still thinking about it. Some chess players have reported an uptick of computer-aided cheating in Chess.com matches ever since the story about Hans Niemann broke. One player has dubbed the recent surge in…
Kotaku
Google is shutting down its video game streaming service, Stadia, on January 18th, 2023, the company announced today. All purchases will be refunded and the technology will still be used for YouTube and other parts of its business, but the consumer-facing app and storefront will be shuttered for good less than five…
Kotaku
PlayStation Stars, a free-to-join rewards program Sony announced in July, is being gently rolled out to the whole world—it’s currently live in Asia, will reach the Americas on October 5, and Europe, Australia, and New Zealand will receive the service on October 13. Not as gently, PlayStation might be pushing players…
Kotaku
On April 15, an anonymous employee filed a complaint against Nintendo and contracting company Aston Carter with the National Labor Relations Board. The public case docket lists allegations of coercive statements, discharge, retaliation against concerted activities, and surveillance. (Update: The worker recently came…
Kotaku
Filtering through the Northern American server of Among Us, users will stumble across a variety of oddly-titled lobbies. “HornyRPOnly,” or “SingleGirl,” even “Hrny Bakugo RP.” Inside these lobbies are a multitude of horny gamers, searching for like minded individuals to cyber with. As a 27-year-old looking to play…
Kotaku
A new labor complaint has been filed with the National Labor Relations Board against Nintendo and contract hiring agency Aston Carter. The second complaint this year, it accuses the Mario publisher of interfering with “concerted activities” of workers, including possible retaliation and coercion. It comes months after …
Kotaku
When you pop an ultimate in Overwatch 2, beloved support-turned-damage character Symmetra tells the player that “reality bends to my will.” Anjali Bhimani, the voice actress behind the unforgettable Indian character, just wrote an entire book that aims to teach fans how to be that confident. It’s called I Am Fun Size,…
Kotaku
Limited Run Games is a business that has found its niche. In our modern digital world, in which many games get download-only releases, the company’s limited edition boxed copies provide a way for fans to enjoy the tactile, tangible pleasure of having a game they love in physical form. Sometimes, Limited Run gives…
Kotaku
Elden Ring throws all manner of fiendish monstrosities at you, but few will make your hair stand on edge the way a Runebear does after it catches your scent. I’ve only ever barely killed a few Runebears in the hundreds of hours I’ve put into FromSoftware’s open-world game; I’d literally rather fight Malenia or, more…
Kotaku
EA and Koei Tecmo are teaming up to create a Monster Hunter-style experience with Wild Hearts, they revealed today. A two-and-half minute debut trailer shows off lush environments, intimidating encounters, and some cool weaponry. The game also looks to be taking cues from Koei Tecmo’s monster-hunting Toukiden series,…
Kotaku
The year is wrapping up, and that means we’re nearing the busiest time for video game releases. And even though covid-19 has thrown a wrench in the entire industry and led to numerous delays, a few big games are still launching in the next few weeks. But if you want to enjoy them, you’ll need to fork over 70 bucks (or…
Kotaku
Razer teased a new 5G gaming handheld made in collaboration with Verizon and Qualcomm today. It joins the growing list of Switch-inspired devices taking advantage of Game Pass and other video game streaming libraries. Because in 2022 everyone’s betting on the successor to the PS Vita that Sony never made. What’s dead…
Kotaku
Yesterday, the developers of Genshin Impact posted the latest edition of the RPG’s online newsletter, which usually details fun statistics about the behaviors and experiences of its massive playerbase. Usually, they’re fun facts such as the number of times players have drowned, or the number of players who have maxed…
Kotaku
Haven’t you always wanted to play a card game featuring Kirby’s Chef Kawasaki wearing a series of microscopic bikinis? Me neither, but for a brief shining window this month, you theoretically could thanks to a Japanese fan creating an M-rated card game that delivered exactly that. But that’s all in the past as Kirby…
Kotaku
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 completed its beta testing on September 26, and, despite a few hiccups, Kick-Ass actress Chloë Grace Moretz (and, presumably, other people) want to know what to play while waiting for the full game’s release on October 28.
Kotaku
An image found on the backend of the Xbox online store seems to reveal that Ubisoft is gearing up to launch a “Game Of The Year Upgrade Pass” for Far Cry 6. That’s…fine, I guess, but it raises the question: Which site out there thought it was the best game of 2021 and awarded it such an accolade?
Kotaku
At its highest levels, chess is a male-dominated activity. There are currently only 39 women who hold the International Chess Federation (FIDE)’s highest title of Grandmaster, compared to over a thousand male Grandmasters. Even “Woman Grandmaster,” a sort of consolation prize title from FIDE that requires a 2,300…
Kotaku
Pokémon TCG fansite PokéBeach has secured quite the find. It’s an internal video from The Pokémon Company that shows, in never-before-seen detail, exactly how a Western Pokémon card is created, from their initial design to proofing and printing. And if you love those factory shots of items getting mass produced,…
Kotaku
Ubisoft faces another massive delay. Earlier this year it was Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Now it’s Skull and Bones, the Assassin’s Creed publisher’s only major fall blockbuster. Previously set to come out in November, two sources familiar with the game’s development now tell Kotaku it’s been delayed again. Ubisoft…
Kotaku
There have been a fair number of complaints about Destiny 2’s Season of Plunder, but for the most part I’ve been having a blast. So it’s a major bummer that one of the main reasons to play right now appears bugged for the second week in a row. An upgrade that’s key to overcoming Destiny’s terrible crafting system…
Kotaku
Kotaku
Dragon Age is an immensely popular fantasy roleplaying series that has spawned several main entries, spin-off games, novels, comics books, a tabletop game, an animated film, and a web series. Yet the first entry in the series was relatively modest: Origins is a single-player game with a main story campaign that…
Kotaku
Honestly, you need to grow up. It’s a worm! The latest Pokémon to be revealed for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a wiggly worm called Wiglett, and clearly related to that base set favorite, Diglett.
Kotaku
I don’t know much about the Gundam franchise beyond a few memories of the older shows when they aired on Toonami back in the day. Young Zack liked the big mech battles. And in 2022, I still like big mechs. I also like team-based shooters. So lucky me, Gundam Evolution mashes together the famous mechs from the Gundam …
Kotaku
Not gonna lie: I think weapon durability sucks. For all its supposed realism, I find the mechanic cumbersome and needlessly complicating. So you can imagine I haven’t been too keen to hear that Dambuster Studios just made extensive comments defending the mechanic’s presence in its upcoming Dead Island 2, saying it…
Kotaku
Though it’s not expected until next year, this week we got an even closer look at the upcoming HBO TV adaptation of the PlayStation 3 megahit, The Last of Us. Previous glimpses of the show revealed some stunning parity to the source material, and the first teaser trailer shows even more synergy with the game’s set…
Kotaku
With Overwatch 2’s launch just a week away, Blizzard spilled more details about what will be different in the free-to-play sequel, and it’s sounding rough. While returning players will have access to all of the game’s returning heroes, brand new players will have to play approximately 100 matches to unlock them all. A…
Kotaku
If you were hoping for more Madden 23 content as part of the game’s weekly schedule, you might be waiting a little longer. With Florida currently experiencing horrid complications due to the rapidly approaching Hurricane Ian, developer EA Tiburon announced that this week’s Madden drops are “subject to change.”
Kotaku
It’s not often that a rapper goes to bat for a video game developer after a disgruntled fan base enacts gross harassment, but not all rappers are built like T-Pain.
Kotaku
Warner Bros. just released a new trailer to tell you how beautiful Gotham Knights will be on your PC, as if to reassure everyone that this time, it’s getting the PC version right. Back in 2015, the publisher’s PC port of Batman: Arkham Knight was so famously bad that it pulled the game from Steam until it could…