Cecilia D'Anastasio

A week after Borderlands publisher Take-Two sent investigators to the house of well-known Borderlands YouTuber Matt “SupMatto” Sommers because he published leaks from Borderlands 3, Sommers’ channel has been removed from YouTube.

Overwatch‘s Latest Update Redeems The Game’s Competitive Mode

Earlier this week, publisher Blizzard instituted a new rule of law in the game’s competitive mode: Teams shall be comprised of two tanks, two supports and two damage-dealers, and each role shall be ranked separately. It’s a rule I long-hoped Overwatch would implement, and right now, it is breathing new life into the game. Even…

Developer Fumes About Keyseller G2A, But Admits He Was Wrong About $300,000 Complaint

On Monday, game developer Charlie Cleveland, who founded Subnautica and Natural Selection publisher Unknown Worlds, told sketchy game reseller G2A that they owe him a fat chunk of money—$300,000 to be exact—over stolen keys for Natural Selection 2. Two days later, Cleveland told Kotaku today that he erred in his Monday claim, but added that…

Immaculate Set Of Pokémon Cards Sells For $107,010

A complete set of first-edition Pokémon cards just sold for $107,010 on Goldin Auctions. But don’t worry—it’s extremely unlikely the card binder your mom threw out would have sold for anywhere near that. As TMZ first reported, The 1999 set, sold last Saturday, includes 103 cards, one of which is a holographic Charizard. Twelve bidders…

Hundreds Of Players Trying To Cheat At Apex Legends And Counter-Strike Get Their Private Data Stolen

Since February, a number of ne’er-do-well Apex Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players hoping to download cheats have in fact been infecting their computers with credential-stealing malware, security firm Sophos discovered. First-person shooter fans hoping to get an edge over their opponents had their personal and financial information siphoned off and sold for months, according to…

No, Walmart Isn’t Telling Its Stores To Remove Violent Video Games

One day after Walmart asked employees to remove signage for “violent” video games, a news report said that Walmart is going one step further and ceasing sales for most video games. According to a Walmart representative speaking with Kotaku, that is not the case. “It is not true,” said a Walmart rep over the phone…

NBA 2K Announces WNBA Players, A River Of Sexism Follows

Yesterday, when WNBA star Breanna Stewart let her fans know she’ll be in NBA 2K20, coming out September 9, the top response asked whether the basketball game, which has a MyCareer mode, has a MyKitchen mode, too. The 20-year-old basketball sim is finally getting woman basketball pros, publisher Take Two announced yesterday. “It’s just as…

Competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee Is Back With A Vengeance This Weekend

If you were pining for some high-level Super Smash Bros. Melee after organizers cut it from last weekend’s Evo, the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, you can get your fix this weekend. Super Smash Con’s Melee tournament, going on now in Virginia, is studded with crowd favorites like Justin “Plup” McGrath, Juan “Hungrybox”…

It Is Surprisingly Hard To Create An Incompetent Ass-Clown In Dungeons & Dragons

The great escapist fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons is that you are not a salaryperson shoveling handfuls of gummy bears into your mouth and rolling 20-sided dice. Rather, you are a singularly important hero with a singular capacity to disarm some impending plot bomb. It’s a time-tried formula, one that basically spawned an entire industry…

A new trailer just dropped for No Man’s Sky Beyond, the game’s upcoming expansion, and if you ever wanted to ride the weird alien animals, August 14 will be your lucky day.

Riot Employees Say Company Has Made Real Progress Fixing Its Sexism Issues

In the year since Kotaku’s investigation into sexism at Riot Games, the 2,500-person company behind League of Legends, the company has crafted and self-injected its proposed antidote to its so-called “bro culture.” Over the last week, 14 current or recent Riot employees spoke with Kotaku about the game company’s forward momentum toward equitable workplace conditions.…

If anyone who’s not watching EVO’s Super Smash Bros. tournament felt a sudden and inexplicable wave of grief, that was sympathy for Light falling victim to ProtoBanham’s ruthless Lucina. It was ProtoBanham’s second time playing Smash abroad from Japan, according to a GoFundMe raising money for his EVO attendance.

Ninja To Stream Exclusively On Mixer, Not Twitch

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, the patron saint of Twitch, announced today that he is moving his channel over to the significantly less popular streaming platform Mixer. News of the frankly shocking transition comes the day before Blevins’ Lollapalooza stream, which will now take place here on Mixer. “I know this may come as a shock to…

Chaos Is The Hero’s Weapon In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

If Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s newest fighter, Dragon Quest’s Hero, has you baffled, you are not alone. Playing him for a couple of hours since his release yesterday, I’ve found Hero to be a very strange bird with lots of potential for hype-making moments. Hero has the most moves of any fighter in the game.…

How Over 25 People Got Scammed Into Working At A Nonexistent Game Company

Brooke Holden had all but given up on breaking into the video game business. She had gone to university in the United Kingdom to study game development, but realized partway through her degree that she hated coding. Holden had also come across horror stories about labor conditions in the game industry, where employees regularly work…

Smash Ultimate Is Getting Its New Dragon Quest Fighter Today

Today, Smash daddy Masahiro Sakurai announced that Dragon Quest’s Hero fighter will arrive in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate today as part of the version 4.0 update. The Heroes, referred to as “Hero” in-game, are from Dragon Quest XI S, Dragon Quest III, Dragon Quest IV, and Dragon Quest VIII—each expressed as different skins for the base…

Twitch Streamers Plan ‘SlutStream’ To Raise Awareness Of Online Harassment

Tomorrow, a veteran Twitch streamer is organizing a day called “SlutStream” for women gaming online to band together and deflate the power of the word “slut.” For over a decade, the word “slut” has been under siege. At annual SlutWalks, thousands march in “sexy” attire to protest the idea that women’s clothing or lifestyles could…

Young Women Are Reclaiming The Slur ‘Egirl’

Jayden “YourPrincess” Diaz is haunted by the term “egirl.” A League of Legends streamer competing among the top two percent of players, Diaz hasn’t been able to escape it for years—every day in Twitch chat, in League of Legends games and across social media. “I let it really hurt me,” Diaz, 20, told Kotaku of…

Study: Sexualization Of Women In Games Doesn’t Impact Women’s Body Image

Long-argued is the theory that embodying a lithe and thin Lara Croft in Tomb Raider might make women gamers feel worse about their own bodies. It’s an argument that women like me have used to justify the importance of adding more realistically-proportioned, less-sexualized characters to our favorite games. Yet according to a new study by…

74% Of Adults Have Been Harassed While Gaming Online, Study Says

74 percent of adults who play games online have experienced some form of harassment, according to a new report released today. The report, published Thursday by the century-old civil rights nonprofit organization Anti-Defamation League, offers some staggering statistics on the prevalence of trolling, threats, discrimination, and just plain rude name-calling in online gaming. Alongside a…