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CultureActivision Blizzard CEO To Get Even Bigger Bonuses While Others Get Laid Off
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick routinely gets millions in stock bonuses every year based on how the company is doing. Now he’s set to get even more, for a total payout of nearly $200 million according to CtW Investment Group, a union pension fund advocacy organization. And it’s all thanks to a clause in his…
By Ethan Gach -
CulturePlayers Aren’t Happy About Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s Transmog Tax
A couple months after release, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla finally has transmog, but not as some players had originally envisioned it. The feature falls short of how it’s been implemented in past games, and comes with a 50 silver tax on each transaction to boot, leaving a lot of us, myself included, scratching out heads. Transmog,…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureRiot Games Says It Finds No Evidence Of Wrongdoing By CEO Accused Of Sexual Harassment
A three-person special committee tasked with reviewing a third-party investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent announced to the company’s staff today that it found “no evidence” of misconduct and recommended no action be taken against the executive, the Washington Post reports. The news comes the same day that Riot…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureJade Raymond Forms New Studio, Working On Unannounced Game For PlayStation
Former Assassin’s Creed producer and EA manager Jade Raymond announced the formation of a new Montreal-based independent studio called Haven today. Its first project will be a brand new IP being developed for PlayStation, she wrote in a post over on the company’s blog. “And so today I’m announcing Haven, an independent studio where many…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsDark Alliance Is A Spiritual Successor To Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance In Name Only
I went into my recent Dark Alliance demo with development studio Tuque Games expecting to briefly relive the grim, bloody hack and slash glory of the original Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance games. The new game, while pitched as a spiritual successor, feels very different, however. Not bad, just different Dark Alliance, priced at $40 and…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureAssassin’s Creed Valhalla Gets Transmog And More Cats In Next Big Update
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s 1.2 update arrives tomorrow and adds transmog so that players can finally wear whatever they want without hurting their stats while murdering the English countryside. Transmog, or what Ubisoft is calling “Change Appearance,” will let you customize the look of each piece of your gear at the Blacksmith Gunnar for a nominal…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureDestiny 2‘s Trials Of Osiris Still Offline Following Match Fixing Scandal
It’s been a rough year for Destiny 2‘s high stakes competitive mode. Trials of Osiris has been plagued by cheating, glitch exploits, and lopsided matchmaking. Now it’s a hotbed of match fixing, as players try to game the system to get its coveted rewards without actually putting in the work, and Bungie’s decided to take…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureApril Fallout 76 Update Will Finally Let Players Have Multiple Camps
Camp building is at the center of Fallout 76 and the game’s April 27 update will finally let players create, store, and manage multiple campsites, a massive boon to the game’s more industrious architects. Called “Locked and Loaded,” the April update, which also includes a new loadout manager to quickly swap between character builds, will…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureLoop Hero Will Soon Let You Save The Dang Game
The deck-building, dungeon-making roguelite RPG Loop Hero is getting some much needed quality-of-life improvements in an upcoming update, the game’s developers announced yesterday. The most important of these fixes? Finally letting you save your game. Technically, Loop Hero does that already, saving all progress automatically as you complete expeditions. But there’s no way to save…
By Ethan Gach -
ReviewsToysLo-Fi Chill Beats Anime Girl Now A Collectible Statue
The face of lo-fi chill beats music on YouTube is being turned into a 12 inch collectible statue because if you love something set it free, or in this case make a toy out of it. Lo-fi chill beats became a thing back in the summer of 2018, with channels blowing up on YouTube that featured…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureDestiny 2‘s New Boss Is Turning Players Into Reply Guys
Much of Destiny’s story exists anywhere but the main game. The version you get from playing through its campaign today is very different from the one that existed only a year ago, and it’s also very different from the one you’ll get having played Destiny for hundreds of hours, soaking up its lowkey ambient world-building…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureRoblox Goes Public, Wall Street Decides It’s Worth Six Bethesdas
The Roblox Corporation, maker of the online game creation platform Roblox, went public yesterday, selling shares in the company on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time since it was founded back in 2004. It ended the day trading at just under $70, giving it a valuation of $45 billion, or approximately six…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureDozens Of Rust Servers Wiped Out In Data Center Fire
A fire that broke out overnight in Strasbourg, France destroyed one of OVHcloud’s data centers and damaged a second, Reuters reports. The French government and Centre Pompidou, which houses a public information library and modern art museum, had their data affected by the fires, as did Facepunch Studios, maker of the online survival game Rust…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureOdds and EndsDestiny 2 Players Stomp Alien Ship To Death
The Fallen Skiff never saw it coming. Destiny 2 players have been dodging laser cannon fire from Fallen ships since the series launched. But unlike every other alien thing in the game, they’re not meant to be destroyed, appearing only briefly in-between hyperspace jumps to drop off fresh fodder for the Destiny loot grind. A…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureGameStop Puts WallStreetBets’ Favorite Rich Guy In Charge Of Figuring Out How To Save It
Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like the GameStop stock frenzy was finally done and dusted. But late last month, it began to rally again and was buoyed this week by the news that former pet food website founder and hero of the WallStreetBets investment subreddit, Ryan “Papa” Cohen, will be put in charge…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureMicrosoft Confirms Some Future Bethesda Games Will Be Exclusive To Xbox And PC [Update]
Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda Software parent company, Zenimax Media, is complete, the company announced today. While the full ramifications of the deal will play out in the months and years to come, Xbox boss Phil Spencer did confirm one thing: some of Bethesda’s future games will be exclusive to Microsoft’s platforms. “With the…
By Ethan Gach -
Tips & GuidesTips For Playing Loop Hero
A lot of people have started playing Loop Hero. How do I know this? It hit 50,000 concurrent users on Steam over the weekend. I was one of them. I’ve now put over 25 hours into the deck-building roguelite, and I have some tips for everyone else who’s just getting started with it. At its…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureRegulators Approve Microsoft’s $7.5 Billion Acquisition Of Bethesda Parent Company Zenimax Media
Microsoft’s $7.5 billion purchase of Zenimax Media, parent company of Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Doom maker Bethesda, has cleared another set of hurdles, winning approval to proceed from both the European Commission and US Securities and Exchange Commissions “The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the combined entity’s limited…
By Ethan Gach
Ethan Gach
I'm a senior reporter who's been writing about games and internet culture at Kotaku for almost 10 years. I cover everything from company earnings and player boycotts to emerging trends in gaming like AI, creator economies, and the changing console landscape. You can share story and news tips securely and anonymously at [email protected] or over Signal at +12673263042.
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