Jason Schreier

Amazon Fire TV Controller: Solid, Not Special

Here’s a close-up look at the Fire TV’s optional controller, which you can buy separately from Amazon’s mini-console for $40. It’s a lot like an Xbox 360 controller, with some extra media buttons and a significantly worse d-pad. You pretty much need it to play all those games on the Fire TV, and it comes…

Four Beautiful Courses From Mario Kart 8

Mario Kart 8 is sleek as heck. Here’s some new footage from the upcoming Wii U game, which is out on May 30. Also you can listen to us talk (always a blast). Here’s the game running at 60 frames per second:

It’d Take 32 Hours To Read Every Book In The Elder Scrolls Online

Bethesda just threw up this fun infographic for The Elder Scrolls Online, which officially launches tomorrow for PC and Mac. (It’ll be out on PS4/Xbox One in June.) My favorite stat: since May 2011, the development team has had 162,784 cups of coffee. How did they measure that? Did Zenimax Online force every staff member…

One Year Ago Today, Disney Shut Down LucasArts

On April 3, 2013, the executives of Lucasfilm gathered the staff of LucasArts in a big room and dropped a bomb: Disney had decided to shut down the iconic video game studio The news came six months after Disney purchased Lucasfilm and enacted a hiring freeze at LucasArts, leading to a strange period of stasis…

Happy 20th Birthday, Final Fantasy VI

Twenty years ago, an RPG called Final Fantasy VI came out in Japan, and really, it’s all just been downhill for video games since then. Square’s seminal RPG for the Super Nintendo was filled with issues: buggy skills; weird translations; way too many fights that were way too easy. But somehow, against all odds, the…

Amazon Hires Portal‘s Kim Swift, Far Cry 2‘s Clint Hocking

Amazon is bolstering up talent in their video game development studio, and they’ve got two new high-profile snags: Portal designer Kim Swift and Far Cry 2 designer Clint Hocking have both joined Amazon Game Studios, Kotaku has learned. Swift, best known for helping create Portal, most recently worked at Airtight Games on the Ouya-exclusive Soul…

Amazon Adding Metacritic Scores Is Bad News For Everyone

The immensely powerful aggregation website Metacritic just got a little more powerful, partnering up with Amazon, the biggest online retailer in the world, to display Metascores on video game pages. This appears to be a quiet launch—rolling out gradually over the course of the week—but that Metascore is anything but quiet. It’s right in your…

Today’s Best And Worst April Fools’ Jokes In Gaming

It’s April 1st on the Internet, which means a non-stop barrage of goofs, gags, and pranks. Some are funny; others are… misguided. We’re rounding them up for you right here. (We’ll be updating this roundup all day, so keep it bookmarked for the best and worst of April Fools 2014.) Nester Added To Smash Bros.…

Frostbite’s April Fools’ Joke Is Kinda Mean [UPDATE: EA Apologizes]

UPDATE (5:41pm): EA COO Peter Moore has apologized for Frostbite’s comments, calling them “unacceptable/stupid” on Twitter this afternoon Original article follows: There are a lot of awful pranks and unfunny jokes out there today, but this one might be the weirdest: the official Twitter account for Frostbite—EA’s proprietary video game engine—is acting like a big…

As Usual, Blizzard Has The Best April Fools’ Joke

Every year in the world of video games, there are two certainties: 1) Half-Life 3 will not be announced; and 2) Blizzard will have the best April Fools’ joke around. This year’s prank is Blizzard: Outcasts, a hypothetical fighting game that features some of the lesser-known characters in Blizzard’s various universes, like the Treasure Goblin…

2048‘s Massive Popularity Triggers Cloning Controversy

Every video game has clones, but how often does the clone find more success than the game it copied? Last week, the LA Times published an article about 2048, an increasingly popular puzzle game that was developed by a 19-year-old Italian web developer earlier this month. “How long does it take to create a hit…

Sega’s Long Silence On Missing Game Disrespects Their Biggest Fans

In July of 2012, Sega announced plans to bring the popular multiplayer RPG Phantasy Star Online 2 to the west in “early 2013.” But that still hasn’t happened, much to fans’ consternation—and Sega won’t explain a thing. In the world of gaming, it’s common to see big companies staying quiet about their products until the…

Microsoft’s Phil Spencer is now in charge of all things Xbox. “It’s been a remarkable year for Xbox and I am honored to lead the team at this incredible time for Microsoft and the games industry.”

Square Enix Has Finally Realized That People Like JRPGs

Once upon a time ago, a Japanese company named Squaresoft made lots and lots of RPGs that people really really liked. Today, a Japanese company named Square Enix makes video games. One of those games, an RPG called Bravely Default, sold a lot of copies both in Japan and in the west, which has made…

Thank God For Handheld Game Consoles

Oculus VR, the company purchased by Facebook this week for $2 billion, brings to life a childhood fantasy, if your childhood fantasy was strapping a big black box on your head and trying not to vomit. I guess that’s a little mean. Lots of people love the idea of Oculus Rift, which by many accounts…

Sources: Assassin’s Creed Comet Will Let You Play As A Templar

Last week, we told you all about Assassin’s Creed Unity, one of the two games in Ubisoft’s action-adventure series that will be out this fall. Today we’ve got some new details on the second game: Assassin’s Creed Comet As we reported last week—and Ubisoft confirmed—Unity, set during the French Revolution, will be on both PC…

Sony Announces, Doesn’t Announce The Last of Us For PS4

In the video game industry, big publishers like to stick to strict marketing plans. Unlike, say, the film world, where directors and writers will frequently talk about their goals and future projects, video game companies typically won’t discuss their plans until the PR schedule says it’s okay. This can lead to some ridiculous situations. Take…

Looks Like Half-Minute Hero 2 Is Coming West

It’s been five years since Half-Minute Hero first came to North America, and now it looks like we’re finally getting the sequel, too. The folks over at publisher Marvelous have been teasing a Steam release of Half-Minute Hero 2 for quite some time, but now it seems imminent. Last night they posted the above trailer,…

Oculus Kickstarter Backers Are Demanding Refunds

When you give money to a Kickstarter, do its creators owe you anything beyond the rewards that were promised? Is there an implicit understanding that those creators will stay scrappy and independent? Or can artists and designers do whatever they want once they’ve got your money? Yesterday’s news bombshell—Facebook buying the virtual reality company Oculus…

Anti-Video Game Senator Leland Yee Arrested On Bribery Charges

California state senator Leland Yee has been indicted on charges of corruption and bribery, according to multiplenews reports Yee, a Democrat, is the senator who attempted to criminalize the sale of violent video games to children. That law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2010 during what became a landmark case for free…