Jason Schreier

Sorry, Russia! Xbox One Will Launch In Only 13 Countries This Year

At E3, Microsoft said they’d launch the Xbox One in 21 countries this November. Today, they’ve altered that forecast a little bit, slashing it down to 13. Here’s Microsoft’s official Xbox blog with the news: At E3, we announced that Xbox One would be available in 21 markets around the world at launch. This was…

Kickstarter’s got some great words of caution about stretch goals, and the takeaway for gamers is clear: think before you donate to a project with too many of them.

Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches: The Kotaku Review

Dunwall is a hard city full of hard people—a plague-rotted concrete prison inhabited by exhausted souls who regularly seem shocked that they’re still alive. It’s easy to forget, while stalking rooftops and slashing your way through Dishonored‘s starring city, that Dunwall only exists when you’re in it. No people reside here; there are no homes…

GameStop: $90 Xenoblade Is ‘Based On Current Market Value’

Why is GameStop charging $90 for Xenoblade? Because that’s in line with the marketplace, they say. Yesterday, we reported that GameStop had restocked copies of the critically-acclaimed Wii RPG and was selling them pre-owned for $90 a pop. We reached out to GameStop for comment, and they got back to us this afternoon with the…

On one hand, yes, the whole “point-n-click adventure Kickstarter” thing is getting kind of cliche. On the other hand, Alum looks pretty neat, poor English aside. Check it out here.

StarCraft II balance update: Blizzard is considering an Overseer speed buff and making Vipers start with full energy, among other changes

Kinect No Longer Mandatory For Xbox One (But Will Still Come With It) [UPDATE]

Another backflip? Back in May, Microsoft said that you’ll need have the motion-sensing Kinect plugged in at all times in order for your Xbox One to function, but now they’re reversing course once again. We already knew that you could turn off the Kinect, but now Microsoft says it doesn’t have to be plugged in…

Tomb Raider Studio Layoffs Hit Non-Tomb Raider Team

Crystal Dynamics, the studio behind Tomb Raider and its upcoming sequel, has laid off a small team of staff, Kotaku has learned. These staff were not working on a Tomb Raider game, but a new IP. We confirmed the news with Crystal Dynamics’ parent Square Enix this afternoon. Here’s their statement to Kotaku: We’ve made…

Listen To A Tiny Fraction Of Final Fantasy X/FFX-2 HD‘s New Epilogue

The HD remakes of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, which are coming to PS3 and Vita later this year, will come with an extra 30-minute scene. Here’s a sneak peek. Still no release date for the HD remakes yet, sadly.

Extreme GameStop Pricing Leaves Some Fans Calling Scam

GameStop is charging a whopping $90 for used copies of a Wii game—and it’s leading some fans to voice some serious suspicions about how it got back in stock. Xenoblade Chronicles, a Nintendo-published RPG that came out for the Wii in April of 2012, has become something of a collector’s item for several reasons: only…

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team: The Kotaku Review

Poor Luigi. Mario’s lanky counterpart is most often defined not by his own merits, but by his proximity to his elder brother. Even in 2013, a year that Nintendo has branded “The Year of Luigi,” the green plumber is more punchline than protagonist, complete with Chaplinesque antics and a tendency to cower behind Mario during…

You Can Ditch Microsoft Points After The Next Xbox 360 Update

Microsoft Points are going away very soon. Like, as soon as the next Xbox 360 system update. You’ll be able to turn all your meaningless points into real money whenever that happens. Microsoft’s Xbox Wire blog has got the news: Earlier this year, we announced that we are bringing local currency to Xbox 360 and…

Zelda: Link to the Past vs. Zelda: Link Between Worlds

Via the folks at GameXplain, here’s a side-by-side look at the overworlds of the SNES game Zelda: A Link to the Past (right) and its upcoming 3DS successor, Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (left). Spoilers: they are identical. It’s uncanny. (Thanks, Ian!)

The Save Problem

This morning, when I loaded up Animal Crossing for the first time in a month or so, I found myself nose to nose with the infamously angry Mr. Resetti. Resetti, a subterranean animal who gets off on yelling at people who reset their video games without saving, was there to yell at me for just…

If Simpsons Characters Starred In The Last of Us…

…it’d probably look like this. Via DeviantArt user Raqos, here’s a brilliant look at what would happen if The Last of Us took place in Springfield. And now I kind of want to play the video game version of this. Roaming around Evergreen Terrace, throwing Flaming Moes at clickers. Full version below: (h/t Andrew)

Conan O’Brien Plays Atari: ‘This May Be The Worst Day Of My Life’

Yeah, okay, so Atari games haven’t exactly held up. In the latest edition of Conan O’Brien’s “Clueless Gamer” series, the red-headed comedian takes his talents to old-school gaming, and the results are not pretty. Hilarious. But not pretty. At least Space Invaders is still fun!

Below, the lovely indie game announced for Xbox One at Microsoft’s E3 press conference this year, is actually just a timed exclusive—it’ll hit other platforms eventually.

A Game About What Really Matters In Life

Most video games, it’s safe to say, revolve around fighting: whether you’re a soldier shooting up terrorists or a plumber stomping on Koopa Troopas, there’s almost always going to be combat of some sort. And then there’s The Novelist, a game created not to satisfy primal bloodlust, but to tell a story about a single…

The Best-Selling PSN Game In July Was… A PS2 Classic

Bet you’ll never guess what July’s best-selling PSN game was. Spoilers: Shadow of the Colossus Team Ico’s classic adventure edged out The Last of Us for spot #1 on Sony’s official charts, mostly thanks to a summer sale that saw the giant-monster-stomping game sell for $10 digitally. We don’t spend a ton of time talking…

Sharing And Streaming Will Be Free On PS4 (But Not Xbox One)

You’ll need to pay for premium membership to play (non-free-to-play) games online with a PS4, but not to share them: Sony prez Shuhei Yoshida clarified on Twitter today that you can stream and record PS4 gameplay footage without paying any PlayStation Plus fees. In contrast, yesterday Microsoft clarified that you’ll need an Xbox Live Gold…