Jason Schreier

Microsoft Customer Service Is Not Spilling Any Durango Secrets

You may be tempted, now that Durango rumors are flying hot and heavy, to ask Microsoft’s customer support representatives about the next Xbox. One Kotaku reader tried that approach today. He even brought up the memo that was reportedly sent to Xbox employees earlier this week It didn’t work. Microsoft customer support ain’t spilling. They…

World of Warcraft Loses 1.3 Million Subscribers, Down To 8 Mil

Blizzard’s massively multiplayer online game is no longer quite so massive. World of Warcraft is down to eight million subscribers, publisher Activision-Blizzard said in a press release today. That’s a 1.3 million loss from February to May—mostly in the East, Blizzard says, but in the West as well. The popular game is still the world’s…

CounterSpy, an upcoming indie game for PS3, Vita, and mobile, looks pretty neat, like a stealthy Metroidvania stuck inside a Pixar world. More on the PS Blog

A Zombie Game Where You’re The Zombie

Lots of games feature zombies. Not many games let you play as them. Maybe that’s why I’ve taken an interest in Ray’s The Dead, a new Kickstarter project that promises to be a zombie game unlike any others, mostly because the zombies are the stars. This is an “action-stealth-puzzler” where you play as a zombie…

Valve Engineer Wants To Go To Mars. No, Really.

If you think Valve Time is bad now, wait until their engineers are on another planet. Meet Jeep Barnett. He’s a programmer at Valve, a former student at DigiPen, and one of the original creators of Narbacular Drop, the 3D puzzle game that let you navigate the world using a pair of connected portals. He…

EA Says SimCity ‘Has Recovered From a Challenging Launch’

Nevermind the bugs: the folks behind SimCity say it’s doing just fine. In an earnings call today, EA’s Labels president Frank Gibeau had some choice words about the publisher’s disastrous sim management game. He called the launch “challenging”—perhaps the understatement of the year—and vowed it wouldn’t happen again. He also said it had recovered: I’ll…

Assassin’s Creed Designer Patrice Desilets Says Ubisoft Fired Him [UPDATE]

Patrice Desilets left Ubisoft. They snagged him back. And now he’s gone again, Kotaku has learned. Ubisoft confirmed news of the departure in a statement to Kotaku today, and when contacted later, Desilets said he was fired and plans to “fight Ubisoft vigorously.” The designer best known for designing the first two Assassin’s Creed games…

The Kingdom Hearts ‘Remix’ Hits PS3 On September 10

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 will be out on September 10, the folks at Square Enix said today. The PS3 exclusive features an HD remake of the original Kingdom Hearts and the PS2 game Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories. It’s also got cinematic scenes from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and extra content from Kingdom Hearts Final Mix.…

EA Snags Exclusive Deal To Make Star Wars Games

The gaming giant behind everything from Madden to Battlefield to Need for Speed is now the gaming giant behind Star Wars too. EA has secured an exclusive license to publish and develop Star Wars games, the company announced today. EA studios DICE (Battlefield) and Visceral (Dead Space) will both make new games in the popular…

Guy Who Lost $2,600 Trying To Win Kinect Gets His Money Back And More

Remember that guy who lost all of his money trying to win a Kinect in a carnival game? He got it back. He got the Kinect, too. Last week, Henry Gribbohm threw away $2,600—his entire life savings—trying to win an Xbox accessory. He didn’t win it. He did win a banana (pictured above). That part…

Plants vs. Zombies 2, the much-anticipated (and much-discussed) sequel to 2009’s smash hit Plants vs. Zombies, will be out this July. Here’s a teaser trailer featuring our good buddy Francis.

Report: The Next Xbox Will Let You Play Games Offline

Here’s a promising development in the ever-confusing drama surrounding Microsoft’s next gaming console: a new report suggests that you will indeed be able to play Durango games offline. Today, news site Ars Technica quotes the turnabout in what they say is an e-mail sent by Microsoft officials to all internal Xbox employees. The e-mail states…

A Video Game Where You Walk Through A Graveyard And Look At Graves

Some games are all about shooting. Some games task you with exploring new worlds and embarking upon crazy adventures. And some games… let you walk through a graveyard. Boon Hill, a new Kickstarter project created by a guy named Matthew Ritter, wants to be that game. There’s no way to win or lose in Boon…

JRPG Censorship Is Such A Silly Thing

For as long as there have been Japanese role-playing games, there has been censorship. Since the NES days, Nintendo and other big Japanese companies have been quick to stamp their big black bars on anything that might be considered offensive to American sensibilities: alcohol, religion, sex, octopus statues, whatever. And JRPGs have been the biggest…

Wow, An Eternal Darkness Sequel Might Actually Happen

A sequel to Eternal Darkness—long requested and long rumored—could actually be happening soon. IGN has a teaser for the upcoming game (embedded below), which the developers are calling Shadow of the Eternals, a spiritual successor to the 2002 GameCube cult classic. Eternal Darkness game director Denis Dyack is involved with the new one too, and…

Why Hasn’t Nintendo Turned The Wii U Into A ‘Nintendo Paradise’?

The Wii U is struggling because it has so few games. Nintendo has a massive library of amazing classic games. How have they not put two and two together yet? Last week, Nintendo finally launched the Wii U’s Virtual Console, which allows you to download and buy classic games so you can play them with…

Two Meme Creators Are Suing The People Who Made Scribblenauts

Oh man. The guy who created Keyboard Cat (Charles Schmidt) and the guy who created Nyan Cat (Christopher Orlando Torres) are suing Warner Bros. and 5th Cell for using the two cat memes in their game Scribblenauts This complaint comes a little bit late: Scribblenauts came out in 2009. But hey, trademark lawyers are gonna…

Borderlands 2 Writer Leaks Name Of New DLC

Whoops! Looks like the next piece of downloadable content for Borderlands 2 is called “Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep.” Borderlands writer Anthony Burch tweeted this picture, which has since been deleted (but not before the folks at Stealthy Box got a screengrab). There in the background is a poster that sure looks like the…

Another Quirky RPG Is Coming To The 3DS eShop

Remember The Denpa Men, that cute 3DS RPG that was sort of a cross between Dragon Quest and Pikmin? It must have done well in the U.S., because the sequel is coming here too. The Denpa Men 2 will be out on the 3DS eShop on May 30, thanks to the folks at localization company…

That iOS Game From The Makers Of XCOM Is Out Today (And Free)

I love free things, especially when they are free strategy games from Firaxis, the development studio that brought us XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Civilization V, among many other great games. Firaxis’s next game, the spooky, free-to-play strategy title Haunted Hollow, is out today for iOS. Our very own Mike Fahey downloaded it this morning, and…