Jason Schreier

Unemployed Gamers: ‘I’m Not A Thief’

Last week, we asked readers to submit their stories of gaming while unemployed or underemployed. We received over 100 submissions. Today we’d like to share some of them. When you don’t have much money, gaming is more than just a hobby: it’s a necessary distraction. Games can help you get through the day. We heard…

Peter Molyneux tells Wired that the Curiosity cube should be done soon. And the reward revealed to the last person to chip away at Molyneux’s experiment? It’ll “change that person’s life forever,” he says.

The Film Industry Sure Sounds A Lot Like The Game Industry

What do films and video games have in common? Nobody really knows what they’re doing. A long lecture by film director Steven Soderberg has been making the rounds over the past 24 hours. It’s an interesting read with some good thoughts on the film studio system, the idea of “cinema,” and the role of independent…

Why Is Everyone Being So Sketchy About The New Call of Duty On Wii U?

You might have heard today’s big news: the next Call of Duty is called Ghosts, and it’s coming to current- and next-generation platforms this fall. To be specific: according to publisher Activision, the game is coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and “next generation platforms.” It’s safe to say that means the next PlayStation…

Stunning Final Fantasy Art You Probably Haven’t Seen Before

Final Fantasy IX might not be the best Final Fantasy game, but it’s definitely the most stylish. Yep, even before FFXII‘s massive world and FFXIII’s jaw-dropping hair particles, Square’s popular series was blazing a trail in art direction, putting its own inimitable spin on fantasy and steampunk. And Final Fantasy IX, the last game in…

Dream Jumpers, a Kickstarter project developed by a group of designers with experience on games like Mass Effect and Fez, looks pretty neat. They want $15,000 to make a co-op hack-n-slash for iOS, PC, Android, and Mac.

Nintendo Brushes Off Wii U Hacker Claims

Earlier today, a group of hackers claimed they’d cracked the Wii U, but Nintendo tells Kotaku they’ve received “no reports” of any unauthorized use of their gaming system. The group WiiKey, previously responsible for one of the Wii’s most popular mod-chips, said today that they’ve figured out how to create a new one for the…

Free Half-Life 2 Mod ‘Minerva’ Is Enhanced And Up On Steam Right Now

You may have played the Half-Life 2 mod Minerva when it was released a few years ago, but now it’s back, and enhanced, and on Steam, and totally free Minerva is the production of Adam Foster, a designer who got his current job at Valve by making the surreal mod. Says Foster (in an e-mail…

Man Tries To Win Xbox Kinect, Loses Life Savings

How much would you spend to try and win a new Kinect? $10? $20? If your answer is $2,600, you are probably Henry Gribbohm, a New Hampshire man who says he lost his life savings trying to win the motion-sensing Xbox accessory. Gribbohm, who went to a carnival and sat down at one of those…

The Next Game From The Makers Of Quantum Conundrum Is Funky As Hell

This is Soul Fjord, the next game from Airtight Games, the folks behind last year’s excellent first-person puzzler Quantum Conundrum The game is Ouya-exclusive—at least for now—and the preview is IGN-exclusive, so head on over there for a few more details. Exclusives! Full trailer:

Pre-Order The PS3 Version Of Diablo III And You Get To Grind Faster

The PS3 version of Diablo III has an “exclusive pre-order bonus”—a phrase that makes me cringe every time I see it—and it’s called the Infernal Helm, an artifact that boosts your experience rates so you’ll level up faster. Blizzard just announced the bonus today, along with news that there’s no news on a release date…

The Dead Island Folks Are Making A Game With The Silliest Title Ever

This is Hellraid, a new “first-person co-op slasher” just announced by the folks at Techland, best known for polarizing games like Dead Island and Call of Juarez. You can see more over at the new official website for Hellraid, which will be out this year for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Now about the name…

This trailer for Ace Attorney 5 shows off some of the 3D investigation in Phoenix Wright’s new outing. Capcom’s next big lawyer game is out July 25 in Japan, and sometime in the future for everyone else.

Here’s Super Mario World Running On The Wii U Virtual Console

The Wii U’s Virtual Console is live, and we can prove it. Here’s what it looks like when you run the SNES classic Super Mario World (which will run you a hefty $7.99) on the Wii U’s new emulation service. Runs smoothly on both the TV and GamePad, as you can see.

The Little Things That Make JRPGs So Great

There’s a part at the beginning of Final Fantasy IX—a game that was once underrated, then overrated, and now feels properly rated as “totally awesome” by most RPG fans on the web—where you have to pretend to fight with swords. You, as the roguish, tailed hero Zidane, are putting on a play for the heinous…

Just a heads up: the Wii U Virtual Console is now live in North America.

The Artist Behind Dragon’s Crown Explains His Exaggerated Characters

Dragon’s Crown designer George Kamitani says his characters—including the sexy, controversial sorceress—are all exaggerated so they’ll stand out from other fantasy art. In an e-mail to Kotaku, Kamitani explained some of the rationale behind his designs, which picked up a great deal of media attention this week after the artist wrote a note to me…

Here’s The Memo EA Sent Employees During Today’s Layoffs

EA laid off a whole bunch of staff today, and temporary CEO Larry Probst sent out a letter to employees that Kotaku has just obtained. The notable news: EA is streamlining a few different divisions, and EA Sports head Andrew Wilson is moving to head up the publisher’s Origin network. Here’s the whole memo: FROM…

Farewell To The DS, My Favorite System Of All

There’s a little dead pixel on the top of my DS Lite. It hangs out on the bottom of the screen, green and dull, stamping every game like an eye floater that just won’t go away. In the seven years I’ve owned a DS Lite—my first and only DS—I’ve grown quite fond of that dead…

Game Developers Hype Up The PS4 Controller

The PS4’s controller is a shiny device with some really interesting features: a touchpad, an LED sensor, and a Share button that will let you stream gameplay footage to your friends and Internet enemies. Today, Sony has releaseda new video to showcase the DualShock 4. Check it out above.