Jason Schreier

Overwatch Comes To Switch Next Month

One of tonight’s Nintendo Direct announcements has leaked early: Blizzard’s popular hero shooter Overwatch is coming to the Switch. It’ll be out next month. Word on this one comes from a couple of retail leaks, and we’ve confirmed its veracity with two of our own sources. Last month, Amazon accidentally spilled the beans on an…

Night In The Woods Designer Alec Holowka Dies

Alec Holowka, a developer on Night in the Woods and other independent video games, died Saturday morning, according to his sister. The news comes days after allegations began to circulate against Holowka, as multiple people accused him of abusive behavior. “Alec Holowka, my brother and best friend, passed away this morning,” wrote Eileen Holowka in…

Two People Who Didn’t Work At Telltale Games Say They’re Bringing Back Telltale Games

Telltale Games is back—well, at least the name is. A group of investors announced plans today to revive the iconic studio, which shut down last September, although with the company’s staff having scattered to the winds, this seems less like a revival and more like one of Clementine’s enemies. Today, Jamie Ottilie and Brian Waddle,…

Dragon Quest XI On Switch Lets You Make NPCs Lie

This week, Nintendo put out a demo for the Switch version of Dragon Quest XI, and it’s got at least a few new features we didn’t know about before. My favorite has to be the toggle that makes townspeople lie. Dragon Quest XI, which came out last year for PS4 and PC and launches on…

Ask Kotaku‘s Staff Anything [UPDATE: Over]

It is Thursday, August 22, 2019, and there sure is a lot going on. Why not take this opportunity to ask Kotaku’s staff anything you’d like? We’ll be here for an hour or two. Questions go below. UPDATE: We’re done! See you all next time.

The Guy From The Big Short Is Investing Big In GameStop

Common wisdom in the video game world is that GameStop is on its way out thanks to the rise of digital distribution, but hedge fund operator Michael Burry, who made an unfathomable amount of money by betting against subprime mortgages, is all in. His fund even owns 3 million shares, or about 3% of the…

GameStop Lays Off Over 100 People, Including Nearly Half Of Game Informer‘s Staff

The struggling retail chain GameStop laid off over a hundred employees today, both at its corporate headquarters in Grapevine, Texas and at other offices including its subsidiary Game Informer magazine in Minnesota, where nearly half of the editorial staff lost their jobs in a surprise cut. “As part of the previously announced GameStop Reboot initiative to…

Turns Out Part Of The New Destiny Trailer Leaked Two-And-A-Half Years Ago

The makers of Destiny have a long and storied tradition of reusing content from the cutting room floor, and the upcoming Shadowkeep expansion is no exception, with fans discovering that this week’s new trailer features a cut-scene that was leaked on the internet before Destiny 2 even came out. Way back in February of 2017,…

Sony Buys Spider-Man Developer Insomniac Games

Sony has purchased the California-based game studio Insomniac Games, best known for last year’s Spider-Man on PS4. Insomniac will become an exclusive PlayStation developer, Sony says. Founded in 1994, Insomniac remained independent for 25 years, working largely with Sony on series like Ratchet & Clank and Resistance but also with other big game companies like…

Halo Infinite Creative Director Leaves Company

Tim Longo, creative director for the upcoming Halo Infinite, left developer 343 Industries this week, Kotaku has learned. It’s part of a leadership shakeup that arrives late in the development of the next Halo game, which is scheduled for release in fall 2020. Longo, an industry veteran who also served as creative director for Halo…

The New Grandia HD Collection Is Pretty But Really Needs A Fast-Forward Button

Grandia and its sequel, Grandia II, are both very good classic role-playing games, full of charm and adventure and spirit. They came out in 1997 and 2000, respectively. Even an HD remake isn’t enough to make up for that. Today, publisher Gungho Entertainment put out HD remakes of the first two Grandia games for Switch.…

Some Tips For Avoiding Internet Distractions

If you’re reading this, you probably know the feeling: You’re trying to get into a flow state on something productive, but somehow, your mouse gravitates to your bookmarks, and suddenly you’re browsing Twitter, or Tumblr, or another internet addiction of your choice. Today on Kotaku Splitscreen, we discuss. I spent the past four weeks locking…

Bungie has a Destiny testing team called Velveeta that tries to find the cheesiest exploits in the game. That’s one of the revelations inDestiny frontman Luke Smith’s latest blog post, part one of a three-part epic looking at the state of the game since Forsaken launched last September. The biggest news? That clunky Pursuits tab…

Final Fantasy VIII Remaster Addresses A Classic Meme

Later this year, Square Enix will put out a graphical remaster of Final Fantasy VIII for modern consoles. You may be pleased to learn that, thanks to its new high-def character models, this remaster will ruin a classic Final Fantasy meme. It’s hard to tell who came up with this one, but it’s at least…

Final Fantasy IX Retrospective: The Final Fantasy‘s Final Fantasy

You know when you’re playing around with a new recipe and you fall in love with one particular spice? Call it cumin. You find every recipe that makes sense with cumin, and eventually, you grow so obsessed with it that you just keep adding it to all of your dinners for a month straight, until…

Dragon Quest Builders 2 Is Even Better Than The First

The first Dragon Quest Builders was an underrated gem, a delightful game that proved that Dragon Quest and Minecraft go together as nicely as peanut butter and pickles. The second game, which comes out Friday, is even better. I’ve played a couple dozen hours of Dragon Quest Builders 2 on Switch so far thanks to…

Legendary Mario Player Is Building Some Of The Hardest Mario Maker 2 Levels You’ll Ever See

It’s a good thing you have to beat a level before uploading it in Super Mario Maker 2, or else who knows what kind of twisted horrors longtime player PangeaPanga would be coming up with? Panga is a member of the Kaizo community, a group of bafflingly skilled Mario players who make and speedrun through…

Want to know what it’s like to be at E3? Danny O’Dwyer and his Noclip team have put together a great tour of the show, featuring interviews with media, developers, and even some jerk from Kotaku. Watch above.

Shenmue III Developers Offer Refunds To Kickstarter Backers Angry About Epic Store Exclusivity

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Fans are upset that an upcoming new game is an Epic Games Store exclusive, and the developers have to react. This time it’s Shenmue III, whose creators said today that any Kickstarter backers displeased with the state of things will be able to get a refund. Last…

The Best Speedruns From SGDQ 2019

You have not truly lived until you’ve watched speedrunner MitchFlowerPower play through Grand Poo World 2, one of the most brilliant and devious takes on Super Mario World I’ve ever seen. Mitch’s genius platforming was just one highlight of this year’s excellent Summer Games Done Quick marathon. Summer Games Done Quick 2019, a week-long speedrunning…