Jason Schreier

Specter of Torment Makes The Perfect Switch Companion To Zelda

If you need a break from finding creative ways to kill Bokoblins in Breath of the Wild, allow me to suggest a different type of game: Specter of Torment, a new standalone Shovel Knight expansion that’s just as good if not better than the original Although Specter of Torment will be free to anyone who…

Hookshots, Wii U Maps, And Other Things Nintendo Cut From Zelda: Breath of the Wild

To make a game as massive and astounding as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the developers at Nintendo needed to take a lot of experiments. As a result, they left a lot of ideas on Hyrule’s floor. Unlike other Zelda games, Breath of the Wild won’t give you access to environment-altering items…

Switch Owners Report Hardware Problems, Though It’s Tough To Tell How Many

With every new console launch comes a suite of hardware issues, and the Switch is no exception. People who bought Nintendo’s hybrid console say they’re running into all sorts of problems, ranging from big (crashes) to small (dead pixels). There’s no way to tell just how many Switch users have received malfunctioning consoles. We reached…

If you woke up this morning thinking “Hey I want to watch Jason talk to Kinda Funny’s Colin Moriarty for like two hours,” you are in luck. Last week in San Francisco, I went on Colin’s show to talk about Kotaku, journalism, and all sorts of other video game subjects. Enjoy!

When Miyamoto First Played Zelda: Breath of the Wild, He Wouldn’t Stop Climbing Trees

Nintendo creative maestro Shigeru Miyamoto is a genius. He’s generally considered to be the greatest game developer of all time. And, just like you and me, all he wants to do is climb trees. Here’s a fun story from deep inside Nintendo, a company that doesn’t often speak openly about their development process. When Nintendo…

Old Raids Are Coming Back To Destiny

Destiny, a video game in which your Guardian will remain with you for the next ten years, will stop getting new content in 2017. Before that, however, Bungie’s got one more update planned, and it’ll bring back the Vault of Glass, as we all expected. The above video confirms as much, along with teasing the…

Persona 5 Makes A Fantastic First Impression

In the wake of Breath of the Wild turning out to beone of the greatest video games ever made, I have some bad news for your time and wallet: Persona 5 might be up there, too. For the past few weeks I’ve been playing an early copy of the fifth Persona, logging around 42 hours…

Destiny Characters Will Reset In Destiny 2, Bungie Confirms

The upcoming Destiny 2 will be a total reset for your Destiny 1 characters, Bungie said today, confirming that you won’t be able to carry over weapons and gear from the first game. Your character’s appearance, however, will be retained. “Sequels represent the start of a new adventure for every player, with new worlds to…

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The Kotaku Review

Early in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I discovered a puzzle shrine containing a small maze. Inside that maze was a little ball. The goal, I realized, was to maneuver the ball out of the maze and slide it into a nearby funnel. To do this, I’d have to rotate my Nintendo…

And Now, A Cute Story From The Development Of Final Fantasy XV

One day during the development of Final Fantasy XV, as director Hajime Tabata was leaving for work, his six-year-old daughter came up to him and gave him a hug. “Without letting go,” Tabata said at a panel during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this morning, “she asked me, ‘How much longer will you…

Target Leaks Shadow of Mordor Sequel, Shadow of War

The sequel to Shadow of Mordor is called Shadow of War. Warner Bros. hasn’t quite announced this yet, but Target spilled the news early (lol) along with the box art and some info (via NeoGAF).  From what I’ve heard, the story will be based on Talion and Celebrimbor (the two protagonists from Shadow of Mordor)…

Sources: GameStop Changes Controversial Circle of Life Program

GameStop’s controversial Circle of Life program is changing next week, according to several store managers. Though the retail chain will continue to use and monitor Circle of Life scores, GameStop plans to enact several changes that will make the program more accommodating to employees. The “Circle of Life” score, as Kotaku has reported, is a…

Nintendo Switch Will Not Have Virtual Console At Launch

We all thought this might be coming, and now it’s official: the Virtual Console will not be live when the Switch launches next week, Nintendo said today. “Virtual Console games will not be available on Nintendo Switch at launch,” the company said in a press release. “We will share more information in the future.” It’s…

One Player’s Three-Year Quest To Beat Every NES Game Is About To End

It took Piotr Delgado “The Mexican Runner” Kusielczuk 91 hours to beat Miracle Piano Teaching System, an NES game created to teach kids how to play the piano. (To pull it off, he had to teach himself how to play piano.) That was the longest. He’s also spent 39 hours with the billiards game Championship…

I Wrote A Book About The Making Of Uncharted 4, Star Wars 1313, And More

For the past year, I’ve been reporting and writing a book full of stories about how video games were made. Today, I’m psyched to announce Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, a look behind the scenes of games like Uncharted 4, Star Wars 1313, and many more. It’ll be out on September 5. I set out to…

Which ‘World-Famous Hollywood Actor’ Is Ocarina of Time‘s Link Based On?

A guessing game: Which ‘90s heartthrob actor does this picture most remind you of? Leonardo DiCaprio? Tom Cruise? Keanu Reeves??? In The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts, a new art book based on Nintendo’s iconic franchise that comes out today, there’s an interesting series of interviews with artists Yusuke Nakano, Satoru Takizawa, and Yoshiki…

Leaked Switch Was Stolen, Nintendo Says

On Thursday, a NeoGAF user posted videos from a Nintendo Switch that he said he obtained two weeks early from an “unnamed store.” Today, he says he sent it back—and Nintendo says it was stolen “by employees of a U.S. distributor.” This afternoon, GAF user hiphoptherobot wrote on the popular message board that he had…

A Wild Theory About Final Fantasy XV‘s Secret Dungeon

I have fallen into the rabbit hole of deep dives into Final Fantasy XV lore and I don’t think I’ll ever escape. Please send help. Spoiler warning, etc.  As many of you have already discovered, Final Fantasy XV has a secret dungeon called the Pitioss Ruins that’s one of the best things in the game. It’s very…

Guy Gets Switch Two Weeks Early, Shows Off UI

The Switch won’t be out for another two weeks, but one guy somehow got it early. And since Nintendo inexplicably hasn’t yet shown off their new system’s user interface, here it is. NeoGAF user hiphoptherobot, who says an “unnamed store” decided to ship him an early Switch unit, posted this video today: The interface looks…

The Crash Bandicoot trilogy PS4 remaster will be out on June 30, Activision said today. New trailer right here! It’ll be $40 for the package.