Jason Schreier

The Sonic The Hedgehog Movie Looks… Uh…

With Gangsta’s Paradise, some vintage hijinks from Jim Carrey, and a joke about kidnapping children, this first trailer for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie (out this November) sure has it all. It’s, uh… well… at least Jim Carrey is always great. James Marsden looks like he does not want to be in this movie,…

Game of Thrones Was Really Dark Last Night

The night is dark and full of blurry camera cuts. Last night’s episode of Game of Thrones delivered one long, brutal battle, and Kotaku Splitscreen is here to talk about it. We spoil the episode in its entirety, and also talk about differences between the show and the books. However, we do not discuss any…

Game Of Thrones Recap Podcast: And We’re Back

Game of Thrones has returned, and with it, so has Kotaku Splitscreen’s weekly recap of all things Westeros. This week we’re hitting episodes one and two of season eight, Winterfell and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms We spoil the episode in its entirety, and also talk about differences between the show and the books.…

Days Gone Is Certainly A Video Game

What’s the deal with Days Gone, a video game about killing zombies and being sad on a motorcycle? On today’s Kotaku Splitscreen, we discuss. I’m back from vacation, joining Kirk and Maddy once again to talk about all sorts of video games including Mortal Kombat 11, Baba Is You, Hitman 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and…

The Past And Present Of Dragon Age 4

In December 2018, developer BioWare teased the next Dragon Age game, hinting at a mysterious future for the popular fantasy series—one that’s enticing, but seems very far away. Why, more than four years after Dragon Age: Inquisition, is Dragon Age 4 still so early in development? The answer is complicated, and reflective of BioWare’s turbulence…

Odd Tease In The Division 2 Spills The Beans On The Next Assassin’s Creed

An unusual teaser in Ubisoft’s loot shooter The Division 2, highlighted weeks after the game’s release, reveals that the next Assassin’s Creed game is all about Vikings. Kotaku can independently confirm the same. The Division 2 launched on March 15, but it wasn’t until this week that discussion about a possible teaser located within the…

This week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen digs into some of the behind-the-scenes and after-effects of our BioWare reporting. We also talk about the brilliant Baba Is You, Sekiro, and Phoenix Wright. You can listen to the show on your favorite podcast provider or right here:

A new opinion piece published in The New York Times today calls for video game developers to unionize. Momentum is building. (The author of said piece might look familiar.)

BioWare Boss Addresses Studio Issues, Vows To ‘Continue Working To Solve Them’

The head of BioWare addressed a Kotaku report on the studio’s cultural issues yesterday afternoon, acknowledging that “these problems are real” and promising that it is “our top priority to continue working to solve them.” On Tuesday, Kotaku posted an investigation into what had happened behind the scenes on Anthem, a story that also dived…

Borderlands 3 Is A Six-Month Epic Store Exclusive On PC

The PC video game store wars rage on, with the newly announced Borderlands 3 the latest game to pick a side. Gearbox’s upcoming loot shooter, out September 13, will be a six-month Epic Store exclusive, the developers said today. From the press release: “At launch on September 13, Borderlands 3 will be available for PC…

How BioWare’s Anthem Went Wrong

It wasn’t even supposed to be called Anthem. Just days before the annual E3 convention in June of 2017, when the storied studio BioWare would reveal its newest game, the plan had been to go with a different title: Beyond. They’d even printed out Beyond T-shirts for the staff. Then, less than a week before…

Gearbox Announces Borderlands 3 

The long-anticipated third Borderlands game is coming, Gearbox said today, following months worth of hints and teases. No word on platforms or a release date just yet, although publisher 2K Games has suggested that it’ll be out within this coming fiscal year (which ends next April). This is the fourth entry in the critically and…

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Is Getting A Spinoff Tactics Game

The makers of Divinity: Original Sin 2, one of the best role-playing games in modern memory, are putting out a brand new spinoff. It’s a strategy game called Divinity: Fallen Heroes and it’ll be out later this year for “multiple platforms.” You’ll play as a cast of characters from Divinity: Original Sin 2—all six main…

Twenty-Two Years Later, Nintendo Gets Final Fantasy VII 

It’s 1995, and the role-playing game rockstars at Square are trying to decide what to do with the seventh entry in their flagship series. They look over at the Nintendo 64, and then they size up Sony’s brand new PlayStation, and they decide to go with the latter, changing the video game industry forever. Today,…

EA Lays Off 350 People In Marketing, Publishing, And More

The video game publisher Electronic Arts is laying off 350 people in marketing, publishing, and other areas, the latest move in what’s been a brutal year for the gaming industry. In an e-mail to employees obtained by Kotaku, EA boss Andrew Wilson said the goal would be to streamline decision-making in the marketing and publishing…

Baba Is You Is A Brilliant Puzzle Game

There’s a certain trick that smart game designers use to mess with their players. You’ll finish a level, all satisfied and cocky about it, and then the next stage will look exactly the same, with a twist. Maybe it’s missing the crate that was the lynchpin of your first strategy, or maybe there’s an extra…

Divinity Original Sin 2 had a disastrous production, according to director Swen Vincke, who said in a postmortem panel at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that they didn’t finish the writing until months before the game came out. They even changed a chunk of Sebille’s origin story one week before launch. Yet it’s still,…

Are you at GDC in San Francisco this week? Maddy and I will be doing a Kotaku Splitscreen meet-n-greet in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel at 2pm on Wednesday, March 20. Come say hi, show us your games, and/or make an offer to buy us from Univision?

Here’s What We’re Hearing About Google’s Plans For Gaming

Tomorrow, the tech giant Google will reveal its newest plans for entering the video game world. What we’re hearing suggests that the main focus isn’t on a console, as has been speculated, but instead a streaming platform with all sorts of bells and whistles. And a fancy new controller that you can use to play…

The developers of Left 4 Dead are making a spiritual successor. Valve might not make games anymore*, but Turtle Rock still does, andthe studio has teamed up with publisher Warner Bros. for Back 4 Blood, a zombie co-op shooter with a not-so-subtle name. More to come on this one later—there isn’t even a screenshot yet,…