Luke Plunkett

What Is This, A Chain Gang?

To: Stephen From: Luke So, you guys live in an apartment, yes? This past weekend, I wish I lived in an apartment. Having recently moved into a brand new house, I’ve been spending the last few weekends building a garden. I thought it would be easy! Just dig some holes, throw some dirt around, and…

Rumor: Big Layoffs At Heavy Iron Studios [Update]

We’ve learned over the weekend that most of the employees at Heavy Iron – a former THQ subsidiary that’s best-known for its movie tie-in games – may be spending the holiday season looking for a new job. Sources have told Kotaku that around 60-70% of the studio’s staff are to be laid off this week,…

BioWare On The Decline Of The JRPG

Final Fantasy aside, Japanese role-playing games simply don’t command the respect (or sales) they once did in the West. You may have an opinion on this! That’s great. So do BioWare. With Mass Effect and Dragon Age both leading the way as far as Western RPGs are concerned, they’re a company well-placed to know what’s…

Castlevania Soundtrack Whips In At 19 Discs

It’s too late for Christmas 2009, but that special Castlevania fan in your life may appreciate it for Christmas 2010. “It” being a Castlevania series soundtrack collection coming in at a crazy 19 discs. Going on sale next March, the box set will retail for ¥21,000. Which in US dollars is $232. That’s a lot,…

Heavy Rain “Not A Video Game Anymore” In Creator’s Mind

While there are some who believe Heavy Rain creator David Cage is a gifted man, others think he (and his games) are a little too full of themselves. Both types will probably find these comments of interest, then. “Heavy Rain is not a video game anymore in my mind because it breaks with most of…

Blizzard Will “Definitely” Make Another Console Game

It’s been nine years since a Blizzard game appeared on a console. But don’t worry! That doesn’t mean the world’s richest developers have given up taking way too long to develop games for those under-TV family game box machine things. “…we’re a company of gamers”, Blizzard’s J. Allen Brack told Gamasutra last week. “I have…

Browser Pong More Fun That It Sounds

Seriously. Fire this up. It’s a game of Pong, only, it uses browser windows. Clever, and surprisingly playable, all things considered. Just…when you boot it up, hit “S” right away. Like, right away. [Browser Pong]

God Of War Collection Getting A European Release

Having so far been released only in the United States, the God of War Collection will finally be released in PAL territories in 2010. Only, there’s a catch. See, in the US, it was released in convenient, standalone form. But the only way PAL customers will be able to get their hands on a copy…

Heavy Rain Gets A Collector’s Edition

Heavy Rain’s pre-order DLC in the US won’t be pre-order DLC in Europe. Instead, it’ll be part of the Heavy Rain: Collector’s Edition box set. Yes, Sony are going all-out in the game’s home market, offering the game in a “specially embossed” box (to make it look like it’s been rained on) that includes episode…

Torchlight Goes On Sale, Gets New Stuff

Runic’s quietly amazing Torchlight is due for a bumper few days this weekend, Valve announcing today that the game’s in line for some post-release improvements. First up, “over 60” Steam achievements are being retro-fitted to the title. Next up, it’s being made compatible with Steam Cloud, meaning you can move your settings and save games…

Rapstar Teases Song Selection

4mm’s Rapstar intrigued me at E3, but music games live and die by their tracklists, not their good intentions. And neither of these new “trailers” for the game give any hints whatsoever. Indeed, the only clues as to tracks we can expect when the game ships sometime in 2010 come from this single screenshot, above,…

Nielsen’s US Gaming Market: By The Numbers

Market research giants Nielsen have today released a report on the demographics of the video game industry, revealing things like total console ownership figures, gender division and statistics on the number of hours people play video games every day. According to the company’s research, undertaken in Q3 2009, 54% of American households own some kind…

Some Advertisement Mentions PSP-4000

A PSP accessory advertisement in the latest issue of British trade mag MCV contains an odd selling-point: that it’s compatible with the PSP-4000. A console which does not exist. See for yourself in these pics. It goes a little beyond “typo”, since they actually created a little bubble logo for the console. So it’s either…

EA Sound A Little Shakier On Support For Tiger Woods

When news of Tiger Wood’s “personal issues” first hit, EA Sports came out on the defensive, issuing a strong statement of support for their star. A couple of weeks (and a dozen ladies) later, however, things aren’t looking as solid. Here’s the original statement, sent out by EA on December 2: Our strong relationship with…

PAL PlayStation Store Update: Discounts On Metal Gear Time Trial

Big update this week for the PAL PlayStation Store, as Sony not only cut the price on a ton of great PSN titles and dropped a Gran Turismo 5 demo, but also let PSP owners enjoy a little Metal Gear. Yes, in addition to the endless list of discounted games and DLC, there are GT5…

Final Fantasy XIII’s First-Day Sales Numbers Are In

Final Fantasy XIII was released in Japan yesterday. A day later, Square Enix have released figures revealing how many copies of the game were sold during its first 24 hours on the shelf. And that number has “exceeded one million”. Which, well, makes it sound like they sold between 1 and 1.1 million. The news…

EA Reclaims #1 Publisher Position (In Europe)

It hasn’t been the best of years for Electronic Arts, but the mega-publisher can take solace in one key area: they’ve returned to the top of the summit in the European market. Having been the #1 publisher in the world’s second-biggest market for years, EA were displaced in 2008 by Nintendo, but have regained top…

“Core” Game Sales Are Actually On The Rise

While overall video game sales in 2009 are down, that’s the big picture. Break it down into individual markets and you’ll see that “core” game purchases are anything but down. Having taken a look at detailed market data, Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter says that “core” game sales in the US (which according to their…

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Screenshots Are Oscar Mike

Yesterday, you got a video. It was pretty great. Today, you’re getting some Battlefield: Bad Company 2 screenshots. Sorry they’re not quite as exciting.

Aliens vs Predator “Unbanned” In Australia

Knew something was up with that trailer rating this morning; Sega just let us know that Aliens vs Predator, a violent game which had previously been refused classification in Australia, has had that ruling overturned. Sega Australia’s general manager, Darren Macbeth, tells Kotaku “It is with great pleasure that we announce the success of our…