Owen Good

How the Owners of ‘WiiU.Com’ Won Their Case Against Nintendo

Over the weekend it was learned that Nintendo lost its case to take over the website name wiiu.com—a domain registered way the hell back in 2004, before “Wii” even existed as a word or trademark. So what exactly did “wiiu.com” stand for nine years ago? According to the full text of the World Intellectual Property…

Did Saints Row Actually Make Keith David Say ‘Anal-Probing Overlords’?

Oh, yes it did. And Volition made Captain Anderson say a whole bunch more, too. You’re gonna want to see and hear this, but not in the office/on public transportation/at daycare/your probation hearing. Keith David stars, This-is-the-End style, as Keith David, vice president of whatever the fuck it is America has become in Saints Row…

Today Is A G’Day: Mad Max Will Have Aussie Protagonist After All

When Stephen saw it or, rather, heard it, Mad Max‘s characters had no Australian accents and developers Avalanche Studios had no plans to include them, upsetting Mad Max devotees of all national origins. That posture has been officially reversed. Attn. fans who want Max to have an Aussie accent in #MadMaxGame : It shall be…

Ubisoft says hackers exploited one of its websites to gain access to names, email addresses and encrypted passwords of uPlay members. While no credit card information was compromised, the publisher is suggesting that users change their passwords

International Hoops Returns to Video Games with Euroleague in NBA 2K14

NBA 2K14 will add Euroleague teams to the series for the first time, reintroducing international basketball to console gaming after a three-year hiatus brought on by NBA Live’s absence. Fourteen of the Euroleague’s top clubs will be featured in the game, according to the league itself in an announcement made earlier today. The teams will…

The Greatest Athlete in Video Game History Returns Next Week

When he visited our television sets a generation ago he came to us in two different forms, one of them human. In his time he was unmistakably the best athlete of both realms, and his latter manifestation—the indestructible, immortal, and still unstoppable Video Game Bo Jackson—returns to the field next week. Jackson, whose appearances in…

Police Blotter: Caught Sleeping With a DS

Crime is a constant feature of video games writing. Somewhere, someone is doing something illicit with them—sometimes comically stupid, sometimes tragic. Games and consoles are currency, objects of dispute, sometimes even weapons themselves. Kotaku‘s Police Blotter is here to round up the latest in games crime. Cops Find Robber in Bed with the Evidence LANESVILLE,…

Game Designer Is Hometown Hero to Burglarized Game Store

About a week ago, burglars completely wiped out the stock of I Got Game, an independent game store in Ogdensburg, N.Y., a town of about 10,000 on the St. Lawrence River. The store hadn’t even been open a month. Nothing was insured. The owner was in a daze. Then Brenda and John Romero walked in…

Nintendo has commented on its unsuccessful effort to take control of the WiiU.com domain from someone who registered it back in 2004. “We are continuing to review our legal options,” the company said in a statement.

Microsoft Sends a Halo Warthog to the Seattle Pride Parade

Is it cool that Microsoft turned out for the Seattle Pride Parade? Sure, but some support of diversity is a basic expectation of such a major employer. Now, what is cool is the fact Microsoft rolled in the Seattle Pride Parade with a Warthog and Master Chief. The folks in blue are wearing pride-themed T-shirts…

Can You Play a Game Without the National Anthem? I Do It All The Time.

Hat in right hand, right hand over heart, I raised my beer cup with my left and took a sip. Dad chided me for that, so I put it down. The singer was behind the beat on The Star-Spangled Banner. My thumb tapped against my cap’s bill. A distinctly video-game thought came to me: Can’t…

What if movies were reviewed in the same way as video games? Something Awful has an idea of what that would read like: “The film runs at a steady 24 frames per second with very few frame drops.” And a 9.6 means we’re guaranteed a World War Z sequel right?

The 3DO and the Neo Geo are still the most expensive consoles ever—including when adjusted for inflation, but you’d be surprised how ridiculous the Intellivision’s price looks now in this chart prepared by Ars Technica. The feature also examines price drops over all consoles’ lifespans.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Hairy Situations

Video game-themed tonsorial stylings constituted a mini-trend in the news this week—from a kid with a bangin’ Mario shaved tattoo-like into his head to, well, that guy and … the thing he did. Get out your scissors and your clippers, it’s time for another ‘Shop Contest. Source Image: Mario hair win. Source Image: Pac-Man beard…

Nintendo Loses Case to Take Control of ‘WiiU.com’ [Update]

Normally when video game companies go into Internet name court to take over domains using their trademarks, they walk out a winner. So you’d think that Nintendo would be easily successful in the effort to get control of WiiU.com from a cybersquatter. You’d be wrong. Astonishingly, Nintendo’s complaint before the World Intellectual Property Organization has…

Sunday Comics: Take a Bow

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Virtual Shackles by Jeremy Vinar and Mike Fahmie. Published June 26. Read more of Virtual Shackles Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Burn This Villager: The Winners

The menace of Animal Crossing‘s Villager is upon us, lurking around every corner with his mirthless grin and vitrified eyes. We asked for your worst nightmares and you gave them to us, eighteen in all, including overall No. 1 Anshin above! Honorable mentions this week go to DonCopal, Insomnis, mrdark and double finalist MrEck0. Oh,…

Ride to Hell is a Bad Game, but I Still Bought It for a Good Reason

Last year saw the glimmer of a movement to get a video game based on Sons of Anarchy, FX’s biker gang series and a vicarious lifestyle fantasy for many viewers, one of them me. The possibility seemed to go no further than series creator Kurt Sutter’s own hopes. Still, he vowed anything the show licensed…

All-Time Greats Will Be Featured in NBA Live 14, Designer Says

Hall-of-fame stars from the NBA’s past will be a part of NBA Live 14, though exactly how isn’t known, as one of the game’s designers took to Twitter to roll out some early details of a title that will have a lot to prove when it arrives. The details came out of a Thursday afternoon…

Arguing Console Specs is Pointless, Says Xbox Exec, Who Does It Anyway

Debating which console’s guts are more powerful is “a pointless argument,” says one Xbox executive, “because people are debating things which they don’t know about.” By and large, he’s right. He then went on to tout his console’s innards. They [Sony] actually go out and they talk about how proud they are about their off-the-shelf…