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When Will It Be Wrong To Call The Xbox 360 A Game Console?
Kotaku recently asked Microsoft if the flourishing of non-gaming features like Netflix, Facebook, Last.fm and Twitter on the Xbox 360 will someday invalidate the classification of the device as a gaming console. Since the original Xbox launched in 2001, Microsoft has worked hard to deflate suspicions that the company wasn’t serious about video games. Microsoft,…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 12, 2009 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves
There was a time in your life when you had to wait for recess in order to talk about video games. You’re past that. Talk about games in the comments section of this post all day long. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.
By Stephen Totilo Published June 12, 2009 -
NPD Instant Analysis: Things You Should Note
A fighting game blow-out. An EA surprise. As always, some notable omissions. And an NPD-PD PlayStation bump! For your May NPD gaming sales armchair analysis, consider the following: Killzone Leads Infamous For Biggest 2009 PS3 Original: The PlayStation 3 push for original first-party games gave the world Killzone 2 in February, which managed 323,000 units…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2009 -
Nintendo: Wii Vitality Sensor Targets Gaming Hold-Outs
Nintendo’s announcement of the Wii Vitality Sensor was one of the most mystifying product announcements at the show. We asked for more information. Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata unveiled the Wii Vitality Sensor at E3 and has since explained in interviews that the Wii add-on will use light to measure bloodflow and therefore certain bio-rhythms for…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2009 -
The Best Game Death Innovation At E3?
One of the odder things about video games is all the work that’s put into new ways of killing virtual enemies or having one’s own character meet their doom. Atlus’ Demon’s Souls showed a new twist at E3. I was given a quick demo of the dark upcoming PlayStation 3 third-person action game Demon’s Souls…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2009 -
Rise Of The S-Word In T-Rated Games
In the first minutes of the T-rated Infamous, players will hear the curse commonly associated with manure and stepping in it. A new report examines how much profanity makes it into T-rated games. A few weeks ago, I e-mailed John Davison, a games journalism friend, who runs the parental-guide video game site WhatTheyPlay.com. I’d been…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2009 -
Nintendo’s Reggie Finds Natal ‘Ironic,’ Talks Facebook, Virtual Console
In an interview with Kotaku, the president of Nintendo of America discussed the Wii’s new motion-control competition, and an array of topics that included some E3 rumors that didn’t come true: Wii Netflix and DSi Virtual Console. Reggie Fils-Aime was his usual confident self during Kotaku’s interview with him in a Nintendo meeting room this…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2009 -
Natal Launch Will Be As Big As 360’s
On that day in the future when Microsoft launches its E3-darling Project Natal no-touch control system, it will feel like a console launch, a company exec told Kotaku. Forget the launch of previous gaming cameras and mics like the PlayStation Eye or the Xbox Live Vision Camera when you try to imagine the impact Microsoft’s…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2009 -
The King of Fighters XII For Novices
What happens when a reporter who knows nothing about The King of Fighters XII dares to take a meeting about it? Here at Kotaku we try to expand our horizons. And sometimes our horizons are expanded for us, like when I drew the assignment to meet with Ignition Entertainment at E3 last week. I was…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2009 -
Microsoft: Xbox Live Is Like An MMO
Given Microsoft’s demonstration of Avatars gathering in a shared virtual movie theater at E3, it seemed that Xbox Live could be going in a PlayStation Home direction. Not quite, we were told. Microsoft’s head of long-term planning for Xbox 360, Shane Kim, brushed off Kotaku’s suggestion that the numerous expansions to the company’s Avatar system…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2009 -
Name This Game Development Studio
They work in a brick building next to my brother’s laundromat. They’re making a sure-fire hit game this fall. Name them, please. The answer is below… (Photos snapped by me on Friday, a day after attending an MIT commencement ceremony.)
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2009 -
EA: Burnout Devs Making “Revolutionary” Need For Speed
At E3, the head of EA told us that Burnout and Need For Speed won’t be merged into one brand. Instead, team Burnout is shifting, for now, to make a new Need For Speed. During my interview with EA CEO John Riccitiello last week at E3, I asked if EA’s two big racing brands, Need…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2009 -
EA Re-Thinking How You Spend Your Gaming Money
Pirated copies of The Sims 3 temporarily rattled EA. Burnout Paradise DLC came too late. And Battleforge is now part of the hardest market in gaming. So said EA’s CEO to Kotaku in a conversation about games and … money. As the head of EA, John Riccitiello can talk games better than most CEOs, and…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2009 -
Shadow Complex Preview: Where’s The Morph Ball?
Does Xbox Live Arcade need a game inspired by 2D Metroid? Sure, unless Microsoft plans on buying Nintendo. Shadow Complex is the third exclusive game from Epic for the Xbox 360, a dramatic stylistic shift from two Gears of Wars. This one’s a just-about-modern-day side-scrolling adventure for Xbox Live Arcade primarily designed by Epic’s newly-acquired…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 9, 2009 -
Fat Princess: A Fistful of Cake Preview: Fatter
The downloadable PlayStation 3 version of lady-stealing, cake-eating Fat Princess isn’t out until mid-summer, but Sony’s already showing its PSP spin-off, which might become the beefier version, to mix food metaphors. What Is It? Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake is a the PSP spin-off of Titan Studio’s mid-summer-scheduled PlayStation Network game Fat Princess. The multiplayer-centric…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 9, 2009 -
EA Considered Doing Its Own Natal, Backs Sensible Motion Gaming
In an interview with Kotaku, the head of EA disclosed some of his company’s experience and ideas involving Microsoft and Sony’s motion tech, predicting that half of the market will eventually go to motion-control games. On the final morning of E3, I sat at a closed bar with EA CEO John Riccitiello and learned that…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 9, 2009 -
Army of Two: The 40th Day’s Smartest Feature Guarantees Arguments
Before you roll your eyes at yet another game infused with an innovative morality system, consider the arresting E3 2009 debut of Army of Two’s co-op morality. Fist-bumps and standing back-to-back while shooting machine guns…those were some of the signature elements of co-operative, two-player gaming in EA’s original 2008 shooter Army of Two. For the…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 9, 2009 -
Capcom’s Marvel Vs Capcom 2 Hip-Hop Mixtape Revealed
The summer re-release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 features the same wacky jazz as the original game, but Capcom revealed to Kotaku today plans for a star-studded free bonus soundtrack players can fight to instead. Given that not everyone thinks that a battle between Wolverine and M.Bison should be set to jazz, Capcom will offer…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 9, 2009
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