Stephen Totilo

The Switch version of Layton’s Mystery Journey, the 2017 3DS and mobile installment of the Professor Layton series of puzzle games, will be released in North America on November 8. It’s called Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy – Deluxe Edition and appears to be the same expanded version released in Japan last…

The Division 2 Is Testing Some Much-Requested Features

There’s going to be a lot less to complain about regarding The Division 2 if a batch of features going live in a test build this week make it into the proper game later this month. Ubisoft’s impressive but contentious shooter appears to be getting flashlights (much requested!), badly needed buffs for gadget skills, and…

Apparent Division 2 Bug Gives You Ammo For Killing Animals [UPDATE]

So much for deer in The Division 2 not dropping meat or any other rewards when you shoot them. The animals scurrying through the game’s post-disaster Washington, DC recently started dropping special ammunition. The developers said last week that the issue would be fixed possibly during a maintenance period last Friday, but we’ve still been…

Gears 5 Developer Says It’s Riskier Than The Last One

Microsoft’s head of all things Gears of War, Rod Fergusson, says his team is playing it less safe with September’s Gears 5 after feedback that the series’ last installment didn’t go far enough. “We felt like we had to prove ourselves,” he said of the team’s previous effort on 2016’s Gears of War 4. It…

We’ve updated our June 8 story about publisher Xseed’s game-crediting policy with a lengthy statement from company VP Ken Berry. He notes that the small but growing company’s policy has been for credits to provide a “snapshot” of who is at Xseed at the moment, but acknowledges room to revise the policy as the company…

Xbox Boss On Microsoft’s Struggles With Game Quality And Efforts To Improve It

Whatever the strengths of the Xbox platform, it’s long lagged behind Nintendo and Sony in terms of homegrown, exclusive video games. There have been highlights in its history and even some stellar games of late, such as last year’s Forza Horizon 4, but the Xbox One era has been rough. There have been prominent cancellations,…

‘Xbox Live Is Not A Free Speech Platform’: Xbox Boss Promises New Features To Make Online Gaming Less Hostile

You can learn a lot about a person by the values they express, and possibly something about an entire gaming platform by the blog posts the person running it writes. That’s why I was so eager at E3 last week to ask the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, why he recently wrote a 1200-word essay…

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Developers Say Breaking Series Traditions Made For A Better Game

When I sat down with the makers of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey last week, I had to ask them about Alexios, Kassandra, and the state of the franchise’s playable modern-day sequences. I also had to ask them about the option to ride a flaming horse. The flaming horse is a very small part of the huge…

Phil Spencer On Xbox’s Unusual Strategy, Working With Sony, And More

Xbox chief Phil Spencer has heard from the skeptics. They think that what he’s doing with Xbox means that Microsoft is giving up on consoles, or even going third party. That’s all wrong, he told me during an extensive interview in Los Angeles last week, where we discussed his vision for Xbox, the recently announced…

The Division 2‘s Developers Have A Plan For Overcoming The Backlash

The people making The Division 2 always expected that their fans would start grumbling about the game. “When we had the very positive feedback at launch, we knew there would be a moment where the honeymoon would be over and people would start scratching beneath the surface,” the game’s live content manager, Yannick Banchereau, told…

Shark Role-Playing Game Maneater Is Like Grand Theft Auto, Of All Things

“Picture Grand Theft Auto, but as a shark,” game designer Bill Munk said near the end of a demonstration of Maneater at E3 in Los Angeles last week. Well, not quite. There are no cars to jack. There are no radio stations. Although, the designers have considered letting the shark get drunk, if it eats…

Luigi’s Mansion 3 Developers Promise Better Bosses And More Puzzles

Preventing one of the biggest shortcomings of the second Luigi’s Mansion from making it into the third is a high priority, the game’s top producers from Nintendo told Kotaku during an E3 interview in Los Angeles last week. Both Yoshihito Ikebata and his boss, Kensuke Tanabe, said that they’ve worked with Vancouver-based Next Level Games…

The New Lego Star Wars Is Impressive And Surprisingly Different

If a hands-off theater demo of a new video game can over-deliver E3, then Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga sure did. The amount of changes I was shown to the 20-year-old Lego video game formula was startling. I checked out the game as E3 was winding down on Thursday, taking a front row seat…

Elite Wrestler Kenny Omega Loves Mother 3 And Talks Business Over Apex Legends

It’s not surprising these days to hear that pro wrestlers are into video games, but Kenny Omega, currently one of the world’s best performers in the ring, probably can claim that he’s into them even more than most. Not many others can hold court about Mother 3 or are in a position to recruit talent…

Hollow Knight: Silksong Is Drawing Crowds At E3 For Good Reason

There’s been a long line of people queuing up at Nintendo’s booth every day here at E3 to play the sequel to Hollow Knight on the Switch. These people have good taste. Hollow Knight was a great modern execution of classic Metroid-style 2D exploration and combat, set in gorgeous, mostly subterranean areas. Its sequel, Silksong,…

When Crash Invaded The Fortnite E3 Booth

Here’s something silly. The people promoting the Crash Bandicoot racing remake, Crash Team Racing, were walking through E3’s South Hall with a Crash mascot, having some fun as they went along. I caught sight of them in the Fortnite booth, where Crash posed in front of the battle bus. And here he is dancing with…

Gears Tactics, One Of E3 2019’s No-Shows, Is Still In Development

At E3 2018, longtime Gears of War producer Rod Fergusson showed off a new PC game called Gears Tactics and announced Gears 5 and Gears Pop as well. This year, Microsoft’s Xbox briefing only mentioned those last two. Never fear, Fergusson told Kotaku today. Tactics remains in development. “Last year we wanted to really talk…

Here at E3, where once sat the PlayStation booth now mostly sits a bar and lounge. Downside: no PlayStation games. Upside: couches.

Minecraft Dungeons has no Minecraft-style building. It’s a loot-filled dungeon crawler for up to four players with all sorts of Minecraft characters. Players can equip and enchant a wide array of outfits, armor, and gear. It’s pretty, and was fun to romp through here at E3 in that Lego game kind of way. Coming to…

A Killer, A Secret, And A Time Loop Make For A Harrowing 12 Minutes

We last previewed time-loop game 12 Minutes back in 2015 after I saw it at PAX East in Boston and chatted with Luis Antonio, who was singlehandedly making the game for a desired 2016 release. Here we are in 2019. 12 Minutes is still looking good, but it’s not done. 12 Minutes is now scheduled…