Culture

All The Pre-E3 Leaks

Hello! E3 is here, basically, and these past few days have been filled with a bunch of leaks and news. Plus, a giant ladybug invasion and Sega Rally X Simpsons. LEAKS! I know a lot of people who are very excited about these games. This isn’t what I wanted from these folks, but I also…

Massive E3 Leak Reveals From Software Game With George R.R. Martin, New Tales Game, Ni no Kuni Remastered

A security flaw on publisher Bandai Namco’s website has led to a major new E3 leak that reveals three new games: the rumored From Software-George R.R. Martin collaboration, a new Tales game, and Ni no Kuni remastered. The leak came through a publicly available link on Bandai Namco’s website, per the website Gematsu (which has…

WoW Classic Fans Brace For The Arrival Of Something That Didn’t Exist In 2004: Twitch Streamers

World Of Warcraft Classic is kinda wild when you think about it. It’s a time capsule from 2004 that you can live inside, a swirling portal to a place many people thought they’d never get to visit again. There’s no denying, however, that times have changed since “Vanilla” WoW’s rosily-remembered heyday. One recent development that’s…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for press conferences. It’s also for sneaking some video games in between press conferences. I picked up a rhythm game called Vectronom on my Switch the other week but didn’t get to spend a ton of time with it. I also bought Slay the Spire on Switch, so I’m excited to play…

The Forgotten Video Game Memories Hiding In Our Brains

The mind is a mysterious vessel full of things we know and, weirdly, things we’ve forgotten. My brain was cruising along as usual on Wednesday until a minute before noon when, suddenly, a Nintendo Switch press release reminded me of a passenger I had long forgotten about. There in my email inbox was a subject…

The E3 2019 Press Conference Schedule

It is nearly time for E3, the annual convention where companies from around the world unite to show trailers for video games that don’t actually exist yet. Are you ready? I’m ready. The show runs from June 11 through June 13, but the fun starts well before then. Beginning on Sunday, June 9, some of…

Everything Should Be Ported To Switch (And Other Wild Hopes For E3 2019)

Will this E3 be the year we hear about Final Fantasy XVI? Or get that long-awaited Metroid Prime trilogy Switch port? On this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, we shared our best guesses and most optimistic dreams about what will and won’t be revealed at E3 2019. First, we talk about what we’re playing. Jason’s back…

Track: Sale of the Century | Artist: Sleeper | Album: The It Girl Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment. 

Wedding Procession. Meiji Jingu, Tokyo, Japan. By Jimmy Ho | Instagram | Portfolio JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

Banned Fortnite Streamer Admits He’s 12, Streams On YouTube With His Mom Supervising [UPDATED]

A pro Fortnite player signed to the esports organization FaZe Clan, who was recently banned from Twitch for being under the age of 13, has admitted that he is, in fact, 12 years old. The streamer, named Patrick, aka “H1ghSky1,” has now moved his stream to YouTube, with his mom occasionally supervising on camera. The…

The Black Mirror Fighting Game Episode Was Out Of Control

Kotaku Editor Natalie Degraffinreid and I watched the second episode of the new season of Black Mirror, which is about two old friends that reconnect through a video game. If that sounds both tame and normal, we would both like to assure you that it is neither. It was so out of control that we…

I Foolishly Covered My Precious Gaming Keyboard in Slime

This is a story about the perils of homemade slime, over-intoxication, and one utterly defiled mechanical gaming keyboard. It is a story about what happens when these three things combine, and one that I am deeply conflicted about sharing. Unless you live under a rock or you’re my boss Stephen Totilo, you’ve noticed that slime—yes,…

Everything We Learned Today About Google Stadia [UPDATED]

The upcoming streaming platform Google Stadia won’t just follow the Netflix model, as many fans had hoped. It will instead have both a subscription and games for sale individually, as Kotaku previously reported. Here’s everything we learned today during Google’s “Stadia Connect” stream. Stadia, which was announced in March, is a streaming platform designed to…

Track: Louder Than A Bomb | Artist: Public Enemy | Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, Japan. By ShuYung Wu. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Every Dragon Ball Character, Together

Christopher Cayco is an illustrator and artist who figured sure, why the hell not, let’s put every single character from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball GT in a single drawing. That’s a lot of work! Almost four months and 1000 hours hunched over a tablet, in fact, a timelapse…

Pro Fortnite Player Banned From Twitch After Claims He Was Only 12

Most of the details in Turner “Tfue” Tenney’s recent lawsuit against FaZe Clan focused on the ills of his since-leaked contract with the esports organization. But the suit also alleged that FaZe lied about the age of another player it signed, saying he was 13 when, at the time, he was only 11. This would…

The Internet Reacts To Today’s Pokémon Sword And Shield News

This morning we all learned more about Pokémon Sword and Shield, and also met my new child, Wooloo. The internet is as excited for new Pokémon as I am. After today’s Nintendo Direct, I learned that it was possible to feel even more excited for a new Pokémon game than I had already felt before…

One Year Later, Did Nintendo (And Friends) Keep Their E3 2018 Promises?

In June 2018, the Nintendo Switch was a few months past a debut year that featured the standout games The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. What would Nintendo reveal at E3 2018 that could possibly rival their 2017 output? And could they deliver? As with past years, the company…

Each Family Member Is A Different Monster-Slaying Class In Children of Morta

Children of Morta is an upcoming action game about a monster-slaying family, developed by studio Dead Mage and published by Frostpunk developer 11 Bit Studios. We sat down with some folks from 11 Bit to talk about the development process and the role family plays in the game. In the video above, 11 Bit Studios’…