Culture

Furries Raise Over $17,000 For Australian Bushfire Relief

Streamers, celebrities, game publishers and studios have all gotten behind fundraising efforts to help everyone recover from the Australian bushfires with a speed and generosity that Australia’s federal government could learn from. Now, the furry community has done their part with a stream raising over $17,000 for the Australian Red Cross. The YouTube stream from…

Old-Timey Spidey

Antonio Stappaerts is a concept artist from Belgium who has worked for a number of design studios in the video game business. You can see more of Antonio’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Is Deleting Some Players’ PC Save Files

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne came out on PC last week, and while for many it was a hassle-free experience, some older players logged on to unwittingly delete their old save data. The issue appears to be affecting those who haven’t logged into the game for a while, leading to speculation it could be related to…

A Gamer In Texas Helped Save Her UK Teammate After Hearing Him Have A Seizure Online

While playing and talking with his teammate online, a teen in the UK started to have a seizure. His teammate, a woman in Texas, heard him, and when he stopped responding, she called local police in the UK to help her teammate across the pond. Aidan Jackson is 17 and lives in Widnes, England. As reported…

‘Shop Contest: Patrick Stewart

Patrick Stewart is a cool dude. I think we can all agree on that. He also played my favorite Star Trek captain and still looks damn good at 79 years old. Some recent photos from a Variety story caught my eye. So let’s have some fun with ol’ Stewart. Your challenge this week: Take this…

Sunday Comics: Hard-Boiled Egg!

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published Jan. 9. Read more of Corpse Run Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Jan. 6. Read more of Awkward Zombie Clueless Hero by…

‘Shop Contest: National Bird Day, Winners!

Last week was National Bird Day. A lovely holiday that I assume all of you celebrated and enjoyed. In honor of this holiday, I asked you Photoshop artists to create some images featuring famous video game birds. You didn’t disappoint! Our winning image this week comes from Chris MC who makes one small change to…

Mandibuzz Wears The Bones Of Its Dead Victims

Every Pokemon is interesting and worth talking about. I don’t play a ton of Pokemon, but I do enjoy the universe and I love learning more about the creatures in it. So, Here’s Another Pokemon! It’s Mandizbuzz! Mandibuzz Details Type: Dark/Flying Average Height: 3′ 11″ Average Weight: 87.1 lbs. First Added In Generation V Bones.…

The N64 Controller Is Very Useful At Parties

Hello! This week we piss on Conan O’Brien’s house, think about the end of the world, get ready for the Pokemon DLC, watch a weird Nicolas Cage GIF, learn more about video game credits and open a beer with an N64 controller. Great Kotaku Content From The Past Week A deep dive into something most…

Pa’lante, Kotaku

There are a lot of reasons to not write about video games. For most of my career, I’ve written for mainstream publications unconcerned with the games industry. I was offered a job at Kotaku because I had figured out a way to do games criticism outside of the sphere of games journalism. I rarely had…

Goodbye From Josh and Gita

Today, Joshua Rivera and Gita Jackson are both leaving Kotaku. They sat down to talk about what they love about this place, as well as the state of games journalism and its diversity, worker solidarity and herbs. Joshua Rivera: There’s not a lot of opportunities for this.There’s a good reason for that. We’re not supposed…

First-Party Xbox Series X Games Won’t Be Exclusive For A While, Microsoft Says

First-party Xbox Series X games won’t be exclusive for at least the first year or two, if a new interview with the head of Xbox Game Studios is to be believed. Speaking to the website MCVUK, Xbox’s Matt Booty confirmed what many have been assuming—that Microsoft’s games will be both forwards and backwards compatible. “As…

BioShock Speedrunner Fakes Catastrophic Crash During AGDQ Run

BioShock is an especially harrowing game to watch people speedrun, largely because of all the small things that can go wrong. Unpredictable framerate and physics glitches can send otherwise flawless runs careening off the rails, and this instability makes it easy to screw up crucial skips. Speedrunner BloodThunder knows this better than anybody, and last…

Adding Squirrel Girl To Marvel’s Contest Of Champions Doesn’t Seem Fair

 Marvel’s Contest of Champions is a competitive mobile fighting game in which Marvel comics heroes and villains compete for dominance on a universal scale. With the extraordinary power to kick butts and eat nuts, Doreen Green is the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. There is no reason to play Contest of Champions on iOS or Android anymore.…

Track: Uneventful Days (St. Vincent Remix / Audio) | Artist: Beck, St. Vincent | Album: N/A

Track: Disappointed | Artist: Stormzy

The Gang’s All Here

Anton Lavrushkin is an artist from Russia. You can see more of Anton’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Our Best Cosplay Footage From 2019

Across timezones and continents, our cosplay photographer Mineralblu went everywhere capturing shots and video from events big and small in 2019. Here, to help kickstart 2020, is a look back at the best of it. This 15-minute video covers 25 shows, from Comic Con to Star Wars Celebration to BlizzCon and everything in between. And,…

The Internet Reacts To The Pokémon With A Gun

Nintendo dropped a bunch of news about Pokémon Sword and Shield in a Direct this morning, including the addition of 200 more Pokémon to the games. They also added new Gigantamax forms for existing Pokémon, one of whom can now use a gun, apparently. The livestream revealed that Inteleon is getting a Gigantamax form as…

How Game Companies Use Credits To Reward, Or Punish, Developers

It takes a team to make a video game. Unfortunately, given the state of video game staff credits, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to know who was actually on that team. Hundreds of people can toil for years to make a single game, often putting in 80-hour workweeks or more. And unless you’re…