Culture

This Week In The Business: Layoff Season

QUOTE | “London Studio have done a great job in leading the way in VR development…” – A Sony representative announcing a round of layoffs at the PlayStation VR Worlds developer just weeks before the team’s game and the PSVR headset launch. Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week… QUOTE | “As projects are…

Road Trip!

Emilie Stabell is an artist working at Media Molecule, the developers behind the LittleBigPlanet series. You can see more of Emilie’s work at her personal site and ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of…

Undertale‘s Unused Music Is Pretty Sweet

For the past week, infamously reclusive Undertale creator Toby Fox has been celebrating the RPG mega-hit’s first anniversary with tidbits and snippets (but sadly no butterscotch cinnamon pie). The best part? Music that never made it into the final game. First up, an early version of Alphys’ lab: Here’s a version of Undyne’s theme before…

Shut Down Game Of Thrones Cosplay

Because it’s over. We’re never getting anything as pefect as Omar Diego Milla’s take here on Tyrion Lannister. Photo by Lenin Tadeo Rodriguez

Steam’s Latest Hit: An Intense Spaceship Roguelike Called Everspace

I warped into a new sector. I was immediately wowed by the pink and orange starscape ahead of me. It was like a cotton-candy sunset that spanned further than my puny ape brain could comprehend. Then ten ships converged on me, and I exploded. That was my first death in new Steam top-seller Everspace, and…

No Man’s Sky Time-Lapse Rudely Interrupted

Today on Highlight Reel we have sweet Fallout heelys, unique FIFA celebrations, Overwatch plays, confused horses, and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! No…

Far From Noise is a game about experiencing nature… while teetering over the edge of a cliff in a car that could fall at any second. It’s narrative-driven, and “dramatic events”—as well as your decisions—change the story each playthrough. Also I guess you end up talking to a deer??? It’ll be out soon.

The Unbearable Lightness of Lost Video Game Saves

A few days ago, I accidentally deleted a batch of saved games. Collectively they represented a couple hundred hours’ worth of time spent playing a dozen or more games. Years of hard-won progress, gone in the blink of an eye. It started when my sister found my lost Nintendo 3DS. I’d unknowingly left it at…

Podcast: The NFL Theme Sounds Like A JRPG Boss Fight

We’re reaching into the mailbag to answer YOUR questions on today’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, including: Do sports themes sound like JRPG soundtracks? Yes. Yes they do. Seriously, listen to the NBA or NFL themes and tell me they wouldn’t fit in a great JRPG. Other topics on today’s Splitscreen include Final Fantasy, the NX,…

Quote is an action-RPG where you, a servant of the god of ignorance, try to destroy all knowledge. You do this by slaying heretics, smashing authors, and burning books. It’s got a surreal look to it, and it’s inspired by authors like Vonnegut and Bradbury. It’ll be out later this year. Here’s a trailer: Worth…

The supremely talented Kamui Cosplay has, after years of self-publishing her own cosplay guides, put out a proper book for the global market. You can grab it here

Beautiful Cosplay Photos From Dragon Con 2016

Over 77,000 people attended Dragon Con in Atlanta this year for one of the biggest cosplay shows on the calendar. Below, you’ll find a selection of stunning photos taken at the show by some of the best cosplay photographers around, like Anna Fischer, Mineralblu, Tobious Photography, GCF and Houkakyou. I’ll add cosplayer credits where I…

Star Wars Reimagined By The World’s Best Concept Artists 

A little while ago, ArtStation ran a competition with Industrial Light & Magic asking some of the world’s best artists to “imagine key moments, new vehicle designs, character and droid designs, and epic battles within the Star Wars universe”. The winners have now been announced, and they are fantastic As you’d expect! The best entries…

Thousands Of Cheaters Reportedly Banned From Counter-Strike

Valve just dropped the hammer on Counter-Strike cheaters. Big time. For the past 24 hours, reports have been coming in from all over the Counter-Strike-o-sphere that a new ban wave hit cheaters hard. Data-mining site SteamDB puts the number at 11,435 (and counting) bans administered by the VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) system today. That’s a significant…

Snacktaku Cooks And Eats Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies

For decades state fairs across the country have reeked of things that aren’t generally deep fried—Twinkies, candy bars, drifters—receiving the hot oil treatment. Hostess has decided it’s time to capitalize on one of those. Let’s cook us up some Hostess Deep Fried Drifter. By Deep Fried Drifter I mean Deep Fried Twinkies, and by cook…

Valve Makes Big Changes To Steam Reviews, Angers Developers

Valve has spent this year slowly revamping Steam reviews, and the latest change is a biggie: by default, reviews written by people who obtained a game with a key (or anything else not directly within Steam) don’t factor. Valve explained that they made the change to counter fraudulent reviews and other attempts at score-boosting: “An…

Battlefield 1 Horse Laughs At Your Puny Explosion

Today on Highlight Reel we have powerful war horses, Deus Ex malfunctions, buff ghosts and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! Deus Ex: Mankind…

The Week In Games: Num Num Num 

According to the thermometer I totally keep by the window in my office, it’s 91 degrees outside and definitely still summer. According to the list below, however, fall is definitely upon us. I mean, not just one, but TWO Vita games are coming out this week? Then again, according to the 3DS, and the remake…

Sunday Comics: Cartoon Villainy By A Wide Margin

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published September 10. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published September 5. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

This Week In The Business: It’s Not Looking Good For The Xbox One

QUOTE | “Really this could be a final nail in the coffin for Xbox One now that Microsoft has told consumers to wait until 2017 [for Scorpio]. Sony will have the powerful system with VR now and a well-executed plan that leaves consumers no reason to wait.” – DFC Intelligence’s David Cole says PlayStation 4…