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This Week in the Business: ‘Nintendo’s on Track to Become Primarily a Software Company’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Nintendo’s on track to become primarily a software company.”—Bing Gordon, investor and EA veteran, weighs in on the business strategy and future for the house that Mario built QUOTE | “PCs are far more user-friendly than consoles.”—Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli talking…

By James Brightman Published July 28, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

EA’s Best Game of the 1990s Also Had the Worst Acting

People bug EA all the time to bring back vintage old series like Wing Commander, Road Rash and Jungle Strike. All great games, and all worthy of t least a token attempt at mmodernisation. But there’s one game that, for whatever reason, is always left out. Forgotten. And that’s EA’s Crusader series. The first game…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

The Awkward Charms of a 1984 TV Show About PC Gaming

This is an episode from Computer Chronicles, a dusty old TV show about…computers. This one is all about games, and features appearances from guys like Atari legend Chris Crawford, EA founder Trip Hawkins and even a guy from Activision. What’s great is that, being a show that’s normally about computers anyway, it doesn’t have the…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2012

Culture

Fantasy Art so Beautiful it Should be Painted on a Crumbling Old Church

Michael C. Hayes is a fantasy illustrator whose work may be familiar to fans of Magic: The Gathering. He’s also worked with Sony Online Entertainment on the Legends of Norrath franchise. Hayes’ work is, well, beautiful. Unlike most other artists we feature here on Fine Art, who specialise in dark environment pieces, basic character art…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Mario’s First Kart Was, Well, a Little Crap

I’m guessing this is an advertisement of some sort for NES Open Tournament Golf or, as it was known in Japan, Mario Open Golf, a Nintendo Entertainment/Famicom golf game first released in 1991 One of the earliest attempts by Nintendo to shoehorn its platforming characters into a console sports game, it’s perhaps notable these days…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 26, 2012

CultureFeature

The Awesome Japanese Models Behind 2012’s Coolest Shooter

Kow Yokoyama's Maschinen Krieger casts a long shadow

By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Let’s All Read This Terrific 1992 Star Fox Comic

If you think everything Nintendo did in the early 1990s outside actual video games sucked, well, no! Sure, there were some awful TV shows, but not everything was bad. This Star Fox comic, for example, was great. It ran in Nintendo Power magazine in 1992, and had – considering the scale of the project –…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Gamers “Really Loved Killing” Lara Croft, Because She Was a “Strong” Character

There’s an interesting interview with Toby Gard, the creator of Tomb Raider, over on Critical Path’s site. And it reminds us that, for all the platitudes heaped on the series for portraying a strong female character, the fact is a lot of men enjoyed playing as just such a woman for the wrong reasons. Eerily,…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2012

Culture

How The First Death Star Was Built

You see the Death Star being built in Revenge of the Sith, but only from a distance. You see the second Death Star under construction during Return of the Jedi, but you don’t actually see it being constructed. There’s no extended footage of imperial workers swinging space hammers, popping galactic rivets or doubling their efforts.…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Hey Link, It’s Also Dangerous to do Business With Men Who Look Like Toothless Hobos

Link really is the hero of time, because here he is, in the 1980s, with a take on the Resident Evil 4 merchant meme years before Resident Evil 1 was even a twinkle in Shinji Mikami’s eye. [via VG Junk]

By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Star Wars Used to be Uncool. Pinball Helped Bring it Back.

This Star Wars pinball machine wasn’t released in the 70s, or 80s. It was released in 1992, which makes it very special, because that makes it part of the great Star Wars renaissance. After the hype over the original trilogy died down after the mid-80s, as weird as it is to imagine now, Star Wars…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012

Culture

The Futuristic Landscapes of Concept Artist Josh Kao

Josh Kao is a concept artist and illustrator who over the years has worked with studios like EA, Irrational (BioShock Infinite) and Microsoft (Halo 4). He’s also contributed to Firefall, God of War: Ascension, Playstation All Stars Battle Royale and Black Ops II so, yeah, he’s very good at what he does. In addition to…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012

Culture

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

Wreckateer, the second offering in Xbox Live’s “Summer of Arcade” rollout, highlights an otherwise slow week in the dog days of summer. Tuesday • Adidas miCoach (360, PS3) • Prototype 2 (PC) Wednesday • Wreckateer (360) Thursday • Planet Crashers (3DS) • Decathlon 2012 (DS) Friday • Inversion (PC) Sources: GameStop, GameSpot

By Owen Good Published July 22, 2012

Culture

Sunday Comics: Don’t Stand So Close to Me

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published July 16.—Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published July 16.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…

By Owen Good Published July 22, 2012

Culture

This Week in the Business: ‘Xbox 360 Isn’t So Good Anymore Compared to PCs.’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Xbox 360 isn’t so good anymore compared to PCs.”—Matt Firor, head of Zenimax Online Studios, talking about why we haven’t seen successful console MMOs on 360 as part of an in-depth Elder Scrolls Online interview QUOTE | “There’s a brutality, there’s…

By Steve Peterson Published July 21, 2012

Culture

Nazi Explosions Meet Beautiful Landscape Paintings in This Video Game Concept Art

Geoffroy Thoorens is a French concept artist who currently works at Quantic Dream, the developers of Heavy Rain and the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls. He’s also done stuff for movies, TV shows and even board games, so the gallery you’ll see here is a mix of all kinds of work, ranging from landscape painting to…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

It Took Japan to Add a Little Style to Alien vs Predator

It’s been over twenty years since some bright sparks decided it’d be cool to see Aliens fight Predators. Since then we’ve had good comics, good video games, bad video games and terrible movies based on the idea. When people talk about the games, though, they almost exclusively remember the three first-person shooter titles. While the…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

The Dangers of Using Wikipedia for Video Game History

When I put Total Recall stories together, I use a ton of sources. My memory/brain, for one, but also specialised history and collector sites, weird blogs, books, all kinds of places. Wikipedia is, sometimes, one of those places. It’s also not always the most reliable. A great piece this week over on Hardcore Gaming reminds…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Total Recall, Kotaku’s History Section, is Moving

Just a quick public service announcement to let you know that Total Recall, Kotaku’s history feature, is changing timeslots. It’ll now appear between 1am and 2am Eastern, Tuesday through Friday.

By Luke Plunkett Published July 19, 2012

Culture

Drown Your Eyeballs in Rayman: Origins’ Gorgeous Concept Art

That’s it. No mahine guns today. No more giant robots, no post-apocalyptic landscapes, no bloodthirsty aliens. Today, we’re looking at video game concept art that’s so damn bright and cheerful it’ll put more peps in your step than you’ll know what to do with. It’s all the work of Floriane Marchix, who is currently at…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 19, 2012