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This Week in the Business

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Unquestionable.” – id programming genius John Carmack states that “within a very short time” mobile devices should eclipse the current consoles QUOTE | “They’ll talk sh*t but they’ll buy it.” – Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski admits that he and everyone…

James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published July 8, 2011

Culture

The Manly Video Game Art of Ville-Valtteri Kinnunen

Barbarians. Knights. Tribal warriors. All very manly men with their armour and swords and scowls, all very much a speciality of Finnish concept artist Ville-Valtteri Kinnunen. Now employed at BioWare, Kinnunen has worked on games like Dragon Age 2, Age of Conan and the criminally under-appreciated Warhammer 40K: Squad Command Working on a Conan property…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Remembering the Great, Last Ninja

Today, we’re looking at The Last Ninja. The first “badass” game I ever played, and still one of my all-time favourites. The Last Ninja was first released in 1987 on the Commodore 64, and was developed by Hungarian outfit SoftView and legendary 80’s studio System 3. It was, and remains to this day, one of…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011

Culture

The Undying Video Game Art of Toshiaki Takayama

Depending on your gaming tastes, you may not have seen much of the work of Toshiaki Takayama. Which is a shame, because his work is incredible. Takayama’s work in the video game field (he’s contributed to anime, trading card games and books as well) has turned up in Japanese arcade titles like Lord of Vermilion,…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Amazing 1979 Song About Computer Games

There have been plenty of songs written about video games over the years. You have your favourites, I have mine One that lingers in my memory, though, comes from a time before I was even born: 1979’s Computer Games, by the Australasian band Mi-Sex. What’s so memorable about this song isn’t the fact that it’s…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011

Culture

The Fantastic Character Art of Akihiko Yoshida

Akihiko Yoshida has been at Final Fantasy developers Square Enix since 1995, when he joined Squaresoft, one of the companies (along with Enix) that merged to create the RPG powerhouse. In that time he’s worked on a ton of Final Fantasy games, the most prominent of them being Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics and…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

When South Park Got an EA Sports Game Pulled off the Shelves

Long before golfer Tiger Woods thought it’d be a good idea to go sticking his dick in anything with a hole and a pulse, his video game franchise was embroiled in a scandal of a different kind. The harmless kind. Involving Jesus, Santa Claus and a cartoon. In 1998, a young Tiger Woods was bursting…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011

Culture

The Renaissance Art of David Alvarez [Update]

David Alvarez is a 2D and 3D artist employed at Ubisoft, who has worked on games like Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Test Drive Unlimited Today, we’re looking at his work on the Assassin’s Creed series. Since Alvarez is able to work in both 2D and 3D, we get a…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Great Games of a Great American Hero

There have been plenty of video games made featuring American heroes. Day of the Tentacle, for example, is full of them. One that doesn’t get enough credit (at least as a gaming “character”), though, is legendary pilot Chuck Yeager. Born in 1923, Yeager enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces just two months prior…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 4, 2011

Culture

Welcome Our New Insect Overlords

There’s probably a reason everything and its brother went on sale this weekend. That’s because there are next to no new releases for the coming seven days. Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, on 360 and PS3, is your big highlight. Tuesday Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (Xbox 360, PS3) — The followup to Earth Defense…

By Owen Good Published July 3, 2011

CultureShop Contest

Board Game Box Art

This week we learned of World of Fourcraft, a game that turns New York into a giant game of real-life Risk. That got me to thinking about the box art that predated today’s video game packshots, and thus our latest Kotaku ‘Shop Contest challenge. Somewhat open-ended yet plainly straightforward: Take a video game and give…

By Owen Good Published July 3, 2011

Culture

Sunday Comics

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. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published June 27. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published June 27. – Read more of Nerf…

By Owen Good Published July 3, 2011

CultureShop Contest

Caught ‘Em: Winners

Our latest ‘Shop contest took inspiration from the capture of the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger. We’ve got a list of the 20 most wanted ‘shops inside. Their crime? First-degree hilarity. Given the go-ahead to use Asshole Dog, Cilixblade (3) struck first. Companion Cube (5) followed with a quick ‘shop. Everyone knows how I love that…

By Owen Good Published July 2, 2011

Culture

This Week in the Business: “Brilliant strategic move.”

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Push out the lifespan of PS3.” – DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole responds to rumors that Sony is actually preparing to unveil and PlayStation 4 sometime next year STAT | $4.27 million – How much Sony CEO Howard Stringer earned for the…

James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published July 1, 2011

Culture

The Baggy Pants and Silly Hats of the Fable Universe

Mike McCarthy, of Lionhead Studios, has for many a year now been working on the Fable series, bringing us some of the weirdest and most wonderful characters going around. In a world where angry bald space marines are the norm, and brown and grey the extent of most colour palettes, Fable‘s bright, comical character designs…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 1, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

In Memory of the Original Castle Wolfenstein (the one That Wasn’t In 3D)

It’s a slightly sad quirk of video game history that id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D is lauded as a masterpiece of gaming while the title it was heavily inspired by – name and all – is afforded no such honour. Yet id’s comic blaster owes everything to a stealth game released in 1981 called simply Castle…

By Luke Plunkett Published July 1, 2011

Culture

The Monstrous Art of Shadow of the Colossus

Enormous monsters. A haunting landscape. Mysterious figures. All hallmarks of classic PS2 game Shadow of the Colossus, all the stars of this batch of concept art for the game. While there’s been art floating around for a while now (the game was released in 2005, after all), courtesy of promotional material and books from Shadow’s…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 30, 2011

Culture

Tony Holmsten’s Video Game Art Is a Final Fantasy

Tony Holmsten, formerly of Sweden now living in Japan, has been working as a video game artist since 2002 at two of Sweden’s biggest studio’s, Battlefield developers DICE and the now-defunct Grin. In that time, he’s done concept art, level art, promo art and lighting for games like Battlefield 2142, Bionic Commando and Fortress, the…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The PlayStation Controller You Never Got to Use

Yesterday, we looked at the PlayStation controllers that Sony has released (or in the Boomerang’s case seriously intended to release) to the public. Today, we’re looking at one that never made it. Before the PlayStation was released in 1994, development kits had to be sent to studios to ensure games would be ready for the…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2011

Culture

The inFamous Video Game Art of Wesley Burt

Wesley Burt is a professional concept artist who works for Massive Black, one of the world’s biggest and most successful concept art studios. In his time there he’s worked on games like inFamous, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Borderlands, Red Faction: Guerilla, inFamous 2 and Kane & Lynch 2 This gallery showcases some of his…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 28, 2011