Culture

This Week in the Business: Worth the Paper It’s Printed On

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “I have to tell you—it doesn’t affect what we do … 100,000 signatures doesn’t mean 100,000 sales.”—Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, on fan petitions and campaigns trying to get certain games made QUOTE | “I don’t know why Iwata is…

The Artist Who Gets To Draw All Those Things You Like

Jose Emroca Flores is an artist who has recently worked on stuff like Call of Duty, the Deadpool game and a few of the last Transformers games. Previously, he’s also done stuff with EA, Activision, Nike, Iam8bit, Nintendo Power and Game Informer. There isn’t much minimal pausing for refelction against a bleak backdrop here. Just…

British Game Store Now Sells Dinner In A Can

Hey there, video game fan. Do you like eating Christmas dinner but hate dealing with inconveniences like “shopping” and “cooking” and “pretending you haven’t hit rock bottom”? Try the Christmas Tinner, announced by British retailer GAME today, and you can come yet another step closer to not being human. Check out these beautiful people eating…

Well, Someone’s On Santa’s “Naughty” List

Maxim Verehin is a concept artist who in the past few years has worked for clients like Konami, Wizards of the Coast, Applibot and Ironclad Games. You can see more of his art at his personal site and CGHub page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so…

Track: Difference a Day Makes | Album: Takes Time | Artist: Jim Guthrie Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Hawken Is Still Around, Still Looks Good

People were once so excited about Hawken. It looked awesome, it had a wonderful visual design to it, and then…well, then it went free-to-play, and it didn’t have singleplayer, and that kinda took the wind out of a lot of people’s sails. A shame, but hey, the game still looks great, people are playing it,…

One Of The Best Magic Card Artists On The Planet

Peter Mohrbacher is an artist best known for his work on the Magic: The Gathering card game, for which he’s been providing illustrations since 2010. Prior to that he’d worked at the North American branch of CCP, the developers of the EVE Online series. Those who like his work – or MTG in general –…

Auburn Shocking Alabama is Awesome in Tecmo Bowl, Too

And now we have the proper memorial for the spine-tingling finish to No. 4 Auburn versus No. 1 Alabama yesterday—on the home turf of Auburn’s greatest player ever, and that’s not Jordan-Hare Stadium. It’s Tecmo Super Bowl Bo Jackson, the greatest video game athlete of all time, celebrated his 51st birthday yesterday. He was present…

The Week in Games: Gran Finale

We’re settling in for a long winter’s nap after Friday’s release of the PlayStation’s signature driving sim Gran Turismo 6. After that, well, there’ll be news this weekend from the Video Game Awards, but it’ll concern stuff well down the road. Not much cooking until February, so here is your week—or month—in games. Friday, Dec.…

Sunday Comics: You Can’t Do That on TV

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published Nov. 27. Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Nov. 25. Read more of Awkward Zombie Brawl In The…

This Week in the Business: The Cost of an Xbox One

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … STAT | $471—Amount it costs Microsoft to manufacture each Xbox One, according to research firm IHS; this compares to a manufacturing cost of $381 for the PS4, which means neither device makes a profit at retail considering discounts and marketing costs. QUOTE |…

Let’s Give Thanks For Awesome Video Game Art

Jong Il Kim is a Korean artist who has worked for big local clients like Entwell and NCSoft. You can see more of his art at his CGHub page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button…

Track: Children’s Story | Album: The Great Adventures of Slick Rick | Artist: Slick Rick Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

The Amazing Conversations You Had About Video Games This Thanksgiving

My fellow gaming Americans, Thanksgiving is a day when you can eat turkey, be lazy and answer questions from well-meaning but relatively uninformed relatives about that video game thing you’re into. Surely, grandma asked you about that new PlayStation today? Or your brother-in-law mentioned, while passing the cranberry sauce, that he’s buying an Xbox One…

War. War Sometimes Changes.

Not all the time. Just occasionally. Like…when wandering swordsmen get robot arms and giant swords. Studio Hive is a Thailand-based studio who provide illustrations and concept work for video games, advertising, movies and TV. They’ve recently worked with clients like Square Enix and, like every other game artist on the planet, Applibot’s Legend of the…

​How You Can Make Assassin’s Creed IV More Immersive

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a beautiful-looking game. Or, well, it’s a beautiful-looking game when it isn’t covering the screen with blips, bleeps and blops of UI information and heads-up-display data. Is all that stuff really necessary? Nah. Longtime readers of Kotaku know that I’m an avid disliker of video-game mini-maps, and am always…

Art Travels From BioShock Infinite To The Xbox One’s Launch

One Pixel Brush is a relatively new studio that specialises in concept art for all kinds of video game companies. Already they’ve worked on games like BioShock Infinite, Planetside 2 and Ryse, and are now helping shape stuff that we haven’t even seen or heard from yet. The studio was founded by art director Shaddy…

Space Turtles Don’t Snap, They Shoot

Konstantin Maystrenko is a games artist who currently works at Gameloft Montreal. He’d previously been at strategy developers Nival You can see more of his work at his personal site and CGHub page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click…

The Internet Reacts To The New Persona Games

Persona 5 and a bunch of Persona spin-offs were finally announced this weekend, and the internet is already packed with cool reactions to the announcements. Let’s take a look at some of those reactions, shall we? Those chairs in the P5 teaser made everyone’s imagination run wild. As well as the unexpected Vita spin-off, Persona…

Yes, You Can Design Video Game Weapons For A Living

rmory Nearly two years ago, I wrote a story about rmory Studios, a small team that was setting out to specialise in the design of fake guns for video game characters. Well, in the time since, they’ve managed to do just that. Not only did they work on XCOM throwback Xenonauts, but they even landed…