Culture

Sony Closing PlayStation Store On PS3, Vita, And PSP This Summer

Sony has confirmed today that the PSN digital stores on PlayStation 3 and PSP will be closing on July 2. The PS Vita store will also shut down on August 27. Players will still be able to download games after the stores shut down. Today, Sony updated the important notice section of its official site…

Media Molecule Talks Curation And The Future Of Dreams

More than a year out from release, Dreams stands apart for its unique combination of game creator and sharing platform. But one aspect that has attracted much criticism over the past year is its curation. For the longest time, memes and unfinished “Dreams” buried the best of what the platform had to offer, giving the…

A Decade-Long Affair: The Making Of Maquette

I need to tell you about Maquette No, really. It’s a need. I’ve played a lot of wonderful games while working at Kotaku, but none have resonated with me as much as Maquette, a first-person “recursive puzzle game” released this month for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. Were I to review the game, the…

PAX East 2021 Canceled, Replaced With PAX Online In July

While convention organizers held out hope until the last minute, it turns out early June was still a bit too soon for thousands of gamers to descend upon Boston for PAX East 2021. The live event has now been canceled, replaced with a special PAX Online event running July 15-18. Last year’s PAX East in…

Genshin Impact, Six Months Later

Genshin Impact was a landmark game for 2020, and for global awareness of Chinese-developed video games. Its impressive graphics, compelling fantasy world, and charming characters impressed and attracted millions of players. While the game had an exciting launch, gacha games are typically designed to have a long lifespan. Only two out of seven planned regions…

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch Gets Notes But Still No Release Date [Update: It’s Live]

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has released patch notes for the game’s upcoming 1.2 patch, which was revealed in mid-March. CDPR did not provide a timeline for when the patch will go live in-game. (Update, 12:30pm—According to the Cyberpunk Twitter account, the patch is now live “on PC and consoles,” with a Stadia version coming…

Oh Yeah? Well EA Is Making Its Own Damn Golf Game Again

Two weeks ago 2K announced it signed Tiger Woods, the long-time face of EA’s defunct PGA Tour series, to an exclusive long-term contract for its PGA Tour 2K series. Now EA announces it’s bringing back EA Sports PGA Tour for its first new installment since 2015. We got us a good old-fashioned video game golf…

The Week In Games: Outriders On The Storm

Outriders, the next big online looter shooter, releases later this week for consoles and PC. See, the headline is a pun based on the classic song “Riders On The Storm.” BUT also, there is a deadly anomaly storm featured prominently in Outrider’s intro. So there are really multiple layers to the joke, which according to…

Killer Loops With South Asian Flair Helped Skyblazer Stand Apart

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s ongoing hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. We haven’t been covering many chiptunes lately, so today let’s start remedying that by checking out a somewhat unknown SNES gem with a sound all its own. It feels surprisingly rare to find a game that’s…

Goodbye

Michael Kenji is an artist based in Vietnam. You can see more of Michael’s stuff at his ArtStation page and Patreon

Control’s Architecture Is More Than Just Saying “Brutalism” Over And Over Again

The defining visual signature of Control isn’t its enemies or weapons but its setting. The Oldest House, which has been lauded for its take on brutalism, is a concrete-heavy architectural style from the latter half of the 20th century. But for a moment, let’s look a little beyond that. OK, maybe a little longer than…

Track: MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name | Artist: Lil Nas X 

Someone Made A PS5 Out Of Brass

After watching this video, I still think the hardest part of making a brass PlayStation 5 is actually finding a PS5 to modify. The all brass PS5 was created by YouTuber DIY Perks using a standard, boring plastic console. He removed the outside plastic bits and used them as guides, remaking the pieces in shiny,…

‘Shop Contest: National Something On A Stick Day

Oh hey, you probably expected something about a boat or a canal. Nah. We doing food on a stick! To celebrate National Food On A Stick Day! Your challenge this week: Take food (on a stick) and give it to video game characters. Or perhaps they go on a stick? Yes, I know. You all…

Here’s “Zero To Hero” From Hercules Recreated In Animal Crossing

Those crafty and talented Animal Crossing: New Horizon players are at it again. This time someone spent two months recreating the “Zero To Hero” song featured in Disney’s animated Hercules film from 1997. This impressive feat of editing and creativity was made by Reddit user Melhunnibee. According to Reddit comments left by the user, this…

Sunday Comics: The Ultimate Life-Form

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 March 25. Read more of Corpse Run Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published March 22. Read more of Awkward Zombie Clueless Hero by…

‘Shop Contest: The Rock Edition, Winners!

It’s almost a week later and we still don’t officially know if the Rock is in Fortnite. But who cares about that? We got awards to give out and a contest to run. Our winning image this week comes from Mrichston who creates something haunting and nightmarish. I can’t stop looking at it. I forgot…

This Is Embarrassing!

This week on Snapshots we got a bunch of cool superhero screenshots, some colorful photos, a creepy cave, a giant hole, and one unlucky cowboy who can’t stop his horse. This is a great photo. Then you notice the look on the horse’s face and you realize this is actually an AMAZING photo. Kotaku Snapshots…

Outriders Will Permanently Mark Players Who Cheat

Outriders releases in less than a week and if you were planning on cheating, be warned: You’ll be forever branded a dirty cheater and won’t be able to play with rule-following players via matchmaking. In a pre-release blog post on Steam, Outriders developer People Can Fly laid out a bunch of information about things like…

The Nintendo 3DS Was Released 10 Years Ago Today In North America

On March 27, 2011, Nintendo released the 3DS, its handheld successor to the uber-successful Nintendo DS. Since then it has sold over 70 million units worldwide and had a host of great games released for it over the last decade. I was lucky enough to snag a 3DS around the time when it launched. While…