Culture

All The Announcements From Today’s Nintendo Indie Direct

Today’s indie-focused Nintendo Direct was chock full of timed Switch exclusives. Here’s a quick rundown of what you missed if you were spending your quarantine time staring at a wall in anticipation of Animal Crossing instead of staring at Nintendo’s YouTube channel in anticipation of Animal Crossing Today’s Direct was a rapid-fire machine gun blast…

GameStop Cancels Midnight Release Events For Animal Crossing And Doom

GameStop will be canceling midnight release events, like those for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal, for the foreseeable future and shutting down demo stations in their stores, according to an internal memo sent to employees this morning and obtained by Kotaku “Until further notice, late night launch events are suspended,” the memo reads.…

Ubisoft CEO Sends Comforting Note To Employees About Coronavirus

In a world where video game publishers frequently mistreat their workers, where companies often seem more concerned with profits than people, here is a refreshing note from one top executive about the covid-19 pandemic that has upended all of our lives. Ubisoft chief executive officer Yves Guillemot recently sent this message, obtained by Kotaku, to…

How’s It Going?

Good morning! We’re doing something different, starting today: every morning, Kotaku will be running an open thread where you can talk about what you’re playing, how you’re helping each other during this tough time in the world, and how you’re doing. I run the site’s weekly “What Are You Playing This Weekend?” post, where you…

No Man’s Sky Is Getting Bobbleheads

Party like it’s 1999 by adding one of No Man Sky’s new custom bobbleheads to your spaceship cockpit. In Hello Games latest development update the studio announced the figurines will be a new exotic collectible sold by the Quicksilver Bot and can be installed in in any spaceship. The first two to be added to…

You Will Break A Lot Of Noses In Fights In Tight Spaces

A new indie game looks to take action movie brawls and gamify the hell out of them. The result looks like a lot of broken bones. From the indie studios Mode 7 (makers of Frozen Synapse) and Ground Shatter, Fights in Tight Spaces is a fighting game where all of your moves are performed by…

Come On, Who’s Next

Dong Jianhua is a concept artist and illustrator based in Korea. You can see more of Dong’s stuff at his ArtStation page

GameStop’s Employees Fear Its Coronavirus Policies Are Dangerously Flawed

Last week, GameStop sent an email to its customers assuring them that the gaming retail chain was taking the necessary precautions in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Some employees, however, have shared concerns with Kotaku about the company’s ability to keep them and their customers safe. GameStop’s message to consumers was that the company…

Tokido Finally Gets His Decisive Street Fighter V Win Against Daigo

Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi might be one of the greatest fighting game players of all time, but that doesn’t keep him from being haunted by his own demons. During last weekend’s TOPANGA Championship, he finally felled fellow legend Daigo Umehara in a lengthy Street Fighter V match, securing a victory two years in the making. Since…

Star Wars: Battlefront II Gives Out Double XP Because Of Pandemic

The developers behind Battlefront 2 are taking up a fan suggestion on Reddit by doubling XP for players for the game for the next two weeks. They’re doing it as more and more people stay indoors to try and slow the global outbreak of the Covid-19 coronavirus. “We’re turning on x2 Experience in Star Wars…

Call of Duty: Warzone Players Are Killing Each Other With ‘Non-Lethal’ Rocks

What is a bullet, I ask you, if not a small rock hurled in a creative fashion with intent to cause maximum harm? With this in mind, I’d like to posit that Call of Duty: Warzone players who’ve figured out how to kill each other with rocks are, in fact, fully within the spirit of…

Marco Rubio Says Stop Spreading Rumors About Tekken Character Marshall Law

In this time of pandemic and national emergencies, disinformation is a serious problem. That’s why Marco Rubio, the senior United States senator from Florida, wants to make one thing clear during this ongoing crisis: You people need to shut up about Tekken character Marshall Law. “Please stop spreading stupid rumors about marshall law. COMPLETELY FALSE,”…

The Xbox Series X Controller Is Subtly Different

There are obvious differences between the controller for the Xbox Series X and the current Xbox One controller. The directional pad has changed, and there is a share button now. Then there are features like new textures and rounded bumpers, small changes that could make a big difference in controller comfort for many people. In…

Here’s What’s Inside The Xbox Series X

Last month Microsoft posted a lengthy article talking about what the upcoming Xbox Series X console can do. Today the company details the hardware inside the box that’s getting it done, including a custom eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU running at 3.8 GHz and its powerful RDNA 2 GPU. The technical jargon runs thick in…

Shrine. Kyoto, Japan. By Nathan Rutkofske JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line 

The Art Of Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the sequel to 2015’s beautiful Ori and the Blind Forest, is now out. And as we love to do with all good-looking video games, that means it’s time to take a look at a ton of the gorgeous art that went into its development. Below you’ll find a…

Over 20 Million People Were On Steam Today, Because What Else Are We Going To Do

With more and more folks around the world being asked to work and stay at home, it’s probably to be expected that Steam would get a workout. But even taking that into account, these numbers from the last 24 hours are something else. Earlier today, Valve’s service set a new concurrent user record with just…

The Week In Games: Doom And Animal Crossing Are Coming To Save Us All

The world is a strange, scary and depressing place right now. And it shows no signs of improving anytime soon. Luckily, Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are dropping this week to help everyone take a break from all the bad news. After months of people celebrating Doomguy and Isabelle’s amazing friendship, it felt…

Track: I’m So Sick | Artist: Flyleaf | Album: Flyleaf 

‘Shop Contest: Going To Hell

Doom Eternal will be released in a few days. And that means we will soon be going to Hell. I’m ready to kill some demons and distract my self from the world around me. And I bet there are some video game characters who would love to get away from it all too. Your challenge…