Track: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence | Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto | Album: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence OST 

Ubisoft Waits A Month To Start Selling XP Booster For Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

What do you do when you launch an Assassin’s Creed game, include the option for your customers to pay $10 to level up faster, draw all kinds of negative reactions—many of them suspicious, wary—and then launch a new Assassin’s Creed two years later? Launch with that controversial paid booster again? Not quite. If you’re publisher…

Rabbits Won’t Stop Jumping In Front Of My Fucking Horse

With the release of the PlayStation 5, I’ve taken the opportunity to go back and play through a few games from the previous generation to see how they take advantage of the new console. One of those games is Rockstar’s western epic Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s great fun, but I can’t help but wonder…

Hades is finally getting cross-save support for Switch. Supergiant Games announced the update in a tweet today.

Return Of The Obra Dinn Is Scratching My Cyberpunk 2077 Itch

There are a lot of “want to play something cyberpunk without playing Cyberpunk 2077” posts going around and I have an addition to suggest: claims adjuster with a twist simulator Return of the Obra Dinn Wait, let me explain. I’ve played very little of Cyberpunk 2077, confining myself to the character creator and the prologues…

Smash Community’s Conduct Panel Reaches Breaking Point After Tumultuous Summer

The independent Super Smash Bros. Code of Conduct Panel is formally disbanding after a summer that saw the competitive Smash community explode with allegations of sexual misconduct “[T]he reality is that at, our current pace of work, we would need five or ten years just to go through all the accusations and possible cases brought…

Controversial Taiwanese Horror Game Returns, GOG Immediately Pulls It [Update]

In February of last year Devotion, a Taiwanese horror game, was pulled from Steam after a controversy regarding a hidden Easter egg. Today GOG, the online PC gaming store run by CD Projekt, announced it would be selling Devotion. Then, hours later, declared it would not “Earlier today, it was announced that the game Devotion…

CDPR Is No Longer Telling PlayStation Owners To Ask Sony For Cyberpunk 2077 Refunds

The Cyberpunk 2077 refund situation only gets weirder and weirder. Developer CD Projekt Red is now telling players who requested a refund for the game’s PlayStation 4 version to sit tight. Following a weekend of ire about Cyberpunk 2077’s subpar performance on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, CD Projekt Red publicly apologized and directed dissatisfied…

Ubisoft’s Game Subscription Service Is Now Available On Stadia

Ubisoft+, the $15-a-month service that gives subscribers access to premium versions of games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, and Watch Dogs Legion, is now available as part of Google’s Stadia streaming platform. Finally an alternative to streaming Ubisoft games on Amazon Luna. One does not need to stream games to enjoy the benefits…

How The Decepticons Nearly Stole Christmas

The battle between the Autobots and Decepticons is a serious conflict spanning millions of years. Hasbro’s new holiday-themed Transformers stop-motion short recalls the time Megatron and his cronies very nearly stole Christmas from Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Windblade, and Grimlock. It’s nice to see million-year-old robots from another planet embracing human traditions. One would think being…

Marvel’s Weird New Multiplayer Mobile Game Goes Live

Available worldwide today for iOS and Android devices, Marvel Realm of Champions is an online team-based brawler that taps into 2015’s Secret Wars comic crossover to give players access to strange, alternate-dimension versions of their favorite heroes. Not to be confused with developer Kabam’s popular fighting game, Marvel Contest of Champions, Realm of Champions is…

Final Fantasy VII’s Snow Theme Tops My Go-To Blizzard Mix

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, we take a trip up north to gaming’s colder climates and the music that makes them so enchanting. Specifically, I want to invite you up to the humble wintery retreat of Final Fantasy VII’s Icicle…

Earth Defense Force 6 is slated to be out at the end of 2021 in Japan, producer Nobuyuki Okajima tells Famitsu in a recent interview. The sixth main entry in the giant bug series picks up where 2017’s Earth Defense Force 5 left off. 

In Japan, Nintendo Says Newly Purchased Switch Units Might Have Setup Error [Update]

It’s the holiday season. People in Japan are obviously shopping for presents, and no doubt the Nintendo Switch will be a popular gift item. However, it might be a good idea to check those Switch units before gifting them. Nintendo announced that customers in Japan are reporting the error code 2162-0002, preventing them from completing…

The suspect arrested for the Kyoto Animation arson attack was deemed mentally competent to stand trial and indicted today in Japan. Medical experts had been examining the suspect, who has a documented history of mental illness but concluded his premeditated actions make him criminally liable.

Track: Out Of Control (The Avalanches Surrender To Love Mix) | Artist: The Chemical Brothers | Album: Surrender (20th Anniversary Edition)