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CulturePlease Enjoy Epic’s Tim Sweeney Apologising Profusely To Ubisoft For Fucking Up
While the documents and emails being released as part of the Epic v Apple case are often important and full of detailed information, I am very much enjoying the ones—like this—where billionaire executives are forced into embarrassing apologies when their company fucks up. Here for your enjoyment is an email Tim Sweeney had to send…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsRadiohead Lyrics Spotted In The Resident Evil Village Demo
While many players keep occupied with seeing as much of Resident Evil Village as its one-hour demo allows, some folks go the extra mile. Someone on the Resident Evil subreddit discovered that the opening lines of the mega-popular Radiohead song “Creep” are written on a plastic bottle sitting in one of Village’s homes. At this…
By Ian Walker Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureGoogle Stadia’s Head Of Product Has Left The Company
Vice President and Head of Product at Stadia, John Justice, who only joined Google in early 2019, has not just left his role at the streaming game platform but the company itself. The news was originally reported by The Information, and later confirmed by 9to5Google. It comes only a few weeks after Google made the…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureApple’s Tim Cook On Epic’s Tim Sweeney: I Do Not Know This Man
Another day, another collection of very funny and insightful documents being released as part of the Apple vs Epic lawsuit. For tonight we have a 2015 email from Epic’s Tim Sweeney to Apple CEO Tim Cook, where one executive issues an impassioned plea for marketplace reform, and the other says, “Who is this man?” The…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureDestiny 2 Players Are Losing Their Minds Over Fallen Babies That Look Like Grenades [UPDATE: Plushies Incoming]
If you’ve ever played Destiny or Destiny 2 for more than 15 minutes, you’ve probably killed at least several Fallen. The bug-eyed bad guys frequently stand between your Guardian and whatever they’re trying to accomplish, and they just crunch so good when you thwack ‘em with a giant hammer. But I swear to god, if…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsOculus Homes Ransacked
Yesterday I donned my three-week-old Oculus Quest 2 and decided to check in on Oculus Home, a personal 3D space that each Oculus user can customize with furniture and any number of faux-domestic polygonal accessories. But when I rezzed in, something was amiss. Or rather, everything was missing: My Home had been stripped bare. At…
By Alexandra Hall Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureVinny Caravella, Alex Navarro, and Brad Shoemaker Leave Giant Bomb [UPDATE]
Vinny Caravella, Alex Navarro, and Brad Shoemaker, foundational members of the Giant Bomb team, announced today they are leaving the site. During a live podcast recording on Twitch, the three announced that their last day is Friday. Giant Bomb founder Jeff Gerstmann is staying at the site for now. Giant Bomb was established in 2008…
By Ash Parrish Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureWitcher 3 Director Leaves CD Projekt Following Bullying Allegations
Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, director of The Witcher 3, has resigned from his position at CD Projekt after being accused of workplace bullying, Bloomberg reports. Tomaszkiewicz reportedly told CD Projekt staff that an internal investigation found him not guilty of this alleged behavior, but he is nevertheless stepping away due to what he referred to as “fear,…
By Ian Walker Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureBlizzard Doesn’t Want Diablo Confused With A Cartoon Dog
Seeking to protect its long-held trademark, Blizzard has filed a Notice of Opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to block Fox from trademarking Diablo, one of the canine characters from the upcoming animated series Housebroken. Blizzard’s Diablo is a series of action role-playing video games in which players battle against the forces of…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureEpic Tried To Convince Xbox To Make Multiplayer Free Alongside Apple Fight
An email between Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and Xbox head Phil Spencer, made public today as part of the ongoing Epic versus Apple trial, shows Sweeney trying to entice Spencer to take “free-to-play” multiplayer out from behind the Xbox Live paywall to coincide with Epic’s war against the App Store. In an emailon August 5,…
By Riley MacLeod Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureEpic Spent $1 Billion On PC Exclusives By 2019
As the trawl through Epic’s court documents continues, another figure jumps out: $1 billion—the amount Epic had spent on securing exclusives by 2019. Spread across 110 titles, the detail is hidden within a document exploring “revenue assumptions”. In this, while guessing at potential income, they state that for 2019 titles they’d spent $542m, for 2020 $444m,…
By John Walker Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureCelebrate Star Wars Day With Retro Rainbow Boba Fett
Boba Fett is one of the best-dressed bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe, but what if he wasn’t? Coming this summer to a Target store near you, Hasbro’s Retro Collection Boba Fett Prototype Edition looks sorta like he’s made out of six molded crayons. I love him. Before action figures reach their final form,…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureDestiny 2‘s Season Of The Splicer Dawns On May 11
Goodness, is it season 14 already? Destiny 2‘s Season of the Splicer kicks off May 11, tasking players with hacking the Vex Network from the inside, revisiting the fabled Vault of Glass raid, and changing up their looks with an overly complex transmog system. Season 14 looks to be all about those pesky Vex. The…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureEpic Paid $115 Million For The Borderlands 3 Exclusive
As the bizarro-world bunfight between Epic and Apple enters its second day in court, more extraordinary information is coming out in court documents. Like, how Epic paid Take-Two/Gearbox one hundred and fifteen million dollars for the exclusive rights to sell Borderlands 3 In a document entitled “Epic Games Store: Review of Performance and Strategy, October…
By John Walker Published May 4, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanAlmost Twenty Years Later, Muv-Luv Characters Sure Look Different
Muv-Luv debuted as a visual novel way back in 2003. Now, in 2021, it’s getting a new anime series this fall. The official site has launched, and as one would expect, the character designs have changed. The basic designs haven’t radically changed, but as Hachima Kikou reports, understandably, styles and sensibilities are certainly different! See…
By Brian Ashcraft Published May 4, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanTokyo Is Getting An Esports Gym
This month, an establishment calling itself “Esports Gym” will open in Tokyo. It claims to be the first in the country. According to the official release (via Sankaku Complex (NSFW)), the Tokyo Metro is one of the founders of the establishment, a business that also claims to differ from other gaming establishments. Here, members pay…
By Brian Ashcraft Published May 4, 2021 -
AnimeDemon Slayer Is First Japanese Movie To Top The US Box Office Since Original Pokémon Movie
The Demon Slayer feature film was a box office juggernaut in Japan, surpassing Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away as the biggest earning feature film in Japan. It’s also doing very, very well in the US. Originally, there was concern about how the movie would do considering its R rating. The movie, however, set a box office…
By Brian Ashcraft Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureXbox 360 Emulation Is Coming Along Nicely
It was only a few months ago that we were taking a look at the positive steps Xbox emulation has been making on the PC, but boy, Xbox 360 emulation is also looking very good in 2021. As this excellent walkthrough video by Modern Vintage Gamer explains, some recent breakthroughs for the Xenia emulator have…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 3, 2021
