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CultureXbox Game Pass For PC Finally Gets EA Play Tomorrow
Planned for release late last year but delayed until now, EA Play comes to Xbox Game Pass for PC tomorrow at no additional cost to subscribers, complete with the newly-added Star Wars: Squadrons. The cycle that started with an announcement last September is finally complete. Starting tomorrow, EA Play for PC becomes part of Xbox…
By Mike Fahey Published March 17, 2021 -
OpinionImpressionsThe New Mortal Kombat Movie Starts Off Strong
The new Mortal Kombat film, the first theatrical release based on the fighting games since 1997’s Mortal Kombat Annihilation, opens with a scene that should be quite familiar to fans. Hanzo Hasashi, the man fated to become the vengeful Scorpion, enjoys a quiet moment with his family in their ancestral home. It’s a quiet moment…
By Mike Fahey Published March 17, 2021 -
CultureDoom Eternal‘s Next DLC Comes Out Tomorrow
Hell yeah! Doom Eternal’s next and final expansion, The Ancient Gods – Part 2, will come out tomorrow, developer iD Software announced today. The expansion, which picks up after last fall’s first chapter—The Ancient Gods – Part 1—appears inspired far more by typical fantasy than by the science-fiction that characterizes the main game. Many of…
By Ari Notis Published March 17, 2021 -
CulturePlayers Aren’t Happy About Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s Transmog Tax
A couple months after release, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla finally has transmog, but not as some players had originally envisioned it. The feature falls short of how it’s been implemented in past games, and comes with a 50 silver tax on each transaction to boot, leaving a lot of us, myself included, scratching out heads. Transmog,…
By Ethan Gach Published March 17, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanEven Square Enix Is Getting Into NFTs
Square Enix is joining the NFTs fray with one-of-a-kind digital assets for their Million Arthur franchise. Please be excited. Today, Square Enix announced that it would be joining forces with Double Jump Tokyo for the endeavor. Double Jump Tokyo was founded in 2018, and the company has been at the forefront of blockchain technology in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 17, 2021 -
CultureMorning MusicEternal Sonata Literally Includes Some Of The Greatest Music Of All Time
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s ongoing hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. This morning I am totally cheating by presenting you with tracks from Eternal Sonata, the Xbox 360/PS3 Bandai Namco RPG that features music composed by 19th-century Polish classical superstar Frédéric Chopin. That’s right, come at me.…
By Mike Fahey Published March 17, 2021 -
AnimeEvangelion Train Line Comes To Japan For A Limited Time
To mark the release of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, the Aonami train line in Nagoya has been renamed the Ayanami Line. The Nagoya Rinkai Rapid Transit line will be wrapped in Rei (and Eva Unit-00) until May 31. There will also be original Ayanami Line merch, as well as a large display in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 17, 2021 -
CultureTrack: Under My Thumb | Artist: Anakelly | Album: Bossa n’ Stones
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 17, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsSony Chose PlayStation’s First Office Location With Late-Night Drinks In Mind
When Sony Computer Entertainment first established its flagship PlayStation brand in 1993, its executives’ chief concern was making sure the company’s first offices were located in an area with late-night bars. At least that’s the story Ken Kutaragi, who’s widely known as father of the PlayStation, told Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada on the latter’s new…
By Ian Walker Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsChess Champion Plays “Bongcloud Attack”, Which Is Very Funny
Norway’s Magnus Carlsen is a chess grandmaster, the current world champion, as well as world #1 in rapid and blitz chess as well. He is very good at chess, but in this match against fellow grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, he opens by playing one of the worst possible sequences of moves in the entire game. The…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureEA Trying New Technology To Fight FIFA 21‘s Racism Problem
While EA has issued over 25,000 warnings and suspensions, and banned over 9,000 accounts for “inappropriate or offensive content” since the launch of FIFA 21 last year, it may shock you to learn that the game still has a problem with racist white folks using certain systems and game modes to act like assholes. As…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureThe Best Clone Wars Cartoon Is Coming Back
I have no problem with the big, shiny Clone Wars cartoon that ran from 2008-2020. But that series’ success came at the expense of an older Clone Wars show that, having been thrown into Disney’s Great Pit Of Cartoon, is finally going to get the comeback it has long deserved. On April 2 Disney is…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureRockstar Pays Modder $10,000 For Fixing GTA Load Times
Remember how yesterday we told you about the modder who found a way to greatly improve GTA Online load times on the PC? That fix, identified and approved by Rockstar, has already gone live, and the modder responsible has been paid for their work. GTAV Title Update 1.53 is out now, and on PC it…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureGoogle Play Halves Its Cut Of Devs’ First $1 Million
Google Play developers will see service fees on their first $1 million every year reduced from 30% to 15% starting on July 1, Google vice president of product management Sameer Samat announced today. “Helping developers build sustainable businesses is a core part of Google Play’s mission,” Samat wrote on the Android Developers blog. “We work…
By Ian Walker Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureActivision Blizzard Esports Announces Layoffs [Update]
Activision Blizzard Esports will lay off around 50 employees, according to a report released today by Sports Business Journal. UPDATE: Reports suggest the total figure of laid-off employees is actually closer to 190. The layoffs come as a cost-saving and restructuring measure, according to the company. While the company emphasized the pandemic as a cause…
By Ash Parrish Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureBandai Namco Speaks Out Against Anti-Asian Racism In America
In an official statement released on Twitter this morning, Bandai Namco took a public stance against the spike of anti-Asian racism in the United States in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. “As a company based in Japan, the recent rise in anti-Asian hate has truly hit home for our employees,” the tweet reads. It…
By Ian Walker Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureRiot Games Says It Finds No Evidence Of Wrongdoing By CEO Accused Of Sexual Harassment
A three-person special committee tasked with reviewing a third-party investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent announced to the company’s staff today that it found “no evidence” of misconduct and recommended no action be taken against the executive, the Washington Post reports. The news comes the same day that Riot…
By Ethan Gach Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsFortnite’s Awful Banana Man Is Finally Dead
Early (and I mean early) this morning, Epic Games unveiled the next season of its mega-popular battle royale shooter Fortnite. As is often the case, there’s a bunch of cool, new stuff for players to mess around with in-game, but in my mind the biggest development is the death of Fornite mascot Peely, the terrible…
By Ian Walker Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryI’m Having Some Trouble With Outriders’ Crossplay
Last month, a demo for Outriders dropped on most every platform but the Switch. Then, yesterday, Microsoft announced that this latest buzzy looter-shooter would join the Xbox Game Pass library on launch day, April 1. Presumably, whatever overlap exists between the 18 million people who subscribe to Game Pass and the however-many-millions-or-not-millions of people who…
By Ari Notis Published March 16, 2021 -
CultureJade Raymond Forms New Studio, Working On Unannounced Game For PlayStation
Former Assassin’s Creed producer and EA manager Jade Raymond announced the formation of a new Montreal-based independent studio called Haven today. Its first project will be a brand new IP being developed for PlayStation, she wrote in a post over on the company’s blog. “And so today I’m announcing Haven, an independent studio where many…
By Ethan Gach Published March 16, 2021