GameStop’s Last-Minute Console Rush Puts Workers At Risk

A new allocation of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S bundles brought crowds of hopeful customers to physical GameStop locations over the weekend, according to a report by Bloomberg and corroboration by a Kotaku source. Staffing shortages and the threat of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic in the United States made employees feel both…

The 2021 edition of annual Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tournament Cooperation Cup has been canceled Japanese organizer Yasuaki Matsuda and Capcom came to this decision after a recent uptick in covid-19 cases. We await your return, warrior.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 1.1 Update Addresses Game-Breaking Bugs

Ubisoft is releasing a big update tomorrow for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla across all platforms, aiming to balance combat, improve performance, and generally smooth out a game that’s not without its fair share of bugs. But the biggest blessing comes in the form of several planned fixes for broken objectives. Fixes for more than two dozen…

How Do You Rank The ‘Soulsborne’ Games?

It’s Monday and time for Ask Kotaku, the weekly feature in which Kotaku-ites deliberate on a single burning question. Then, we ask your take. This week we Ask Kotaku: How do you rank the “Soulsborne” games? Ian Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: While not as “traditional” a Souls game as From Software’s other offerings, Sekiro: Shadows…

Fallout 76 Will Soon Let Players Hoard Even More Junk

Fallout 76 players are about to see their junk allowance dramatically increased next month when a new update increases stash sizes by 50%. Players of Bethesda’s online post-apocalyptic sim spend most of their time scavenging the remnants of bombed-out Appalachia for building supplies, crafting materials, and occasionally powerful legendary equipment. As a result, anyone who’s…

How To Get A Refund For Cyberpunk 2077 On PS4 Or Xbox One

You don’t have to stick with Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt Red’s latest open-world escapade released last week to a raucous mix of fanfare and criticism, with much of the ire rooted in how poorly the game runs on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One—and how CDPR hid those versions from players and reviewers until launch. If…

Microsoft, Sony, And Nintendo Team Up To Promote Safer Gaming

In a post shared across all three companies’ websites this morning, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have released a joint set of principles to foster a safe gaming environment across all of their platforms. Posted under the title “Our Shared Commitment to Safer Gaming,” the triumvirate present a three-pronged approach to ensuring their platforms are a…

Surgeon General Compares Developing Covid Vaccine To Playing Xbox

The first Covid-19 vaccines began being distributed in the US today, and amidst the rollout Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams took to Fox News to talk about the race to develop a cure for the pandemic. And to do that he started talking about Xbox. “I want to put it in Christmas-think for people out…

The New Werewolf: The Apocalypse Action Game Isn’t Looking Too Shabby

French developer Cyanide has never really done a fast-paced action role-playing game, but you wouldn’t know it looking at the first gameplay footage of February’s Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood. It’s as brutal as it is furry. In a post this morning on the PlayStation Blog, game director Julien “Patch” Desourteaux walks potential players of…

EA Is Buying Racing Dev Codemasters For $1.2 Billion

Despite a nearly $1 billion bid from Take-Two Interactive last month, Electronic Arts has announced an agreement to purchase English racing game developer Codemasters for $1.2 billion. The purchase will put popular racing series Dirt, Dirt Rally, Grid, F1, Project Cars, Burnout, and Need for Speed under one world-encompassing roof. Since its founding in 1986…

The Week In Games: Bust Some Hives In Gears 5

This week, Gears 5 gets its first story DLC in the form of Hivebusters, a new 3-hours campaign starring some of the characters from the game’s online Hivebuster co-op mode. You know it’s a quiet and mostly empty week for new game releases when the biggest thing is a DLC expansion for a game released…

This Zelda: A Link To The Past Song Is So Obscure Almost No One Knew It Existed

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s regular hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, is this GBA melody the least-heard official Zelda track to ever exist? Last week a thread popped up on ResetEra suggesting that a certain song from the Game Boy Advance port of The Legend of…

Ghost In The Shell Director Mamoru Oshii On This Year’s Biggest Anime Hit

When people look back at 2020, for all its awfulness, one bright spot will stick out in Japan: the runaway success of Demon Slayer The manga debuted in 2016 and recently ended its run. Last year saw a TV anime. But this year, Demon Slayer exploded. As of writing, the animated feature film has dominated…

Track: I’ll See You In My Dreams | Artist: Django Reinhardt | Album: Minor Swing and Greatest Hits

Even The Head Of PlayStation Studios Has His PS5 Upside Down

The PS5 is a strange-looking console. Lots of curves and swoops. It’s easy to accidentally set it up the wrong way, which is exactly what Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, seems to have done in a now-deleted tweet. Whoops! Earlier this morning, Hermen Hulst uploaded a cute little video of his cat attacking…