Demon’s Souls Was Filled With Rubber Duckies During Development

Just like the PlayStation 3 original, the Demon’s Souls remake on PlayStation 5 is a moody, atmospheric game with very little in the way of brightness or joy. But that wasn’t always the case. The staff at Bluepoint Games frequently made use of a rubber ducky model to evaluate aspects of the Demon’s Souls engine…

Recently Teased Division 2 Mode Won’t Happen After All, ‘A Casualty Of A Tough Year.”

Yesterday, Ubisoft confirmed that an upcoming gameplay event in The Division 2, Codename Nightmare, has been canceled and will not be released as planned this year, Yannick Banchereau, the Associate Creative Director on the game, explained the situation in the latest State of The Game livestream. Codename Nightmare was a planned upcoming special Division 2…

Immortals: Fenyx Rising: The Kotaku Review

Immortals: Fenyx Rising isn’t the game I was expecting. I was prepared for a big Ubisoft open-world action game filled with colorful vistas, Greek gods, and some elements inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. It is all of that, but it’s not just Assassin’s Creed: Hyrule. It’s a welcome streamlining of…

World Of Warcraft Shadowlands’ Alt-Leveling System Is A Refreshing Change

Unlike World of Warcraft’s Legion and Battle For Azeroth expansions, which gave players a choice on which zones to level up their characters, Shadowlands’ story campaign is very linear. Fortunately you only have to play through it once. With the new Threads of Fate mode, players who’ve reached max level can skip the story with…

SNK confirmed today that Kyo, Benimaru, and Shun’ei will be in King of Fighters XV, with a gameplay reveal scheduled for January 7, 2021. The game was originally announced back at EVO 2018.

Fortnite Leaks And Teases Suggest Major Xbox, PlayStation Characters Coming To The Game (Update: Kratos Confirmed)

Update (12/03/2020, 4:11 p.m. ET): Fortnite has officially announced Kratos. God of War items are available now across all platforms. Our original story follows below. Kratos and Master Chief could be headed to Fortnite soon based on recent tweets and leaks that hint at a major new cross-over in Epic Games’ massive battle royale game. The…

Sea Of Thieves Is Getting A Battle Pass

Sea of Thieves will ditch its monthly update schedule and move to a Fortnite-style seasonal model starting next year, Rare creative director Mike Chapman announced in a new update to players. “After a year of updating the game [monthly], we’re moving to a new way,” Chapman said. “So from January, seasons are coming to Sea…

Nothing Takes Me Back To 1987 Like The Legend Of Zelda

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today’s object of aural inquiry requires no introduction, so what am I even writing here? Let’s get to it. Sometimes I’ll think back to a fascinating music/gaming/cultural scene and think, “damn, I wish I had been…

Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki Yoshida discusses his career in a thirty-minute YouTube documentary. It’s an interesting look into what makes Yoshida tick as he speaks in-depth about his work and the future of games. 

Track: If We Make It Through December (Cover) | Artist: Phoebe Bridgers | Album: If We Make It Through December (single)

PlayStation Vita’s Store Isn’t Working For Some Reason (Update: It’s Back)

Update (12/03/2020, 5:06 p.m. ET): According to several users, the Vita store is working again. Our own testing confirms this as well. Kotaku has still received no word from Sony on the matter. Our original story follows below. Widespread issues with PlayStation Network on PlayStation Vita have kept players from downloading or transferring games to the…

Genshin Impact’s Mobile Haul Is Nearly $400 Million (And Counting)

Open-world adventure game Genshin Impact has made its developer miHoYo around $393 million in revenue since launching in late September, according to mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower. The wild part? That number only accounts for the game’s mobile income. Genshin Impact found near-instant worldwide success when it arrived on PlayStation 4, PC, iOS, and Android…

Holy Cayde-6, You Can Buy Back Your Old Colors In Destiny 2

Earlier today, I wrote about how I’ve been playing a whole lot of Destiny 2 these days. I messed around with Bungie’s hilariously good-vs.-evil shooter at launch, then dipped out. Returning after a few years away for the recent Beyond Light expansion meant reacquainting myself with a whole lot of stuff, but nothing threw me…

The Brightness Slider Is The Dimmest Idea In Video Games

“Retinas are fried after cranking up brightness to see enemies.” That is the headline of a Reddit post submitted one month ago to the Call of Duty: Cold War subreddit. His plight is achingly familiar. “It’s literally so difficult to see enemies in this game,” they write. So they delved under the hood and obliterated…

Spend Less Time On Fire With New Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch

Baldur’s Gate 3 has a new patch filled with nifty quality of life adjustments, as well as new story changes that I’m eager to see. New to Patch 3 is a new reward system for players who don’t employ the typical “party of murder hobos” tactic common in most Dungeons and Dragons games. “Patch 3…

Mask Of The Rose Is A Romantic Visual Novel Set In, Uh, Fallen London

Failbetter Games introduced players to the Fallen London universe, in which the English capital has been transported underground by mysterious forces, through an eponymous browser game and gothic survival sequels Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies. But the studio’s next project aims to be a more intimate take on the Unterzee. Mask of the Rose is…

Destiny Now Has A Dungeons & Dragons Campaign

Fans began trying to turn Destiny into a Dungeons & Dragons-style pen-and-paper RPG two years ago. This week they released the 1.0 version of the Dungeons & Destiny Player’s Guidebook, providing an entirely new way to experience Bungie’s loot shooter alongside the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition ruleset. For those unfamiliar with Destiny, it’s a…