Artifact Designer Says It Failed Due To Cards-For-Money System, Review Bombs

Artifact was supposed to be so many things: Valve’s first proper video game in years. A marketplace that drew on the trading card traditions of yore and Valve’s cutting-edge community tech. A game with a player base of more than a 100 people at any given moment. Months after release, however, hardly anybody’s playing it,…

In A Few Weeks, Minecraft: Story Mode Will Be Impossible To Download [Update]

In the aftermath of development studio Telltale’s closure, games like Tales From The Borderlands and Batman: The Telltale Series were delisted from major stores like Steam and GOG. Now, that hissing green creeper has finally come for Minecraft: Story Mode. The story-based Minecraft spinoff is about to get delisted from stores. However, in this case,…

Previously Banned Fortnite Duo Qualifies For World Cup Finals

Yesterday, Fortnite duo Damion “XXiF” Cook and Ronald “Ronaldo” Mach qualified for the World Cup by placing third with 91 points in the eighth week of North America East duo competition. On May 3, both players were temporarily banned from Fortnite and were dropped by their esports team, Rise Nation, for alleged cheating in previous…

Code Vein‘s Network Test Was Packed With Trashy Anime Action

This weekend, the anime-nonsense action role-playing game Code Vein held a closed network test. The results were both everything I expected and more fun than I imagined. Beat-for-beat Dark Souls gameplay and edgy anime designs might seem groan-worthy, but teaming up with other players to defeat difficult bosses was incredibly badass, if a little simplistic…

My Switch Is Full Of Screenshots My Friends Took By Accident

The Nintendo Switch is a terrific machine for playing video games with friends, for reasons that at this point have been expressed ad nauseam: It’s ridiculously versatile, portable, and not too intimidating. Cliche as they are, those reasons are also true: If I throw a party that segues into video games, odds are we’re going to…

One Year Later, Did Microsoft (And Friends) Keep Their E3 2018 Promises?

E3 2019 is just around the corner, and it’s going to look very different this year without PlayStation. Before we look to the future and are blinded by the razzle-dazzle of trailers and announcements at this year’s event, we need to address what happened in 2018. As we ask every year: Did the three big…

Pokémon Direct, Overwatch League and E3 Kick Off This Week

This week we’re getting Pokémon details directly from Nintendo, as well as jumping back into the Overwatch League, rising from the ashes in X-Men, and kicking off E3 week on Saturday. Here’s your heads up about what’s making waves big and small this week in the world of games and beyond. Watch the video above,…

I Accidentally Doomed My Teenage Sims To A Friendless Existence

Yesterday I got a lot more uninterrupted Sims time than I’ve had in months. I decided to get really self-indulgent with it, making not only a new family and their home, but a couple of teen-friendly hangout spots for the twins. I was all set to send the two youngsters out a bunch of wacky…

All I Want To Do Is Play 16-Bit Action RPGs

It was about two months ago when, reading the latest updates on the Sega Genesis Mini, I thought to myself: “Wouldn’t it be cool if the classic 16-bit action role-playing game Crusader of Centy was on this? That’s what I’d probably play first.” The next thing I thought was: “Idiot, you have a Mega SG!…

Ubisoft just revealed the first new endgame specialization class for The Division 2 since launch, adding the mini-gun-toting “gunner” to the three other endgame roles—complete with special skill tree and sticky foam grenade. Players will have to complete in-game tasks to unlock it, unless they have the game’s season pass, in which case those tasks unlock…

The Week In Games: Say, That’s A Nice Bike

A quiet week. E3 is getting closer and closer and as usual, game releases are slowing down during this time of the year. But for you fans of fast motorcycles, the season is just starting! MotoGP 19 is out later this week for most platforms. Vroom vroom! Or whatever noise a motorcycle going that fast…

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: The Kotaku Review

When I first started Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, I was having an absolute blast. That wasn’t surprising, because its predecessor, 2014’s Persona Q, was an excellent game, and the series these games draw from, Etrian Odyssey, is also excellent. So it was with high expectations that I jumped into a Hard mode playthrough on…

The Sights And Sounds of BitSummit

This past weekend, BitSummit roared through Kyoto. The show keeps growing, and this year was the biggest BitSummit yet! Have a look below at some of the games and festivities. If you do get a chance to come to visit BitSummit, I cannot recommend the show enough. It’s a good time. 

Hands-On With The Playdate, The Game Portable With A Crank

At this weekend’s BitSummit, Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi asked me if I’d like to see the Playdate. He then proceeded to pull it out of a black case and hand me the version that’s running his new Playdate exclusive Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure “You don’t use any buttons,” Takahashi said. “Everything is done through…

Square Enix Announces Dragon Quest Walk, Its Version Of Pokémon Go

Today, Square Enix announced Dragon Quest Walk, an augmented-reality game based on Dragon Quest that encourages players to get out and about. The Pokémon Go comparisons are inevitable. In Dragon Quest Walk, you walk through an in-game field, which is filled with real-world Japanese landmarks like Tokyo Tower, and battle monsters. There is also customized…