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Kotaku EastJapanFormer Tales Producer Hideo Baba Has Now Left Square Enix
In February 2017, it was announced that former Tales producer Hideo Baba was heading up a new studio at Square Enix called Studio Istolia. Last month, however, Baba and Square Enix parted aways. Prior to joining Square Enix, Baba produced Tales games at Namco Bandai. Studio Istolia was working on a completely new IP called…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 5, 2019 -
UncategorizedGabe Newell’s Likeness Is Still Selling Underwear In China
Several years ago, someone spotted Gabe Newell’s face on packaging for China’s “Long Dian” underwear. Now in 2019, his likeness is still being used. Redditor ChggnNggts recently published a photo on r/pcmasterrace of packaging with Gabe Newell’s Photoshopped mug. The source photo the underwear maker is using isn’t current. According to Chinese site Sohu, these…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 5, 2019 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Violeta
IZ*ONE is an absolutely massive Korean/Japanese girl group (12 members!) formed with the finalists from the latest season of Mnet’s Produce series of survival audition television shows. The premise of Produce is simple: dozens of idol hopefuls compete against each other to survive as long as they can, on the backs of public voting after…
By Seung Park Published April 5, 2019 -
UncategorizedMario Odyssey, Breath Of The Wild Will Support Labo VR
Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will support the Labo VR Kit shortly after it launches this month, Nintendo said today. The games will get free updates on April 25 that add virtual reality support, using Nintendo’s $40 Labo VR goggles, which launch April 12 The VR support will…
By Chris Kohler Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedThe Division 2’s Secrets Were Developed In Secret, Even In The Studio
The development team behind The Division 2 might have been literally and figuratively Massive, but the riddles sprinkled into the game for players to solve were concocted by just four people, according to creative director Julian Gerighty. Those riddles have been the most prominent example of a batch of mysteries woven into a game that…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedFallout 76 Player Turns Their Camp Into A Disco For Mutant Cows
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Flames bursting out of the walls of a haunted church. A labyrinth funneling vault dwellers into the clutches of a hungry Deathclaw. And now this: a disco full of Brahmin getting down and getting electrocuted. As GamesRadar points out, some Fallout 76 players have become obsessed with Brahmin,…
By Ethan Gach Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedNew Windows Game Bar Does Spotify, Friends And Memes
The Game Bar is what pops up when someone presses the Windows key plus G while playing a game on a Windows PC, giving quick access to screenshot, capture, and streaming tools. Now it does a bit more: Friends lists, messaging, Spotify access and the ability to drop funny text on screenshots. Or just regular…
By Mike Fahey Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedChange To EA’s Community Management Safety Policies Was Badly Needed, Sources Say
The video game giant Electronic Arts says it is improving its systems for elevating safety and harassment issues that emerge from its player communities in order to ensure the company addresses them. The changes have been a long time coming and are desperately needed, sources tell Kotaku “Recently, we’ve updated our escalation procedure for all…
By Gita Jackson Published April 4, 2019 -
CultureBorderlands Is Getting Review Bombed On Steam Over Epic Store Exclusivity [UPDATE]
Yesterday, Gearbox announced that Borderlands 3 will be an Epic Games Store exclusive for six months after its September 13 release. Like clockwork, Steam users began review bombing previous games in the noted dabbing robot shooter series shortly after. Twenty-four hours and thousands of negative reviews later, Steam’s new anti-review bomb system has yet to…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedIslanders Is Almost The Perfect City-Building Game
When I first saw Islanders last month, I thought it was going to be very chill, but also barely a game. I was only half right. The chill part is definitely right. This is a very light and breezy game, its beautiful colour palette and lo-fi soundtrack making it the perfect thing to boot up,…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2019 -
CultureNew Afro-Futurist RPG Is A Fresh Break From Sci-fi’s Tired Tropes
The art book Kickstarter for Swordsfall, a tabletop roleplaying game set in an Afro-futurist African nation, raised over $64,000 in about 24 hours and cleared its $2,000 goal with ease. Creator Brandon Dixon told Kotaku that he’s not all that surprised by the success of this campaign. He knew that he had something unique, that…
By Gita Jackson Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedFan-Made Overwatch Mode Makes Players Rely On Each Other To See
Overwatch is a game where visual language is paramount to keep the fast-moving action readable. Characters, for example, are designed so that their unique silhouettes are eye-popping even from far away. It also helps to be able to see anything literally at all—something you really come to appreciate when 90 percent of the screen is…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedThis week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen digs into some of the behind-the-scenes and after-effects of our BioWare reporting. We also talk about the brilliant Baba Is You, Sekiro, and Phoenix Wright. You can listen to the show on your favorite podcast provider or right here:
By Jason Schreier Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedInvisible Beetle Is The Key To A New Donkey Kong Country 2 World Record
One of Donkey Kong Country 2’s best speedrunners, who goes by V0oid, recently took first-place in the game’s 102 percent category, completing and collecting everything in the game in 1:26:28. He’d been working on it for months, but was able to shave a full nine seconds off the previous record thanks to a newly discovered…
By Ethan Gach Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedIt turns out Game Boy shells make great dioramas. Reddit user trythisfuckingone recently shared pictures of Zelda and Pokemon nature scenes recreated with used Game Boy cases they ordered online and combined them with some faux-grass and tree miniatures
By Ethan Gach Published April 4, 2019 -
UncategorizedI Video Gamed So Hard That I Broke My Xbox Elite Controller
I don’t have many strong feelings about video game controllers, except for this: The Xbox Elite Controller is the most comfortable thing on the planet. It’s a highly customizable and reliable option for any video game enthusiast. But last night, I encountered a problem. The shoulder button broke, turning limp and useless. My Elite controller…
By Heather Alexandra Published April 4, 2019 -
CultureKirby Star Allies‘ Developers Explain How They Improved The Game A Lot After Launch
The early 2018 Switch game Kirby Star Allies improved a lot over the past year thanks to a stream of free downloadable updates. Some significant parts of those updates weren’t originally planned, according to the game’s developers at Kirby studio HAL. HAL’s chief creator, Shinya Kumazaki explained the process of expanding the game to me…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 4, 2019
