Ubisoft Renames Controversial Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Trophy

As promised, Ubisoft has begun making changes to a recent expansion to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey that upset many players and led to an apology from the developers. The first of those changes appears to be in the process of rolling out, as PS4 players can now see a new name for the trophy that they…

Popular Horror Game Removed From Steam After Chinese Players Say It Insults China

Less than a week ago, the developers of P.T.-inspired horror game Devotion were riding high. Their game’s February 19 release was met with thousands of positive Steam reviews and hundreds of thousands of viewers on Twitch. However, after a weekend of controversy, Devotion has met an even more untimely end than the game that inspired…

Perfectly Reasonable Excuses For Playing One More Apex Legends Match

Sometimes, you get a game that grabs you so much you feel that itch to play it all the time. You may find yourself making up ridiculous reasons to keep playing, even when you know you should stop. Here are some of the reasons I’ve made up to play just one more match of Apex…

Facing Financial Pressures, GOG Quietly Lays Off At Least A Dozen Staff

Amid a month full of mass layoffs across the video game industry, the digital store GOG quietly let go of what it says was a dozen staff last week. GOG, which is owned by The Witcher 3 publisher CD Projekt, did not say why the layoffs happened, but one laid-off staffer tells Kotaku that the…

One Of My Favorite Gaming Keyboards, Only Smaller

A couple of years ago, Japanese keyboard-maker Topre brought its fancy hybrid rubber dome technology to the gaming scene with the Realforce RGB. Between its amazing feel and sound and its configuration options, it’s one of the most satisfying gaming keyboards I’ve used. The only problem: I am not a fan of the number pad.…

Players Are Flooding Splatoon 2 With Demands for Japan-Exclusive Gear

Western players have been clamoring over Japan-exclusive Splatoon 2 gear on social media for months—now, they’re plastering the game itself with their desperate pleas. Sometimes, Splatoon 2’s developers release exclusive gear through special offers like the one in Japanese magazine CoroCoro, where the Splatoon manga runs. If you buy an issue of CoroCoro, there will…

Evo Japan Champion Gets To Keep His Prize Money Despite Japan’s Confusing Laws

Making a living in competitive gaming is difficult, but it’s even harder for folks living in Japan. The island nation limits prize money for video game tournaments, and also, strangely enough, its gambling regulations also apply to the world of esports. These two legal hurdles have made it almost impossible for competitors to maintain a…

Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime’s Long Career… Being Asked About Mother 3

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announced last week that he is retiring in order to spend time with his family and friends, but it is entirely possible he just got tired of answering questions about Mother 3. In 2006, Mother 3, the long-awaited sequel to Nintendo’s cult classic RPG EarthBound, was released on the…

Trials Rising: The Kotaku Review

I look at my watch. It’s 9:48pm. I’ll do one more Trials Rising track, I think. After that, since I’m only two levels away from the next stadium challenge, I do a few more. The stadium challenge turns out to be a tough bastard that makes me want to bite my controller in half, but…

I’m Obsessed With Anthem’s Mech-Entering Sequence

Anthem is not a particularly sensual game, especially for a BioWare joint. There are no romance options. There’s some light flirting while talking with computer-controlled characters, but nothing intimate. Gameplay outside of a mech suit is all first-person, so the player barely sees their character outside of cutscenes. But damn, the transition from first-person human…

Pokémon Go Player Arrested For Allegedly Hitting A Police Officer

While playing Pokémon Go in Japan’s Matsuyama City, a 40-year-old man was stopped by a police officer for questioning. The man reportedly got upset that his game was interrupted and allegedly struck the officer in the face. According to Yahoo! Japan, there were around fifty people gathered near a hotel in the city’s Chifunemachi area,…

Saying Goodbye To Sega’s Old Headquarters

Sega has moved its cooperate offices from its former location in Tokyo’s Otorii to a new Sega Sammy Holdings site in Ousaki, Tokyo. Sega sold off its old headquarters, and with talk that the building will be torn down, Sonic developer Yuji Naka came to say goodbye. As Game Biz (via Siliconera) reports, Sega Sammy…

The Tokyo Hotel For Manga Lovers

This month, the Manga Art Hotel is opening in Tokyo. With 35 guest rooms, the hotel has around 5,000 manga titles for guests to read. Massive manga libraries have long been a draw of net cafes and manga cafes, which, thanks to private booths and showers, make a viable option for those traveling Japan on…

Blooming Yuccas. Rio Grande City, Texas. By Chris Lopez | Flickr JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Looking Up

Chantal Horeis is an artist from Sweden with a warm, slightly fantastic style. You can see more of Chantal’s beautiful art at her personal site.

Android Is Kinda Running On The Nintendo Switch

Developers Billy Laws and Max Keller have got a rough version of Android Q up and running on the Nintendo Switch. Given the Switch’s development heritage—the console is an ARM-based tablet—it’s surprising that it’s taken this long to get a version of Google’s OS running, but the progress being made here is exciting. Not necessarily…