The Running Man Is Way Better, And Worse, Than You Remember

Before The Hunger Games, before Battle Royale, there was another movie based on a book about a dystopian future where an evil government distracts the masses with a popular series of gladiatorial deathmatches. Runners, are you ready for… The Running Man? Editor’s Note: This article originally ran on 6/20/2014. We’re bumping it up because damn…

Fortnite Mobile Is Becoming A Battle of the Sexes

“Girls have officially ruined Fortnite mobile,” a Twitter user named Michael recently declared. “Girls in my school killed Fortnite mobile for me smh,” wrote Twitter user Julian. Maybe these statements sound dramatic, but the culture around Fortnite goes beyond kills and wins. Fortnite has become a constant presence in relationships, inspiring conversations about the dynamics…

Planned Sea of Thieves Death Tax Canceled After Community Outcry

Sea of Thieves is off to a rocky start; it’s a cool game but feels a bit like a beta. Developer Rare has been trying to address this by adding new features. One proposed feature, a sort of death tax, was met with immediate community disapproval, prompting Rare to quickly cancel the feature. There are…

The Curse Of Monkey Island Is Still Great

The Curse of Monkey Island came out on Steam and GOG last week, and I’m pleased to report that, 21 years later, it’s as great as I remember. Although the third Monkey Island isn’t spoken of as fondly as the first two games—in large part because it was directed by Larry Ahern and Jonathan Ackley…

SimCity Designer Will Wright Saved Double Fine From Going Bankrupt

If not for the director of SimCity selling his company to Electronic Arts, we might not have Psychonauts, Broken Age, or anything else from Double Fine. Today on Kotaku Splitscreen, the full story. Last week at the Game Developers Conference, Double Fine boss Tim Schafer won a Lifetime Achievement award for his decades of work…

Square Enix Creates A New Studio Headed Up By Final Fantasy XV‘s Director

The studio is called Luminous Productions. It will be headed up by Hajime Tabata, director of Final Fantasy XV. According to Square Enix, it will primarily develop AAA games as well as new and unique entertainment experiences. Tabata will be the studio boss as well as the Chief Operating Officer, and the studio aims to…

Pepsi Launches J-Cola, A Special Pepsi Aimed At Japan

This is Pepsi J-Cola. According to website NariNari, it is aimed at Japan’s cola-loving “heavy users.” That’s exactly what NariNari wrote: ヘビーユーザー (hebiiyuuzaa), which is, of course, what’s used in the cola industry to refer to people who drink loads of the fizzy beverage. J-Cola was developed after getting feedback from over a hundred Japanese…

Akihabara Alley. Tokyo, Japan. By Karol Rogozinski. 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! 

PUBG Pro Wins Match By Leaping Off A Cliff 

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has so many issues that the ironic phrase “esports ready” is a meme in its community, but that doesn’t mean the game’s competitive scene can’t produce great moments every once in a while. Case in point: this match in which a player leaped off a cliff to secure a win. Here’s what’s happening…

Civilization Player Gets Space Race Victory In 90 AD

Civilization IV player WastinTime has achieved something I would never have thought was even remotely possible: winning a space race victory in the strategy classic by launching a rocket two centuries before Jesus was born. It took an incredible amount of knowledge of the systems underpinning Civ IV for him to even attempt this, and…

Netflix Is Making A Carmen Sandiego Movie

Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin, Annihilation) is going to be playing mystery thief Carmen Sandiego in an upcoming live-action movie project for Netflix. Rodriguez will also be voicing the character in Netflix’s other Carmen Sandiego project,an animated series that’s due in 2019 Deadline reports that the movie “will be a standalone Carmen adventure that will…

You Don’t Wanna Know How Sea Of Thieves Pirates Fit Into Cannons

Today on Highlight Reel we have tiny pirates, explosive entrances, unreasonable Far Cry 5 NPCs, and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! Catch up…

Turns Out My Most Hot-Headed Overwatch Teammate Is A Therapist IRL

I recently found out that the most hot-headed guy in my Overwatch crew—who throws the biggest fits whenever we lose—is actually a professional therapist. Hearing him divulge this over Overwatch voice chat after only knowing him through his in-game persona, I couldn’t help but laugh. We’ve shared in some jubilant win streaks, yes, but on…

We Played A Delicious Edible Tabletop Game

I played several different games at the Game Developers Conference last week, but I only ate one of them. That game is The Patisserie Code, one of a series of edible games in the works by Jenn Sandercock, a designer who worked on last year’s delightful adventure game Thimbleweed Park. She came by the GDC…