Video Game Publishers Have Come Up With Fun New Ways To Say ‘Microtransaction’

What do you call it when a video game is full of items or services that you can buy with real money? Is it “games as a service”? “Recurrent consumer spending opportunities”? Or maybe PRI (Player Recurring Investment)? Yesterday, publishers Ubisoft and Take-Two held quarterly financial earnings calls, which gives us a good opportunity to…

Unreal Tournament’s ‘Facing Worlds’ Is Still The Best Multiplayer Map

Above us, the moon. Beneath us, the Earth. In front of us, a massive, three-story tower. Overlapping bleeps and bloops accentuate the eerie calm. We’re blasting off into orbit, and you might know where we’re headed. Never before, nor since, has Capture the Flag been so much fun. This article was originally published on November…

People Are Creating Nightmares With The Sonic Forces Character Creator

Some of the original characters people are making with Sonic Forces’s character creator are downright adorable. Others are using it to shitpost. Guess which one this post is about. Yesterday, Heather Alexandra and I made a Sonic Forces original character for Kotaku (do not steal). We opted to go the cute route and gave her…

Coming to iOS and Android later this fall, the chibi mobile version of Final Fantasy XV will cost between $20 and $30. The game’s split into 10 episodes. First one’s free, second and third are $.99 and the rest are $3.99 apiece. Or just buy the whole bundle for $19.99.

There Wasn’t Much To Celebrate On This Year’s Mass Effect Day

November 7 marks two important milestones for Mass Effect. It falls in the same month as the first release of Bioware’s sci-fi role-playing game series, which came out on November 20, 2007, giving fans a good excuse to celebrate its anniversary. And, more importantly, it can be contracted as N7, an alphanumeric designation belonging to…

The People Who Cosplay As Star Wars Vehicles

Why only cosplay as Star Wars characters when you can also cosplay with or as Star Wars vehicles? That’s exactly what these folks do. AT-AT Death Star* *Whether or not the Death Star is a vehicle is up for debate! AT-ST Imperial Star Destroyer Millennium Falcon  Sandcrawler Snowspeeder TIE Fighter X-Wing D’aw.

The Most Amazing Train Game To Hit Japanese Arcades This Year

Japan makes amazing train simulators. Densha de Go!, released in Japanese arcades this week, is no exception. The game was announced last year, and it’s packaged in a train-like cabinet. Inside, there are realistic controls, a touch screen and multiple monitors. It’s a simulator, so the point is to conduct the train from one station…

Japan Is Getting Yet Another Cool Starbucks

Does Japan have a monopoly on cool Starbucks? It can seem that way. Later this year, the country is getting yet another neat-looking one. But first, let’s review! Fukuoka already has this cool one. A very nice Starbucks in Hirosaki. And check out this Starbucks in Hiroshima.  And in Kamakura. A Starbucks in a historic…

Ishigaki Lighthouse. Ishigaki, Okinawa, Japan. By Dan Ring. 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! 

Nintendo Shut Down The Miiverse Tonight As Fans Said Final Goodbyes

Launching in late 2012, Nintendo’s Miiverse allowed Wii U and later 3DS owners to hang out and share stuff like hand-drawn pictures and screenshots. The service closed down at 1am today, and users have said their goodbyes in the most Miiverse ways imaginable: with stick figures, tears and hairy dicks. Instead of just flipping the…

A Real Mario Kart Shell To Smash Real Cars

The King of Random made this remote-controlled red shell for a YouTube video, and I am now wondering why this isn’t something I can put in a gift guide somewhere. Here’s the original video by devinsupertramp, in case you haven’t seen it: And here’s the vid showing how the red shell was made:

The Video Game Voice-Actor’s Strike Is Over

A dispute between the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and some of the world’s biggest video game publishers is officially over, just over a year after it began. The union first went on strike on October 20, 2016, with its members refusing to work with 11 major companies including Electronic…

The Art Behind Overwatch’s Latest Hero Reveal

Hong Kim-Seang, aka Nesskain Hks, is a comic artist based in France who provided the art forOverwatch’s Moira reveal trailer You can see more of Hong’s art—including some incredible Overwatch work for other projects—at his ArtStation page. To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine…

WoW‘s Next Expansion Has Raids That Play Like A Classic Warcraft RTS

The years have not been kind to fans of Warcraft’s real-time strategy roots. Before each BlizzCon, a dwindling contingent of hopeful fans prays for Warcraft IV to no avail. But WoW’s next expansion Battle for Azeroth might contain the next best thing. Among a number of other new features, Battle for Azeroth will introduce 20-person…

Streamers Aren’t Sure What To Make Of The Classic Activision Games In Call Of Duty: WWII

There’s a place in Call of Duty: WWII’s social space where you can play old Activision games from the 80s. It’s a cool easter egg and something that we’ve seen in past Call of Duty games, but some modern Youtube gamers couldn’t decide what to do with them. The R&R station in WWII’s Headquarters is…

World Of Warcraft LEGO Castle Used Over 55,000 Pieces

Here’s World of Warcraft’s Theramore, built in LEGO by Mark Erickson As The Brothers Brick report, it’s an immense structure, with around 55,600 pieces used to stick it atop 80 x 80 inches worth of mats. And as you can see below, he’s done a real good job getting it to scale with the actual…