This Week In The Business: Putting The ‘F’ In Free-To-Play

QUOTE | “I was so fed up of people telling us we should do free-to-fucking-play, in-app-fucking purchases, whatever the fuck that is, and that consoles were dead. So fuck all of those people and their fucking shitty stance.” – Graeme Struthers of Devolver, talking about why he’s happy to see next-gen consoles doing well Elsewhere…

The Best Smash Bros. Mod Around Just Keeps Getting Better

Six years after its release, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is kept alive by hardcore fans that mod the game. In particular, fan-made Project M continues to add stuff that keeps the aging game feeling fresh. Here’s a trailer for Project M’s new upcoming “All Star” mode, which allows you to switch characters every time you…

One of the best iOS games ever made is finally out for Android. The 1.1 update of Eliss Infinity—the evolution of beautiful/tough/artsy rapid-fire movement puzzle Eliss—debuts on the Google Play storefront today. The 1.1 is up on the Apple App Store, too. A rundown of the changes can be found here and Gamasutra‘s got an…

The Most Unlucky Mario Kart Player

This, folks, is the very essence of “get wrecked.” Watch as Daisy is completely unable to catch a break in this video by HowBoutGaming: I think my favorite part is at the end, when she clearly just stops trying to move forward. I don’t blame you, Daisy. Confession: I have an absolutely irrational and intense…

Track: Brief Encounter | Album: Still Life | Artist: Dawn Golden Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to—and gaming to—at the moment.

Watch The Folks Behind Sunset Overdrive Make A New Game

If people can livestream playing games, why can’t they livestream making games? Insomniac, the independent studio behind Sunset Overdrive and the Resistance series, among other games, just launched a new Twitch experiment: live video game development. They’ll be working on a small game called Slow Down, Bull and streaming every Friday afternoon, starting today at…

Soul Blazer, An RPG Where You Play God’s Servant

Welcome to the Summer of Old JRPGs, where we’re playing classic role-playing games and talking about them every week. Check out the full schedule here Earlier this month I spent a whole bunch of time playing Soul Blazer, a video game about mermaids and talking plants. Hopefully you did too. Soul Blazer is the first…

​The Shovel Knight Soundtrack Is So Good

Shovel Knight, the game, is really good. Shovel Knight, the soundtrack, is even better. Composed by Jake ‘Virt’ Kaufman along with contributions from Mega Man composer Manami Matsumae, the Shovel Knight OST is a collection of anthemic chiptune compositions that, like the game it’s attached to, both recalls the classic games of the past and…

The long-awaited sequel to The Longest Journey isn’t going to be one big game anymore. Dreamfall Chapters will now be coming out as a series of episodic releases—with the first one hitting this fall—according to an update on the crowdfunded game’s Kickstarter page.

Steam Summer Sale Day 9, Discount Plus and LIVE Subs, Pokemon X

Day 9 of the Steam Sale is here and with it comes discounts on Transistor, Octodad and not much else worth writing home about. As with every other day so far, several of the prices are currently wrong on the homepage. The Alan Wake Franchise is actually $6, which is a good deal for those…

​A Cheat Sheet For Everything Wrong with Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs has some things going for it. It can look pretty. It handles aiming and shooting pretty well. But the story in Ubisoft’s open-world action game is not one of its strengths. Now we’ve got a hilarious movie script breakdown points out all the ludicrous stuff in Watch Dogs. Spoilers Ahead. Over at Playthroughline—a…

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku‘s reader-run community: Re-entering The Gecko • BioShock Infinite Lives, Lived, Will Live Up To (Most Of) Its Hype • State of Video Games 2014 [Expanded] • NotGoodForReview – Splinter Cell: Blacklist TAY Classic—TAY Open Forum—Beginner’s Guide To TAY Follow them here.

Track: Big Beast Artist: Killer Mike, T.I., Bun B, Trouble Album: R.A.P. Music Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Dota 2 Tournament Prize Pool Exceeds $10 Million

The prize pool for Valve’s big Dota 2 tournament ‘The International’ was already the largest in eSports history a month ago, when it was around $6 million. Today it exceeded $10 million which means it is now one of the biggest prize pools among any tournaments. To be exact, it’s currently a little bit more…