Disney Lays Off 700 Employees

Disney has laid off 700 employees from their gaming division today, as the New York Times reports. That’s 26% of their staff, and it’s mostly in mobile, social, and web-based gaming. “These are large-scale changes as we focus not just on getting to profitability but sustained profitability and scalability,” Disney Interactive president James A. Pitaro…

Chips Ahoy! Ice Cream Creations: The Snacktaku Review

I eat a lot of cookies. Really, it’s kind of a financial burden. One that just got worse when I walked into the grocery store and saw four new varieties of ice cream-themed Chips Ahoy, which I immediately bought and ran home to try. Chips Ahoy! (the exclamation point is technically part of the name)…

​The World’s Biggest Digital Comics Retailer Got Hacked

Comixology—the digital comics storefront that pushes hundreds of thousands of comics to millions of readers all over the world—just informed users that they suffered a security breach. Okay, True Believers, you should know the drill by now: time to pick a new password. Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail sent to Comixology users this morning:…

Dark Souls II comes to PC on April 25, publisher Namco Bandai just announced. It’ll be out for last-gen consoles on March 11. Enjoy your deaths.

This Is Not the Lego: The Hobbit Trailer You Were Expecting

Go ahead and guess how this trailer for the PS4/PS3/WiiU/XboxOne/Xbox360/PC/Vita/3DS Spring 2014 game is going to play out. You’ll probably guess wrong. Well-played Lego marketing people. Hopefully this game can be good despite being the third major Lego game since October. The last two, Lego Marvel Superheroes and The Lego Movie Videogame were terrific. To…

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku‘s reader-run community: Adventure Time: Card Wars: The TAY Review • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney vs. Danganronpa • Console vs. Handheld TAY Classic—TAY Open Forum—Beginner’s Guide To TAY Follow them here.

After Delays, Watch Dogs Is Finally Out This May

After a delay from November, the open-world sci-fi game Watch Dogs will release on May 27, publisher Ubisoft announced today. Here’s a new story trailer for the game. It’ll be out for PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC. The Wii U version will come “at a later date,” Ubisoft says. (Will it, though?…

There’s Pretty Much No Reason To Buy An Ouya Anymore

First came the Ouya Android microconsole. Then came Mad Catz’s M.O.J.O. Android microconsole. Today Mad Catz announces the M.O.J.O. microconsole will be playing host to Ouya content. I am so confused. This is all due to Ouya’s recent decision to allow the Ouya experience to be embedded in other Android devices. They call it Ouya…

Tony Hawk Explains the Back to the Future Hoverboard Prank

While you don’t need Tony Hawk to realize that the HUVr Back to the Future hoverboards were fake, the legendary skateboarder still felt it needed some explanation. It still looks awesome, though. HUVr Tech – Tony Hawk Reveals Hoverboard Prank [RIDE Channel, YouTube] To contact the author of this post, write to: [email protected]

A Game Where You Decide What Your Companions Say (And How They Say It)

Freedom Wars is the upcoming hunting game for the PS Vita where you play a prisoner working off a million year sentence. In the game, players work together along with android companions called “Accessories.” Apparently these Accessories can talk and I want to hear what they have to say. In Freedom Wars, Accessories act as…

‘Marvel vs. Seinfeld’ and Other Games No One Asked For

Once again, Pete Holmes shows off his favorite fictional games, and while some of them might sound horrible (I don’t even wanna touch something called Middle-Age Mutant Ninja Turtles!), some have potential: My Newman, Soup Nazi, Bob Sacamano (he’d be a secret character I guess) trio would beat anyone with ease. All The Games: Number…

Rust with David Attenborough is a Peaceful Adventure

The last things that come to one’s mind when playing Rust are its relaxing ecosystem and Mother Nature (well, unless you count all those naked characters). And while the game might not have a calm narrator, here’s YouTuber Penal Cast, and a funny, Planet Earth-ish take on the otherwise intense sandbox game. Planet Rust –…

I’m Terrified of Hard Choices, But This Game is About Hard Choices

Whenever I’m given an option in a game, be it choosing what my character says or how he/she acts, I always want to make the “best” choice. So when I’m faced with two equally bad options, I lock up – and right off the bat, it looks like Nippon Ichi Software’s newest game is going…

Hideo Kojima on Why Solid Snake Is Called Solid Snake

Metal Gear’s creator took to Twitter to talk about the conceptual origins behind the name of series protagonist Solid Snake. Over eight tweets. It… makes sense if you think about it, really. Have a look: Did you get that? Solid for battle-hardened, Snake for stealthy. Only a snake can beat a snake, so Solid Snake’s…