This New Character Lineup Is What’s Cool About Disney Infinity

Disney Infinity comes out a week from today with a host of characters from your favorite Disney franchises. Today at the D23 Fan Expo, eleven new characters and a new Toy Story in Space playset were announced. Look at all of familiar faces, hanging out together. That’s pretty awesome. We’ve got Buzz Lightyear and Jessie…

The First 151 Pokémon, Drawn by 151 Different Artists

Three weeks ago, freelance animator Justin Chan put out a call over Twitter for 151 different artists to draw the 151 Kanto Pokémon. Yesterday, Chan published a wallpaper (full-size version here) of their labor, all signed by the artist’s Twitter handle. A collaboration for the Johto Pokémon will begin in September.

Live in California? You Can Rent Arcade Cabinets for $75 a Month

If you’ve got $75 a month to burn and live in California, you can get a 250-pound arcade cabinet running a 30-year-old game delivered to your door. This is the service offered by All You Can Arcade, a San Francisco business that opened shop last month. If all goes well, it’ll expand to the east…

The Week in Games: A Dream Effort

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team on the 3DS kicks off the week of new releases, but it has company coming later in the week. Heist-shooter Payday 2 rolls out on three platforms and the Summer of Arcade continues on Xbox Live with Charlie Murder. Today • Mario and Luigi: Dream Team (3DS) Tuesday • Europa…

See StarCraft‘s World Championship Series’ Semifinals and Finals Live

The final day of competition for StarCraft‘s World Championship Series, America region—begins now, and you can view all of it here live. The day will feature two semifinal matches in a best-of-five format: Jaedong (Korea) against Scarlett (Canada) and TaeJa against Polt (both Korea.) The finals will be contested afterward. Three regions are sending players…

Someone’s Making a $90,000 Metroid Movie Without Nintendo’s Permission

Didn’t we just go through this with Final Fantasy VII? Someone wants to make a Metroid fan film. They’re raising $90,000. They don’t have any agreement with Nintendo. Of course they don’t. Metroid: Enemies Within launched on Kickstarter on Friday and seeks to fund a 10-minute film pitting Samus against Sylux, the antagonist from the…

Watch The Biggest Dota 2 Tournament Live, Right Here

Continuing through the weekend in Seattle, we’ll be seeing the top Dota 2 teams from all over the world verse each other in The International—the largest known tournament for the game—for a prize pool of $2.8 million. Grand Finals close the event out this Sunday, but you can watch it all, live and right here.…

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team: The Kotaku Review

Poor Luigi. Mario’s lanky counterpart is most often defined not by his own merits, but by his proximity to his elder brother. Even in 2013, a year that Nintendo has branded “The Year of Luigi,” the green plumber is more punchline than protagonist, complete with Chaplinesque antics and a tendency to cower behind Mario during…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Watermelon Warriors

Yeah, I know we’re gonna get about thirty-leb’m-million-thousand Skyrim entries with this, but let’s go for it anyway, because watermelon armor is awesome, and even more awesome when you ‘shop it into a video game. Earlier this week, Bash informed us of the craze, in China, of dressing children in the rind of delicious summertime…

Catch All the Action of the Pokémon World Championships, Right Here

We’re back for the second day of “Worlds”—the Pokémon World Championships—in Vancouver, B.C. and six champions will be crowned in three divisions across Pokémon’s video game and trading card game. You can watch it all live right here. Final matches are beginning right now. In the video game world championships, junior division, Brendan Zheng (U.S.)…

Xbox Live Family Subscriptions Convert to Individual Accounts Aug. 27

In preparation for how Xbox Live will function once Xbox One gets here, Microsoft will convert Gold family subscriptions to individual accounts beginning on Aug. 27. Since everyone in the house will now have to pay for a subscription, Microsoft is adding another three months of Gold to anyone affected. It’s all in a notice…

Sunday Comics: The Shape of Things

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published Aug. 9. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published Aug.…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The Karting Dead: The Winners

OK, maybe Kenny’s better off driving a train, and putting him in a go-kart was a bad idea and it got him killed. It was the best we could do! And Clementine, when you’re older, maybe you’ll understand. So just … just look at these ‘Shops, OK. And try to laugh. Especially at EllieRyan’s, our…

Guy Suing Subway Over Sandwich Length Sues GameStop Over DLC

Electronic Arts may have ended its odious online pass policy, but GameStop still is on the hook. A judge will allow a lawsuit to go forward with allegations GameStop didn’t disclose the hidden cost of downloadable content. The plaintiff has also sued Subway for making 11-inch sandwiches and selling them as footlongs. The Philadelphia Inquirer…

Ouya’s Latest Scheme Tries to Crowdsource Its Console Exclusives

It hasn’t been a great first month for Ouya. The best reviews of the console have been mild in their praise. Lots of day-one backers (mostly overseas) didn’t get their unit until after it was commercially available. Ouya offered store credit as a make-good, but no one is buying anything online Maybe Ouya can turn…

Golden Tee 2014 ‘s Big News: We Got Cigars

Alongside fighting games, longtime dive bar staple Golden Tee is one of the last viable arcade cabinets. Arcade titles aren’t rated by the ESRB, so if Golden Tee wants to put a big ol’ telephone pole cigar in its players’ mouths, it can without being called out for “tobacco use.” And it will, because Golden…

The Pokémon World Championships are underway at Vancouver Convention Centre, but it appears the livestream won’t begin until featured events commence at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT. Check back here then.

First ‘Internationally Recognized’ Athlete Visa Awarded to Pro Gamer

A month ago, Riot Games said it had gotten the U.S. government to include eSports contestants under the visa policy that allows professional athletes from other countries to visit for purposes of competition. The first such visa has been awarded, to a Canadian League of Legends star. Danny “Shiphtur” Le, of Edmonton, got the visa,…

Why Wait for Saints Row IV? Get Your Dubstep Gun in Grand Theft Auto

Saints Row has taken a good share of crap for supposedly copying Grand Theft Auto, but at long last, the tables have turned. Saints Row IV isn’t even out yet and modders have already put the game’s infamous Dubstep Gun into GTA IV This script is by JulioNIB, he of the awesome Incredible Hulk mod.…

This Week in the Business: The Customer Isn’t Always Right

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “There’s one mistake that they all make, and that mistake is listening to their customers.”—Jesse Schell, noted game designer, on why Microsoft and other big companies can have a hard time introducing new technology QUOTE | “Who knows if there’ll be…