Sex Bet on Wii Game Ends With Mountie Shooting His Wife

You can’t write headlines much weirder than that, but it is not in dispute that Keith Wiens, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, shot and killed his common-law wife after she demanded that he pay up—in foreplay, evidently—for losing to her in a Wii game. Wiens told a jury in British Columbia that he…

Moneysaver One-Shot: Grand Theft Auto V Playstation 3 Bundle

Cheap Los Santos real estate. Get $30 off the Grand Theft Auto V Playstation 3 Bundle by pre-ordering on Amazon. This is a 500GB latest-generation PS3, and this package also includes a free month of Playstation Plus. You were probably going to buy GTAV anyway, so what you’re really looking at here is a 500GB…

Pro Video Gamers are Athletes, Says U.S. Government

Pro gamers may now travel to the United States on the same visas given to professional athletes, thanks to a long lobbying effort by Riot Games, the makers of the eSports staple League of Legends. Riot told GameSpot about the effort in a video interview published yesterday. “It was a lengthy process,” said Nick Allen,…

This Week in the Business:‘The Wii U Feels Like an Offline Experience’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “The Wii U feels like an offline experience right now.”—Peter Moore, COO of Electronic Arts, talking about why the publisher isn’t working on Wii U titles QUOTE | “We’re always so tongue-in-cheek and irreverent about it, that I think people get…

The Best of Kotaku, The Week of July 8th

Oh, hello weekend. How I’ve longed for you. If you’re just catching up on some gaming news and Kotaku articles, you can see my round-up of the highlights over at Kotaku Selects. This week included GTA V new trailer day, as well as Ash’s amazing photoshop post, so there’s definitely some fun stuff in there…

Twenty Things You Might Not Know About The PS4

If you’ve been good about keeping up with all the latest information about the PS4, the stuff in this video by PlayStationAccess might not be a surprise to you. I found a couple of things that were new to me, though—like did you know that the touchpad on the DualShock is also a pressable button?…

What Do You Think About The Newest Season of Dexter So Far?

This is it, people: the final season of Dexter, the show about a serial killer that kills serial killers (and sometimes other people, too). How are you liking the latest season? It’s been nerve-wracking for me—there’s so much in the air for Dexter. Deb hates him—that one scene where she says that he’s the one…

The Greatest Week In Gaming Apps Ever This Week

Remember the other week, when I promised a brand new Week in Gaming Apps that would change everything forever. Forget that. I was contact drunk. Let’s get back to the tried-and-true format of yesterweeks, just in time for some of the greatest games ever. Seriously. Hidden within this week’s apps are some of the finest…

Pacific Rim Game Needs Less Number Crunching, More Kaiju Crunching

Following on the heels of the not-so-great iPhone game, Pacific Rim: The Video Game is out today on Xbox Live Arcade. I have to be honest with you, I hope the movie is more exciting. Watch the video above to see the Jaegers and the Kaiju go at it. Slowly. You can pick up Pacific…

The Screwed-Up Logic Of Participating In A Steam Sale

Come Steam sale time, all logic goes out the window. You’ll buy games even though you already have droves of unplayed games. And, you’ll look at games on sale way differently than when they’re priced normally—Dorkly illustrates how that is perfectly in this comic: Normal Reactions vs. Reactions During the Steam Sale [Dorkly]

Not only is this NPR interview with The Last of Us composer Gustavo Santaolalla interesting and informative, right off the bat NPR’s Emily Reese demonstrates how to pronounce “Santaolalla.” Listen in to learn all about the strange stringed instruments and uncommon orchestrations he used to make one of the best, most distinctive video game soundtracks…

Microsoft Might Bring Back Cut Xbox One Features That People Liked

When Microsoft pulled their Xbox One DRM-reversal, lots of people were happy. Others, not so much, and with fair cause: Microsoft didn’t just remove the console’s onerous internet and used game requirements, they removed some cool-sounding features people that were looking forward to. In a new interview at IGN, Microsoft’s Marc Whitten says that the…

Do you have a Konami ID account? Change your password! They’ve been hacked

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Has Some Rockin’ Violin

Pretty CGI? Check. Awesome music? Check. No idea what’s going on? Check. Yep, this is Final Fantasy I’m digging what I’ve seen so far from the third FFXIII game, and this new trailer is pretty neat too. For more on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (which is out this February for PS3 and Xbox 360),…

I’m Glad This Glitchy Ouya Game Exists So That We Can Have These GIFs

Amazing Frog is an Ouya exclusive game where we basically have nothing else to do but jump and mess around as a frog in a hazardous environment. Thanks to the funky physics engine it is an absolute disaster—which is not a bad thing when it comes to hilarious animated GIFs. The source is a video…

Jeopardy Contestants Answer ‘Zelda,’ Get Robbed

Come on, Trebek. I mean, I know the specific technical details of Jeopardy answers are important and all, but really? REALLY? Zelda is perfectly fine. Nobody actually calls the game The Legend of Zelda. As Stephen Totilo just said out loud in the office, “THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!” (Thanks, Alfred!)

A Particularly Intimate Close-Up Look At The PS4

Consoles might often just be black boxes, but that doesn’t stop anyone from fetishizing the hardware. The PS4 is no exception—just look at this video by T3, which some might compare to porn. Hardware porn, that is—which requires you to look at a console in a different way than you might normally. I’d seen the…

What It’s Like To Review Video Games

This week’s Ask Kotaku is special because it features guest host Evan Narcisse, who also happens to be celebrating his birthday today! Wooo! Happy birthday, Evan! In this week’s advice column, Evan and I answer some of your questions on family life, heartbreak and Kotaku. It’s a long one—since we both offer our perspectives on…

The Moneysaver: Sonic: Lost World, Skyrim Legendary, Xillia CE

Console gamer? Take cover in here from the Steam Summer Sale. Update: We’ve taken the pre-order deals for Prey 2 off the post given information that the game may not ever come out. PC All of today’s PC game deals have been rolled in to the Steam Summer Sale coverage Mac All of today’s Mac…

Ruffles Crispy Fries: The Snacktaku National French Fry Day Review

You didn’t realize tomorrow is National French Fry Day, did you? How come you always forget the yearly nationwide celebration of fried potato sticks, but a major corporation like Frito-Lay preps ahead of time, rolling out a brand-new Ruffles product to coincide with the holiday? Oh don’t give me that commercial holiday bullshit. Tomorrow is…