Today is Bungie Day, making this the perfect time for reclusive founder Jason Jones to give his first proper interview in 11 years. The first of a three-part sitdown with IGN discusses the infamous potency of the pistol in Halo: Combat Evolved.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Let’s Make a Deal

So, after consultation with some readers, it’s been decided that former Xbox boss/current Zynga overlord Don Mattrick should be our next victim subject, coming from his appearance 30 years ago on a Canadian TV quiz show. Don’t worry, I have more than just that one image for you smart ‘Shoppers to use. If Mattrick appearing…

E-Sports League Hit With Lawsuit Over Bitcoin-Mining Scandal [Update]

Three gamers have sued the ESEA League, one of the largest PC gaming leagues, for the surreptitious installation on their computers of malware that “mined” the virtual currency called bitcoins, netting a rogue ESEA employee some $3,700 back in April. Their lawsuit seeks class action status. The suit was filed in San Francisco on Wednesday…

Sunday Comics: A Dose of Reality

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. Brentalfloss the Comic by Brent Black, Andrew Dobson and Dan Roth. Published July 4. Read more of Brentalfloss the Comic Penny Arcade by…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Hairy Situations: The Winners

Dude! What the hell is that growing on your face?! Oh, this? It’s a fungal infection. I’ve got some Absorbine Jr. I can put—No, dude, I’m talking about that nasty-ass Pac-Man on your cheek! The misadventures of Mr. Pac-Man Beard Fail and the kid who got Super Mario shaved into his head provided the grist…

This Prototype Cartridge of EarthBound Can Be Yours for $15,000

At long last, EarthBound is coming to the Wii U’s Virtual Console later this year, but if you can’t wait, and you have a ridiculous amount of disposable income, an eBay seller is now auctioning the ultimate in collectible cartridges. This prototype cart of EarthBound is so rare, it can’t be given a grade by…

Tales of Xillia 2 Is Coming To The West Next Year

Just a month before the western release of the PS3 role-playing game Tales of Xillia comes news that we’re getting its sequel, too: publisher Namco Bandai today announced that Tales of Xillia 2 will come to the west in 2014 Wonderful news, here. Between this, Bravely Default, and the Wii U RPG code-named X, 2014…

Hooray, There’s More Little Witch Academia Coming

Little Witch Academia, an animated short released by Studio Trigger in April, was one of the year’s most charming surprises. Think Harry Potter, except Japanese—and way, way cuter. It’s difficult to watch the short and not come out wanting more—and amazingly, it seems that’s going to be a possibility. Today, Trigger tweeted the following: So…

Razer Doesn’t Make PS3 Accessories Because Its Boss Rarely Plays One

Interesting moment of candor earlier today from Min-Liang Tan, the CEO and “chief gamer” of Razer, maker of peripherals, laptops and other gaming hardware. On Twitter, Tan offered that he was “dusting off my PS3” to play The Last of Us. That dust, he said, is the reason Razer doesn’t make products for that console.…

Ewoks for Sale Outrages Some Star Wars: The Old Republic Subscribers

The latest foofaraw in Star Wars: The Old Republic—an MMO that exists primarily to make people complain, it seems—concerns an Ewok. Yes, a cuddly Ewok, the action figure picked last (after Mon Mothma, even) when you were choosing up sides for battle. Treek the Bounty Hunter is an Ewok companion for your character who becomes…

NCAA Football Has All of Its Fight Songs Back—Except One

One of the stranger sports stories I’ve reported came last year when NCAA Football 13 featured Baylor University’s Heisman-winning quarterback on its cover, but not the school’s fight song in the game. It was one of several songs held by a firm trying to fend off bankruptcy by jacking up the cost to use them.…

Shareholder Asks Nintendo Why Its Cafeteria Sucks

Yeah, yeah, Nintendo’s president told investors the Wii Vitality Sensor has been canned. But he says that every year, just about. What fascinated me about his Q&A with shareholders was the fact Nintendo employees think the chow at the company’s cafeteria is pretty bad. From the transcript: “I heard that the quality of the company…

Hey, Look, It’s Don Mattrick on a Canadian Game Show 30 Years Ago

Don Mattrick has, reportedly, 50 million reasons to smile this week, ditching Microsoft and all things Xbox for Zynga and the leadership of all things ‘Ville. But you can see traces of that big money smile going back 30 years, when he appeared on a newsmakers-style quiz show on CBC. Here he is on “Front…

FACE, MVPC, 11-X—the Original Xbox had Some Ridiculous Alternate Names

We’re all familiar with the etymology behind “Xbox”—it’s a truncation of “DirectX Box.” But, as one of the console’s creators told Edge, Microsoft lawyers at first weren’t too sure of “Xbox” for some reason, and the alternatives favored by the suits were all hideous. The final stage of naming the console “was a battle between…

One Year Later, Fez Will Be Patched

Fez will be patched, fixing a potential game-breaking bug, now that Microsoft is no longer charging studios for title updates. Fez creator Phil Fish tweeted the news on July 4, saying the patch would take “a couple of months.” Last year, Fez was updated once on Xbox Live to fix some glitches; it was a…

This Week in the Business: ‘I’m Not Allowed to Say Bad Things.’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “I’m not allowed to say bad things.”—Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami talking about his new game The Evil Within while avoiding saying what he thinks of the recent directions Capcom has taken with Resident Evil QUOTE | “I think this news…

The Best Of Kotaku, The Week Of July 1st

Mid-week days off are always strange, aren’t they? It barely felt like a real week! And yet, as evidenced by Kotaku Selects—where I round up all our best content—it most certainly was a real week. As for the ‘revenge’ pic above, it’s the fantastic work of Vincent Bocognani, found by Dotcore. Check out Vincent’s Flickr…

Let’s Watch Other People Play Cube World

Unfortunately, due to a number of server issues from having so many people try to download the game—which the developers say has acted similar to a DDoS attack—not everyone has been able to buy Cube World, the awesome-looking voxel adventure-RPG. What’s the next best thing? Watching other people play it while we wait for the…

A Tribute To Some Characters That Got Killed Off In Game of Thrones

Take Gotye’s catchy song, Somebody I Used To Know. Change the lyrics so that they’re about characters in the first season of Game of Thrones. What do you get? This delightfully funny video by notliterallycommemorating some of the characters we ‘used to know,’ that’s what. He got a goddamned papercut, are you for real? Ha.…

DLC Has Become One Of The Most Exciting Things In Gaming

It used to be that you couldn’t even mention downloadable content’s existence without someone getting upset, or without someone going off on how much of a money-grab scheme it all is. It’s an understandable reaction, to some extent—sometimes, a game isn’t out yet and already we’re talking about the follow-ups? Geez, slow down. I used…