Redbox Takes a Mild Shot at Xbox One, PS4 Over Used-Game Concerns

While the rent-by-mail service GameFly is keeping quiet on what Xbox One may mean to its future, the kiosk rental service Redbox has begun a modest lobbying campaign to remind gamers that game rentals, used games, even taking them to a friend’s home are in serious jeopardy under the new console generation. A barebones site…

Tips For Playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Few games are as relaxing and enjoyable as Animal Crossing—that much hasn’t changed with the newest iteration. Now that the latest game in the franchise is out, I figured I’d share some tips in the hopes that they’ll help you make the most of your New Leaf experience. Make sure the date and time on…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The Power of Wub

Previewed hilariously in this video a month ago, the Dubstep Gun from Saints Row IV finally got a good clean exploitable image this week, making it a no-brainer for the Kotaku ‘Shop Contest. Remember, if it’s not wub, then it’s the womp that will bring us together. Real simple mandate—use the following in any image…

Sunday Comics: The Original Kings of Comics

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. Virtual Shackles by Jeremy Vinar and Mike Fahmie. Published June 5. Read more of Virtual Shackles Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike…

Leaked Images of Battlefield 4 Alpha Give Many Hints of New Features

About five dozen images, purportedly from an alpha test of Battlefield 4‘s Xbox 360 version, found their way onto the Internet early this morning. A thorough deconstruction of their contents, by Reddit, give up weapons, vehicles, player classes and other details, though being an alpha version, any of that could change. Their origin is unknown,…

Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Outed, Is Likely a Shooter

Signage for a PopCap game called Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is sprouting up at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the site of this year’s E3. Combine that with a reliable source telling Kotaku that the long-rumored PvZ shooter—yes, shooter—is about to unveiled, and it looks like we’ve got a name to attach to the…

Shake Up At Studio From Hell

An awful situation may be turning around for the better. Trendy Entertainment president Jeremy Stieglitz will alter his role following Kotaku‘s report into the company’s practices yesterday, according to two people close to the situation. Yesterday, we published an investigation into conditions at Trendy, which included testimonials from nine current and former employees. They described…

More Proof That the Wii U Basic Is About To Go Extinct, Via Best Buy

Earlier this week, GameStop issued a June 18 “recall” of the 8GB $300 Wii U Basic, the version of the Wii U that smart consumers knew to avoid. (Edit: Okay, okay, see the comments for reasons why some smart people did buy the 8GB version.) Now a tipster sends us an internal flyer from Best…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Rolling Wonder: The Winners

America’s heartland has produced many great things on wheels, none greater than the pride of Youngstown, Ohio—the X-Box—the most ludicrously mobile operating base since the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. There are 17 more ridiculous uses our ‘Shop artists thought up for it, led by overall No. 1 silentstrife! For starters, here’s what everyone was working with: And…

As if free Saints Row: The Third and Deus Ex: Human Revolution weren’t enough, PlayStation Plus members also get free Uncharted 3, Littlebigplanet: Karting, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown beginning Tuesday.

This Game’s Starting Concept: What If John McClane Had Died?

In an E3 that is full of sequels and the same-old, same-old Murdered: Soul Suspect, may stand out as something that’s actually new. But one look at this game—the adventure of a ghostly detective who has one night to solve his own murder—probably wouldn’t make you think of its even more unusual origins. “Square Enix…

You Can Bark Orders to Call of Duty‘s Happy Scrappy Hero Pup

Though he practically upstaged the Xbox One at its own reveal event, don’t expect Call of Duty Dog to slink off into a corner during E3 week. He’s not going to be eye candy or a prop in Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ singleplayer campaign. If anything, developer Infinity Ward is doubling down on the Dog.…

Daredevil Gets Emotional in My Favorite Comics Panel This Week

Daredevil: End of Days #8 Daredevil’s a superhero who’s constantly in thrall to his emotions It often seems like Matt Murdock’s passion is in control of him and not the other way around. In this issue of potst-mortem miniseries, we see the Devil’s emotions in a calmer, more poignant light. I recently started co-worker Tina…

The PlayStation 3 will get the free-to-play Tekken Revolution on June 11, according toGameSpot (at 19:30 of the video linked) Characters shown include Kazuya, Lars, Bryan and Paul [via EventHubs]

Infinity Ward, 3 Years Later: A Call of Duty Comeback With a Caveat

The trailer for the next Call of Duty, November’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, makes it all seem so pleasantly straightforward. New Call of Duty! From the people who made the one that made this series a phenomenon. Not quite. But not completely wrong, either. Infinity Ward, the studio founded in 2002 by Jason West and…

Assassin’s Creed‘s Creator Sues Ubisoft for Control of His Next Game

Patrice Désilets, the creator of Assassin’s Creed, is suing Ubisoft for about $400,000 and control of the game 1666, which he had been building for THQ until it went bankrupt and sold the project to his former employer. Last month, Désilets said he was fired from Ubisoft, the publisher for whom he had worked until…

State of Decay, which “did not have an ad budget” nor “a physical copy to load onto shelves,” sold 250,000 copies on Xbox Live in its first two days. Only Minecraft has been more successful.

Seven Years Later, Sony’s CEO Doesn’t Mind All the Memes

From five-hundred ninety-nine U.S. dollars and Riiiiiiidge Racer seven years ago to more flattering presentations today, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai has been one of the gaming industry’s most .gif-able and meme-able public figures. Hirai wants you to know he’s cool with that. Of course, Hirai might be sanguine because Microsoft is gettin’ toe up about…

No Retro Games in Future Animal Crossings—With One Possible Exception

The first Animal Crossing game released in the U.S. in 2001 let players add joy to their villager’s treasure-digging and furniture-arranging lives by collecting and playing emulated Nintendo Entertainment System games. There were Nintendo games within that Nintendo game. That’s not coming back, the series’ creator told Kotaku “Please consider it’s not happening ever again,”…

The Week in Games: At Least Someone’s Still Excited About Xbox

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Xbox is the only thing that has investors excited about Microsoft, so it makes little sense to divest.”—Analyst Asif Khan, talking about other analysts’ comments that Microsoft should sell its Xbox business QUOTE | “We could kill this industry if we…