Microsoft’s Smartglass is Great (And I Don’t Even Use it For Games)

When Microsoft first announced its Smartglass technology at E3, I figured it would end up like the console’s video marketplace, or Facebook application. A neat idea for the guys in marketing, but wholly uninteresting for the average user. A few weeks in and I’m glad I’ve been proven wrong. I’ve got the app installed on…

The Elaborate Pants Rules For Miis on Nintendo’s Wii U

One day, you might boot up a Wii U, see a bunch of Mii avatars gather in the system’s main menu/plaza, and you will wonder: Why are these Miis wearing different-colored pants? What to the colors of these pants mean? Good news. The Wii U’s digital instruction manual explains the fashion rules for Mii pantwear.…

Chillingo Gives Thanks for Mobile Gamers by Setting Some of Its Best Games Free

Based in the UK, mobile game publisher Chillingo has no real reason to celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving, but if that celebration means free copies of Totem Runner and Puzzle Craft then I’m willing to play along. Besides, we’re going to need something to do that doesn’t involve moving about or looking over our…

Good News: Vita Is Getting A New Uncharted This December. Bad News: It’s A Card Game.

Now this could very well be an excellent card game, but it’s still a card game. Clearly not the action-adventure experience you might think of when you hear the name Uncharted For more on this upcoming Vita game—called Uncharted: Fight For Fortune—head on over to the PlayStation Blog

Two Things You Should Know About Madden 13 For Wii U

I’ve been playing around with Madden 13 for Wii U, which is a Madden game for the Wii U. If you have played a Madden game, you probably know what you are getting (football). But! There are two big things you should know if you are considering playing this version of EA’s massive concussion-simulation series.…

This Week’s Facebook Winners and Losers: Moving to the Big City

Out with the relatively old and in with the new, that’s the theme of this week’s list of Facebook games losers and winners, as Zynga’s latest ‘Ville title grows and its next-to-latest shrinks. It’s almost winter, a time when folks living on drafty farms suddenly wish they were someplace where they never had to leave…

Wing Commander’s Spiritual Sequel Sets a New $5.7 Million Video Game Crowdfunding Record

Want proof that people want to soar through the cosmos in video games again? The people who’ve helped Chris Roberts’ upcoming space sim Star Citizen smash through more than $5.7 million of crowdfunding pledges are giving doubters all the evidence they might need. That’s more than any other video game project has raised via crowdfunding.…

Day 1 of the Wii U: Everything You Need to Know

It’s here. Nintendo’s sixth console, bringing one new controller and two screens to your living room, hit store shelves early this morning in America. As you would expect, there are are successes, setbacks, and tons of questions for the newest piece of video gaming hardware. Kotaku is here to document them all. What’s Inside: Wii…

Nintendo Burns Up Black Friday with a New 3DS Bundle

On the biggest shopping day of the year, Nintendo is launching a limited edition Flame Red 3DS bundle, the company announced today. Out November 23, the bundle is priced at US$169.99 and comes with Super Mario Land 3D pre-installed in the system.

Internet Cafe Webmaster Steals Internet From Internet Cafe

An internet cafe webmaster in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, Guangdong, was recently arrested for stealing user information, passwords, and money from the very same internet cafe he was working in. The method of his crime was something that seems like something lifted from the 1999 movie Office Space. The internet cafe webmaster, surnamed Zhang,…

3DS game Inazuma Eleven 1・2・3!! has been delayed from late Nov. to “winter” in Japan.

Evangelion 3.0 is (Not) the Film You Were Expecting

Over the past few weeks, we here at Kotaku East have been taking a look at the previous Rebuild of Evangelion films as we eagerly awaited the release of the third in the series: Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo Well, this past weekend, the long anticipated film was released in theaters across Japan. But…

The Wii U isn’t getting Mass Effect 3‘s forthcoming Omega DLC.

One Game Account, Two Gamers

In China, video game property is starting to become legal property. What that means is, player accounts and virtual assets are starting to become real business and this change in the law is starting to affect some players in a negative way. Earlier this year, Wang, 24, purchased a gaming account from a friend of…

Few Anime Get as Pretentious as This

When the latest Neon Genesis Evangelion flick hit theaters this weekend in Japan, the next Evangelion film was revealed. And at first look, its title appears annoyingly pretentious. It is. But it’s also interesting. The teaser webpage this appears on has the world “final” in the URL. The text says, “Next time, a new Evangelion…

Sega is teasing its latest, unannounced game with this site. Full reveal later in the week.

When Balloon Art Goes Very Wrong and Very Phallic

The Tetsuwan Dash is a long running Japanese series that features boy band (and former Xbox 360 spokesmen) Tokio. On the show, the group tries to pull off a variety of feats, like building a foam house or seeing who can last longest on the least amount of money—stuff like that. This weekend’s show had…

How Does Mercedes Benz Promote Cars in Japan? Why with Anime, That’s How.

To help launch the all new A-Class in Japan, Mercedes Benz is releasing an animated short in which the car chases after a noodle truck. One of the country’s biggest studios, Production I. G, carries out the animation duties, while Yoshiyuki Sadamoto of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame does the character designs. Miyuki Sawashiro lends her…

Japan’s Pervert Superhero Might Be Getting His Own Movie

This weekend, when folks settled into dark theaters across Japan to watch the new Evangelion anime, they were, as with most movies, bombarded with previews. Sandwiched betweem the ten or so trailers, was a short, 15-second clip that probably made the audience’s collective mouth drop. Most people probably didn’t know what the hell they were…

What Do Crummy Gamers Have in Common? The Japanese Internet Discusses.

Some gamers are very good at video games. Some are just awful. And that’s okay! Still, there must be common traits of crummy gamers, and that’s what a recent thread of Japan’s largest bulletin board, 2ch, tried to pin down. The name of the thread was “Common Traits of Zero Gaming Aptitude”, and the forum…