Alongside next week’s Rock Band Blitz, Harmonix is launching community app Rock Band World on Facebook.

Sega’s Got You Covered If You’re Searching For ‘Disgruntled Shooter’ On Tweetdeck

The good people at Sega want to make the most of the world’s love of Twitter, so they’re being vigilant about people who Tweet in the voices of their characters and they’re trying to get blurbs about their games in front of people who are just searching for stuff… You know, like if they’re searching…

Yep, The Comments Are Changing A Bit—Now You Can See More of Them At Once

Around 8am ET today, readers of Kotaku were able to see the next iteration of the Kinja discussion platform that was designed by our parent company Gawker Media. To be less jargony about it, you’ll notice that the parts below the articles look different, the parts where many readers post replies. (You call them “comments”;…

Square Enix Thinks This Mobile RPG Is Worth $30

The folks over at Square Enix Europe are charging a whopping $28.99 for upcoming mobile RPG Final Fantasy Dimensions, they revealed this morning. Presumably Square Enix USA is using the same price scheme, as the Europe blog lists prices in U.S. dollars too. Here’s what they have to say about the game, which is out…

This New XCOM: Enemy Unknown Trailer Puts All the Pressure on You, Commander

Sure, lots of other games make you responsible for saving the world but this new “Casualties of War” teaser for XCOM: Enemy Unknown makes the stakes seem incredibly high and oddly personal. The Firaxis-developed successor to the beloved PC strategy game—which our Kate Cox was very impressed by when she played it—comes out in October.…

Anders Behring Brevik—the Norway killer who used games to hide and to sharpen his aim—will go to prison for 21 years

The Extremely Limited Edition of Persona 4 Goldenis a Mini Vita Starter Kit

You want a copy of Persona 4 Golden for the Vita, but can’t decide whether to buy the game or spend all of your money on stickers? Are you one of 10,000 people? Then you’ve got a shot at paying an additional $30 for the Persona 4 Golden Solid Gold Premium Edition. I guess it…

Why I’m Rallying For Shorter Games

I played a game that lasted only 10 minutes and it was glorious. It also cost me five bucks. Yes: I am saying that a game that amounts to one dollar per two minutes was worth the investment. In fact I was so struck by how short the game was, I couldn’t help but wonder…

Here’s Another Hot New Batch Of Grand Theft Auto V Screenshots

Complete with helicopter chasing, garbage trucks, and an old-school propeller plane. This batch of screenshots is called “Business.” Still no word on a release date or platforms for Grand Theft Auto V. This is the third set of screenshots developer Rockstar Games has released this week in what has been an excruciating (yet gorgeous) drip…

The Guild Wars 2 Economy as Seen By Its Dark and Mysterious Money Wizard

Guild Wars 2 doesn’t launch until next week, but the exchanging of currency for goods and services heeds no human schedule. ArenaNet’s resident economist has been analyzing beta data, twisting it with his arcane magics into an infographic that any self-respecting Charr would sooner set aflame than read. An economist is a person that takes…

School Days HQ is a Beautiful, Shocking, Yet Flawed Title

School Days HQ is a visual novel about a highschooler trapped in a love triangle with the girl of his dreams… and the friend who helped him get the girl of his dreams. Recently released in the West in the form of an HD remake, it is one of the most famous visual novels in…

SimCity Social Says Hello Japan in an Odd Way

There are some Western creations—take Total War, for example—which do an amazing job of recreating Japan. Then there are other Western creations—say, Kill Bill—which do a wonderful job of riffing on Japanese pop culture. Then there’s stuff like SimCity Social. SimCity Social is an online social game for Facebook. Brad, our SimCity Social firefighter, just…

Developer Says Chinese Site Stole His Entire Game Engine

There have been reports of Chinese developers ripping off browser games or smartphone games. Nothing new! This, however, is slightly different. Developer Dominic Szablewski says the game engine he developed (and sells) is being copied and sold in China. The engine Szablewski created is Impact—it’s a JavaScript Game Engine designed to create HTML games. The…

No Box? Half Price! The Art of Buying Used Games in Japan

This last week I took my annual trip to the US to visit family. Like always, while I was there, I made sure to hit up the used game stores and buy games that have never come out in Japan—i.e. Dead Space, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, etc. Despite having lived in Japan for…

Oh, Link and Mario, How You’ve Grown!

The years have flown right by. Think about your first time to play a Zelda or a Mario title. You’ve changed. But so have Link and Mario. Next January, Japan’s Medicom is releasing a trio of Mario and Link “Ultra Detail” figurines. They measure about 2.3 inches tall and are priced at ¥730 (US$9). For…

Squirtle, You and Your Pokémon Friends Are Creepy

Cute? These Pocket Monsters aren’t cute. They’re creepy. But that’s the point: artist Vaughn Pinpin redesigned the first generation of Pokémon starters if they were characters in a Tim Burton movie. The result is brilliant—creepy, but brilliant. Pinpin is planning to re-do the first 151 Pocket Monsters in the Pokédex all dark and quirky like.…

Beautiful Classic Missile Spam in This New Macross Game

Starting a bit over two years ago, Bandai Namco began an experiment of releasing small original PS3 games along with their most popular anime titles in “hybrid packs.” The latest of these is Macross: My Boy Friend is a Pilot 2012 which shares a Blu-ray with the classic anime remaster of Macross: Do You Remember…

Okay, This Candy Commercial Is Freaky. You Should Be Freaked Out.

Earlier this year, AKB48—Japan’s biggest girl group—released a candy commercial that grossed out pretty much the entire country. This year, AKB48 is back with a new ad that won’t gross everyone out. It’ll freak them out instead. Progress! In the commercial, the members’ heads were superimposed on the bodies of six-year-old children. The concept behind…

MMORPGs Are Expensive, When You Are a Kid

Kids? They don’t have money. So thirteen bucks might not be much to working adults, but it is when you are a child—a MMORPG playing child, that is. Dragon Quest X is, for the first time in the DQ series, a subscription-based MMORPG. To enable kids the ability to play for two hours at set…

Resident Evil 6 DLC Is Hitting the Xbox 360 First

That’s according to the Xbox 360 Japan Twitter feed—which explicitly makes it seem as though the Xbox 360 will get RE6 DLC before the PS3 does. So, what, launch day then? Kidding! (Not really.) 『バイオハザード6』Xbox 360版ではダウンロード コンテンツの先行配信も予定しているとのこと。 [Twitter] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan,…