Microsoft Calls Natal Pricing “Pure Speculation”

A Swedish retailer priced Microsoft’s codenamed Project Natal body-control sensor system at $200. But, today, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 director of product management, Aaron Greenberg shot down any pricing reports, via Twitter: “Retailers are not yet aware of pricing details for Project Natal & pre-order pricing is pure speculation.” The Xbox 360 maker is, of course,…

Couple Married By Robot, Can Death Ray Divorce Be Far Behind?

These science posts at Kotaku give me an opportunity to talk about something near and dear to my heart: The Robot menace. A Japanese couple being married by a robot? What if it misinterprets “til death do us part?” The Japanese love their robots. They’ve been making them for ages, from toys on up to…

Score!

Video games. High literature. They have nothing in common. True or False? False. Last August, I wrote about Gaming and Literature, citing the pervasive influence of JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth on fantasy gaming online and off, just for starters. For those who think Tolkien is just genre trash, I hauled out EA’s then-in-development game Dante’s…

Alan Wake: Building The Drama

As far as we’re concerned, the main drama of Alan Wake is having to wait another day to play, but developer Remedy went to all the trouble of putting together this Building the Drama trailer, so here you go. Reviewer’s love Alan Wake. Normally an oft-delayed title like Wake ends up being a jumbled mess…

Wii Games Will Sport American Heart Association Seal of Approval

Like a box of Cheerios, boxes for Wii, Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort will soon feature a seal of approval from The American Heart Association. That means, really, truly, these video games could be good for you. Nintendo and the American Heart Association leaders told reporters today in New York City that their…

Twenty Years Of Video Games: The Rap

It’s twenty years of video gaming, brought to you by a British man and a beat. You may have heard some of this before, but nerd rapper Dan Bull has released an extended version of his amazing track, complete with new footage and new lyrics. It’s similar to Sole’s “Video Game Song” that I played…

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Dated, Detailed, And PSP Bundled

Square Enix’s vague summer release date for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has become a definite September release date, with a limited edition PSP bundle commemorating the next star-studded entry in the beloved Kingdom Hearts series. Does September 7 still count as summer? Probably not, but it’s only missing it by a few days, so…

It’s A Dead Bird! It’s A Red Plane! It’s Super Scribblenauts!

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment confirms that the adjective-laden follow-up to 5TH Cell’s million-selling Scribblenauts is indeed Super Scribblenauts, due out this fall for the Nintendo DS. A listing for Super Scribblenauts briefly appeared on Amazon.com over the weekend, only to be quickly taken down. Between that and the domain registration for Superscribblenauts.com, we were pretty…

The Nintendo Download Will Totally Blow Your Mind

Remember the pseudo 3D game, Looksley’s Line Up, that everyone thought was a demo for the Nintendo 3DS? It’s on DSiWare today, and Nintendo thinks it will blow your mind. I am eagerly awaiting Looksley’s availability, 500 DSi points in hand, ready to have my mind completely blown. Between that game and the latest in…

El Shaddai Screens

Is It Too Late To Preorder The StarCraft II Collector’s Edition?

Isn’t the Collector’s Edition of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty gorgeous? It’s already sold out at several major retailers, but we’ve found a few places where the $99 package can still be secured. IncGamers is reporting that the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Collector’s Edition is no longer available for preorder at several major retailers…

Game Club: Alan Wake

Attention to those of you planning to play Alan Wake. Read this first, so that you can play — and discuss — the game with the rest of Kotaku. I am delighted to announce that after the tremendous success of the Game Club’s look at and discussion of Modern Warfare 2, we’re bringing it back…

“Please Get In My Cardboard Box”

Being a junior high student isn’t easy — especially if you’re in a cardboard box. The kid in the box says, “Please get in my cardboard box.” The girl replies, “Cardboard box?” And the kid gestures and says he was actually asking the dude, who gets in the box with him.

The Reject Pile Of Spring 2010

It was time for spring cleaning in my household, so I am getting rid of these games. I try to possess as few video games as possible, because it is my dream to only own masterpieces. I haven’t achieved this dream yet — hey, I can’t bring myself to get rid of Geist, okay? But…

Talk Amongst Yourselves

Be happy you live now. Because if you lived, oh, 100 years ago, you couldn’t comment here or anywhere about video games. If that’s not a sign of progress, what is? Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ

The Growing Spectacle of Gaming’s International Spotlight

Last year featured Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tony Hawk and Stephen Spielberg. This year there will be Cirque du Soleil and perhaps others. Each year in the days leading up to E3’s international gathering of video game makers and publishers in Los Angeles, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo host press briefings to lay out the year’s…

The Lunch I Made? Just Awful, Horrible And Rotten

To: Crecente From: Bashcraft Mini-Bash has been sick the past few days. Today, I made lunch, and as I made lunch, the realization that I was making a horrible, horrible lunch set in. I panicked! The noodle dish that was in my mind was the noodle that was being produced in the fry pan before…

Capcom: Japan Has No Hope In Hell Unless…

When Osaka-based Capcom isn’t making popular video games, it is doing something else entirely: ragging on the Japanese game industry. Last September at the Tokyo Game Show, Capcom exec and Mega-Man designer Keiji Inafune declared the country’s game industry “finished”. Now it’s Lost Planet 2 producer Jun Takeuchi’s turn. “If the Japanese games industry doesn’t…

Starcraft, If It Had Been Made In 1984

Don’t get bummed out, Starcraft fans! We’re not going to let the morning pass without some good news. Well, not news. It’s more a clip, of what Starcraft would look like on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Smartly, the isometric viewpoint has been dropped in favour of the NES’ speciality, side-scrolling, which though messy in parts,…

Project Natal Is…White? [UPDATE]

Released last year, this is the official concept promotional image of Microsoft’s upcoming motion control system Project Natal. It is black. Update: Microsoft comments, clarifies nothing. “Project Natal” is the code name for Microsoft’s controller-free motion controls that, as the promotional clip states, makes the players the controller. But even when the device was on…