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  Free Realms Celebrates 8 Million Players

  It’s been awhile since we checked in with the player population of the free-to-play, family-friendly MMO Free Realms, and Sony Online Entertainment snuck in more than five million additional users while we weren’t looking. When last we checked, way back in June of last year, Free Realms had just surpassed the three million player mark.…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 8, 2010
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  The Saga Continues With LEGO Clone Wars

  LucasArts and TT Games continue to tear apart the Star Wars universe and rebuild it brick-by-brick with LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars. I am continually amazed by the success of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a stylized cartoon version of the events that take place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 8, 2010
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  Digital Decapitations A Primal Release, Creator Says

  “I’ve always been a non-violent person,” Tim Jones told me last week as we chatted in a subterranean nightclub in Manhattan. He’s a “peace and love” kind of guy and designer of a new video game featuring spine-dangling decapitations. Jones is the head of art and design at Rebellion, the U.K. studio behind Aliens Vs…

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 8, 2010
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  The Once and Future Sim

  One hundred million copies sold, 36 magazine covers and 100 game critic awards: The Sims franchise continues to thrive ten years after its launch, basking in the uncommon flattery of having no real competition. The Sims importance and impact on the video game industry as a whole could perhaps be measured by the games created…

  By Brian Crecente Published February 8, 2010
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Comment here about video games. Sorry, there’s still no voice-acting here in TAY. Text-only. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 8, 2010
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  This Night Note Is Late

  To: Crecente From: Bashcraft Sorry, folks! Eight minutes late, actually. Didn’t mean to keep you waiting. What happens when a night note is late? What you missed last night The Emotion, And Humor, Of Mass Effect 2’s Romantic Interludes Prince Of Persia’s Super Bowl Trailer Is Big On Action, Short On Shirtless Jake Silhouette of…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 8, 2010
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  Peter Molyneux: Natal Could Change Interaction Like The Mouse

  Peter Molyneux, the guy who designs those Fable games and runs Microsoft’s European studios, sees Project Natal as more than just another motion peripheral. For him, it’s the peripheral is akin to some like the computer mouse. “If you’re thinking that Natal is going to give you another version of an FPS, you’re just not…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 8, 2010
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  The Best PC Mods For 2009 Were…

  Mod DB, the central hub for all things mod-related on the PC, released over the weekend their editors’ and readers’ picks for the best mods of 2009. You may have seen some of these – like Galactic Warfare and NeoTokyo – featured previously on Kotaku. Others may be entirely new to you (and us!). Regardless,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 8, 2010
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  Nippon Ichi Software, This Can’t Be Good (Part II)

  Last Friday, Nippon Ichi Software, the developer behind the Disgaea series, announced its financial earnings. They were not good. As Kotaku previously reported, the operating profit for the Gifu Prefecture-based company is down 97.5 percent during the first nine months of this financial year. The company’s closing price on the JASDAQ (Japanese NASDAQ) was ¥36,200…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 8, 2010
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  This “Sonic 4” Is Actually 14 Years Old

  Sega may have you thinking Sonic 4 is on the way, but really, it’s already here. It was released in 1996. For the Super Nintendo. This is a game called “Sonic 4”, a hack which took the existing Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos (by Sunsoft) and added some extras to it. Like Sonic, Sonic’s rings,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 8, 2010
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  What Does A Hamster Have To Do With Super Mario Galaxy?

  Screw focus groups. Or corporate brainstorming. Shigeru Miyamoto gets many of his game ideas from real life. Take The Legend of Zelda, which was inspired by Miyamoto’s childhood spent playing outside, or Pikmin, which was inspired by gardening, or Nintendogs, which was inspired by his experience owning a pet. Super Mario Galaxy? A hamster. Miyamoto…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 8, 2010
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  British Sales Charts: Dante’s Disco Inferno

  Just Dance ahead of Mass Effect 2? Sort it out, Britain. I don’t care if you have to hit the streets shouting, placards in hand, you sort this out. Chart regulars aside, you’ll see a healthy debut from Dante’s Inferno there at numbers five & six, suggesting EA’s brawler may have a little more clout…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 8, 2010
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  Relax, Square Enix Is Doing Just Fine

  The past nine months have been rough for many Japanese game companies. But those companies didn’t release Dragon Quest IX and Final Fantasy XIII. Oh, and Square Enix arm Eidos released Batman: Arkham Asylum. Net sales for Square Enix are up 31 percent and net income is up 48 percent when compared to the same…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 8, 2010
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  Crate Digging: Machinarium

  Machinarium isn’t just a great game, it’s got one hell of a soundtrack, which although already available digitally and on CD, can soon be purchased on something a little more collectible. This limited release of the game’s soundtrack is a full vinyl LP, containing 14 songs (though not the ones on the game’s bonus EP),…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 8, 2010
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  How Much Is Persia?

  Expensive, we bet. As seen on Xbox LIVE by Killer_Walrus.

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 8, 2010
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  Gran Turismo Series: 55 Million Sold, And Counting

  Gran Turismo developers Polyphony Digital have released a tally of lifetime sales figures for the series, useful not only for armchair statisticians, but also those curious as to how well Gran Turismo PSP has performed. Turns out it’s done quite well for itself, selling 1.8 million copies since being released last year. Which is great…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 8, 2010
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  Comparing Gas Masks

  Maybe you like Mass Effect 2. Maybe you like Swedish popstar Robyn. She likes Mass Effect 2, but that doesn’t mean she likes you. Yes, two weeks of Mass Effect 2 tweets. It’s that good! I feel like we have heard this before. Several times, even. So a guy (Ian Cummings) who works out a…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 8, 2010
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  The Emotion, And Humor, Of Mass Effect 2’s Romantic Interludes

  While chewing over people’s various endings for Mass Effect 2 the other day, one thing that struck me was how many different romantic options you guys had been pursued. And it got me all curious. **SPOILERS AHEAD** See, I played the game once, and that was it. The way the story unfolded was “My Story”,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 8, 2010
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  Cosplay This Winter, So Amazing, So-So, And So Frightening

  On February 7, the winter Wonder Festival 2010 was held at Chiba’s Makuhari Messe, home of the Tokyo Game Show. The event focuses primarily on figures and figurines. But where there is nerd heroine, there are cosplayers. Do you have any favorites? Any in particular you like? Gonna give you nightmares? ワンダーフェスティバル 2010[冬] コスプレ [Akiba…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published February 8, 2010
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  Prince Of Persia’s Super Bowl Trailer Is Big On Action, Short On Shirtless Jake

  If there’s one thing this trailer for the upcoming Prince of Persia movie shows, it’s that maybe video game adaptations haven’t sucked because they had the wrong people. Maybe they sucked because they never had this kind of money. The movie, which also stars Sir Ben Kingsley, will be released in May. Click to view

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 8, 2010