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GameStop: We Must Educate Customers About DLC
GameStop’s chief operating officer says the company must embrace downloadable content for the games it sells and educate its customers on its benefits, calling such a posture critical to the company’s survival. Speaking at the Game Business Law conference at Southern Methodist University, J. Paul Raines said the DLC market could see considerable growth immediately,…
By Owen Good Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
The Replacements, Still Replaced in Video Games
Fifteen years ago, in the infancy of console sports simulations, 38 baseball players made a choice that would ensure they would never appear in a video game. Only five of them remain in the major leagues. They crossed a picket line, an act of war to organized labor, by signing replacement player contracts with Major…
By Owen Good Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
Win a Football Autographed by an NFL Star
This isn’t Super Bowl weekend, it’s Pro Bowl weekend. And to liven up what is otherwise light-hitting exhibition football action, we’ve got a memorabilia giveaway courtesy of Quick Hit Football. Quick Hit, whom I’ve written about before, is the free online American football strategy simulation. They have five current NFL players appearing in the game,…
By Owen Good Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
Disgaea Infinite to Hit North American PSPs in May
NIS America‘s latest Prinny Bomb communication announces that Disgaea Infinite is on the way to North America. We’ll see it in May. This will be NIS’s first visual novel, a popular genre in Japan, published in the United States. According to the announcement, players can play with a Prinny as the main character, and they…
By Owen Good Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
Weekend Coupons: Spread the Savings
No real theme to this week’s deals, but that means there’s a wide array of cheap stuff being offered out there – some of it meh, most of it good. Hardware • 360 console update: Best Buy has the Elite with free Madden NFL and an extra controller ($76 bonus value, ends this Sat. 1/30),…
By Owen Good Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
Courtney Love Now Says Cobain Would’ve Been Cool With Guitar Hero 5
Professional widow Courtney Love, PO’d at Activision for how Kurt Cobain of Nirvana is presented in Guitar Hero 5, says Cobain probably would have found his game appearance amusing. But since he’s dead she gets to do all the suin’. Telling the U.K.’s NME magazine, Love characteristically spewed filth-flarn-flarn-filth when passing along this update. What…
By Owen Good Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Originals: iPad the Score
Apple’s unveiling of a tablet PC threatened to crowd out the rest of the games and devices news this week, but we didn’t let that stop us from delivering our usual slate of reports, reviews and rumors. iPad Hands On With Apple’s iPad, Everything But The Games iPad Doubts: A Gamer’s Problems With Apple’s Wonder…
By Owen Good Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves
Looks like George is late for both the iPad announcement and the State of the Union. Who schedules these things in January, anyway? It’s not a convenient month for travel. But it’s always a convenient time for Kotaku’s open thread. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.
By Owen Good Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
Sony Pleased As Punch With Apple’s iPad
While Nintendo president Satoru Iwata expressed some rather public disappointment with the new Apple iPad yesterday, representatives from rival firm Sony couldn’t be happier. “Apple’s entrance into the portable gaming space has been a net positive for Sony,” Sony’s John Koller, Director Hardware Marketing, told the Wall Street Journal. “When people want a deeper, richer…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
Final Fantasy XIII On… The PS2?
Square Enix’s role-playing game Final Fantasy XIII is a PlayStation 3 game (and an Xbox 360 game!). But at one time, the game was running on the PS2. Early artwork and screens have been published in two new books from Square Enix, giving insight into the game’s design process. These test version images pre-date E3…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
LittleWhite Knight Chronicles
Sony & Level 5’s White Knight Chronicles, for the PS3, is a very serious affair. Lots of world-saving, and giant creatures with sharp knees. So it’s refreshing to see the game’s characters presented in a softer light. This White Knight character pack for PS3 platformer LittleBigPlanet will be out on February 25, along with some…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
No Mature Games Allowed In Xbox Game Room
One of the biggest potential stumbling points for the 360’s (and PC’s!) Game Room – having to secure an endless stream of ESRB ratings – has been solved in a fairly unique way by Microsoft. Whereas similar platforms – like Nintendo’s Virtual Console for the Wii – submit each game to the ratings board individually,…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 30, 2010 - Uncategorized
Borderlands DLC Gets Bundled, Burned To Add-On Pack Disc
Gearbox Software and 2K Games will take the currently release downloadable content for their hit Borderlands and slap it on some DVDs next month with the release of the Borderlands Add-On Pack. Retailer GameStop is listing the double DLC disc for a February 23 release date, bundling the add-on we liked a lot (The Zombie…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Off Topic: Belly Burger
There really aren’t enough video games built around the concept of the hamburger. Similarly a shame, the amount of burger in my digestive tract at this very moment. I’m about to correct that. While you’re reading, contemplating and commenting in tonight’s Kotaku Off Topic thread, in which anything can be discussed, I’ll be at my…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2010 - Uncategorized
Six More Screens for MLB 10 The Show
MLB 09 The Show won wide praise for the strength of its visuals, and in these six screenshots SCEA’s released, it’s a solid bet MLB 10 The Show will live up to those expectations too. I went back into this game this week to reacclimate myself to it, since the March 2 release is not…
By Owen Good Published January 29, 2010 - Uncategorized
No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise Suffers Delay of Game
The Japanese release of No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 port of the Wii original, won’t make its previously announced February 25 release date. Travis and company won’t touch down until sometime in April. So what does that mean for those of us outside of Japan? Well, at least we…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2010 - Uncategorized
Multiplayer Patched Into Original Aliens vs. Predator Re-Release
Rebellion’s boss promised the Steam re-release of 1999’s original Aliens vs. Predator would support multiplayer. They’ve delivered, patching in the support for that today. Here’s what it will and won’t do: • Integrated with Steam Overlay • Uses Steam name • Host/Join games via bare-bones in-game lobby browser • Can invite and join friends and…
By Owen Good Published January 29, 2010 - Uncategorized
WarioWare D.I.Y. Has Made Me A User Generated Content Convert
Game programming may come to the masses in the most micro of forms with Nintendo’s upcoming do-it-yourself mini-game collection WarioWare D.I.Y., one of a handful of new titles we got to go hands-on with this week. I’ve been a longtime fan of the WarioWare series of seconds-long games since the original WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2010 - Uncategorized
Games Ban Might Encourage Somali Teens to Shoot Real Guns
Somalia has a ton of problems, but at least it does have cybercafes where kids can enjoy playing games. But a fun-killing Islamist group has ordered them shut down in a ban on games in territories under its control. Hezb al-Islam ordered the cafes closed and declared that “laying video games will be prohibited. Video…
By Owen Good Published January 29, 2010 - Uncategorized
Tecmo Thinks It’s Making Games That Appeal To Women Now
You may not think off Tecmo as a company that’s targeting the fairer sex with much of its line-up, but Quantum Theory producer Yasuo Egawa says that is exactly what the publisher has been doing for the past few years. Egawa tells Edge that Tecmo wants to offer the female gamer something that’s not just…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2010