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  THQ: Who Needs a Diverse Portfolio

  Last week THQ announced that they were dividing up the company into three divisions, core, online, kids and famiily and casual games. The decision seems to put an end to what some viewed as THQ’s attempt at breaking into the mega-publishing business with the like of EA, Activision and Ubisoft. Games Industry talked to THQ’s…

  By Brian Crecente Published June 29, 2009
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  Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Launch Trailer

  Tomorrow you can play the game based on the upcoming movie based on the book you’ve probably already read, in EA’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Harry gets stronger, magical crimes run rampant, and a guy sharing a name with my cat Rufus takes over as Minister of Magic in the sixth book of…

  By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2009
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  Pre-Buy The Next Final Fantasy XI Scenario Next Week

  While there’s no word on when you can play the second of three new Final Fantasy XI scenarios. A Moogle Kupo d’Etat – Evil in Small Doses, now we know when you can buy it. Starting on July 5th, Final Fantasy XI players will be able to purchase the follow-up to A Crystalline Prophecy –…

  By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2009
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  Halo ODST Features An Open World, “Reach” Could Use Natal Tech

  Upcoming Bungie shooter Halo ODST won’t be a straight-forward linear shooter, rather blending elements of traditional shooters with the open world exploration of Grand Theft Auto, Bungie told he Seattle Times in a recent interview. “We’re doing a lot of pretty neat things in terms of mixing it up, introducing some non-linearity, some free exploration,”…

  By Brian Crecente Published June 29, 2009
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  Fragile Breaks Into Europe With Rising Star

  Celebrate the newly-announced European release for Tri Crescendo‘s Wii RPG Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, with a batch of new screens courtesy of publisher Rising Star Games. So Fragile is making it to the states courtesy of XSEED, and now Europe is getting the game sometime in the first quarter of 2010 via Rising…

  By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2009
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  The Nintendo Download: Summertime In The Fantasy Zone

  It’s summertime, and on top of the usual crop of random puzzle games and a return to the Fantasy Zone, Nintendo has a couple of games available for download today that accurately simulate being outside. What’s outside, you ask? No earthly clue. As far as I am concerned my world ends at that heavy curtain…

  By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2009
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  MTV Lands Former THQ Veep

  Scott Guthrie, former executive vice president of publishing THQ, was named MTV Games new executive vice president and general manager today. MTV Games also named former Sony Computer Entertainment America sales and merch director David Cox as their senior vice president of sales. “With our acquisition of Harmonix to our relationship with Jerry Bruckheimer Games,…

  By Brian Crecente Published June 29, 2009
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  A fraction of your Kotaku team is under the weather today and has spread his germs to our favorite yellow-hatted bunch. Drink plenty of fluids, and please comment about video games here. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 29, 2009
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  Let’s Try Shiso Pepsi!

  To: Crecente From: Bashcraft …like shiso. I love me some shisho, but fizzy Pepsi shiso? It’s drinkable, but more of a novelty. Less mouthwashy than the cucumber Pepsi released a few years back, maybe even “good”… Think I’m going to have another glass! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. What you missed last night StarCraft II Hands-On: Round Three StarCraft…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009
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  Licensed Avatar Clothing Starts Rolling Out

  Over the weekend, Microsoft’s Larry Hryb confirmed that the mysterious “Xbox 360 Beta” that a bunch of Microsoft employees were “testing” wasn’t a game. Wasn’t Natal. It was…licensed avatar clothing. Here, we can see what he’s talking about, as MS employee “Randy No Arms” here is fully decked out in garish Halo threads, from his…

  By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2009
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  Sony’s Exclusives Coming Up Short?

  From the day of the PS3’s launch, Sony have pursued a bold strategy of constantly launching new, original IP as exclusive titles on the console. But while it’s a move that should be applauded on principle, it’s just not translating into sales. Number-cruncher Matt Matthews has, in a report over on GameSetWatch, detailed the sales…

  By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2009
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  Michael Jackson Spent Big Bucks On Gaming

  We’ve all seen that clip from Living with Michael Jackson where he goes bananas buying stuff in Las Vegas. Jackson didn’t limit his spending sprees to tacky furniture. Oh no. This image from Japanese tv shows that a then-34-year-old Jackson allegedly spent over half a million dollars at a London toy store on video games…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009
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  The Making Of Earthworm Jim: Worms, Beasties, Rocky Mountain High

  During the 90’s, Sega had a reputation for some fairly left-field (for the industry/time) marketing. Here’s a great example: the making of Earthworm Jim. WARNING: features John Denver. Isn’t Dave Perry’s accent kooky? What the Hell: Badical Earthworm Jim Documentary [Bitmob]

  By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2009
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  Tetsuya Nomura On Kingdom Hearts 3

  One new Kingdom Hearts game, KH 358/2 Days, has been released in Japan. Two more Square-Enix-meets-Disney mash-ups are forthcoming: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for the PSP and Kingdom Hearts: Coded for cell phones. But where is the one everyone is waiting for, Kingdom Hearts 3? Kingdom Hearts designer Tetsuya Nomura says he already has…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009
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  If Only These Characters Were Actually In Scribblenauts…

  Scribblenauts looks amazing. 10,000 in-game items? Can’t. Wait. And yet…something tugs at the subconscious. Just like it did with LittleBigPlanet. We love creativity, yes, but we also love existing characters. The game won’t, of course, let you conjure the intellectual property of other characters. So if you’re in a pickle, you can’t just write “TRAVIS…

  By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2009
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  Hey Look, Now, There Is A Dragon

  The countdown page for some game Square Enix is trying to hype. The large “4” and the countdown clock are old, but the dragon drawing is new. Even if we don’t like countdown clocks, we do like dragon drawings. Also, the SaGa (AKA Final Fantasy Legend) style music *might* be new as well, since we…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009
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  StarCraft II Beta Planned To Last 4 To 6 Months

  Dustin Browder, lead designer on StarCraft II at Blizzard, says that the team is planning to have a publicly playable beta for the game that runs about “four to six months.” When that would go live, Blizzard still isn’t saying. But considering that we’re already six months into 2009, a four to six month beta…

  By Michael McWhertor Published June 29, 2009
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  SEGA PSP Music Title Is Pantsu Heavy

  Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku, is coming to the PSP with Hatsune Miku -Project Diva-. So are her underpants! SEGA has been playing up the “3D modeling” of the Miku character. This is perhaps why? Then again, maybe these are just her bathing suit — totally innocent. Still, a slew of new screenshots makes some wonder…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009
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  What’s Inside Blizzard’s Library?

  Blizzard’s main campus is home to what might be the coolest (and nerdiest) library you’ve ever seen. The employee library, from which Blizzard staffers can check out books, software and more, is a great place to lose oneself. The Blizzard employee library is home to the informational—programming language texts, maps, historical reference—but it’s also filled…

  By Michael McWhertor Published June 29, 2009
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  Japanese Newspaper Wonders About “Game Addicts”

  The Mainichi Daily News is running a three part series on online game addiction. Most of it seems like scare mongering — students who start playing Maple Story and suddenly became poor students. There’s even worse with one mother saying this about her game addicted child, “Sometimes, he’ll throw the remote control at the TV,…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009