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Monkey Island’s Ron Gilbert to Keynote PAX
Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert plans to keynote the sixth annual Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle in September, the organizers said today. “This is an unbelievable moment for us,” Penny Arcade’s Robert Khoo said. “I wasted an entire family vacation one year trying to figure out how to win that stupid spitting…
By Brian Crecente Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Blame WoW For Starcraft II’s Late, Late Release
Blizzard’s Starcraft was released in 1998. It’s sequel, Starcraft II, won’t be out until at least 2009. Why the hold-up? Blame World of Warcraft. Rob Pardo has told Eurogamer that development on Starcraft II began in 2003, and there’s been a playable build since 2005. But then along came World of Warcraft. One of the…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Celebrate Independence Day With The Sacktue Of Liberty
Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free, and Media Molecule will give them a free costume that embodies their hopes and dreams in LittleBigPlanet. Media Molecule follows up last week’s free druid costume with another new outfit for your sackboy, or perhaps sackgirl, in this case. The Sacktue of…
By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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 - Uncategorized
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