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Kotaku EastJapanSquare Enix Launches A Photobook Service In Japan For Final Fantasy XIV
If photo books are good enough to revive your digital pics, then surely the same goes for your life in Final Fantasy XIV In Japan, Square Enix is rolling out a new service called Final Fantasy XIV Custom Order Photobook: Memories of Light. It works like Apple’s photobooks, but with in-game screenshots that customers lay…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 21, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanJapan’s Fraudulent Composer Returns Years Later With New Music
In 2014, it was revealed that Mamoru Samuragochi, who was called “Japan’s Beethoven,” was not actually deaf. What’s more, he also used a ghostwriter for his music. Before the news broke, the accepted story was that Samuragochi had a degenerative hearing condition that left him deaf by age 35. As I noted at the time,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 21, 2021 -
CultureLord Of The Rings Online Hobbit Hits Level Cap By Baking Pies
Lord of the Rings Online has a level cap of 130, and most players get there by killing things and doing magic shit. Except that is for Cookingwithsim, who playing as a humble Hobbit managed to get there almost exclusively by…baking pies. As MMORPG.com report, it took eight months to do it, and a big…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2021 -
CultureRockstar Very Quietly Adds A Bunch Of Free DLC To Max Payne 3 & LA Noire
Rockstar haven’t just spent the week fucking around with their Steam listings for no reason; not long after accidentally bringing Midnight Club II back for a few minutes, folks discovered that Max Payne 3 and LA Noire’s Steam versions now include all their DLC for free. As Eurogamer reports, the bundling means everything except LA…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2021 -
OpinionAsk KotakuHow Big Is Your Backlog?
It’s once again time for Ask Kotaku, the weekly feature in which Kotaku-ites deliberate on a single burning question. Then, we ask your take. This week we Ask Kotaku: How big is your backlog? Brian Not too big, I guess. I’ve been playing Civilization VI, because I find it comforting, which this year and last…
By Alexandra Hall Published April 20, 2021 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryI’m Going To Miss You, Heavensward
Last time on my journey Heavensward, I said it was too hard to level my fifty ‘leven jobs evenly, so I decided to focus on solo-leveling my healer. Turns out, I may have been a bit premature in that decision. See, what had happened was I belatedly realized I fit the level requirements to pick…
By Ash Parrish Published April 20, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsHandy Sticker Lets You Meme Devil May Cry’s Dante Into Any Game
Ahead of Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster’s release on PlayStation 4 and Switch next month, publisher Sega has provided the internet with a beautifully high-resolution version of the “Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series” sticker from the PlayStation 2 original’s box art in North America. The graphic has inexplicably been used…
By Ian Walker Published April 20, 2021 -
CultureReport: Microsoft No Longer In Talks To Buy Discord
Last month, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft was in exclusive talks to acquire Discord. Today, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, those talks are off. Microsoft initially considered buying the popular chat and community platform for a figure north of $10 billion, but it wasn’t the only interested buyer. Per the Journal’s sources,…
By Ari Notis Published April 20, 2021 -
CultureOverwatch Director Jeff Kaplan Leaves Blizzard
As of today, the man, the myth, the meme Jeff Kaplan is no longer a member of the Overwatch team—or Blizzard, for that matter. Blizzard made the announcement in a blog post today. Kaplan’s director’s chair will be filled by Aaron Keller, an 18-year Blizzard veteran who has worked on Overwatch and World of Warcraft.…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 20, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsApparently, Some Steam Users Have More Than 25,000 Games
And you thought your backlog was bad. According to the patch notes of a recent Steam Beta Client update, some Steam users—or, more specifically, Steam libraries—may own north of 25,000 games. Woah. The update, pushed live yesterday, is fairly slim and includes this patch note: “Fix a possible crash for users with around 25,000 or…
By Ari Notis Published April 20, 2021 -
OpinionMods Make Gaming A Better Place For Everyone
Twitter is abuzz with today’s awkwardly wrong gaming take, this time focused on modding, after disparaging thoughts about a recent Witcher 3 mod led to debate over whether modders are harming the games industry. Which leads me to present the other case: modders are not harming the games industry. I should elaborate: For historical context,…
By John Walker Published April 20, 2021 -
CultureHere’s Everything Coming To And Leaving Game Pass Soon
The baseball game is the big one, but that’s not the only game en route to Xbox Game Pass Here’s everything coming to Microsoft’s games-on-demand service in the next few weeks: April 20 MLB The Show 21 (Cloud, Console) April 22 Phogs! (PC) April 28 Second Extinction, Game Preview (Cloud, Console, PC) April 29 Destroy All…
By Ari Notis Published April 20, 2021 -
CultureSpiritfarer Celebrates 500K Copies Sold With A Free Update
Spiritfarer, the “cozy management game about dying,” has sold more than half a million copies worldwide. In celebration of this impressive milestone, developer Thunder Lotus is releasing The Lily Update, adding a new butterfly spirit to the game to help flesh out the story of main character Stella. It’s a small but significant update, the…
By Mike Fahey Published April 20, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanA Pokémon-Themed Fossil Exhibit Opening In Japan
In what seems like an inevitability, a touring exhibition called Pokémon Kaseki Hakubutsukan (ポケモン化石博物館) or “Pokémon Fossil Museum” will open this summer in Japan. According to the official announcement, the exhibition will let visitors observe and compare fossils from dinosaurs and other creatures as well as extinct plants with Pocket Monsters, with the idea of…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanJapan’s Biggest Indie Game Event Will Be Held This September In-Person
BitSummit, Japan’s biggest indie game event, will be held this September in Kyoto. It will, however, not be open to international attendees, only Japan residents. Last year’s in-person event was cancelled due to covid-19 and held online. “In consideration of the coronavirus pandemic, we will be limiting the attendees to developers, publishers, media, and sponsors…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2021 -
CultureFan-Made Portal Game Adds Third Color, Which Allows Time Travel
Portal 2 was challenging enough when all you had to worry about was space, but now we have to think about time as well? Portal Reloaded is a mod, released just in time for Portal 2’s 10th birthday, that introduces a new set of test chambers and, more importantly, a new portal colour. You’ll still…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsSuper Mario Bros. 2 Japan + Super Mario Bros. 2 USA = My Dream Game
Programmer and digital artist Sammu recently put out a nifty video showcasing her work combining the two different versions of Super Mario Bros. 2 into a mega-game featuring the mechanics of one and the levels of the other. As a fan of both, I desperately want to play it. The original 1986 Super Mario Bros.…
By Ian Walker Published April 19, 2021 -
CultureRockstar Games Disappeared From Steam, Then Came Back, Even Ones You Couldn’t Buy Anymore
Earlier today all of Rockstar’s games temporarily disappeared from Steam, then quickly came back, likely down to a listing error. That’s fine, whatever, but when the games came back, some of them hadn’t been there in the first place. While obvious Rockstar games like Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption did the thing,…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2021 -
CultureThe European Super League Is Terrible, But At Least We’re Getting PES Jokes Out Of It
Plans for a European Super League are just about the worst thing to happen to football, maybe ever, but if we’re to get any consolation from these dark and turbulent times, it’s with jokes about Pro Evolution Soccer PES is famous for its emphasis on how football plays, but it’s also famous for lacking the…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2021
