Several former GameXplain contributors—including former Kotaku TAY writer Steve Bowling—have spoken to VICE Games about their time there. The story focuses on allegations of extreme overwork and general issues with crunch in gaming media.

Ubisoft Pushes Riders Republic To ‘Later This Year’, Adding To Wave Of Game Delays

Riders Republic, the next game from the team behind Steep, has been delayed until “later this year.” The delay adds to a growing number of games that have been pushed back recently, including Hogwarts Legacy and Outriders Riders Republic was originally scheduled to be released on February 25 but now has no specific date. Ubisoft…

Big Game Publishers Are Retreating Into The Safety Of Hollywood’s Back Catalog

This week, the video game industry got a fresh infusion of boomer energy with the announcement of a new Indiana Jones game. Meanwhile, there’s also a James Bond game in the works, and Ubisoft announced it’s working on an open world Star Wars game—the first in a possible flood of new games taking place in…

Bethesda Delays Elder Scrolls Online Reveal To Get Out Of The Way Of Presidential Inauguration

The US Capitol was attacked and overrun by a right-wing and neo-confederate mob last week, and according to the FBI, groups loyal to President Trump are threatening to try to do it again during next week’s inauguration where President-Elect Joe Biden will be sworn in. Nerves are frayed, people are on edge, and so at…

New Pokémon Snap Is Out On Switch In April

Photography game New Pokémon Snap will be out on Switch on April 30, Nintendo announced today. Announced last year, New Pokémon Snap is a spiritual successor to the Nintendo 64 game about exploring Pokémon in their natural habitats and snapping beautiful pictures of them. The new game will take place in a region called Lental,…

One Piece Editor Accidentally Clicked On Pirated Manga Site, Says Publisher

To mark One Piece reaching 1,000 chapters, there was YouTube live-stream earlier this week with the staff at the Weekly Jump offices. The editor of One Piece showed his smartphone screen. On it, viewers could see his browsing history. Oh dear. Most of it was rather pedestrian—Yahoo! Japan, One Piece sites, etc.—but one entry was for a…

Animator Inspired By Daigo Vs. Justin Wong Street Fighter Match

One of the most famous moments in esports history is the Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike semifinal match from 2004. With only a pixel of health left, Daigo Umehara parried a slew of attacks from Justin Wong before mounting an incredible comeback. The fight will never cease to be remarkable. Professional animator Alain Vu, who…

Fighting Games Have Come A Long Way

It’s common knowledge that fighting game sprites have grown larger and more refined as technology has improved, at least in those rare few games that still use them. But I never truly appreciated how big of a difference there is between the classics and their modern counterparts before now. Modder X68000555 has spent the last…

Abandoned MF DOOM Game Sounded Cool

News of MF DOOM’s death a couple of weeks ago led to an outpouring of tributes from artists around the world, from movie-makers to his peers and fans in the rap game. One that caught my eye in particular was this project by Chafomon, an abandoned fan project for the Game Boy called MF Doom:…

Fans Finally Crack Made-Up Assassin’s Creed Language

Assassin’s Creed is a neverending series of mysteries and puzzles, the most enduring of which is the Isu language. While it was first introduced in 2009’s Assassin’s Creed II, it wasn’t until last year’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla provided substantial clues that fans were finally able to crack the dead tongue. In a video released on…

CD Projekt Red Apologizes For Cyberpunk 2077 Bugs, Says It’s Avoiding Crunch On ‘All Future Projects’

In a video on Twitter and a Q&A posted on the company’s website, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński apologized for the state Cyberpunk 2077 launched in on consoles, shared a road map for updates to the game coming in the future, and said the studio would deliver these fixes “without any obligatory overtime.” Here’s…

Hogwarts Legacy Delayed To 2022

WB Games’ upcoming open-world Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy has been pushed back to 2022. It was originally scheduled to arrive on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC sometime this year. “Creating the best possible experience for all of the Wizarding World and gaming fans is paramount to us, so…

Katy Perry Teams With Pokémon For Some Sort Of 25th Anniversary Music Thing

Announced this morning by The Pokémon Company, popstar, American Idol judge, and new mom Katy Perry is headlining P25, a yearlong collaboration with Universal Music Group artists to produce … music of some sort? It’s vague. It’s not clear exactly what the P25 Music program entails. In the official announcement, The Pokémon Company calls it…

The Mega Man X-like 30XX is coming to Steam in Early Access on February 17, Batterystaple Games announced today. It’s got beautiful pixel graphics, chiptune-inspired tunes, and even a Maker Mode for players to design their own levels. 

Luigi’s New Ride Is Just A Penis

Today marks the start of mobile Mario Kart’s 35th tour, transporting players to Berlin, Germany, where Luigi dons knee-length leather shorts and rides about town in a wheeled phallus brandishing a fork-skewered sausage. As the son of a German orphan, I don’t know whether to be offended by Mario Kart Tour’s sausage fest or whether…

Ubisoft Massive Is Making An Open World Star Wars Game

Ubisoft is partnering with the the newly launched Lucasfilm Games to make an open world game based in the Star Wars universe, Wired reports. This apparently signals the end of EA’s previous exclusivity deal regarding the development of Star Wars video games. Ubisoft Massive, the studio behind The Division, will be leading development on the…