The Xbox One’s August update will start rolling out today, Microsoft says. Improvements include a better friends list, new activity feed updates, and a low-battery notification for the controller.

If Michael Bay Directed Pixar’s Up

Say what you want about Michael Bay, but you can’t deny that the one-man blockbuster-movie-making machine has a unique style. It might not appeal to everyone. But hey: let’s all just be glad the guy isn’t making Pixar movies. That would be very…explosive, to say the least. YouTuber MrStratman7 recently offered up this vision of…

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku‘s reader-run community: 7 Silent Hill Connections in P.T. • Anime That You Just Want To Savor • Lost, Podcasts and Beyond TAY Classic—TAY Open Forum—Beginner’s Guide To TAY Follow them here.

Stitch And Merida Star In The Other Way To Buy Disney Infinity 2.0

As much fun as I’ve been having watching all of these Marvel superheroes come to life in Disney Infinity 2.0, not every child enjoys comic book characters. For those that don’t, there’ll be a Disney Infinity Toy Box Starter Pack starring an alien puppy and a Scottish princess Leaked last week, this new set is…

Diablo II Maps In Minecraft Will Fill You With Nostalgia

Even though the Arcane Sanctuary and the jungles of Act 3 in Diablo II were not the nicest maps with their unforgiving layout and enemies, there’s something in laztheripper‘s Minecraft recreation that makes me want to log back and run through them again. Here’s a huge gallery with almost every key location from Diablo II.…

Here are Özil and Thomas Müller, two stars of Germany’s national soccer team, acting weird in FIFA. This time their body parts are not glitching through the 5th they’re just trying to impress each other. via r/FIFA Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and…

How Lady Gaga Finally Delighted Nationalists in Japan

Last week, Lady Gaga wandered around Tokyo. Her outfit made some people (not all!) on the Japanese internet upset. But when she left, she donned clothes with nationalistic Japanese connotations, making some unhappy folks happy. The outfit that originally got under the skin of some Japanese online featured the Korean script for “color” (컬러). The…

Smartphone Gamer Dragged Through the Subway

Last week an incident broke out in the Beijing subway system. A young woman got into an altercation with her apparent boyfriend over a mobile phone game, it seems. The end result: she dragged the man onto a subway train. But was this just a PR stunt? Sina Games reports that the incident took place…

The Official Pikachu Maid Costume

Considering how popular maid cafes are in Tokyo’s gaming district, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Pikachu Cafe got a maid outfit of its own—temporarily, at least! That’s celebrity Rika Adachi working as a maid and restaurant manager in a special event held at the cafe. According to Inside Games, this is the first…

Today, Sony revealed that a 500GB Charcoal Black PlayStation 3 is going on sale in Japan from August 28 for 25,980 yen ($253). The current 250 GB models (here and here) are priced at 23,790 yen ($232) each and will ceased being shipped by late August in Japan. No word about how this impact PS3s…

“Stunning New Pokemon Project” To Be Announced

There’s a new Pokemon project in the works. More details will be revealed in a “big announcement” next week. So yes, this is an announcement of an announcement, with the teaser site saying, “This summer, details of a stunning new project from Pokemon will be announced.” The teaser site specifically states, “shougeki no shin purojekuto”…

Track: Sister Sophia | Artist: Floor | Album: Oblation Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.