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  Gabe Newell Boycotting L4D Modder’s Campaign [Update]

  A 19-year-old Aussie emailed the Valve boss to complain that he wasn’t flown in for the boycott-bustin’ playtest of Left 4 Dead 2. Gabe Newell’s reaction, allegedly (and in fun), was to announce a boycott of his own. The modder, Joe of Joe’s Modding Menagerie, is putting together a campaign for Left 4 Dead (pictured,…

  By Owen Good Published September 10, 2009
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  PlayStation Eye Tech Demo Can Make Anyone A Lazy Eyed Anime Girl

  Sony has been futzing about with head-tracking technology via its PlayStation Eye peripheral for a long time, showing off an early version of the camera trickery at last year’s Game Developers Conference. How far they’ve come! Now, as demonstrated at this year’s CEDEC 09 conference in Japan, the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Eye can interpret…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009
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  Celebrate Scribblenauts Launch At Nintendo World Store

  This weekend the New York City’s Nintendo World Store will host a launch party for DS title Scribblenauts, letting gamers pick the title up days before it hits stores. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. this Sunday and will include purchasable copies of the game, due to hit stores on Sept. 15 for sale.…

  By Brian Crecente Published September 10, 2009
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  An Inconvenient Truth — ’09 Holiday Releases are Endangered

  Overfished waters? Melting polar ice? No, the hidden shame of our ecosystem is the virtual disappearance of 2009 holiday releases, Noted ecologists LoadingReadyRun have put together this documentary on the plight of a species no one’s talking about. Let’s not spoil any of the punchlines, so, enjoy this and pay attention as you do so.…

  By Owen Good Published September 10, 2009
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  Torture In Video Games

  At PAX, I had the good fortune to catch Bethesda’s Brink demo. While there was a lot of cool stuff in the game worth blogging about, what stuck with me was the use of torture in the game. Of course, the game doesn’t call it torture. I think the term they use is “extreme interrogation…

  By AJ Glasser Published September 10, 2009
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  Notebook Dump: Halo Bible Height, Cave Story And Xbox Champagne

  There comes a time in the week to reflect on what got into my reporter’s notebook but didn’t turn into Kotaku blog posts. Shall we? I haven’t been able to write one of these Notebook Dumps in a couple of weeks and am now giving you one a day early. Tomorrow is a rest day…

  By Stephen Totilo Published September 10, 2009
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  Star Trek D-A-C Still Coming To PSN, PC (Promise!)

  PlayStation 3 owners and PC gamers jealous of the Xbox Live Arcade timed exclusivity of Star Trek D-A-C will be able to put that pain and suffering behind them soon. And by “soon,” publisher Paramount Digital Entertainment means November. Not quite the “late summer 2009” we were promised earlier this year, but at least it’s…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009
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  Come As You Are

  To: Bash From: Crecente Re: Presents, I Love Presents, Getting Presents, Giving Presents, Presents Did you see this beef between Activision and Courtney Love? She seems pretty ticked. Even more ticked than fans of Cobain’s music. What you missed: Activision: Courtney Love Signed Cobain Contract for Guitar Hero 5 Adult Films Push For Presence on…

  By Brian Crecente Published September 10, 2009
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  NPD Instant Analysis: Things You Should Note

  Do not ignore the downloadables like Shadow Complex. Do not gloat about Activision’s rare misfortune. And do find a hope for Scribblenauts. Here’s some of my monthly instant analysis for all those NPD August hardware and software sales figures McWhertor just posted. Study them and then consider the following as viable talking points when you’re…

  By Stephen Totilo Published September 10, 2009
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  Madden Tops Charts Again, But Sales Plummet On PS2, Wii

  Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello had a right to be discouraged by sales of the latest Madden NFL football game from EA Sports. While it managed to be August’s bestselling game in the U.S., sales were definitely down. Madden NFL 10 leads the NPD Group‘s top ten with 928,000 units sold on the Xbox 360.…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009
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  NPD: PS3 Sales Gain Ground On Price Drop, Nintendo DS Still Tops

  August video game hardware sales were, like most of 2009, down from the previous year. But at least PlayStation 3 sales were up considerably from the month prior, selling almost twice the amount thanks to a mid-month price drop. According to the NPD Group, Sony sold 210,000 PlayStation 3s in the U.S. last month. With…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009
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  PlayStation Store Update: Turtles & Takei

  Ever since Sony got serious about adding PSone Classics to the North American PlayStation Store, the weekly updates to the service have been pretty solid. With Silent Hill and Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain hitting today, we’re issuing another “solid.” There’s a lot to play with this week, including the remake TMNT: Turtles in Time…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009
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  Pirate Bay Buyers Banned From Stock Exchange

  Swedish stock market AktieTorget has banned potential Pirate Bay purchasers Global Gaming Factory X from offering stock, after determining that the company misled investors regarding their ability to buy the popular torrent site. We’ve been following the Pirate Bay sale saga rather closely since the sale was announced this June, with Global Gaming Factory declaring…

  By Mike Fahey Published September 10, 2009
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  Sony Looking Into PS3 Firmware “Concerns”

  PlayStation 3 firmware 3.0 brought with it many changes, some of them good and some of them being the Friends List update. Rarely can people universally agree on something, but it appears that everyone hates those Friends List changes. Fortunately, sounds like Sony’s listening to those complaints. Amidst the usual kvetching about cosmetic and functional…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009
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  EA Boss Does Not Seem Pleased With Madden 10 Sales

  This year’s sales of Madden NFL football may not be living up to Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello’s expectations. He calls sales of Madden NFL 10 “discouraging,” indicating they’re down from the previous year’s. According to an internal communication intercepted by Bloomberg, Riccitiello appears disappointed that “one of our highest-rated and best-marketed ‘Madden’ titles in…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009
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  The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom Preview: Me, Myself And Pie

  It is fitting that we ran a post-mortem item on The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom in 2008, but now in 2009 are ready to run a preview for it. The game warps perception and might hurt your brain. What Is It? The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is an Xbox Live Arcade puzzle game originally created…

  By Stephen Totilo Published September 10, 2009
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  Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Will Be Playable At TGS

  Heading to this year’s Tokyo Game Show? Cool, then you’ll be able to play Kojima Productions‘ latest PSP effort, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker courtesy of a publicly playable demo. Oh, and bring your PSP if you’re coming. Because it looks like Konami will be offering demo kiosks for attendees as well as making the…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009
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  Deliberate Glitch Foils Arkham PC Pirates

  A deliberate glitch in the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum has pirates perplexed to the point of accidentally outing themselves on the official Eidos forums. Cheshirec_the_cat posted a thread on September 4th in the official Eidos forums for Batman: Arkham Asylum, requesting help with a peculiar problem with the PC version of the game.…

  By Mike Fahey Published September 10, 2009
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  The Secret World Revealed: Factions, Progression, And PVP

  At PAX 2009 this past weekend, Kotaku sat down with Funcom to delve into the secrets behind The Secret World, learning about the societies, Cabals, and PVP combat in the upcoming modern-day MMO. I met with Funcom creative director Ragnar Tørnquist and The Secret World’s lead designer Martin H Bruusgaard on Friday afternoon at the…

  By Mike Fahey Published September 10, 2009
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  Another Riddler Clue?

  Kotaku reader Matt Shafeek spotted something in downtown Seattle that reminds him of Batman: Arkham Asylum but resisted adding it to his inventory screen.

  By Stephen Totilo Published September 10, 2009