Xbox

Xbox’s New Parents App Is Great

A couple of years agoI spoke very highly of Nintendo’s parental controls app for the Switch. Microsoft have recently released something very similar, and it’s just as good. The beauty of the Switch’s app wasn’t the fact it had parental controls—all consoles do, and have had them for a while!—but the way it took them…

Here’s October 2020’s Xbox Live Games With Gold

There’s a bit of a Halloween theme to October’s Games with Gold, as you’d expect. As ever, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold membership. October’s Games with Gold are: Xbox One Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut (October 1-31) Maid of Sker (October 16-November 15) Xbox 360 (compatible with Xbox…

Today’s Xbox Series X Previews Revealed Mostly Good News

Over the past week or so, Xbox Series X preview units were made available to select members of the media. Microsoft did not send us one of these units. I’m not sad, but, earlier today, I was cutting onions and peppers while listening to Phoebe Bridgers, and then, without thinking, I rubbed my eyes. True…

Viva Piñata‘s Soundtrack Makes Me Happy To Be Alive

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we look back at a game that is the exact opposite of 2020: the nice, soft, fun, and colorful world of Viva Piñata and its fantastic soundtrack. Before Rare was making a game about pirates,…

Turn Your Xbox Controller Into A Flight Stick

Hey, Flight Simulator is out, and Squadrons is on the way. What better time to be playing games that require expensive dedicated peripherals! Only the economy sucks and you’ll never use those flight sticks for anything else, so maybe try this cool mod that’ll do kinda the same thing, only for your Xbox controller. Designed…

Microsoft On Japan: “We Learn From The Past”

Let’s face it. Microsoft’s track record in Japan with the Xbox has not been good. In the past few years, Microsoft even stopped going to the Tokyo Game Show, but this year the company is back. At the virtual version of the show, at least. In a pre-recorded message, exec Phil Spencer talked about Xbox…

Xbox Series S Already Got A Price Cut In Japan

The Xbox Series S isn’t out yet, but in Japan, it’s already getting a price cut. Today, Microsoft Japan announced that the smaller next-gen console, originally priced 32,980 yen ($313) in the country, will retail for 29,980 yen, which with the current exchange rate is $285. As pointed out on My Game News Flash, that…

Morrowind Completely Rebooted Your Xbox During Some Loading Screens

The latest episode of the official Xbox podcast features a discussion between Microsoft and Bethesda executives about the console manuracturer’s recent acquisition of the Elder Scrolls developer for a whopping $7.5 billion. While the video is mostly about hyping up a massive business deal, Bethesda’s chief software engineer Todd Howard did share a neat anecdote…

Amazon’s Error Dogs, Ranked

The video game world spent a significant portion of the morning trying to score an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. More often than not, folks were met with error screens telling them their efforts were in vain. While certainly frustrating, at least evil megacorporation Amazon gave folks some great dogs to look at…

Microsoft Now Has 23 First-Party Studios, Here’s What They’re Making

Let’s take a look at what all these studios are working on and what we can expect from them in the coming months and years.

Future Bethesda Games Will Come To Other Consoles ‘On A Case-By-Case Basis,’ Microsoft Says

Following the announcement that Microsoft is buying Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax Media, Xbox boss Phil Spencer opened up the possibility that some of the newly acquired publisher’s future games could become exclusives. In an interview with Bloomberg, Spencer said that upcoming Bethesda games like its single-player sci-fi RPG Starfield will come to Xbox, PC, and…

Let’s Compare Every Xbox Console’s Launch Lineup

New consoles are coming soon and that means people are starting to look at what games will actually be available at launch. Both Microsoft and Sony have finally revealed which games are launching alongside each console in November. Some are disappointed by all the ports and cross-gen games. But is this any different than previous…

Xbox Series X, Series S Preorders Open September 22 At 11 A.M. ET

While online preorders for the PlayStation 5 appeared and disappeared sporadically after yesterday’s showcase, Microsoft has provided Kotaku with the specific time we’ll be able to drop hundreds of dollars on its upcoming consoles next Tuesday. Starting at 8 a.m. Pacific, 11 a.m. Eastern on September 22, folks will have a chance at preordering the…

RIP to everyone working video game retail this holiday season who will have to try and explain this

Xbox Series S Was Actually Revealed Back In June

Earlier this week, the folks over at Microsoft announced a lightweight alternative to the beefy Xbox Series X known as the Xbox Series S. But what if I told you that the official reveal wasn’t the first time the world caught a glimpse of the cute little console? In a cheeky bit of preemptive marketing…

Apple’s New Game Streaming Rules Probably Won’t Lead To Stadia And XCloud On Your iPhone (Update)

Apple has made some changes to its App Store guidelines concerning game streaming services like xCloud and Stadia. The new rules allow for game streaming, but with restrictions and caveats that will likely continue to keep these services off Apple products for the foreseeable future. Previously, game streaming services like xCloud and Stadia weren’t allowed…

The Japanese Internet Reacts To The Xbox Series X and S

This week Microsoft showed off the Xbox Series X and S, and revealed the next-gen consoles’ price tags. So how has the news been received by the traditionally Xbox-spectic Japanese audience? Since the launch of the original Xbox, Japan has been an uphill battle for Microsoft. The company tried hard with the Xbox 360 to…

I Don’t Think We’re Ready For How Big The Xbox Series X Really Is

I know that you know that the Xbox Series X is big. But I don’t think you’re aware of just how fucking big it is Over the last few days not just tech/game sites like The Verge and Gamespot but also Content Creators—specifically, those who specialise in simply taking products out of boxes—have been sent…

How Much Every Sony, Nintendo, And Microsoft Console Cost At Launch

It took months of anticipation and a long game of chicken with Sony, but Microsoft finally pulled back the curtain on next-gen price points this week. The Xbox Series X, with its 12 teraflops and fridge-in-a-supervillain-lair design, will retail for $499. Meanwhile, the disc-less, all-digital Xbox Series S—which was first reported last year but only…

How Xbox Series S Compares To Series X

Microsoft is releasing two consoles this fall, and while they’ll both play all the same games, they won’t play all of them the same way. So just how much more powerful is the Xbox Series X than the Series S? It’s impossible to say without actually being able to test both consoles, but based on…