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Bungie Explains Why They Really Killed Destiny’s Loot Cave

Back in the early days of Destiny, some players would spend hours just…shooting into a cave. The reason? Loot. Precious, precious loot. Eventually, Bungie patched what players were calling the “Loot Cave”—Bungie didn’t think it was a good way for players to spend their time. Or so theysaid: Shooting at a black hole for hours…

Up Close With Valve’s Newest Steam Controller

Today at GDC, Stephen got to mess around with Valve’s newest Steam Controller model. Check it out: Stephen also snapped this pic at Valve’s booth, which gives a couple of bullet-points about the controller: Some people are bagging on the thumbstick, but I dunno… I haven’t used this thing, but it actually looks kind of…

An Updated List Of Studios EA Has Bought And Then Shut Down

Massive game publisher Electronic Arts has a reputation for snatching up talented development studios and then running them into the ground. While some of EA’s big acquisitions remain successful today—like DICE and BioWare—the mega-publisher has also been responsible for the closures of a number of beloved game-makers. In the wake of today’s news that SimCity…

Helldivers Has Some Great Achievements

Yeah, I know, they’re called trophies on PlayStation. Achievements, trophies… whatever you want to call them, Helldivers has some of the funniest I’ve seen in a while. Take the one in the gif up top, called “Dancing Queen.” Every time I’m playing with someone new, I stop everything on the bridge and tell them to…

Nvidia’s New Shield Console Is Nothing To Get Excited About

Last night at the 2015 Game Developers Conference, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said he was announcing three things—a revolutionary television, a game console and a supercomputer. He actually revealed an Android console, the third Nvidia device in two years to carry the Shield name. Yay? Having teased the announcement for the better part of a…

Valve’s Changed The Steam Controller Again

As Valve continues to tweak its own controller, GDC has another look at the evolving peripheral. Kotaku boss Stephen Totilo snapped this photo while walking around the show today. We should have a closer look at it—and whatever else Valve is showing at GDC—later this week! Remember when the Steam controller looked like this? You…

A Graphic Novel That Shows The Creepy And Awesome Sides Of Nerd Culture

Many comic books are fantasies, filled with feats and adventures that ordinary people wish they could pull off. But some of those fantasies can also invoke sex and violence in ways that make folks feel icky. And if you’re the one turning out those stories, what happens when you’re burnt out doing the thing you…

How Big Is No Man’s Sky?

For years now, scientists, journalists, and other truth-seekers have dedicated their waking hours to answering one single question: Is the video game No Man’s Sky gonna be big? If so, how big will it be? Investigators around the world, including some right here at Kotaku, have spent the last two years trying to solve this…

Microsoft HoloLens Designer Killed In Hit-And-Run

Mike Ey, a 30-year-old software engineer for Microsoft’s HoloLens, was killed in a hit-and-run accident over the weekend, according to the local Seattle station Kiro TV. According to Kiro TV (via NeoGAF), local police said that Ey was rear-ended by another driver who was speeding “over 100 miles an hour” while driving on the highway…

EA Shuts Down SimCity Developer Maxis

EA has shut down Maxis Emeryville, the main Maxis studio and longrunning developer behind SimCity and Spore, among other games. Though the Maxis brand will carry on, the studio that most people knew as “Maxis” is no more. “Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki…

Wasteland 2 was announced for Xbox One yesterday, and it’s been announced for PlayStation 4 today. There’s no release date for the console versions yet.

If you want to use an Xbox One controller on your PC without USB, Microsoft announced at GDC today that it’s shipping a wireless adapter later this year.

How To Get The Good Ending In Five Nights at Freddy’s 3

Unlike previous Five Nights games, Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 has multiple endings. There is a bad ending, where you beat the game and the animatronics continue being haunted. And there is a good ending, where you put the spirits of the dead children to rest. You want to put the children to rest, so…

Elite: Dangerous is coming to Xbox One this summer, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer announced today at GDC. Unexpected!

Six Of Nine

Yesterday, I saw nine people play a single Wii U game. How’d they do that? One person (in this case Game Trailer‘s Andrea Rene) on the Wii U GamePad, and then four pairs of people sharing Wii Remotes and Classic Controllers. I should have shot this in panorama so that you could see all nine…

Unreal Engine 4 Is Awfully Good At Rendering Kites, Emotions

Unreal Engine 4 is now free for anyone to tinker with, so at the Game Developers Conference today, Epic Games debuted an impressive real-time demo to show it off. Hold onto your kites… The company says this is running in real-time at 30 frames-per-second, a way to demonstrate the worlds developers can dream up and…

Screamride Is Great, But Players Are Making It Even Better

Is Frontier Development’s Xbox-exclusive amusement ride builder worth a play? That depends—how strong is your stomach? I played some Screamride live over the weekend, and I was impressed with two out of three of the game’s career tracks. I’m not much of a builder, so finishing up pre-built coasters in the Engineer mode wasn’t my…

Extra 10% Off Consoles, New PlayStation Store Sale, and More Deals

Groupon is taking an extra 20% off local deals, or 10% off getaways and goods today with code TRIPLE. This works sitewide, but here are a few suggestions from the gaming world: Get 20% off any Groupon Local Deal or 10% off any Groupon Good with Code TRIPLE The Last of Us Remastered Digital-Download ($18)…

The New (But Very Early) Unreal Tournament Is Already Really Fun

In less than 30 seconds, it all came flooding back, as my flak cannon suddenly struck gold. There’s nothing like aiming the secondary fire of Unreal Tournament‘s flak cannon, sending a glob of shrapnel in the direction of your reticle, and watching someone gib into a million pieces. In the waning months of 1999, you…

Nintendo’s Box Boy! Is Coming To The U.S. This Spring

Box Boy!, the puzzle platformer that one of our guys in Japan calls a “love letter to the original Game Boy” and “easily the best 680 yen I have spent on gaming in years,” is coming to the American 3DS eShop this spring, according to Nintendo, who were talking eShop this week at the Game…