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Japanese Ambassador To Sweden Sees Pikachu As His Son

While I’ve been gearing up for the Detective Pikachu movie, I’ve noticed how many other people around me, and all over the world, are also excited and expressing their own lifelong relationship to Pokémon. Even Japanese government officials are in love with Pikachu, like the Japanese ambassador to Sweden, who made the most adorable tweet…

A personal note: This month marks my 10th anniversary at Kotaku, first as deputy editor, then as editor-in-chief. I’ve felt honored to work with so many superb writers, editors and producers, and I’m eternally grateful to the readers for your continued support of the site. Thank you for an incredible decade. My curiosity about gaming…

Anthem‘s Latest Update Removes Special Loot Chests

Today’s Anthem update has removed special Elysian chests from the game just over a month after they were added. This comes on the heels of several delayed updates, leaving the game’s remaining players bewildered and frustrated. Anthem’s 1.1.1 patch went live earlier today and fixed a handful of small bugs, including one which was causing…

So That Bloodstained Trailer Was Weird, Right?

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Koji Igarashi’s partially Kickstarted successor to the Castlevania series, hasn’t had the smoothest ride down the road to release. After making headlines in 2015 for garnering a million dollars in a single day, the forthcoming action-adventure game missed its original 2017 release window, then got delayed once again in 2018…

EA’s Gaming Subscription Comes To PS4 In July

EA Access, a monthly subscription service for a bunch of Electronic Arts games, will finally come to PS4 nearly five years after it started on Xbox One. The service will be $5 a month or $30 for a full year. In addition to providing unlimited access to EA games like Madden 19, Battlefield V, and…

On the heels of yesterday’s Riot Games walkout at the League of Legends publisher’s Los Angeles headquarters, Riot employees in Dublin are staging their own walkout today. Around 18 of the office’s employees stood by the street with several holding signs calling for the company to end forced arbitration

Magic: The Gathering Star Disqualified From Tournament For Alleged Cheating [Update]

Japan’s Yuuya Watanabe, twice player of the year and a member of Magic’s Hall of Fame, was kicked out of Mythic Championship II in London over the weekend after judges found markings on the back of some of his cards. UPDATE, May 6: Watanabe and his sponsors, Team Cygames, are now disputing the allegations. This story…

Adidas Is Making Pokemon Sneakers

Following on from their Game of Thrones tie-in, Adidas will soon be releasing a pair of sneakers based on Pokemon. Not Detective Pikachu, just regular ol’ Pokemon This Pikachu-inspired pair of Adidas Campus will be out soon, and look…well, honestly they look like something I’d buy my six year-old. There’s an all-over print as well…

Over 150 Riot Employees Walk Out To Protest Forced Arbitration And Sexist Culture [Updated]

Over 150 discontented Riot Games employees walked out of the League of Legends publisher’s offices in Los Angeles today to protest the company’s stance on forced arbitration. Standing in a parking lot on Riot’s campus, employees held picket signs and gave impassioned speeches. “We’re asking that forced arbitration be ended for all past, current, and…

Lady Gaga’s Met Gala Look Is Some Real Final Boss Flair

Lady Gaga went to this year’s Met Gala as a three stage JRPG boss and I am living. The Met Gala is an annual charity fashion event for the Met, and mostly it is the day on which a lot of people tweet about clothes and complain that none of the attendees are following the…

The Quiet Importance Of Idle Animations

When you stop moving in Sonic the Hedgehog games, Sonic taps his toe. When you leave Arthur Morgan on his horse, he will pet them affectionately. These are video game idle animations, and they’re beautiful, because for a brief moment the characters we control get to show off a little something about themselves. I recently broke…

Fallout 4 Mod Gives Your Character An Anime Look

Fallout 4’s Far Harbor expansion is pretty anime with its island of misfit Synths and deep-seated mysteries. But one modder decided it isn’t anime enough and took matters into their own hands. Nexus Mods user Hiyokomod created the AnimeRace Nanakochan mod, which adds anime-style characters to Fallout 4, after being disappointed with how the mechanic…

This Sexy Sci-Fi Game Was Embarrassing But Fun Until It Started Sexualizing a Middle Schooler

I was going to write a post about how recently-released visual novel Our World Is Ended would be much better if the engaging science fiction story wasn’t interrupted by characters talking about boobs. Then middle school programming whiz Tatiana showed up and started accusing the college-aged main character of trying to steal her panties. (Images…

Hacker Appears To Get Original Xbox Emulator Running On Switch

Game development hobbyist and self-described Xbox fan Voxel9 recently shared a YouTube video in which he boots up the XQEMU Xbox emulator on a Switch and manages to load and play some games, including the first Halo The video begins with the code for the emulator being compiled, followed by the intro animation for Microsoft’s…

I’d Wear These Anime-Inspired Clothes

Companies like the Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo and the anime streaming service Crunchyroll have been turning your favorite anime series into small collections of T-shirts and accessories. Every time one of these collections drops, I find myself making a mental wishlist of the pieces I want, even if I don’t really need new clothes. To…

Riot Employees Prepare For Walkout Today

Los Angeles-based Riot Games employees are preparing for a walkout this afternoon in protest of the company’s stance on forced arbitration in what appears to be the first walkout at a major gaming studio. Kotaku will be reporting live from the protest as it develops. “I’m walking out as a symbolic action to signal to…

The original Devil May Cry is headed to Switch this summer according to the Devil May Cry Twitter account That will make it the first game in the series to come to a Nintendo console, just in time for Dante to be made into an Amiibo. 

It’s Time To Mario & Chill

Following on from last year’s Zelda & Chill, GameChops just released Mario & Chill, a synthwave mix that “explores the rich musical history of the Super Mario video game series through the lens of 80s and 90s electronica.” By Helynt, it clocks in at just under 35 minutes and covers 12 Mario themes, from games…

Sonic Movie Costume Lets Your Kid’s Face Be The Redesign

While there’s already been a pledge to change Sonic’s design for the upcoming movie, that move has come too late for merch that’s already hitting store shelves,like this kid’s costume/walking meme template. The face being left open can account for any redesign, I guess, but I’m more in awe at how it looks like a…

A Strange And Better (?) Sonic Trailer

It seems obvious at this point that the internet doesn’t really like the new Sonic The Hedgehog trailer. The director of that film has even announced they will be changing Sonic’s design before the film is released. So while you wait for that to happen, check out this odd creation that takes a different approach…