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Discord’s game store and Nitro game subscription service are now open for beta business. The digital storefront launches with several “first on Discord” timed exclusives, while Nitro gives subscribersaccess to a growing library of games for $9.99 a month. 

The Missing Gets Queer Love Stories Right

Last night, I finished The Missing. My initial impression of the game was that it’s a sweet but extremely bloody puzzle-platformer, peppered with queer overtones. As I pressed forward, I found a game that was transgressive and shockingly frank in talking about LGTBQA+ issues. It’s been on my mind all morning. In The Missing, you…

Pokémon Go Is Getting Monsters From Diamond, Pearl And Platinum

Pokémon Go trainers will soon be happening upon monsters from the Sinnoh region, publisher Niantic announced today. Those are the little guys from 2006’s Pokémon Pearl and Diamond and 2008’s Pokémon Platinum. They should be in-game sometime this week. [Update—11:25 am ET: Some readers are saying these Pokémon are available in-game now!] Pokémon like Turtwig, Chimchar,…

Adorable rogue-lite Moonlighter now has a release date on Switch: November 5th. By day, you run a shop. By night, you fight monsters to get things to sell in your shop. Like every cute indie game I get obsessed with, I’m sure it’ll be great on Switch.

How Shovel Knight‘s Developers Modernized NES Game Design

The 2014 indie hit Shovel Knight paid homage to the Nintendo Entertainment System’s pixel art and game design, but its developers also wanted to polish up the harsh edges of 1980s platform games. In this excerpt from Boss Fight Books’ new book Shovel Knight, out today, author David L. Craddock speaks to the four co-founders…

After Nintendo’s Lawsuit Win, Japan’s Unofficial Mario Kart Continues 

Late last month, a Tokyo District Courtordered MariCar, the unofficial real-life Mario Kart, to cease lending out Nintendo-themed cosplay and to cough up nearly $90,000 in damages. However, MariCar is continuing business as usual. As Kotaku previously reported, Nintendo filed suit early last year for intellectual property violation. The service is popular with visitors in…

Among the items to be shown at Nintendo licensed goods fairs in Tokyo and Osaka is this Mario-themed sickness mask, which is priced at 500 yen ($4.46). It’s-a-me, Mario, and I’m-a-sick!

When A Fighting Game Tournament Breaks Out At A Wedding

Weddings are often opportunities for people to express their love for each other as well as their love for others things. Cosplayer Kent recently attended a wedding ceremony, and a Melty Blood tournament was held during the reception When asked who’s wedding this was, Kent replied, “An old fighting game diehard.”

Anime Itasha Helped Police Arrest Suspect

Itasha, those anime themed automobiles, are eye-catching. Unlike most bland domestic automobiles on Japanese roads, if you saw one, you probably would not forget it. On October 13 at around 5pm in Numazu City, a 79-year-old woman was hit as she crossed the street, causing her to fall and fracture her right wrist. The driver…

Rainy Street. Incheon, South Korea. By Steve Roe | Instagram JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Look At These Beautiful Pokémon Cards

There’s an Edvard Munch exhibit at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum at the end of the month, and to commemorate the occasion a very cool set of Pokémon cards have been designed, each paying tribute to Munch’s classic painting The Scream. There are five cards in all—Pikachu, Mimikyu, Psyduck, Rowlet and Eevee—and each is as…

Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Has Died

Paul Allen, who along with Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975, has died at the age of 65 of complications associated with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Allen—who also owned the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers—first overcame Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1982, before also beating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2009 until its recurrence earlier this month. He was one of…

Seven Things I Love About Starlink So Far

Ubisoft’s toys-optional toys-to-life space opera arrives this week on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Switch. While I’ve only had a couple of days to dive into the sci-fi adventure, I’ve already found several things to love about Starlink: Battle for Atlas In Starlink, a group of crack pilots headed by genius astrophysicist Victor St. Grand…

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s ‘Optional’ Questlines Are Just As Important As The Main One

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey packs a lot of activities into its massive world, letting players wander to their heart’s content hunting down cultists or doing side-quests. As a result, the game’s main story is split into multiple branches. Frustratingly, this structure makes some of the game’s best quests and most important story beats optional. Odyssey approaches…

The Haunting of Hill House, Netflix’s very loose adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s classic novel. What it is: The Crain family spent a summer in the Hill House as children. As adults, their grief and trauma comes back to haunt them. Also, some ghosts do. What I’ve seen: Six of ten episodes Is it good? Yes,…

Xseed Removes ‘Intimacy Mode’ From PS4 Version Of Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal

Late last Friday, publisher Xseed Games announced Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal’s December release will be delayed while the company removes some of the sexual content from the PS4 version of the game. They cite “the wishes of the platform holder,” suggesting the removal is due to a changing stance on sexual content on Sony’s part.…

Shadow of the Tomb Raider, One Month Later

The latest Lara Croft adventure has only been out for a month and has already had its ending patched and its DLC delayed. And the most prominent fan complaint? It’s been about Croft’s wardrobe, though not in the way you might have expected. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the third game in a rebooted Tomb…

Fortnite will be getting in-game tournaments starting October 16, Epic has announced, in which players will compete to earn points. The first tournament will be solos, with duos and squads to follow. Players won’t be separated by input device, and match-making will “pair players with similar point standings.”

There’s A Lot More Star Fox In Starlink Than We Expected

When Nintendo’s Star Fox crew shows up at the beginning of Ubisoft’s new toy-based space epic, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, they’re ready to see the adventure through to the very end. They’re a surprisingly big part of the Switch version of the game. We’ve known since June that Star Fox characters would be in the…

‘We Were Working 100-Hour Weeks,’ Red Dead Redemption 2 Head Writer Says, Then Clarifies

It’s long been an open secret in the video game industry that the prestigious developer Rockstar embraces overtime, and a new quote from company co-founder Dan Houser about Red Dead Redemption 2 caused controversy this morning by suggesting that it took 100-hour weeks to make. In a new elaboration to Kotaku, however, Houser said the quote…