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What It Means To Buy A Video Game

Video games are an expensive hobby, often demanding a great deal of trust whenever you buy a new one. Buying a game winds up being a number of things. A purchase is a gamble. It’s an encouragement. It’s a participation in exploitation. And it’s a conversation with the many people who brought you the game.…

New YouTube Series Explores The One Sided Relationship Between Creators And Fans

When you watch a YouTuber for hours, you can feel like you know them. That’s called a “parasocial relationship.” It’s an uneven relationship between a fan and a creator, sometimes even fostered by creators for financial gain. YouTuber Shannon Strucci is taking an in-depth look at the phenomenon in a series of documentaries. Shannon Strucci…

Paul and I are making poor decisions in the first episode of The Walking Dead: the Final Season right now on Twitch Come join the chat and help us protect Clementine. 

A Screenshot Tour Back Through The Stunning Assassin’s Creed Origins

Assassin’s Creed Origins was a slow burn. The ancient Egyptian adventure didn’t grab me in its earliest scenes, didn’t immediately hook me with its stoic hero Bayek. It felt fine at first. Solid. But it also felt plain. I kept playing and grew to marvel at it. Across some 100 hours of playtime I discovered…

Patrick Söderlund, Who Made $48.3 Million Last Year, Leaves EA

Longtime executive Patrick Söderlund, who spent nearly 20 years working at Electronic Arts in various positions, is leaving the publisher this year, after receiving a $20 million bonus in 2017 that was granted in an attempt to get him to stay. He made $48.3 million last year, according to SEC filings. “We wish Patrick the…

The Chinese Room, makers of Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, have been acquired by fellow British studio Sumo Digital. Co-founder Dan Pinchbeck is staying on while Jessica Curry has departed The news comes almost a year after the studio laid off much of its staff and went “dark.”

Dark Souls Remastered will come to Switch on October 19, publisher Bandai Namcosaid today. It’s a little later than we’d all expected, but hey, it’s still Dark Souls on Switch.

The Reality Of Anime Girl VR Massages

There are plans to open a VR-based massage shop called Toranoana VR Relaxation in Tokyo’s Akihabara. Customers don VR headsets as they get foot rubs from virtual anime girls. Before the shop opens, free VR massages are being given out for a limited time at a temporary location in the Akihabara UDX building The sessions…

Anime Characters That Have Changed

Just as manga characters change and evolve, anime characters do the same. Maybe it’s because artistic styles come in and out of fashion or due to the visions of different studios or directors. Whatever the reason, they change. Twitter user Billy Morgan recently cataloged some of the years. The time that they cover varies. For…

Frieza From Dragon Ball Has A Talking Life-Sized Statue

To promote the upcoming anime movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly, several statues are being exhibited at DiverCity Tokyo Plaza in Japan. The Frieza one talks. This isn’t the first time it’s been on display at DiverCity. As website Robot Start reports, the “Frieza Robotics” was first shown in 2016 to mark the Dragon Ball anime’s…

The Tower. Tokyo, Japan. By ShuYung Wu. 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! 

Blizzard Customer Support Rep Has Had Enough

Imagine working customer support for a big video game company like Blizzard. Imagine all the shit you have to sort through all day, from abusive tweets to abusive emails to abusive forum comments. Some days, like today, it’s enough to make you want to say “screw it”. Earlier tonight, Blizzard’s customer support Twitter posted this…

Yakuza Was Also Pitched To Nintendo & Microsoft

Sure,it’s on PC now, but the Yakuza series is synonymous with three generations of PlayStation consoles. And for good reason: Nintendo and Microsoft had their chance, but simply weren’t interested in the Japanese gangster saga. The latest issue of Edge magazine has an enormous interview with series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi, where he reveals for the…

Ninja Should Stream With Women

During a recent Samsung event, Twitch megastar Tyler “Ninja” Blevins said he purposely avoids streaming with “female gamers.” The site’s number-one streamer said that he believes if he invited women on his channel, the gossip mill would immediately begin cranking out videos suggesting that Ninja is in romantic relationships with them. On the one hand,…

I’m back from vacation and hunting critters in Monster Hunter: World right now on Twitch. We’re going to take on the Final Fantasy “Behemoth.” Join me on PS4 with the session ID 44vvne48KPeB!

Unopened Box Of 1999 Pokémon Cards Sells For $56,000

An original, unopened box of 1999 First Edition Pokémon cards has sold at auction in the US for the staggering price of $56,000. Via Kotaku AU, Huggins & Scott Auctions sold the box last week, with bidding opening at $20,000. There’s a reason for the steep price that goes beyond nostalgia: pristine Charizard holo cards…

Gris Looks Beautiful

Gris is one of those great-looking indie games, the type that has no trouble hitting a Kickstarter funding goal, though in this case it was publisher Devolver Digital whose attention it drew after months of sending snippets of art and gameplay footage out onto the wilds of social media. Now it’s headed to Switch and PC…

Black Ops 4 Heist Mode Gives Call Of Duty A Payday-Style Twist

The new “Heist” mode for the Black Ops 4 beta is a more tactical take on Call of Duty, one that feels inspired by games like Counter-Strike and Payday The new game mode is a no-respawn, round-based, tactical challenge that requires your team to steal a bag of cash before your opposition does, then reach…

No Man’s Sky’s Latest Trend: Elaborate Espionage

Even with the addition of multiplayer and some limited ways for players to grief one another, No Man’s Sky still isn’t built for large scale warfare. Player-made civilizations are finding other ways to resolve their differences. Namely, they do it through espionage. Since the release of No Man’s Sky, which infamously launched with no multiplayer…

Bethesda Takes Hard Line On Cross-Play With Its Elder Scrolls Card Game

Bethesda’s VP of marketing said over the weekend that the developer intends for The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Bethesda’s card game, to be fully cross-play, with progress carrying over no matter what system people play it on when it eventually releases on consoles. While not mentioning Sony specifically, the message feels aimed at increasing pressure on…