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The 2nd Most Popular Platform For Skype In Japan Is…

Skype is a wonder. It’s allows users to connect via the internet phone for free. The mass majority of people in Japan use the computer for Skype, sure. Let’s see what numero two choice is. Japan’s RealWorld RealResearch polled slightly over one thousand of its members: 63.5 percent were male, 8.1 percent were teenagers, 17.5…

Left 4 Dead 2 Has New Zombies, New Items

Left 4 Dead 2 isn’t exactly like Left 4 Dead 1. It’s set during the day, for starters. Oh, and it has new zombies. And new items to help you kill those zombies. One of the new zombies is the “Spitter”, who sits back and lobs spit at you. This spit inflicts damage around the…

Pokemon Anime Makes It Into Guinness Record Book

Even before the latest Pocket Monsters movie opened in Japan, it was already a hit — so much so that the anime has earned a place in the Guinness Book. Pokémon: Arceus To The Conquering of Space-Time is the world record holder for the animated motion picture with the most advance ticket sales. Before it…

Don’t Go Looking For Gears Of War With Natal Controls

Microsoft’s motion control platform doesn’t look like it’s going to find its way into future Gears of War games — at least according to the game’s designer, Cliff Bleszinski. On Major Nelson’s podcast, the game designer explained, “If there’s any future Gears products [coughs elaborately], it’s not the kind of thing you tag onto a…

Is “343 Industries” Microsoft’s Halo Studio?

Ever since Bungie and Microsoft parted ways, Microsoft have been gearing up to produce more Halo games internally. Could those efforts now have been given a name? Superannuation points us towards a trademark Microsoft have filed for use with “”computer programs, namely, game software for use on computers and video”. It’s called “343 Industries“. So…

The Best-Selling PS3 & 360 Games Of 2009 Are…Well, Disappointing

The best-selling Wii games of 2009 may be from the farthest recesses of history, but the PS3 and 360’s respective charts aren’t as fond of the past. That doesn’t make them any less depressing, however. While by this time last year we’d already seen mega-hits like Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4,…

New Beatles: Rock Band Trailer Confirms Eight More Tracks

Harmonix and MTV Games have this afternoon released a new gameplay trailer for The Beatles: Rock Band, along with information on a further eight tracks that will be included in the game. The eight new songs are, in order of appearance: “Paperback Writer” “Twist & Shout” “Can’t Buy Me Love” “Eight Days A Week” “Yellow…

There Will Probably Be A Modern Warfare 2 Controller

Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling jumped on his Twitter account earlier today, asking for help. Help with the design for a Modern Warfare 2 control pad. The message reads: In a design meeting for a #MW2 controller. Need your advice – Concave or Convex grips for the Analog sticks? Whats your preference and why? Bowling later…

Mario — the Pittsburgh Piper

As seen in Pittsburgh, Pa. [Thanks Ian. Also, in case you don’t get the headline pun]

Jedi Temple For Sale, Cheap!

If your Xbox 360 version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is missing an action-pack adventure inside a ruined Jedi Temple, Microsoft can hook you up with one this week at half price. It’s time for the Xbox Live Deal of the Week, and this time around it isn’t half bad. The Jedi Temple Mission…

Video Games in the Olympics? Athletes Answer Hypothetically

Wired asked four Olympic athletes, doing a photoshoot for Sega’s upcoming 2010 winter games title, if video games had a legitimate place in Olympic competition. At least they were polite in their replies. The most charitable response came from U.S. downhill skier Lindsey Vonn (pictured), one of two athletes identified as gamers (she loves her…

GLAAD Panel: Pearls of Wisdom And Points Of Discussion

I’ve got a re-cap of last Saturday’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation right here, but if you’re looking for quick quotes and interesting issues to rehash, here are a few gems. Caryl Shaw, Senior Producer at EA’s Maxis To developers: “Who doesn’t want to be a gay super hero? Are you thinking about this…

Ubisoft Opens Facebook Gaming Portal

Ubisoft already has one game up and running on a new Facebook portal it just opened. TickTock tests your knowledge of your friends and then, naturally, pesters you to pester them. In the game, you’re given a series of recent status updates and asked to identify, by multiple choice, who wrote them. Fast answering is…

Your Comments Fuel Gay Gaming Conference

Physically, you may not have been at EA Redwood Shores this weekend. But if you commented on to Justin Cole’s op-ed column to Kotaku, you were there in spirit. Cole used commenters’ responses to his post, The Impact of Homophobia in Virtual Communities, to drive discussion among panelists Caryl Shaw (Senior Producer at EA’s Maxis),…

First Look At A Proper Prince Of Persia Movie Poster

While a preview poster went up last year for Jerry Bruckheimer’s upcoming Prince of Persia flick, it was just a tease. A logo and not much else. Today, Empire gives us our first look at some real posters. Not what you’d expect, are they? Really clean, and modern. No tacky “Persian” logo, no silly pose…

A Taste of Game Development

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: This Sunday Was Actually Lazy As I’ve said before, I have no interest in ever making the jump from writing about games to creating them. Kotaku isn’t a means to that end. But over the past month I did try to make some fun games. Just not video ones. My…

The Best-Selling Wii Games Of 2009 Didn’t Come Out In 2009

An analysis by website Gamasutra of first-half sales figures for the three big gaming consoles shows that the Wii’s hits are older hits. Gamasutra has crunched the NPD video game sales numbers and the results show that the top five best-selling games on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 in the U.S. from January…

Madden Demo Comes Early To 360 Owners

Microsoft are at it again, this time working out some kind of deal with EA Sports that will see the public demo (not the preorder demo) for Madden 10 released a week early on Xbox Live. While PS3 owners and Xbox Live Silver subscribers will be able to download a demo of the Giants v…

Newspaper Names Budget of Ghostbusters: The Video Game

It’s not often that the public gets word of what it costs to make a specific game. But a multi-million-dollar range was given for the latest Ghostbusters game in a Texas newspaper. The Fort Worth Star Telegram fingered the cost of development for the game at $15 million to $20 million. The budget figure ran…

Brutal Legend’s Eddie Riggs In All His Sculpted Glory

How can you truly call yourself metal if you don’t have a 17 inch Brutal Legend Eddie Riggs figure leaping dramatically from your mantle? Sculpted lovingly by Mark Newman and splashed with color by Tom Vukmanic, this official Eddie Riggs statue depicts Jack Black’s video game alter ego at the height of his power, leaping…