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What It’s Like To Watch Your Game Studio Financially Fall Apart

As the pace of new video games picks up, so does the amount of people writing about ‘em. That’s good for Worth Reading, our weekly round up of the best stories around the Internet. Hey, You Should Read These “Great work on Starward Rogue, team! Now you’re all laid off…?” by Chris Park It’s never…

Danny Devito Would Make For An Excellent Detective Pikachu

If you needed proof of this magic combo, Tealhollow1 on YouTube has created a hilarious video demonstrating why Nintendo should get behind this idea. As of this writing, 19,497 people have signed a Change.org petition. There are a number of us that feel as though Danny DeVito would be a prime fit for the voice…

Some Real Rules For Shilling Video Games On YouTube

Earlier this week, Kotaku was approached by a marketing firm working for the publisher Perfect World. They wanted us to help sell two of their games. And in the process, they inadvertently gave us a behind-the-scenes peek at what it looks like when YouTubers shill for game companies. The marketing firm in question, Reelio, sent…

Thunderdome Is A Game Where You Play As A Flying Chainsaw Bear

This is everything that makes video games wonderful (and ridiculous.) In Thunderdome, not only can you compete against other players to try to murder as many humans as possible, you can also duke it out against other chainsaw bears, too. Judging from the footage, the whole ‘chainsaw’ thing makes up for not having full control…

Cancelled Saints Row Game Gets Released For Free

Last night, the developers at Volition did something remarkable. They revealed a cancelled game in their biggest series, Saints Row, and then they set it free, releasing it to the public for anyone to download. The game, Saints Row Undercover, was originally slated for the PSP before Volition decided to cancel it. At first it…

Suramar, World of Warcraft: Legion‘s New Zone, Looks Stunning

World of Warcraft’s next expansion is shaping up nicely. It just got a new alpha build, and while it’s still in early development, one thing’s for sure: Suramar, a new zone in the Broken Isles, is already looking absolutely terrific. You might remember a simpler version of Suramar from WarCraft III. It is the home…

One-Punch Man, Summed Up In Two Minutes

Without Saitama’s cyborg buddy Genos, One-Punch Man wouldn’t be the same. He’s the one who gives Saitama’s life context and meaning. Also, he just can’t shut his mouth. The folks over at FimFlamfilosophy drew a short animation, and tried to summarize the anime series, this unique friendship and their love of punching things, by following…

Happy 20th Birthday to the Best Duke Nukem Game

While you may or may not agree on whether it’s the series’ best, Duke Nukem 3D was still a very important milestone in first-person shooter history. Released as the followup to a pair of platformers from 1991 and 1993, D3D starred the catchphrase-spewing, muscle-bound Duke Nukem on a quest to save the planet’s women from…

That Final Fantasy and Louis Vuitton Collaboration? It Exists in the Real World, Too. 

First, there was a CG trailer with the Final Fantasy XIII character. Then, there was an interview. And now, Louis Vuitton shops are plastered with Lightning. There’s one word for this and that word is “surreal.” In Japan, commenters on the popular bulletin board 2ch have been uploading photos of Louis Vuitton shops and real-world…

Two Final Fantasy Legends Now Working On A Mobile Strategy Game

Yoshitaka Amano is famous for his Final Fantasy art. Nobuo Uematsu is famous for his Final Fantasy music. The two are back working together on a new game, only instead of it being a JRPG, it’s an “an esports-driven mobile title”. The game’s called Super Senso, and it basically looks like Advance Wars with polygons.…

Five Years Ago, Jonathan Blow Knew Just What The Witness Would Be

The Witness was in development for a long time. You might think that part of the reason things took so long was that some of the game’s core design ideas mutated along the way. But a video I shot in 2010 shows that Jonathan Blow’s focus was firmly locked into place even then. The video…

New Barbie Makes Video Games For A Living

Earlier today Mattel debuted a bunch of new Barbie dolls for the coming year. Among them: Game Developer Barbie, with her cool glasses and nifty headphones andergonomically sound standing desk Game Developer Barbie is coming out this summer and joins a few other new lines, a couple of which seem geared toward modernizing and freshening…

Peter Molyneux’s Twitter Apparently Hacked, Posts Fake Retirement Message

Earlier today, it looked like British game developer Peter Molyneux, famous for his work on games like Fable and Populous, had announced on Twitter his retirement from video games. Those first two tweets were sad reading. That last one though…looks a little weird. Especially since, as recently as 2014, Molyneux told us “I’m not retiring—I’m…

Leave The Division’s Poor Dog Alone

If you’re playing The Division’s beta this weekend, you may come across this dog. The dog can die, if you happen to shoot it. So…maybe don’t? Unless you want to see a sad dog death, I guess! Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo (and Eurogamer) have verified that, indeed, the dog is mortal and can be slain by…

New Vita Update Is Causing All Sorts Of Problems

A newly released Vita update is preventing some users from accessing the PlayStation Store on Sony’s spunky little handheld. It’s also draining some people’s batteries. Good times all around. Vita users first started reporting problems with update 3.57 earlier this week on forums like Reddit and NeoGAF, and I confirmed them for myself last night:…

Bungie CEO Harold Ryan is “stepping down,” the studio said last night Replacing him will be former COO Pete Parsons. This news comes during a particularly tough period of time for Bungie and their game, Destiny

The Surprising Story Behind Mario Maker‘s ‘Emergency Maintenance’

When Nintendo turned off the Super Mario Maker servers this week, it didn’t explain why. Would you have guessed that LinkedIn was involved? The company merely cited “emergency maintenance” related to a glitch in the creation tool…and didn’t elaborate. But based on my reporting, a major exploit was discovered that would have quickly wrecked the…

One of Steam’s Hottest Games Right Now Costs 90 Bucks

Maybe you’ve heard of Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13—not only has the historical strategy series been around for a while, it also has several spin-offs, such as Dynasty Warriors. Well, now Romance of the Kingdoms is tearing up the Steam charts. Based on the 14th century Chinese historical novel, the first Romance of the…

Two Classic JRPGs Are Coming Back On Modern Platforms

Two old role-playing games—Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Breath of Fire III—are coming to modern consoles in the very near future, their respective publishers announced this week. It’s a good time for old JRPGs. Today, Nintendo’s bringing FFTA to Wii U on the Virtual Console. It’ll cost you $8, and although it isn’t as stellar…

Nintendo unexpectedly took down the servers for Super Mario Maker yesterday, but they’re back online, ahead of schedule. The game was being worked on due to an “emergency” glitch found in the creation tool, though Nintendo hasn’t produced details.