Culture

Why Video Game Headshots Will Always Be Popular—And Unsettling

Like a lot of people who play video games, I have spent decades aiming at digital heads. I have also spent a considerable amount of time during those years feeling uncomfortable about it. “Headshots” as a concept are, as Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo wrote in a 2010 report, ghoulish to the outsider, and essential to the…

I Couldn’t Help Snooping On A Stranger’s Fire Emblem House On The Subway

Fire Emblem: Three Houses offers the agonizing decision over which group of students you want to teach and lead in battle. It’s a tricky choice that greatly affects the story you experience and the characters at your command. But it’s also a bit of a personality test, and I’m fascinated to know what house people…

No Man’s Sky Beyond Is Coming In Two Weeks

Interlopers, rejoice. No Man’s Sky Beyond is coming on August 14. No Man’s Sky fans have been anticipating the latest in a string of massive, free updates, titled Beyond since it was announced in March. Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray said at the time that the update would be “three major updates rolled into one…

The Outer Worlds Is Just As Screwed Up As Real Life

Before one of the designers of The Outer Worlds talked to me about the game he worked on, he commented on the Buffy The Vampire Slayer patch on the back of my denim vest. Brian Heins, senior designer at Obsidian Entertainment, liked the patch. We’re both big Buffy fans, it turned out. My mother and…

Track: Space Oddity (2019 Mix) | Artist: David Bowie | Album: David Bowie 

Kiyomizudera. Kyoto, 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!

Some Amazing Cosplay From Japan Expo 2019, Europe’s Biggest Anime Show

Japan Expo, held every year in Paris, is one of the biggest nerd shows on the planet. Indeed, it claims to be the biggest celebration of Japanese culture outside of Japan itself, with around 250,000 attendees heading to Paris-Nord Villepinte between July 4-7. Unsurprisingly, given the scale and important of the show, it attracted some…

Adidas’ Naruto Sneakers Are Looking Much Better

Because the Dragon Ball line was trash, and the first shoe revealed for the company’s Naruto tribute similarly gross, my hopes for the rest of that line weren’t great! So imagine my surprise to see this very nice Kakashi Hatake sneaker get announced today via Sneaker News A problem with the Dragon Ball shoes was…

Ooblets Is Epic Exclusive, Developer Puts Expected Backlash In Perspective

Ooblets is one of those games that just oozes effortless charm. It’s not even out yet, but the gooey, chewy mash up of Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and Pokémon has already earned its fair share of salivating admirers. Today, the game’s developers announced that, on PC, Ooblets will be an Epic Games Store exclusive. In…

Raiders Of The North Sea Is A Really Good Digital Board Game

As I’ve recently put on record here, I think Tokaido is the best digital board game. Its stay at the top might be short-lived, though, because Raiders of the North Sea, out this week on PC, Switch and mobile, is very good. I reviewed the board game last year, and loved it; it’s since become…

So There’s Trash Talk And Then There’s Casual Bigotry

How far is too far when it comes to gaming trash talk? And how do you go about confronting a friend, or a stranger, for some seriously uncool comments in chat? On this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, we brought in Kotaku senior reporter and trash talk aficionado Cecilia D’Anastasio to discuss gaming etiquette. First,…

Amidst Controversy, Twitch Confirms That Breastfeeding On Stream Is Allowed

Last week, Twitch partner Heather “HeatheredEffect” Kent breastfed her baby while talking to a friend and streaming on Twitch. She didn’t try to draw attention to the act; she did it then and there simply because babies gotta eat, too. However, Twitch ended up deleting a clip of the moment, and the incident sparked a…

GameStop Lays Off Dozens Of Regional Managers As It Searches For A Future

On Tuesday, several GameStop employees took to Reddit to report that their regional sales supervisors had been laid off. These anecdotal reports, combined with tips to Kotaku about some layoffs, have since been bolstered by an email from GameStop management, whose authenticity Kotaku has confirmed, that surfaced stating more than 50 people had been let…

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Delayed Two Weeks

There are some big changescoming to Destiny 2 with its next expansion, Shadowkeep, and those changes are going to take a little more time to get here. Today, Bungie announced that Shadowkeep and the new, free-to-play version of Destiny 2, New Light, are being delayed from September 17 to October 1. “Being independent means that…

Ninja To Stream Exclusively On Mixer, Not Twitch

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, the patron saint of Twitch, announced today that he is moving his channel over to the significantly less popular streaming platform Mixer. News of the frankly shocking transition comes the day before Blevins’ Lollapalooza stream, which will now take place here on Mixer. “I know this may come as a shock to…

The New Call Of Duty‘s Breezy Multiplayer Feels At Odds With Its Gritty Campaign

Earlier this week, the Call of Duty Twitter account tried to build hype for today’s Modern Warfare multiplayer reveal by announcing the return of killstreaks, which grant players access to tide-turning super weapons if they play well enough. Among these super weapons is white phosphorus, a chemical substance that can be used as a self-igniting…

An Investigation Into Whether Two Statues In The Division 2 Appear To Be Having Sex

Video games can inspire us to do strange things. For example, there I was yesterday playing The Division 2, checking whether the shadow or reflection of an obelisk in the game fell upon the statue of a naked woman in a certain sexual way. It wasn’t my idea. It was in the game. This misadventure…

New Fortnite Season Adds Titans (I Mean Mechs) [Updated]

The new season of Fortnite started earlier today and brought a new round of surprise changes. The most titanic one to drop? A new two-player mech called the B.R.U.T.E. The new vehicle is showcased in a trailer for Fortnite Season 10 (or X, as they’re calling it). An official blog post outlining the seasonal changes…

Cyberpunk Skylines

Alexander Dudar is an artist at CD Projekt Red, the developers of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 You can see more of Alexander’s work at his personal site and ArtStation page

Pioneering Open World PS1 Game Is Now Finally Playable In English [Update]

Mizzurna Falls, a Twin Peaks-ish open world game developed for the PS1 and only ever released in Japan, is now 20 years later available to play in English for the first time. While the script itself had been translated by Resident Evie a few years back—you can read more about that in this excellent Vice…