Culture

Pokémon Go Devs Have Punished Over 5 Million Cheaters Since 2020

Niantic, the studio behind augmented reality mobile games like Pokémon Go, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and Ingress, has reportedly punished over 5 million cheaters since the beginning of 2020, with over 1 million players receiving permanent bans across the three games. “We are committed to ensuring fair gameplay across our game portfolio,” Niantic’s blog post…

Cyberpunk 2077‘s Next Big Patch Delayed Following Cyber Attack

The next major patch for Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed to an unspecified date in March, CD Projekt Red announced in a tweet today, citing the recent cyber attack against the company as a reason for the delay. “While we dearly wanted to deliver Patch 1.2 for Cyberpunk 2077 in the timespan we detailed previously,…

Star Wars: Republic Commando Comes To PS4 And Switch Over A Decade Later

Tactical first-person shooter Star Wars Republic Commando is finally coming to other platforms, port studio Aspyr Media announced today. Originally released on PC and Xbox, the Clone Wars-era game will launch on PS4 and Switch on April 6. The new port will be $15 and only include the single-player campaign, which is a shame for…

On March 4, at 9:00 a.m. ET, Nintendo will reveal details, including a release date, about the new Super Smash Bros. fighters, Pyra and Mythra The stream will last about 35 minutes. No news about other fighters. Sorry, Waluigi fans!

I Hope Halo Infinite Sounds Half As Great As Ori And The Will Of The Wisps

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s ongoing hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, let’s listen to the soundtrack for one of last year’s best games: Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the ethereal platformer from Moon Studios. Plenty of games have terrific music. (See: Exhibits A through…

Final Fantasy XVI Is Taking Steps For Players Who Don’t Like Action Gameplay

During a recent radio interview, producer Naoki Yoshida was asked about Final Fantasy XVI. Despite some earlier wariness about spilling any beans, he revealed that following the very action-focused trailer, they’re developing a mode for people who prefer to focus on story. Previously, Yoshida has mentioned that Square Enix didn’t want to say “something that’s…

Track: One Room | Artist: Yonige | Album: Girls Like Girls 

More PC Games Get Magical DLSS Support

Two more PC games have gotten DLSS support—a form of modern sorcery—from Nvidia, meaning anyone with a card that supports the tech will now be getting much better performance. Those games are Nioh 2 (which did not launch in the best shape) and Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, which should both be getting framerate boosts…

Shucks Howdy, It’s The Cowboy Bebop Intro With Smash Characters

I feel like anything I write will do a disservice to this incredible video, so I’ll let it speak for itself. Hell yeah.

Stardew Valley Is Now A Co-Op Board Game

For the past two years, designers Eric Barone and Cole Medeiros—who met while playing Stardew Valley online—have been working on turning the idyllic video game into something folks can play on a table. Their work is now done, and in addition to announcing the board game, they’ve also announced that it’s available for purchase, right…

GameStop Exec Leaves With $2.8 Million Severance

GameStop chief financial officer Jim Bell is set to resign from his position on March 26, the video game retailer announced today. He’ll do so $2.8 million richer thanks to a lucrative severance bonus. According to SEC filings first reported by IGN, the contract Bell signed with GameStop in 2019 affords him a severance bonus…

Yakuza’s Producer Would Like To Bring Its 17th & 19th Century Spinoffs To The West

While Sega has eventually managed to bring all the main Yakuza games to the West, we’ve still never gotten the series’ two historical spinoffs, Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! and Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin! Set in the 17th and 19th centuries respectively, these games take the core cast and premise of the Yakuza series and transplant…

Persona 5 Strikers’ Menus Are As Vibrantly Alive As Its Cast

Video game menus are like assholes—every game has them and more often than not, they stink. They are often the least-pretty, least splashy part of an otherwise beautiful game, partly because they aren’t central to gameplay (unless it’s Crusader Kings or something). But Persona 5 Strikers shows us a world in which menus do not…

A God Damn Boar Sank My Boat

Many survival games feature animals you can hunt for crafting supplies and sustenance. Only in Valheim do they get revenge. Nautical revenge. My friends and I have had some good times in the surprise-hit survival game. We’re making bronze armor. We’re in hot pursuit of the game’s second major boss, The Elder. Last night, I…

Final Fantasy Got It Right With Two Black Fathers

Lately, dads have become the video game industry’s pet trope. There are a ton of games that have won a lot of awards about trying, failing, and in very few cases, succeeding at being a dad. But that trend largely excludes Black fathers (with one extremely notable exception), since the video game industry generally ignores…

Blade & Soul Revolution Launches Worldwide Next Week

NCSoft’s martial arts epic Blade & Soul is one of my favorite massively-multiplayer online role-playing games in recent memory. Launching March 4 for iOS and Android, Blade & Soul Revolution is the free-to-play mobile adaptation of the PC game. And half of you left. I really should save the free-to-play bit for after the jump.…

Persona 5 Strikers Got Siri’s Original Voice Actor To Play Its In-Game AI

Artificial intelligences like Apple’s Siri have become so ubiquitous in many people’s lives that it’s no wonder the story of Persona 5 Strikers (out today on Playstation 4, Switch, and PC) features its own AI assistant in the form of EMMA. But what you might not immediately notice is that EMMA is played by the…

Internet Unites For Amazing Mii Channel Song Jam Session

Composer, musician, and YouTuber Alex Moukala let loose a funky, bass-tastic remix of the Nintendo Wii’s Mii Channel theme music on Twitter yesterday and then invited other artists to do the same. The result is an impromptu jam session full of super-talented people showing their love for one of gaming’s quirkiest songs. Moukala, whose music…

Hitman 3‘s Latest Patch Fixes Incorrect Arabic Text

IO Interactive released the first major patch for Hitman 3 today, bringing with it a raft of changes to the assassination game, including some much-needed updates to the environment. The patch also corrected some Arabic text in the game’s opening level, which was written incorrectly. Shortly after Hitman 3 was released last month, players spotted…

Valheim, As Told By Steam Reviews

I’m getting the impression that maybe, just maybe, Valheim’s five-person development team might be onto something. Since the Viking survival game’s Steam release earlier this month, it’s sold 3 million copies. Over the weekend, more than 500,000 people played it at once. But what do players actually think? That you should avoid falling trees, mostly.…