Microsoft, Sony, And Nintendo Team Up To Promote Safer Gaming

In a post shared across all three companies’ websites this morning, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have released a joint set of principles to foster a safe gaming environment across all of their platforms. Posted under the title “Our Shared Commitment to Safer Gaming,” the triumvirate present a three-pronged approach to ensuring their platforms are a…

Surgeon General Compares Developing Covid Vaccine To Playing Xbox

The first Covid-19 vaccines began being distributed in the US today, and amidst the rollout Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams took to Fox News to talk about the race to develop a cure for the pandemic. And to do that he started talking about Xbox. “I want to put it in Christmas-think for people out…

The New Werewolf: The Apocalypse Action Game Isn’t Looking Too Shabby

French developer Cyanide has never really done a fast-paced action role-playing game, but you wouldn’t know it looking at the first gameplay footage of February’s Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood. It’s as brutal as it is furry. In a post this morning on the PlayStation Blog, game director Julien “Patch” Desourteaux walks potential players of…

EA Is Buying Racing Dev Codemasters For $1.2 Billion

Despite a nearly $1 billion bid from Take-Two Interactive last month, Electronic Arts has announced an agreement to purchase English racing game developer Codemasters for $1.2 billion. The purchase will put popular racing series Dirt, Dirt Rally, Grid, F1, Project Cars, Burnout, and Need for Speed under one world-encompassing roof. Since its founding in 1986…

The Week In Games: Bust Some Hives In Gears 5

This week, Gears 5 gets its first story DLC in the form of Hivebusters, a new 3-hours campaign starring some of the characters from the game’s online Hivebuster co-op mode. You know it’s a quiet and mostly empty week for new game releases when the biggest thing is a DLC expansion for a game released…

This Zelda: A Link To The Past Song Is So Obscure Almost No One Knew It Existed

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s regular hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, is this GBA melody the least-heard official Zelda track to ever exist? Last week a thread popped up on ResetEra suggesting that a certain song from the Game Boy Advance port of The Legend of…

Ghost In The Shell Director Mamoru Oshii On This Year’s Biggest Anime Hit

When people look back at 2020, for all its awfulness, one bright spot will stick out in Japan: the runaway success of Demon Slayer The manga debuted in 2016 and recently ended its run. Last year saw a TV anime. But this year, Demon Slayer exploded. As of writing, the animated feature film has dominated…

Track: I’ll See You In My Dreams | Artist: Django Reinhardt | Album: Minor Swing and Greatest Hits

Even The Head Of PlayStation Studios Has His PS5 Upside Down

The PS5 is a strange-looking console. Lots of curves and swoops. It’s easy to accidentally set it up the wrong way, which is exactly what Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, seems to have done in a now-deleted tweet. Whoops! Earlier this morning, Hermen Hulst uploaded a cute little video of his cat attacking…

Running Around During Loading Screens Is An Important Part Of Assassin’s Creed

Loading screens often suck. But they can occasionally become more than just periods of time where you are forced to sit around and wait. In Assassin’s Creed, a tradition has formed of letting players run around in an endless void and it has (mostly) stuck around. (This post was originally published on July 26. It’s…

‘Shop Contest: National Horse Day

Forget about Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa! The biggest holiday in December is National Horse Day. Your challenge this week: Add more horses to video games! I went with a horse mask above, but feel free to use real horses, digital horses, talking horses who starred in popular TV shows, Mr. Ed, and so on. The…

Halo 4 Is A Lot Better Than Its Soundtrack

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, we return to the combat-filled levels of Halo 4 for some…actually, rather forgettable music. Controversial opinion alert: I like 2012’s Halo 4 (playlist / longplay/ VGMdb), originally released back on the Xbox 360 and developed…

Sunday Comics: Now, Are You Ready?

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published Dec. 10. Read more of Corpse Run Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Dec. 7. Read more of Awkward Zombie Clueless Hero by…

‘Shop Contest: Monoliths, Winners!

Monoliths! Remember those? Yeah, over the last few weeks they were popping up around the world. Strange. However, the world moved on and now we are the last ones left, to kick this dead horse for a bit more comedy. ‘Tis the ‘Shop Contest way. Our winning image this week comes from… Kerning! It’s a…

Swinging In A Winter Wonderland

This week on Snapshots, a surprising lack of Cyberpunk 2077 screenshots. We got some good ones already, but I was expecting more! Maybe folks are too busy playing the game to snap photos or perhaps it’s just too buggy at the moment. But it’s okay, because we got some great photos from a bunch of…

The Best Snowy Video Games And Levels

For many folks, December marks the start of colder weather, barren trees, and of course, snow. And just like real life, video games often include snowy and wintery levels or entire areas. Let’s put on some gloves and a good coat and trek out into the best snow in video games. Just a quick note:…