Battlefront & Overwatch’s Loot Boxes Under Investigation In Belgium

Belgian website VTM is reporting that the country’s Gaming Commission is currently taking a look at loot boxes in video games, with particular focus on EA’s inclusion of them in Star Wars: Battlefront II and Blizzard’s use in Overwatch Peter Naessens, General Director of the commission, says that the practice of buying the add-on boxes—where…

Twitch Plays Pokémon’s Creator Says He Is Stepping Down Following Alleged Doxing

Over 3 years ago, one developer started a whole new genre of streaming with Twitch Plays Pokémon. In these streams, the chat took control and played the game, rather than the streamer. The resulting craze had views in the millions. Yesterday, the creator of Twitch Plays Pokémon, referred to as “Streamer” by the TPP community,…

Streamer’s Hateful Rant Revives Debate About Women On Twitch

Last week, streamer Trainwreck got handed a five-day suspension by Twitch after a video went viral featuring an incendiary rant against women streamers, in which he called them things like “god damn sluts” and accused them of stealing views from those who he viewed as more deserving streamers. This poured gasoline on a fire that’s…

Players Are Having A Lot Of Fun With Vaulting On The Battlegrounds Test Servers

A recent update to the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ test servers has added vaulting and climbing. The game’s island is now part morbid death trap and part playground for extras in an 80s buddy cop movie. I say that because vaulting in PUBG is almost exclusively about anxiously climbing over things the way you might if, like…

A Perfect Mario Odyssey Moment

One thing I love about Super Mario Odyssey is how often it anticipates me. Odyssey seeks to strike a balance between structured challenges and open-ended play. It achieves that balance with remarkable consistency. Each level is a toy-filled sandbox, loaded with springs, levers, and buttons for you to bounce, pull, and press. The game feels so…

Bungie Details Destiny 2 Curse Of Osiris’s ‘Infinite Forest’ And ‘Raid Lair’

Today on a livestream, Bungie showed off footage and discussed some details surrounding Destiny 2’s next DLC, Curse of Osiris, which comes out December 5. Curse of Osiris will include “new raid content” and a new area called the Infinite Forest. The Infinite Forest is actually a simulation created by the Vex. Referred to by…

NRG Esports Won’t Show Us Its “Zero Tolerance” Policy, But It Probably Sucks

On November 6, NRG Esports CEO and founder Andy Miller announced the firing of Overwatch team manager Max Bateman via Twitter, 14 hours after a woman said that he had sexually assaulted her. Miller tweeted that Bateman’s firing was “in accordance with NRG ESports zero tolerance policy.” Brett Lautenbach, president of NRG Esports and the…

People Are Gambling With Battlegrounds Skins Now

Last year, Valve issued 23 stern cease and desist letters to sites that ran Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gambling sites. A year later, not only are a handful of sites still taking bets for CS:GO skin roulettes, but the market has spread into great, wide world of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds skins. Since the beginning of this year,…

Disney Shuts Down Marvel Heroes [UPDATE]

Today, Marvel (under Disney) said that it is ending its relationship with Gazillion Entertainment, who makes Marvel Heroes. In an e-mail, a Marvel representative wrote: “We regret to inform our Marvel Heroes fans that we have ended our relationship with Gazillion Entertainment, and that the Marvel Heroes games will be shut down. We would like…

The Curious Case Of The ‘EA Game Dev’ Who Said He Received Death Threats [UPDATE]

Earlier this week, a man with “Game Dev @EA” in his Twitter profile wrote that he had received death threats from angry Star Wars Battlefront II fans. His story was covered by news outlets like USA Today, the BBC, and Yahoo. Vice wrote an editorial about it, CNBC ran a headline about it, and the…

Tekken Star Humiliates Hacker Into Rage-Quitting

Developing fighting games for PC is a risky proposition, as it often just makes it simpler for players to do silly things likeform an all-Ryu team in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 orshoot themselves to the top of the Street Fighter V rankings. World-class Tekken competitor Jae-min “Knee” Bae recently found himself matched up against…

The mysterious new fighting game from Akira now has an official name and it’s…Fighting EX Layer There’s also a trailer. Akira Nishitani, the developer behind Fighting Layer andStreet Fighter EX announced the news over at PlayStation Blog. The game is also getting a two week beta test on PS4 starting December 11.

Dead Or Alive Xtreme Has The Sexiest Glitches 

Today, Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation was released in Japan. Like any new game, there are bound to be glitches, but few games have ones as sexy as these. Announced at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation is a PC browser version of Dead or Alive Xtreme 3. Some…

Tecmo Koei Defeats Major Chinese Piracy Group 

In May, Tecmo Koei sued popular cracking-group 3DM Game in China for copyright violation. This month, Tecmo Koei announced it had won the lawsuit. Kotaku reported last year that 3DM’s leader Bird Sister posted on her personal blog, “We just had an internal meeting. Starting at the Chinese New Year, 3DM will not crack any…