Here at Kotaku East we have had a lot to say about Japan’s most popular virtual idol, Hatsune Miku. But just because she is the most popular one doesn’t mean that she is the only one. Back in 2006, Tetsuya Mizoguchi—creator of Space Channel 5, Rez, Lumines, and Child of Eden—teamed up with record producer…
Resident Evil: Retribution might be a Hollywood movie, but it’s based on a Japanese video game. One of the places it takes place is, well, Tokyo. Yet, the actress who plays RE character Ada Wong now wants nothing to do with Japan. Ada Wong actress Bingbing Li did not show at the recent Tokyo premiere…
Over the Labor Day weekend, some hackers were apparently hard at work. Hacktivist group NullCew announced that it has made its way into Sony Mobile’s servers, reports ZDNet. A Pastebin dump shows a list of several hundred usernames from the website Sonymobile.com as proof of the infiltration. The Pastebin dump has the following message: Sony,…
Kubrick and King? Ha! Those jokers have nothing on the horrors that ensue when you’re snowed in and only have the beats of Park Jae-Sang to pass the time. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from…
Oscar nominated actor Michael Clarke Duncan passed away earlier today. The 54 year-old died from complications from a heart attack he had earlier this summer. Duncan is best known for his roles in The Green Mile, Armageddon, and Talladega Nights—among many, many other films. The actor did more than movie work. Blessed with powerful pipes,…
Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki is thinking seriously about adding an “easy” mode to the game. Speaking to London’s Metro, he says of the notoriously difficult game, “I personally want my games to be described as satisfying rather than difficult. As a matter of fact, I am aiming at giving players sense of accomplishment in…
A reader sent us in this pic of their “middle-aged boss'” tattoo. His name is Jim, apparently, which I guess is short for Dovahjiim? Note that’s Dovahjiim, the Dragon Middle-Aged Man, not Dovahkiin, the Dragonborn.
The Ouya console might not have been the first video game project to hit it big on Kickstarter, but it’s easily the biggest, with around 57,000 people contributing money towards a machine that doesn’t even exist yet You’d hope that, come 2013, those 57,000 peoople will see a return on their investment in the form…
Well, here’s a pleasant surprise. This is a “documentary” on the making of Halo 4 that runs for over ten minutes. You’d think such a clip would be full of agonising monologues by developers, and it is, but instead of just focusing on talking heads you’re also seeing a ton of of in-game and cinematic…
Maia is an upcoming indie game where you’re put in charge of managing a sci-fi facility. The world will be procedurally-generated, will contain various different hostile environments, and require you to defend it from hostiles. Which all sounds great. And looks great, too, in this test footage which shows that the game’s proprietary engine can…
Despite early predictions that its fancy Frostbite engine would make it almost impossible for modders to mess too extensively with Battlefield 3, there’s a mod that messes extensively with Battlefield 3. And with great results! While seemingly only doing a single thing – turning off the sun and transforming the game’s daytime maps into night…
The new Tomb Raider was at PAX. Were you at PAX? Me neither, so this is the first I’ve seen of the demo that was running over the weekend. It goes for 14 minutes, so you might want to make a cup of tea. When you do, and get back, you can join me in…
Alex Hutchinson, the lead designer on Assassin’s Creed III, has some very interesting thoughts on video game difficulty. “A lot of games have been ruined by easy modes,” he tells Edge. “If you have a cover shooter and you switch it to easy and you don’t have to use cover, you kind of broke your…
Jen Zee works at Supergiant Games. A small indie team, Jen is art director (and part-time badass cosplayer), meaning she’s the main one to thank for the amazing colours and vibrant world of Bastion, one of the best-looking video games in recent memory. A Seattle native, Jen has also done work for Gaia Interactive and…
Space Invaders: they move mindlessly. In formation, they slowly attack, heading towards earth with a terrifying, robotic certainty. But what about before these invaders were selected to wage war on humanity? What happened before then? In this brilliant comic, we get to see the Space Invader origin story – watch as he is born, grows…
While at work, Tumblr user spacekat267 created this “Zelda inspired breadstick.” Stick? You mean sword! “Twas delicious and most powerful with a side of Lon Lon Ranch,” blogged spacekat267, adding that he was thinking of doing an Ocarina next. Go big, spacekat267! Do a Hylian Shield! Doooooooo it. I crafted… [spacekat267]
Custom toy builder Sillof has made quite a name for himself in the past few years turning random action figures into themed, fantasy sets of Star Wars pieces. His previous efforts, like Second World War and Steampunk Star Wars, were great, but this latest one might be the best of all, if only for the…
Among the many highlights from the Erik Wolpaw/Tim Schafer panel at PAX this past weekend was a brief exchange where an audience member asked what Wolpaw thought about the disconnect between authored single-player games and games that allowed truly personal stories to emerge, like Notch’s Minecraft and Dean Hall’s DayZ “It’s not [about] single-player vs…
Proof that video games are art isn’t just on the screen. Sometimes it can be right in front of you, in the form of an arcade classic that swallows a whole room or tricked-out gloves that let you throw a Street Fighter fireball. The video game art that viewers saw at the recent Babycastles Summit—along…
A recent job listing on Valve’s website confirms what the Half-Life developer has been discussing for the past few months: they’re making hardware. “Valve is traditionally a software company,” the listing for an Industrial Designer position reads. “Open platforms like the PC and Mac are important to us, as they enable us and our partners…
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