China, You Are Allowed To Make TV Shows Based On Video Games.

Earlier this month, we reported that the Chinese State Administration for Film, Radio and Television (SARFT) came out with six guidelines that could affect the future of Chinese television. Those six guidelines included a ban on the creation of TV dramas based on online video games. Now it appears that SARFT has come out and…

And Now, Sleeping Dogs Will Perform a Magic Trick

Kotaku likes Sleeping Dogs very much. Kotaku also likes magic. You, hopefully, like Sleeping Dogs and magic, too. Have you seen the trick that Sleeping Dogs protagonist Wei Shen can pull off? Watch and marvel. Wei the MagiShen Debuts His Newest Trick! [YouTube Thanks, Praxic!] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing…

Why Video Game Gambling Machines Were Destroyed In China

Last week, we posted some pictures that appeared on WIRED of Chinese cops burning and destroying gambling machines that look like arcade cabinets. Gambling is illegal in China, and it is constantly being cracked down on. Video game arcades as well as internet cafes are often covers for gambling. Just this weekend, 30-plus people were…

New Japanese Manga Allegedly Rips Off Super Popular Anime [Update]

K-On! originally debuted as a manga, and it then went on to spawn an anime, a feature film, and a video game. It’s a pretty popular series, so when it’s copied, people tend to notice! The latest issue of Jump Next features up and coming manga. New comic “Ooedo Punk”, which did get some good…

After getting battered online for being hideous, the China’s newly erected, large Aspara statue has been taken down

Kill Bill‘s Most Violent Scene Required Blood, Wires, and Close Haircuts

It’s been nearly a decade since Kill Bill Vol. 1 was released. Yet, the film’s most complex and most gruesome scene, the House of Blue Leaves showdown, is still burned in viewers’ minds. The House of Blue Leaves was based on Tokyo’s Gonpachi—and the fight itself was a tribute to blood soaked masters of Asian…

Diablo III Interview Leads to Unexpected Facebook Bitching

What should have been a harmless little interview with a video games website has turned into something of an internet Diablo soap opera after David Brevik, the co-founder of Blizzard North and one of the key men involved with the creation of Diablo, said some unkind things about Diablo III. After claiming that Diablo III…

Arcade game Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus is coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 in Japan this October.

Which of These Final Fantasy VII Logos Is Best?

Final Fantasy games have a look. The characters seem like they belong in a Final Fantasy game, and so do their iconic logos. Let’s talk about those logos—namely, the Final Fantasy VII logo. Online in Japan, someone created a whole host of FFVII logos, using the color shades from other FF games as well as…

Do Japanese and Westerners Have Different Taste in Men? This Game Thinks So.

The Japanese love simulator Be My Princess just got a re-release. The game now looks different. Very, very different. Be My Princess, which is for Android and iOS, brands itself as a “royal romance”. Here’s the title’s description: You, a normal university student, have an unexpected encounter with a prince on a street corner. He…

Minecraft Timelapse Reveals Slow-Motion Destruction

Reader Dino Rhymestyle put this lovely video together the other day, using the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft, some capture gear and the relentless passage of time. Setting up a lava drip, he captures the slow, inevitable destruction of a house and surrounding countryside. It’s beautiful. Partly because the game’s music suits scenes like this…

According to a LinkedIn resume, Black Ops II will also be headed to the Wii U

A Game About Debating is Way More Fun Than it Sounds

A Game By Its Cover is one of the coolest independent game jams going around. It tasks entrants with picking an existing piece of fake video game art – often a cartridge from Meteor’s awesome Famicase exhibition – and making an actual game out of it. This year’s edition kicked off in June and closed…

Vancouver, once a boom town for video game development, could soon become a ghost town instead

Based on the font (among other hints), this countdown looks like a new The World Ends With You teaser.

The People Making the Trailers That Make You Go “Whoah”

Whenever somebody sees a fancy cinematic trailer or intro sequence to a game these days, if they don’t just assume it’s the work of the game’s developers, they assume it’s the work of Blur Studios But Blur isn’t the only team in the field. Another outfit is Plastic Wax, who are based in Sydney, Australia.…

Sleeping Dogs is Actually Shenmue 3, Only With More Punching

Since the chances of us seeing another proper Shenmue game are approximately 3720 to 1, DSimphonyHD figured the next best thing would be to try and recreate Yu Suzuki’s Dreamcast adventure in Sleeping Dogs. It works. It works brilliantly [thanks Nicholas!]

Why Be a Tower Defender, When You Can Be a Tower Attacker?

Last year’s Anomaly Warzone Earth flipped the tower defence genre on its head, putting you in the shoes of the guys trying to get past the powers, instead of the guys building them. It was, to keep things brief, brilliant It’s now got a sequel. Anomaly Korea does the usual sequel thing: there’s new units,…

Commander Shepard Takes Up Space Graffiti, Quickly Excels

Bored with saving the galaxy, and in particular all that mining (couldn’t someone else be doing that?), Commander Shepard has taken to killing some time deploying probes. Creatively. Human Spectre [Tumblr]

OnLive Is Still Called OnLive, Says Nothing Is Changing

Ever since Friday—when reports started surfacing that cloud gaming pioneer OnLive was shutting down and ceasing to exist—speculation has mounted over who, if anyone, had purchased the remains of the company. But OnLive—which isn’t changing its name—has just issued a statement announcing its new status and that offers details on the business dealings of the…