Image: Square Enix / Platinum Games Today, publisher Square Enix and developer Platinum Games finally did what everyone had been predicting from the start: they announced Babylon’s Fall will shut down within its first year. While I’m hardly surprised, it still sucks. People paid $60 for this game just six months ago, and less than … Read more
screenshot: Skybound Games Crunch is bad. Boosting about crunch is bad. You’d imagine everyone knows that now, wouldn’t you? Yetand I’m not a qualified reputation manager, I still think I have a beneficial suggestion that could greatly help many within the games development industry: Stop saying you think crunch is great. If only Striking Distance … Read more
A gamer plays on Sony’s Playstation 5 console at his home in Seoul. Yelim Lee | AFP via Getty Images The giants of the video game world saw their sales slide in the second quarter, as initial tailwinds from the Covid pandemic faded. In the three months ended June, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo each posted … Read more
gif: Siris Pendrake / Kotaku I’ve probably written this before on this very website, but whenever someone asks me what my favorite video game is, my default answer is Half Life 2. So any game that tries to capture Half Life 2‘s excellent mix of exploration, action, puzzle-solving, and emptiness has my attention. And if … Read more
Image: Mojang/Microsoft Minecraft is on fire. At least that’s how it currently feels if you follow the fandom on social media or certain message boards. A portion of the community is up in arms following the news that developer Mojang won’t back down from a controversial move to open private servers up to moderation and … Read more
Image: Square-Enix Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, newly available on mobile, is a worthy sequel to the original 2018 Switch role-playing game. I had expected a watered-down combat system and a menu hell like many other gacha games on mobile devices. Square Enix proved me wrong. Champions retains the visuals and music that made … Read more
screenshot: Ubisoft Over the weekend, a podcast’s rumor suggested that the recently released free-to-play Ubisoft game, Roller Champions, would be canned in the near future. Today, Ubisoft released a statement claiming that isn’t the plan, and attempted to assure people that the game, which most of you totally forgot came out in May, is fine, … Read more
Image: Epic Games When Fortnite‘s newest season launched recently, I did what I’ve now done many times before: installed the game again, watched the new cutscene, dropped in for a few matches, and stopped. But a day later, something unusual happened: I returned and played some more. And then even more, and more again. And … Read more
The cat is out of the bag — and probably all over your Twitter feed. “Stray,” a new videogame for Sony’s SONY, +3.42% PlayStation and Microsoft MSFT, +2.08% Windows, lets players explore a subterranean, cyberpunk city as ginger tabby that’s trying to claw its way back to its family. The $29.99 third-person platform adventure and … Read more
Image: EA / Kotaku Remember last week? It happened about 34 years ago, so if you don’t, I understand. Goal last Thursday, the official EA Twitter account tweeted a bad joke about single-player games that led to an internet-wide roasting and eventually an apology from the Battlefield publisher. And apparently, EA is still dealing with … Read more