You thought not-E3 was over? Ha! A month after Geoff Keighley summoned the entire gaming industry to Los Angeles for a week of marketing, Annapurna Interactive, a bit late to the party, hosted its annual showcase. Today, over the course of 30 minutes, the indie publisher gave a look at what’s in the works for its…
Source: Kotaku – Xbox Is Getting 3 Terrific PlayStation Exclusives
It’s been two years since a workplace reckoning over sexual misconduct at Ubisoft led to numerous departures, resigniations, and firings. Now one of the people investigated has resurfaced. Ashraf Ismail, previously creative director on the hit Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, is now working for competitor Tencent, Axios…
Source: Kotaku – Fired Assassin’s Creed Director Surfaces At Pokémon Unite Company As Ubi Devs Renew Calls For Accountability
Earlier this week, The Sims 4 received a big, free update that added curved walls, body hair, and new wants and fears. It also seems to have accidentally added incestual relationships. Oh, and people are aging much faster, too. It’s a weird time to be a Sim, that’s for sure.
Source: Kotaku – Sims 4 Update Accidentally Adds Incest
Nintendo just unveiled details for the second wave of Mario Kart 8 updates, and fans got a sweet surprise: an original race track. Sky-High Sundae will be available as part of the next installment of Mario Kart 8 DLC, and it looks incredibly edible—pretty. I meant pretty.
Source: Kotaku – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s DLC Will Have Brand-New Race Track Amid Returning Courses
Yesterday, Square Enix launched the English version of its new online manga service, Manga Up!. But within 24 hours of its release, users have voiced outrage over the app’s aggressive censorship bars and monetization practices.
Source: Kotaku – Square Enix Botches New Manga Service With Sex Censorship, Extra Charges
It’s been a very bad year so far for Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, in ways extremely unique to being one of the biggest tech companies in the world. Despite still making almost $7 billion in profit in recent months, TikTok is eating its lunch, the stock price is in shambles, and even the Kardashians…
Source: Kotaku – Shots Fired At Facebook’s VR Monopoly
Well, that was fast. Nier: Automata’s secret door—the very same one that’s fractured the game’s fandom into factions—went from an amusing little secret to a viral meme in three days flat.
Source: Kotaku – The Internet Can’t Stop Joking About Nier: Automata’s Secret Door
This morning, Sony announced that it would be rolling out a beta to test a collection of fan-requested new features for the PlayStation 5. These features include curatable gamelists, the ability to play games in 1440p output, and small quality-of-life features for those who enjoy playing games with their friends.
Source: Kotaku – Sony Announces Better PlayStation 5 Visuals, Folders, And Other New Features
VRChat’s had a hell of a week. On Monday, the wildly popular virtual reality social game announced that its next update would implement Epic Games’ Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) technology, prompting immediate outrage from a large portion of its playerbase. That update landed Tuesday, and since then, VRChat’s struggled to…
Source: Kotaku – The World’s Most Popular Social VR Game Is In Turmoil
Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead. In other words, the player-hated, troll-approved Oppressor Mk. II jetbike in Grand Theft Auto Online has finally been nerfed following nearly half a decade of terror. While many players are happy about the change, others have shared concerns that it has made the expensive vehicle…
Source: Kotaku – GTA Online Reacts To Hated, OP Jetbike Finally Getting Nerfed
Back in May, Japanese publisher Square Enix announced it was selling a number of Western studios it had owned since 2009, including Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex) and Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider). For Stephane D’Astous, who founded Eidos Montreal and left the company in 2013, the deal marks the end of a decade-long “train…
Source: Kotaku – Former Deus Ex Boss Unloads On Square Enix
Sony just announced that Sega’s widely loved Yakuza series of criminal underworld sims will soon debut on its PlayStation Plus subscription service. The entire mainline series is coming, in fact.
Source: Kotaku – Every Mainline Yakuza Game Is Coming To PlayStation Plus
Hitman protagonist Agent 47 has seen the world. He’s parachuted onto the tallest tower in Dubai. He’s infiltrated manors in the British countryside and on the Amalfi Coast. He’s even been to New Jersey. But everyone’s favorite be-suited secret agent still, apparently, needs one more stamp on the passport: a dimly lit…
Source: Kotaku – Hitman 3 Just Got A Free New Level, Which Rules
Stray and its little-cat-that-could is winning over literally everyone, even on PC, where it’s struggled a bit in the performance category. According to Steam250.com’s 2022 rankings, the game’s glowing Steam user reviews now place it above the year’s previous best-reviewed games, including the critically acclaimed…
Source: Kotaku – Stray Strikes Down God Of War As Steam’s Best-Reviewed Game
G5_Sin, a Twitch streamer with a smidge over six thousand followers, grimaced and showed his gun to the camera.
Source: Kotaku – Twitch Streamer Banned A Month After Making Threats, Flashing Gun On Camera
Two days ago, Riot Games suspended two competitive Valorant players after a public disagreement about teabagging. Dawn “Dawn” Park and Vivian “Risorah” Dela Cruz are now banned from official Riot competitions for three months and nine months respectively.
Source: Kotaku – Riot Suspends Valorant Pros Over Teabagging Controversy
Factions. In-fighting. The whispers of a bounty. For the past few days, the Nier: Automata community has been tearing itself apart over a secret chamber no one knows how to enter, which could be anything from a prank to cut content to a well-executed spot of viral marketing. Only one thing is certain: This entire saga…
Source: Kotaku – Nier: Automata Secret Door Nobody Can Figure Out Keeps Getting Weirder
The leaked details of a massive National Football League contract reveal a team worried about its star quarterback playing video games rather than studying. (h/t The Washington Post)
Source: Kotaku – NFL QB’s 0 Million Contract Limits His Gaming Time
Today, a new report about the next installment in the Grand Theft Auto series claimed that GTA 6 would feature a playable woman. You might assume this is the franchise’s first playable female character. However, technically, there have been a few playable women in GTA games before this. The key word in that last…
Source: Kotaku – GTA 6’s Female Protagonist Won’t Actually Be The Series’ First
