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PlayStation Studios Break Silence On Abortion Rights After Roe Overturned
24.6.2022
On Friday the U.S. Supreme Court made good on a longstanding right-wing threat to overturn Roe v. Wade, and with it eradicate the constitutional right to abortion that had existed for nearly 50 years. Now some of gaming’s most well known studios, which had previously been silent, are speaking...
Despite Historic Crashes, Video Games Aren’t Over NFTs Just Yet
24.6.2022
We were so close. As the NFT market suffered one meteoric crash after another, and as some crypto-based games lost money by the hundreds of millions, it seemed for a second there that the gaming industry might come to its senses. But no. This week alone saw two major parties unveiling a commitment...
Ubisoft CEO Takes $300,000 Pay Cut After Company’s Poor Performance
24.6.2022
The latest Ubisoft earnings reports shared that longtime chief executive Yves Guillemot will voluntarily take a sizable pay cut totaling €310,607 (around $327,000 USD).Read more
PlayStation’s Big Summer Sale Is On, And It’s Actually Not Bad
22.6.2022
At this point, it almost seems silly to pay full price for a PlayStation game. Fresh on the heels of one big sale for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Sony has kicked off another. It’s not as good as last month’s, but it’s not bad, especially for those who’ve been holding off on some of the bigger...
Bobby Kotick Is Staying On Activision Blizzard's Board, Ew
22.6.2022
Just yesterday, Activision Blizzard shareholders voted to approve a report looking into the company’s anti-harassment efforts. While the company itself is “carefully considering” that, stockholders also gave the green light to the Board of Directors nominees, which included shitty CEO Bobby Kotick....
Activision Stockholders Vote To Release Annual Harassment Reports, Company Will 'Consider' It
21.6.2022
Today, Activision Blizzard shareholders voted to approve a proposed annual report that would document the company’s ongoing efforts to stop workplace abuse and harassment as well as catalog the company’s total number of sexual harassment settlements and pending complaints. Read more
Tony Hawk Says A Pro Skater 3+4 Remake Was Killed By Activision's Moves
21.6.2022
From 1991 until 2021, Vicarious Visions was the name of a studio that made a ton of pretty cool licensed games, but which had also contributed to the beloved Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. Then Activision stepped in and made some changes.Read more
Diablo Immortal's China Release Delayed Following Social Media Silencing
20.6.2022
Diablo Immortal has been one of the more hotly contested releases of 2022, receiving the lowest ever user score on Metacritic, while simultaneously receiving eight million downloads and making over $24,000,000 in its first two weeks. However, according to a report by Reuters, the announcement of...
Starfield Extended Look Shows Off Ship Customization, Space Combat
12.6.2022
Bethesda and Xbox revealed yet another look at the ambitious “Skyrim in space” RPG Starfield during the two companies’ joint presentation today. This time, it was much more than eight seconds, and featured actually gameplay.Read more
The Week In Games: Heroes In A Half-Shell!
11.6.2022
????Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—Shredder’s Revenge is—OUT THIS WEEK!????Read more
Activision Blizzard Recognizes QA Workers' Union
10.6.2022
Bobby Kotick announced today that Activision Blizzard will recognize Raven Software’s union of quality assurance testers. He promised that “we will engage in good faith negotiations to enter into a collective bargaining agreement” with Communications Workers of America.Read more
The Human Toll Of Fallout 76’s Disastrous Launch
8.6.2022
“No one wanted to be on that project because it ate people. It destroyed people,” one former developer on Fallout 76 told Kotaku. “The amount of people who would go to that project, and then they would quit [Bethesda] was quite high.” Read more
Everyone Uses The Steam Deck To Play Games That Are Perfect For The Switch
6.6.2022
Valve’s Steam Deck promises all the same handheld freedom as the Nintendo Switch, but with vastly more powerful tech under the hood, capable of running the most lavishly produced AAA games. A few months in, according to a blog post from Valve, it turns out everyone’s just using the thing to play...
Cat Game Stray Coming To PlayStation, PC In July
3.6.2022
Stray, the game about being a cat in a world not meant for cats, finally has a release date. It’s coming to PlayStation and PC on July 19, publisher Annapurna Interactive announced at Sony’s State of Play showcase this evening.Read more
Microsoft Promises To Play Nice With Future Unions Too
2.6.2022
Microsoft is trying to strike a more conciliatory tone with organized labor as it looks to get its $69 billion mega video game merger with Activision Blizzard OK’d by the Federal Trade Commission. Vice chairman and president Brad Smith wrote that the company is “committed to creative...
Respawn Boss Vince Zampella Speaks Out On Trans Rights, Even As EA Refuses
1.6.2022
Vince Zampella, Respawn Entertainment general manager and head of some of Electronic Arts’s biggest franchises, spoke out on Twitter in defense of transgender rights ahead of the start of Pride Month on June 1. Kotaku has learned that this rare display comes after an internal roundtable discussion...
Diablo Immortal Won’t Launch In Some Countries Due To Loot Box Laws
31.5.2022
Well, here’s some bad news for people who live in Belgium or the Netherlands and are excited to play Diablo Immortal, Blizzard’s upcoming free-to-play dungeon crawler out June 2 on PC and mobile devices. It turns out, due to local loot box laws, that Blizzard’s next action RPG won’t be released...
Xbox Boss Says He Will Recognize Raven Software's Union After Acquisition Closes
26.5.2022
In today’s internal all-hands meeting with Xbox Game Studios employees, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said that he would recognize Raven Software’s union. This came after the QA testers at Raven voted to form the first labor union at a major studio.Read more
EA Tells Devs It Won't Take Stand On Abortion Rights, Encourages 'Healing Circles'
25.5.2022
Electronic Arts won’t be joining some other big game studios in publicly supporting abortion and transgender rights, Kotaku has learned. Asked about it during a May 24 company-wide town hall meeting, the gaming publisher told staff it couldn’t take a stance on every public issue and that “being...
Activision Blizzard Devs Demand Breastfeeding Protections And Other Reforms
25.5.2022
10 months after a California lawsuit alleged widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard, employees at the company don’t feel like it’s made the necessary changes and have created a worker committee to demand further reforms. Chief among them...