Search
Tensions Rise At Bethesda As Employees Pressure Company On Abortion Measures
1.7.2022
In the wake of Roe v. Wade being struck down last week, many employees at Skyrim maker Bethesda Game Studios and its parent company ZeniMax Media have grown increasingly frustrated by what they see as their employer’s unwillingness to clearly support employees’ access to reproductive healthcare....
Blade Runner Remake Mess Continues With Shopfront Switcheroo
1.7.2022
The drama and weirdness around the disastrous Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition remake continues this week. Last time we checked in, buyers were very unhappy at the state of the game, and the creators of a popular and long-running fan version had been stiffed by the release of this newer edition.Read...
Modder Sorta Gets Half-Life 2 Running On Switch (It's Actually Portal)
30.6.2022
So, Portal: The Companion Collection, a bundle of Valve’s 3D puzzle-platformers Portal and Portal 2, just dropped on the Nintendo Switch. But not long after its surprise release during this week’s Direct Mini Partner Showcase, a modder named OatmealDome has already figured out a way to get...
Sources: Unity Laying Off Hundreds Of Staffers
29.6.2022
Unity, the company behind the popular game development engine of the same name, has recently laid off hundreds of staffers, multiple sources tell Kotaku.Read more
Xbox Head Defends Bethesda In Wake Of Crunch Allegations
28.6.2022
At an all-hands meeting on Thursday, Xbox addressed the growing employee concerns about labor conditions at Bethesda Game Studios and its parent company, ZeniMax. Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, said he was “confident” that the studio was not crunching, and that it was “unfair” to attribute...
Wuxia Martial Arts Game Looks Slick As Hell
28.6.2022
Today, a Chinese AAA studio announced that it would be adapting a famous wuxia novel series into a martial arts game. The demo trailer showed off stylish combat that heavily incorporates exaggerated aerial movements, which are a common hallmark of wuxia cinema but which I’ve rarely seen...
Blade Runner Remake Looks Like Complete Dogshit
27.6.2022
In 1997 Westwood Studios—famous for their real-time strategy games like Command & Conquer and Red Alert—released a game called simply Blade Runner. It was a grimy point-and-click adventure game, and became one of the all-time greats in the genre.Read more
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...