Kotaku

Wrestler Savages Opponent With Keyblade Wrapped In Barbed Wire

A wrestling show held Friday evening provided a great example of how performer demographics are rapidly shifting away from bodybuilders and models and towards nerdy kids who grew up watching them.


Kidd Bandit, a non-binary cosplayer and Twitch streamer billed as “the protagonist of professional wrestling,” participated in a “devil’s playground” match against fellow indie wrestler Drexl at Prestige Wrestling’s Nonstop Feeling on July 22. The hardcore confrontation featured all the bloody excit

Real Human Being LeBron James Is Taking His Talents To MultiVersus

MultiVersus, the free-to-play Smash-like based on Warner Bros. properties like Scooby-Doo and Steven Universe, launches in open beta on July 26. And according to fresh news out of today’s Comic Con presentation, NBA superstar LeBron James will join the fighting game as a playable character that same day.


You probably noticed this means LeBron James, a real person, will soon be beating up fictional characters like Batman, Bugs Bunny, and The Iron Giant (we know, don’t get us started). If my so

Quick, I Need $200 For This Figure Of Cloud Strife In A Dress

As a lover of men, dresses, and men in dresses, you can imagine how excited I was to see Square Enix announce its collaboration with Play Arts Kai on a figure celebrating Cloud Strife’s crossdressing adventure in Final Fantasy VII Remake. And better yet, it has nothing to do with all the NFT bullshit the Japanese company is getting into lately.


The merch is based on the Wall Market section of Final Fantasy VII Remake, the climax of which sees the game’s heroes infiltrate the mansion of local

Fake Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Leak Sneakily Mocks Thirsty Fans

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are currently caught in a whirlwind of purported leaks, but the text on one less-than-legitimate photo sneakily mocks people fiending for any morsel of information they can get rather than providing any real info on the upcoming games.


The image was reportedly first posted to 4chan before making its way to Twitter last week courtesy of PokemonLEAKS, an account that’s accrued almost 12,000 followers since joining the social media site two months ago. While the ostens

Ghostbusters ROM Hack Finally Adds Winston Zeddemore To Classic Sega Genesis Game

When Ghostbusters arrived on Sega Genesis in 1990, it did so with one major caveat: Winston Zeddemore wasn’t playable. Now, a group of fans are looking to right that wrong with a ROM hack over 30 years in the making. (h/t Ghostbusters News)

The development team of BillyTime! Games, Danilo Diaz, and Master Lunkeui recently shared the first in-game look at the work they’ve done adding Zeddemore to Ghostbusters. The sprite work is impressive on its own, but they’ve also gone the distance in giving

Fearing Unity And Unreal Abandonment, Russia May Build Its Own Game Engine

Russia is looking into the possibility of developing a national video game engine to support the country’s developers should American companies like Unreal Engine creator Epic Games and Unity Technologies refuse to do business with them over the Russian government’s ongoing assault on Ukraine, Kommersant reports. (h/t eXputer)


Kommersant sources say potential for this kind of state response germinated in a behind-closed-doors meeting between presidential administration officials and reps from

Unity CEO Calls Mobile Devs Who Don't Prioritize Monetization ‘Fucking Idiots’

Speaking with PocketGamer.biz about Unity’s recent merger, CEO John Riccitiello had some harsh words for mobile game developers who don’t take monetization seriously.

Unity announced yesterday (amid layoffs, by the way) that it will merge with ad tech firm Ironsource. Among other things, this partnership will give developers who use the engine more ways to monetize and “rise above the noise,” according to Unity general manager Marc Whitten. At this point in the conversation, PocketGamer.biz cha

PlayStation Plus’ Game Catalog Expands With Stray, Way Too Much Assassin’s Creed

A month after launching its answer to Xbox Game Pass, Sony plans to add a slew of new and old games to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog on June 19.


Stray, the highly anticipated cat exploration game from French developer BlueTwelve Studio, headlines this month’s offerings alongside Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and Marvel’s Avengers. Assassin’s Creed fans have a lot to look forward to with Unity, Black Flag, Rogue, Freedom Cry, and the Ezio Collection trilogy (for those keeping count,

Mass Effect Writer Was Somehow Surprised Players Wanted To Bang Aliens

Drew Karpyshyn, a former BioWare writer, recently visited Reddit for a Q&A session promoting his latest novel, Time Kings of Las Vegas. The conversation, however, focused largely on his video game work. One user was even able to suss out a funny anecdote about how he reacted behind the scenes to Mass Effect fans thirsting over its alien allies. (h/t PC Gamer)


When asked about Mass Effect party members Garrus Vakarian and Tali’Zorah nar Rayya becoming love interests in Mass Effect 2, Karpyshyn

Destiny Dev Demands Bungie Support Trans-Inclusive Health Care

Bungie senior visual designer Signy Davis recently shared a blistering message on Twitter demanding that her company, along with the gaming industry at large, throw much-needed support behind inclusive health care for transgender workers.

The post, titled “Eyes up, Guardian” after a popular Destiny quote, calls on Bungie and parent company Sony to reevaluate their relationship with health insurance company Premera when it comes to employee benefits. Davis, who joined Bungie in early 2021 and de

Smash Champ Apologizes For Attending Tournament While Seriously Ill

After courting controversy for playing in a major Super Smash Bros. tournament over the weekend despite being seriously ill, world-class competitor Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma is now apologizing for his “incredibly selfish” decision.

“It goes without saying, I did a super fuck up today,” Debiedma wrote in a message posted to Twitter on Sunday evening. “And it was incredibly selfish of me. I shouldn’t think I’m above the rules. While I was convinced I didn’t have covid, it was clear I was sick in

Elechead’s Multiple Endings Completely Broke My Brain

It’s common for games to have multiple endings, usually classified as “good” or “bad” depending on their content and the consequences leading up to their conclusions. Elechead is a little different, if only because it turns that paradigm on its, well, head.

I don’t know why you’re even here if you’re worried about Elechead spoilers but stop reading if you don’t want to learn more about the thing I specifically mentioned in the headline (i.e. the only thing most people read anyway).

As of June

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Remaster Retains Sephiroth’s Intense Hair Care Routine

We got a bunch of information about Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion today, including the important news that flavor text about Sephiroth’s gratuitously thorough hair care routine will be carried over from the original game.


Reunion is, as the name suggests, the upcoming remastered re-release of Crisis Core, a PlayStation Portable action RPG from 2007 that acted as a prequel to Final Fantasy VII. When it arrives on every gaming platform under the sun later this year, Crisis Core: Final

God Of War Ragnarök's Expensive Bundles Come With Steelbook Cases, But No Discs

The upcoming God of War Ragnarök will be available in a variety of editions at launch. None of these bundles, however, include physical versions of the game itself.


After some confusing back-and-forth in recent weeks, Sony announced this morning that God of War Ragnarök is heading to PlayStation consoles on November 9. The much-anticipated game, like many of its contemporaries in the AAA space, will come in increasingly expensive packages, some of which include empty steelbook cases. Instead

Here's How To Add U.S. Supreme Court Justices To Minecraft For No Reason At All

Minecraft is still one of the biggest games in the world more than a decade after its launch. At the same time, the justices of the United States Supreme Court are all over the news lately. It’s a no-brainer: Let’s put those judges in Minecraft!

It’s never been easier to add fun avatars of friends, family members, or the ultimate, lifetime-tenured arbiters of American law to Minecraft. And afterwards, you can have all kinds of fun with them, from going on adventures to mining for precious gems.

‘Near-Impossible’ No Man’s Sky Switch Port Coming October 7

Hello Games is bringing massive spacefaring sim No Man’s Sky and most of its updates from the past six years to Switch on October 7, the company announced this morning. A physical edition of the complete, remastered PlayStation 5 version is also planned for the same day.

“No Man’s Sky on this tiny portable device feels both completely natural and also totally improbable at the same time,” said Hello Games director Sean Murray. “This has been a real moonshot for our small team. No Man’s Sky is b
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