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Apex Legends’ Twitch numbers down 75% in just one month Off a cliff.
Apex Legends, the game that looked like the biggest contender against Fortnite and the only chance to dethrone the reigning champion of online games, has seen its numbers on Twitch dip by 75% in just one month since it came out. At this rate it can only get worse unless Respawn steps things up a notch or ten. Declining viewership of new games isn’t anything out of the ordinary, but many were expecting Apex Legends, which surged in popularity following its release (following little to no anticipation leading up to it), to break the mold and usurp Epic Games’ popular title. A new report from StreamElements shows that at its…
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Woke at the GDC The Game Developers Conference is now about how games are to blame for every social ill — real or imagined.
Four reasons you’re wrong about Pokémon Red and Blue The original Pokémon games aren’t particularly interesting or special, they were just the first.
Kotaku is killing video game journalism When Kotaku introduced ‘social justice’ to gaming coverage, it all went to hell. Why can't we just play?
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Embattled YIIK dev says only 4chan understands his game Are we all snowflakes now?
Andrew Allanson, the creator of YIIK: A Postmodern RPG, alleges on The Dick Show podcast that a far left campaign against his game is spreading pirated copies and attempting to get Nintendo to issue a cease and desist for the game’s homage to the late Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata. The campaign is also spreading accusations of transphobia because the game contains the question, “What name did your parents give you?” and a “That’s our word” joke uttered by the main character after someone uses the word ‘ginger’ is also deeply problematic. The controversies being stoked by the genderbending activists has resulted in other developers deleting positive remarks made about the…
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Top 10 missions in the Grand Theft Auto classics Ten of the best crimes you'll ever commit in Liberty City, Vice City, and the state of San Andreas.
The craziest things people ever did to persuade parents to buy video games Kids can be very creative when they want something.
The Destiny clan that saved a family Think of the average bunch of guys in an online clan and the word 'heart-warming' doesn't usually spring to mind. But then most clans aren't the Dads Of Destiny, a 30,000 strong group bound by two common themes: parenthood, and not being a dick.
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Microsoft does away with discs with the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition Nothing but games as a service on the horizon.
Optical media is on its way out, and video game consoles are leading the way. Specifically, Microsoft’s new Xbox One S All-Digital Edition will be the first real gaming console without any sort of disc media whatsoever. Got a hard copy of Halo 5? You won’t be able to run it on here. Instead, owners of the new console will have to buy into the long-dreaded “games as a service” effort that both publishers and console manufacturers have been trying to push on gamers for about a decade since everyone figured out that DLCs and microtransactions sell way better than single-purchase games. Microsoft first tried to go down the online-only…
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The many, bizarre emotions of FIFA 15’s emotion engine Thanks to FIFA 15’s new Emotional Intelligence, all 22 players on the pitch can now employ 600 new emotional reactions. It's... not always the most natural-looking thing.
The doomed heroes of Dark Souls Beneath the chivalric castles and lofty cathedrals of Lordran beats the bitter, pagan heart of Beowulf.
11 franchises that need to rip off Pokemon Go Already popular video games, movies, and other stuff that could—should—jump into the alternate reality world and make bucketloads of money.
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Nintendo cracks down on political Super Smash Bros Ultimate stages, including LGBT and mockery of 9/11 “We want people to smile and have fun when they play our games.”
Nintendo has started issuing bans to players for promoting transgender activism in their hit fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The game’s most recent update added the ability for players to design their own custom stages to do battle in, and the feature was immediately seized upon by the denizens of Tumblr and the ResetEra forums who used it as a medium to promote transgenderism by designing stages resembling the transgender flag, usually accompanied by the words “TRANS RIGHTS.” Players who submitted and shared these levels were handed 9-hour suspensions. Similar bans were issued to players who posted designs featuring sexualized imagery, the Nazi flag, and caricatures of the World…
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11 franchises that need to rip off Pokemon Go Already popular video games, movies, and other stuff that could—should—jump into the alternate reality world and make bucketloads of money.
Top 10 licensed songs in gaming There are times when the use of a licensed piece of music is so perfect that it elevates the gaming experience to a new level.
5 plot twists that would have made great games even better When done right, a twist can be truly spectacular. Here's what they should have done...
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Kotaku is getting raked over Laura Kate Dale’s “retarded” fake news piece And now everybody is throwing everybody else under the bus.
Kotaku editor Laura Kate Dale is up to old tricks again, this time with a fake news and conspiracy theory double whammy about a Super Smash Bros song using the word “retarded.” The claim was made in an article titled “Super Smash Bros Ultimate’s Persona 5 DLC includes a disability slur” which states: “Part of the DLC pack’s addition includes a number of Persona music tracks, which can be listened to in full outside of battle. However, one of these tracks caught our attention for all the wrong reasons. In the track ‘Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There’, if you skip to around 1:48 into the track, you’ll reach…
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You can now play XCOM in an Excel spreadsheet It’s called EXLCOM, and all you need to run it is a copy of Excel. What a time to be alive.
Returning to Runescape, over one decade on We’re going back... back to the browser!
Study shows gamers are better in bed Are you a gamer? Then you might also be a player between the sheets, according to science.
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Could Jedi Fallen Order revive Star Wars video games? Star Wars — as a video game franchise — has been long dead thanks to EA Games’ mishandling.
From mobile cash grabs to lackluster multiplayer games that feel more like reskins of Battlefield than games with their own character, Star Wars as a video game franchise struggles to attain the relevance it once had. Gone is Knights of the Old Republic, one of the best role-playing games of all time, and arguably BioWare’s greatest production. Old school gamers will even recall X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, which paved the way for masterpieces like Descent FreeSpace 2 and Freelancer. And who could forget the Jedi Knight games, which brought lightsaber duels to the PC? Needless to say, Star Wars has had its greats, but the only games we’ve had since…
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A conspiracy of silence: How NDAs are harming the games industry Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) have long been a fact of doing business in video games - but their enforcement can have wide-ranging, negative effects.
Meet the whale who spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on the MMO Black Desert Online "I love how we just casually talk about spending almost the entire cost of a full ride at Yale university on a video game."
Destiny 2 is practically impossible to play if you’re a parent Bungie can do hunters, titans and warlocks alright, but it really struggles with the parent class.
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Eve Online developer under fire for banning real-world politician "Spaceships have never been seriouser business."
Eve Online studio CCP Games has come under fire for banning real-world GOP politician Brian Schoeneman. The veteran politician and Eve Online player ran for a seat in Eve Online’s in-game representative council and won, but was removed and banned from the game after CCP Games said it received evidence showing that the Schoeneman, who went by the name Brisc Rubal in-game, had breached a non-disclosure agreement with the studio. Schoeneman denies the allegation. The massively multiplayer game has been the subject of many a write-up about its in-game politics and its unique gameplay, which encourages players to devote hundreds of hours every year to building a virtual community. The…
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Mint condition Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge breaks all records—sells for $156k Super Mario Bros is once again the most expensive video game ever sold. It's-a more money than sense!
The ultimate history of fighting games Fighting games have always been around. The first one on this list landed in arcades in 1976!
Development hell: 12 funny tales from game dev history There was a time when lax employment legislation meant development teams could be locked in the office overnight.
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Ubisoft pledges €500,000 to rebuild Notre Dame Also grab a free copy of Assassin’s Creed: Unity.
The France-based game publisher Ubisoft, best known for its Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed video games, has pledged to donate €500,000 ($564,000 USD) to help rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral. The almost 1,000-year-old cathedral was severely damaged in a fire earlier this week that consumed its main spire, the entirety of its roof, and much of its wooden interior. The studio, which faithfully recreated the historic site in Assassin’s Creed: Unity, is also offering the game for free on Ubisoft’s Uplay until April 25th to gamers on the PC to honor the iconic Parisian landmark. “We want to give everyone the chance to experience the majesty and beauty of Notre…
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Actual news outlet reports girl was virtually raped in GTA V News outlet claims modders are hackers, and they're "staging violent attacks" in Grand Theft Auto. Evidence: a lunatic blogger.
Top 10 licensed songs in gaming There are times when the use of a licensed piece of music is so perfect that it elevates the gaming experience to a new level.
The video games about nothing Seinfeld is famously a show about nothing, but indie developers continue to find plenty of something to work with.
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Apple is spending ~$500 million on Arcade exclusives Massive bid for market share also includes special perks for game devs to keep their titles off rival platforms.
Apple is on the ball with its effort to expand its influence in the gaming industry with the introduction of its upcoming Arcade service, and it’s said to be spending “hundreds of millions” of dollars – up to about $500 million in total – to secure exclusive games for the subscription-based platform. Financial Times quoted sources (paywalled link) stating that the tech giant is already spending “several” million dollars for each game it picks up, and is offering game developers special perks if they agree to keep their titles off Google’s rival platform, even console subscriptions like the Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. For its part, Apple has declined…
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Could Watch Dogs’ smart city ever become a reality? A smart city, driven by the Internet of Things. Is Watch Dogs merely a sci-fi vision, or a real glimpse at the future?
The spooky, gory, and gorgeous worlds of DOOM Sometimes, it pays to shoot pictures instead of demons.
One person’s long, arduous quest to restore the first color arcade game Ed Fries, a former Microsoft executive, has restored part of gaming's history in his garage.
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Sony reveals next-gen PlayStation 5, confirms backwards compatibility, raytracing and 8K 2020 at the earliest.
Fans of Sony’s leading games console, the PlayStation 4, have long awaited a successor to the popular platform that’s delivered everything from Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us to last year’s smash hits, Spider-Man and God of War. They will soon be getting their wish as Sony made a surprise info dump revealing their “next-generation plans” for the gaming world, which fans are unofficially referring to as the PS5. In an exclusive interview with PlayStation’s lead architect Mark Cerny, Wired got the first word of Sony’s plans to take their gaming endeavors to the next generation. The bad news is that it won’t be out this year, but the…
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The psychology behind your backlog of unplayed games As games become ever cheaper and ever longer, we must necessarily accrue ever bigger piles of unplayed titles. Feel bad about it? Psychology can explain.
Maps that matter: how to build great multiplayer FPS maps We spoke with a group of top game designers and covered just about everything about making maps people want to play again and again.
Playing with the human side of history Games traditionally present history as monolithic spectacle, but this new breed focuses on the individual experience of simply existing alongside great events.
