Saturday, October 4, 2008
DSi Won’t Replace The DS Lite (At Least Not In The US)
3:30PM Luke Plunkett | The DS Lite was a replacement for the DS. Came in, took over the place, you never saw the DS Phat again. So will the DSi do the same thing to the DS Lite? Not in the US, says Nintendo Smile Machine Cammie Dunaway: Right now we’re still working through what the strategy’s going to be here. But we think that there’s huge untapped potential for the DS Lite. Because when you’ve got only one in every five households in the U.S., compared to one in every two in Japan, it says there’s potential. You’ve seen some of the work we’ve done this year with celebrities, that we’re bringing a lot of new consumers in to the DS. So I think there’s opportunity for both of them to coexist for some period of time. You know, I still have nothing but a DS Phat. And when I see statements like this, I feel like the world’s just passing me by… Q&A: Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway Talks DSi, Club Nintendo [Wired] More »
Dirt, So Heavy, So Very Heavy
3:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Look at that. Yes, LOOK AT IT. Our make-something-with-dirt Fracture contest is in full swing. Kotaku reader Brine made this portrait of Heavy from TF2. So amazing. Here’s what’s going on: Make something with dirt to win a copy of Fracture. Anything is okay! Dirt painting, dirty sculpture, dirty dirt dirt. Take a picture, put a Kotaku sign on it and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. Contest ends next Friday, October 10th. Dirt lasts forever. Fracture [Official Site] More »
Who Are Japan’s Biggest DS Users?
2:30PM Luke Plunkett | Go on. Guess. The elderly? WRONG. Teenage girls? WRONG. Japan’s biggest users of the DS are (according to this Nintendo-supplied chart, anyways) the same who were the biggest users of the GBA, and the Game Boy before that: boys. Specifically, 10-12 year-old boys. After that, though, it gets interesting. The most dominant demographics after the boys are women in their early 30s, followed by 10-12 year-old girls, followed by men in their early 30s. Not teens, not twenty-somethings, but people in their early 30s. Anyone in charge of putting the questions together for their Friday night pub trivia competition, these ones are on the house. More »
AC/DC Rock Bands Does Indeed Have Its Own Achievements, Trophies
1:40PM Luke Plunkett | Need one more (or a) reason to get the AC/DC Rock Band expansion, achievement whores? You got one. The disc will be shipping with its own set of “unique” achievements, as well as – according to Harmonix – “several that are song specific”. PS3 owners, same story, you’ll get trophies. Presumably (hopefully?) one of them will be for nailing the piggish “oi! oi! oi!” in TNT. Will the AC/DC disc come with Achievements/Trophies? [Rock Band] More »
MadWorld To Be Released In The US And…Uh…
1:20PM Luke Plunkett | Platinum Games’ MadWorld looks great. Really getting the most out of that Wii hardware. Should be a blast! But if you live in Japan, Australia or Germany, be warned: you may be on the outside looking in on this one. While the game is to be aggressively geared towards the American market, it won’t – as we’ve pointed out – even be shown at TGS, and releases in other “sensitive” markets – like Germany and Australia – are “not part of Sega’s strategy right now”. Bummer. Best you Germans and us Australians can hope for is that the classification boards go easy on it on the grounds it’s “comic” violence. Sega Working Closely With ESRB On Ultra-Violent ‘MadWorld,’ Japanese Release May Not Happen [MTV] More »
What’s The Most You’ve Paid For A Game?
1:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Look at the calender. Do it! It’s F-r-i-d-a-y. Time to Tell Us Dammit, no make that, TELL US DAMMIT. Here’s how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn’t some marketing survey or whatever. It’s an emotional investment in you. Yes, we’re interested in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know fucktons about us — more than you even want to, we’re sure. But, hey, we’d like to know about you. That way you won’t be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your arse. Or not, because really we’re incapable of human emotion. Who knows! Not I, not I. Question: What’s the most you’ve shelled out for a game? [AU: Ha! What are the odds the Americans at the MOST pay what we have to put up with everyday? --SB] More »Pro Gamer Schools Pro Blogger
12:40PM Adam Barenblat | This past Wednesday Erika “Skittles” Galegor, professional Project Gotham 3 gamer, was kind enough to meet me at the Flatiron mall in Broomfield, Colorado for an interview. We had to setup the interview pretty quick actually because as it turned out “Skittles” was leaving the next day for Los Angeles to compete in the World Cyber Games National Finals at ‘E for All. So I decided to employ the help of two of my very good friends Andrew Croft and Matt Schultz to shoot the segment. What she didn’t know was that we didn’t only bring the camera, we rigged Project Gotham Racing 3 in the back of the car. America’s Best To Compete at World Cyber Games Finals in LA More »
Retailers Listing Spore ‘Expansion’
12:20PM Luke Plunkett | Listings have turned up on both GameStop and Amazon’s store pages for a Spore expansion. Sorry, “expansion”. Called Spore Cute & Creepy Parts Pack, it’s got a shipping date of November 18, and is currently listed at $20. Going by the name – and really, that’s all we’ve got to go off at the moment – we’re subtly led to believe it’s a new box of spare parts than anything that’ll add any new meat to the mechanics of the game. And for $20, there’d want to be a hell of a lot of spare parts in there. Spore Cute & Creepy Parts Pack [GameStop, via Hooked On Spore] More »
Super Big Let’s TGS Round-Up
12:00PM Brian Crecente | That’s right boys and girls, next week is the official kick off of the Tokyo Game Show. Technically the show starts on Thursday, but four of us will be safely ensconced in Tokyo come Monday to start digging stories and interviewing… well hopefully developer types. This year’s Tokyo Game Show will be brought to you by myself, Brian Ashcraft, Luke Plunkett and Michael McWhertor, with back-breaking post counts and Tower support coming from Fahey and crew. As with past coverage we’ll keep this single post updated throughout the show by category so you can bookmark it now if you want a single stop shop for all Tokyo Game Show news. See you on Monday, can’t wait. More »
