Casual

PC

Average Gamers Are Going To Hate BioShock Infinite’s 1999 Mode

4:00AM January 24, 2012 | Mike Fahey

When you first spin up BioShock Infinite later this year don’t expect to see the recently-announced retro-difficult 1999 mode on the main menu. That’s because it’s so tough Ken Levine doesn’t want “the non old-school, hardcore gamer” stumbling into it. More »

In Real Life

Rumour: Zynga Preps Employees For Friday IPO As Analyst Says Company Will Be Overpriced

12:20PM December 14, 2011 | Brian Crecente

Farmville creator and king of casual games Zynga is in the midst of preparing employees for a Friday IPO, a source close to the company tells Kotaku. More »

News

The Hardcore Gaming Myth

10:30AM September 24, 2011 | Tim Poon

Do you ever use a word despite without fully understanding what it means? I have a friend like that. He uses the word “frumpy”, but I’m fairly sure he’s never opened the dictionary to find out just what it means. In his mind, “frumpy” means “bloated” or “bored” or whatever he needs it to mean in his present case of misappropriation. More »

News

Short Name. Big Booth. Mystery To Westerners.

10:00PM September 20, 2011 | Brian Ashcraft

This booth was one of the biggest booths at the Tokyo Game Show. It took up one-tenth of the entire show floor. It wasn’t Sony’s. It wasn’t Square Enix’s. It wasn’t Capcom’s. The booth belonged to Gree. So what the hell is Gree? More »

In Real Life

Angry Birds Maker Says It’s Worth More Than PopCap

9:30AM July 14, 2011 | Owen Good

Whatever Electronic Arts is spending to acquire PopCap, its casual gaming rival Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds, would cost more. That’s according to … well, Rovio. More »

PC

Is ‘Familyville’ Zynga’s Answer To The Sims On Facebook?

3:00AM June 26, 2011 | Owen Good

Some URL sleuthing by the domain-watching site Fusible revealed that the domain familyville.com has changed hands and hosts in a manner similar to URLs for Zynga properties like Cityville. More »

PC

1 Vs. 100 Finds New Life On Facebook

5:00AM April 10, 2011 | Owen Good

People sometimes forget that 1 vs. 100, the MMO gameshow offered by Xbox Live from 2009 to 2010, is based on an actual gameshow of the same name and format, running in several countries, including the U.S. from 2006 to 2008. Though Microsoft declined to bring it back for a third season, it’ll be resuscitated as a Facebook game, though you won’t be playing it live with 100,000 of your closest friends. More »

News

PopCap’s New Studio Creates One Very Unpleasant Horse

4:20AM April 6, 2011 | Mike Fahey

PopCap Games, the creators of small-ish casual games such as Bejeweled and Plants Vs Zombies, has created a new studio to make games even smaller than those. Unpleasant Horse is one of those games. More »

PC

EA Sports And Major League Baseball Reconnect On Facebook

9:11AM March 31, 2011 | Owen Good

It’s not the return of MVP Baseball, the long lost and lamented Major League Baseball title that went into exile after 2005, but EA Sports has gotten back on the field with MLB in World Series Superstars, a Facebook game rumored to be in development that launched by surprise today. More »

News

Two Years In Jail For Hacker Who Stole $US300k From Zynga Poker

10:20AM March 24, 2011 | Owen Good

The British hacker who fleeced Zynga Poker for 400 billion chips, which have an official worth of $US12 million, $US300,000 on the black market, will serve two years in prison. More »