Over the weekend, this weird-looking Pokemon began popping up in Pokemon GO. Players wanted to know more about it, but they couldn’t even catch it; when they tried, the creature would often turn into a Ditto.

No shortage of memes and conspiracy theories ensued, but last night Nintendo introduced the creature in a new Pokemon: Let’s Go trailer as the mythical Pokemon Meltan.

When I saw Cyberpunk 2077 at Gamescom, shortly before a 48 minute video went up online for the public, it blew me away. One of the things that stuck with me after the presentation, however, wasn't the game itself but a statement from level designer Miles Tost, who told us "being a Cyberpunk is all about being your authentic self, no matter who that is."

My kids love Ninja.

When I told them about the shocking thing that happened at the Madden tournament in Florida last month, where two gamers were shot dead, their immediate reaction was “WAS IT NINJA?”

Telltale Games employees were surprised when CEO Pete Hawley announced the closure of the company at a staff-wide meeting. One employee, a source told Kotaku, had been working until 3:00AM the night before with no inkling that the studio was about to let them and over 200 other employees go, leaving behind a skeleton crew of 25 to finish off work on a final project (Minecraft: Story Mode according to Variety).

The newest episode of YouTube show Boundary Break jumps behind the scenes of Arkham Knight. It shows off how great the staging of the game is.

Fifteen years ago, I played Theme Hospital religiously as a medical student. Now, I find myself playing Two Point Hospital as a medical administrator. That's video games for you.

The silly season rolls on. While there's no major platform exclusive, there's plenty of highlights: the Life is Strange sequel lands, football fans get another story mode to explore in FIFA 19, Ultimate Chicken Horse gets pride of place on the Switch, and Valkyria Chronicles 4 officially drops. There's also a new Pathfinder game, which is fun.

This week, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe got online voice chat as part of Nintendo Switch Online. Before now, I didn’t think I would want to hear from any of my competitors in Mario Kart. Turns out, it rules.

Destiny 2’s new expansion, Forsaken, turns the game into something that people can play as much as they want without running out of things to do. If anything, its tantalising new pursuits, designed to satisfy the appetites of the series’ most voracious players, may be too life-consuming.

Telltale Games, makers of The Walking Dead adventure games and several other episodic series, laid off many of its developers today and may be shutting down according to messages on social media, a report by The Verge, and a Kotaku source with knowledge of the matter.

This week on Kotaku Splitscreen, we raided some tombs.

Destiny 2’s infusion system allowed players to easily power up their favourite gear to use throughout their adventure. Forsaken has tweaked how upgrading is handled; the change shakes up player’s arsenals and encourages experimentation, at the cost of making customisation and identity-building more expensive (and grindy) than before.

I played Red Dead Redemption 2 for the first time this week, and I swiftly caused glorious chaos.

Australian cosplayer A.K. Wirru pulled off a terrific cosplay of iconic fighting game character Mai Shiranui. Here’s how he did it.

In the lawless, wild west industry that is streaming video games, and the surprising gold rush that has gamers handing in their resignations, an time-honoured line of work is now arriving on the scene: debt collection.

Nintendo Switch Online hasn’t even been out for a day and hackers have already found a way to upload new NES games to its existing library.

Once an entertaining hypothetical, Sony’s answer to the NES Classic is now an actual retro gaming console due out before the end of the year. Here’s a perfectly reasonable list of games and features that could help make the PlayStation Classic a more enjoyable and authentic experience.

I'm sitting towards the back of a cinema -- the smaller ones, not your IMAX or V-Max-type screens. It's been about two hours, and a grouping of brand managers, marketers and executives have been taken through the basics of what esports is, what a professional gamer is, and what games "qualify" as an esport.

And then a slide comes up. It's the Blizzard Arena, in Burbank, California. The speaker pivots: this was the studio that Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show in for 30 years.

When people talk about the current golden age of TV, they're usually referring to big, serious dramas like Breaking Bad or The Wire. I am here today to tell you that Avatar: The Last Airbender, an animated show about a group of magical kids who ride around on a flying buffalo, deserves to be counted among them.