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Image: Team Cherry, Epic Games, CD Projekt Red, Warner Bros., Paramount, Ubisoft, Capcom / Natalia Klenova / Kotaku (Shutterstock), Sega / IHOP, Kotaku / Reddit / Valve, Screenshot: Kick / Bohemia Interactive / Kotaku
April Fools’ is always a weird time for news, because it’s hard for us to discern the real from the fake. There were quite a few game-related April Fools’ jokes this year, but there was also a lovely, real bit of Hollow Knight Silksong news to balance everything out. Plus, this week had streamers getting banned from servers and a cancelled Batman game that would have been based on the Christopher Nolan movies. Click through for this week’s hottest news.
Image: Team Cherry
This year, like every year, the gaming industry celebrated April Fools’ Day with a myriad of fake news to entertain fans. That included classic celebrations in Overwatch and the continuation of a tired trend by Palworld’s devs. But one of the most unexpected April Fools’ Day developments came from Hollow Knight Silksong, in the form of an Xbox store page for the long-awaited title. Even more shocking, the page is real—despite the day it appeared on. - Willa Rowe Read More
Image: Epic Games
A newly released game industry report by market researcher Newzoo shows that while the PC and console market grew 2.6 percent in 2023, overall playtime decreased as gamers spent more and more time in a smaller list of old games like Fortnite and League of Legends. - Zack Zwiezen Read More
Image: CD Projekt Red
April Fools’ Day 2024 is upon us. Fans and brands use the annual holiday for goofs and giggles and to share the shitposts they’ve been cooking up all year. Though the shitposts sometimes just kinda end up being shit, some of them are genuinely good jokes. This year, we decided to round up some of the best April Fools’ Day jokes in the video game industry, from Among Us to Cyberpunk 2077. - Kenneth Shepard Read More
Image: Warner Bros.
Back in the early 2010s, Batman was all the rage. Actually, what am I talking about? Batman is still all the rage, but at the time, it was an especially hot property. In the world of video games, Rocksteady’s Arkham series was taking off while Christopher Nolan was rounding the corner on his widely acclaimed trilogy of Batman films starring Christian Bale. At the same time, Monolith Productions, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Games, was working on its own Batman game set in the “Nolanverse” that never quite got off the ground, and was eventually reworked into that studio’s breakout hit, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. - Moises Taveras Read More
Screenshot: Kick / Bohemia Interactive / Kotaku
Controversial Kick streamer Felix “xQc” Lengyel has found himself not welcomed in the DayZ community. An admin in one of the multiplayer zombie survival game’s popular servers recently banned him, with his status as a streamer seeming the likely reason. - Levi Winslow Read More
Image: Paramount
Sometimes, movies premiere on the same day and live harmonious lives at the box office. Last summer, Barbenheimer, the coexistence of Barbie and Oppenheimer, prompted movie theater marathons, memes, and cosplay dedicated to the diametrically opposed films. But that’s not always what happens, sometimes fans pit movies against each other. Now, normally, I am not rooting for things to fail, but in the battle between the Shadow the Hedgehog-led Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie and the Mufasa-led Lion King prequel nobody asked for, I’m hoping that hedgehog throws the lion into a stampede of wildebeests ahead of schedule. - Kenneth Shepard Read More
Image: Ubisoft
In an increasingly digital age, owning media outright has become less and less possible. Whether it’s movies, music, books, or video games, the pivot to digital has made it harder for consumers to own permanent, physical copies of their favorite pieces of media. In video games, myriad titles that players have spent time and money on have been taken offline by publishers, never to be played again. Legislation around this is spotty worldwide, and some companies have gotten away with raking in consumer money just to pull the plug on a game months or years down the line. However, YouTube channel Accursed Farms is starting a coordinated campaign to force stronger legislation against this practice, with Ubisoft’s racing game The Crew at the center of it. - Kenneth Shepard Read More
Image: Capcom / Natalia Klenova / Kotaku (Shutterstock)
Often, when you rest in Dragon’s Dogma 2, your main Pawn will pick up work from other players online. These loyal non-playable characters in Capcom’s latest high-fantasy role-playing game tend to return bearing gifts, such as the currency Rift Crystals (which you can use to hire other players’ main Pawns) or consumables for health and stamina replenishment. However, not every player that hires your Pawn for a job is a real person, a feature Capcom seemingly designed to make sure every servant gets their participation trophies. - Levi Winslow Read More
Image: Sega / IHOP
Today might be April Fools’ Day—a horrible holiday where brands post “jokes” about fake products—but I assure you this new Sonic The Hedgehog-themed menu at IHOP is totally real, available nationwide, and can provide you with new, exclusive Sonic DLC. - Zack Zwiezen Read More
Image: Kotaku / Reddit / Valve
The nearly $700 Limited Edition Steam Deck OLED was released in November 2023 and came with all the improvements found in the normal OLED Deck, but also sported a translucent plastic shell. But this pricier, limited variant seems to be cracking due to overly-tight screws and possible issues with the special plastic used to create its transparent shell. - Zack Zwiezen Read More
