Freshly minted Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma has kicked off the newest era of Xbox leadership with an open thread on Elon Musk's social media platform. Coming from Microsoft's AI division, the former marketer with little experience in gaming faces a wave of skepticism from fans at the exact moment when trust in the Xbox brand has never been more challenged following waves of developer layoffs, game cancellations, and studio closures.
Roblox, the popular online gaming platform, is the target of a lawsuit filed by Los Angeles County seeking an injunction and civil penalties for allegations of false advertising, engaging in unfair competition and allowing "the systemic sexual exploitation and abuse of children across the United States." The suit, which follows changes and additions Roblox has made to its platform, including adding mandatory age verification for some features, is part of a barrage of legal action against gaming and social media platforms and how they handle use by teens and young children. Los Angeles County is also the site of an ongoing trial involving Meta over social media addiction.
Bryce Hopkins had 23 points and 10 rebounds as No. 17 St. John's defeated Marquette, 76-70, on Wednesday night to earn its 12th straight victory and move atop the Big East standings. St. John's (21-5, 14-1) rallied from a six-point deficit in the second half after squandering an 11-point lead. The Red Storm took over the conference lead from No. 5 UConn, which lost 91-84 at home to Creighton earlier Wednesday.
An estimated 13,000 Pokémon fans descended on London's ExCeL centre last weekend (Feb 13-15), travelling from all over the UK and the world, to attend the ninth annual Pokémon Europe International Championships (PEUIC). All united by their love for the Japanese game, the event saw 7,000 competitors take part in heated battles in the Trading Card Game (TCG), the Video Games Championships (VGC) and Pokémon GO. Competing is serious stuff, with winners taking home cash from a total prize pool of $500,000 (£369,170).
Mikael Kingsbury won the men's dual moguls final on Sunday to capture Canada's first gold medal of the Milano Cortina Olympic Games. Kingsbury won the big final against Ikuma Horishima of Japan, who took silver, while Matt Graham of Australia rounded out the podium in the bronze-medal position. It's the second medal win of these Games for the native of Deux-Montagnes, Que. Kingsbury took silver after losing a tiebreaker in the final of the moguls event on Thursday.
Ilia Malinin was born to skate. The child of two Olympic skaters-Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, who both competed for Uzbekistan-he first hit the ice at six years old. In the years since, he's skyrocketed to fame in the skating world, dubbing himself the " Quad God" for his ability to do multiple quadruple jumps with ease in a single program.
Overwatch 2, the free-to-play hero shooter from Blizzard, is now just Overwatch. The game is rebranding and dropping the '2' from its title as part of a major revamp that includes a new year-long story, 10 new heroes, and a host of new content, Blizzard announced Wednesday at its Overwatch Spotlight livestream. The game will get an all-new Season 1 with five of the 10 new heroes on February 10.
Mountaineers and climbers, especially the free-solo kind, are humanity's most fascinating maniacs: single-minded, daring souls who throw themselves into profoundly optional life-endangering feats. It is hard not to be compelled, and appalled, by someone like Alex Honnold. Even with ropes, a single wrong move can mean death in mountaineering, a mad human activity that puts you at the full mercy of nature.
We've somehow almost reached the end of January already, which means it's time for Sony to divulge the list of PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for February. They are Undisputed, Subnautica: Below Zero, Ultros and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. If you have a PS Plus subscription on any tier, you can claim these starting on February 3. After claiming them, these games will stay in your library as long as your PS Plus plan remains active.
PROVO, Utah -- Brayden Burries scored 29 points and made the game-saving block in the final seconds as top-ranked Arizona remained unbeaten by holding off a furious rally from No. 13 BYU for an 86-83 victory Monday night. Jaden Bradley added 26 points for the Wildcats (21-0, 9-0 Big 12), who matched the best start in school history. BYU trailed by 19 midway through the second half before trimming the deficit to
According to the trailer, the game takes place in a land called Philabieldia that's overrun by beasts, where humans must use a spell of safekeeping to keep their only remaining city, the Kingdom of Huther, safe from invasion. The titular Elliot is tasked with exploring a set of newfound ruins beyond the walls alongside his fairy companion Faie. Unknown to them, though, they will come across a door that will take them on a journey that spans thousands of years.
One of Mario Kart World's big novelties is its vast open-world map of race courses that connect to one another. Instead of competing on a series of isolated tracks, racing to the next course across open highways is part of the competition. This has made for some mixed results in traditional Grand Prix mode, where old-school fans prefer the "purity" of traditional closed-circuit loops, but it's also highlighted what's so fun about the game's new Knockout Tour mode.
If you've been enjoying the Pokémon TCG Pocket mobile game-the rush of opening up a new pack of cards-just imagine what it feels like to do it for real? Set your phone down and get back into the card game where it all started. Amazon happens to have a 50+ pack on sale for a couple bucks off. The global retail giant normally sells this collectors set for $10 even, but for a limited time, you can scoop up the pack for just $8.
Who's ready for more bad news for PC gaming? Samsung and SK Hynix are reportedly dropping NAND production to focus on DRAM. That could mean even more expensive SSDs. Bad timing for me to replace the PC I built back in 2015 with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960. Christopher Judge has weighed in on Ryan Hurst being Kratos in the Prime TV series
For a lot of the games I've written about in the C:\ArsGames series, I've come to the conclusion that the games hold up pretty well, despite their age- Master of Orion II, Jill of the Jungle, and Wing Commander Privateer, for example. Each of those have flaws that show now more than ever, but I still had a blast revisiting each of them.
Responding to widespread player annoyance at the amount of cheating that really seemed to kick off over the winter break, the studio made clear it had become a big priority, and really seems to be delivering on that promise. The latest patch addresses two big issues that were spoiling the game for many: people shooting from out-of-bounds, and those who had found exploits that let them shoot through the game's geometry. It also takes care of a naughty duplication glitch.
Daily fantasy players have a chance to secure $75 in fantasy entries with Underdog promo code AMNY. This is an opportunity for players to secure bonuses to use on Indiana-Miami or any other game this week. Click here to redeem this offer. New players can create a new account and start with a $5 fantasy play on the College Football Playoff, NBA, NHL, college basketball, NFL or any other sport this week. This will unlock $75 in fantasy entries, win or lose.
January is often a quiet month for big video game releases. So this cold, wintry month becomes a perfect time to evaluate your ever-growing backlog of video games and start chipping away at it. That's what many of us at Kotaku are doing right now, and so we figured hey, let's turn our lives into content for the website. Welcome to the start of Backlog Week, a way to celebrate, critically evaluate, and document those massive lists of games we all have.
