Photo: Roblox Corp / Kotaku, Image: Black Tabby Games, Bungie, CSA Images / Sony / Kotaku, Treyarch / Activision
This week saw the arrival of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and with it, the return of a classic Zombies experience. It’s terrific, and took our writer right back to the nights he spent happily playing the mode with friends back in the days of Black Ops 3. Meanwhile, the arrival of Destiny 2‘s latest content update, and the terrible drop rate for god rolls on its hottest weapon, has some fans certain that there’s a statistical disadvantage for that drop to occur. The result is a compelling conspiracy theory about how loot drops actually work in Destiny 2, and given that the community has the statistics to back it up, Bungie is now conducting its own investigation. Find these stories and more in the pages ahead.
New data from Norway examines how video games influence children, their social behaviors, and their spending habits. It turns out, younger players are being bullied over their lack of cosmetic skins, are using in-game items to become more popular, and are struggling to avoid all the ads and user-made scams connected to popular online games like FIFA, Fortnite, and Warzone.
The Week In Games: Co-Op Bug Blasting And More New Releases
As reported by Crossplay—a gaming newsletter focused on parents and kids founded by former Kotaku writer Patrick Klepek—a pair of studies by Norwegian researchers include some alarming information about how kids between the ages of 10-15 interact with video games and how these popular games can have big effects on their social lives. The studies were conducted by researchers Kamilla Knutsen Steinnes and Clara Julia Reich of Oslo Metropolitan University as part of a larger initiative by Norway’s government to understand the relationship between children and games.
According to Reich, their findings show that how a child appears in a game can play a “crucial” role in how other kids treat them.
“Children may experience being called poor if they haven’t spent money on their character. Children who have spent money on their in-game character can gain increased attention and other advantages, thus buying popularity,” said Steinnes.
This is because nowadays, children’s digital and real lives are one and the same. Wearing the right skin in Fortnite is just as important as dressing correctly at school, according to the studies. And kids who can’t afford the right gear or who don’t play games are struggling to fit in.
“There’s no sharp distinction between their online and offline world. These are just different parts of the social world they navigate, and appearance, or skins, are important identity markers,” said Steinnes.
One 13-year-old, Frank, added: “If you don’t play with anyone, you kind of have nothing to talk about at school.”
“Kids into football play FIFA and spend money on in-game items that confer status, while others spend money on effects from Nike, Balenciaga, or Star Wars. They are influenced by memes and trends on platforms like TikTok,” said Reich.
Speaking to Crossplay, the researchers further elaborated:
The pressure to fit in resembles what is already taking place in other contexts but takes on new forms. Some children might end up feeling excluded if they lack the resources (e.g., Wi-Fi, gaming equipment, in-game currency) to play with their friends or might get picked on based on what ‘skin’ they are wearing.
Publishers and scammers are taking advantage of kids
Making things worse is that video game publishers have become very skilled at constantly advertising games and in-app purchases to kids. This means it’s becoming harder and harder for children to focus on other things in their lives, making the pressure to have the coolest skin grow even worse. And for kids who can’t afford to fit in, they can be bullied or treated poorly by their peers. For girls, this abuse is often worse, both in and out of games.
“I heard things like ‘go back to the kitchen’, and it was like ‘you’re a girl, die, die, die’. It was, like, very graphic,” said Sidra, a 14-year-old girl who was part of the study. The study also showed that skins and in-game cosmetics can create “digital body-image” issues, too.
Another problem found in the studies is that kids report being scammed. The researchers suggest that this is because kids lack “consumer competence” but are being thrust into situations where they encounter high-pressure sales tactics built around making them feel like they have to act fast or miss out. And when someone comes along promising them cheap currency or a good deal, kids might not realize it’s a scam until it’s too late.
“This is problematic because children and young people are a vulnerable consumer group navigating almost unregulated markets on their own,” said Reich.
Overall, it’s enough to make me thankful I don’t have kids and don’t have to help them navigate the modern world of free-to-play video games that often share more in common with casinos than they do with other games you play for fun. And as the internet becomes more and more a part of every bit of our lives and games become more and more popular on mobile devices, the situation may only get worse.
Valentine’s Day is that famous point of year where magic is in the air, there’s a twinkle in your eye, and you confess your romantic feelings by inflicting diabetes through excessive chocolate foisting.
For all the rest of us who are forever alone on this day, your lovelorn friends at Twinfinite have got the perfect consolation prize with this list of games where your character can get married.
We are excluding games where the sole objective is dating, because that’s cheating, and we all know cheating is toxic for a relationship. If you’re keen on that kind of content, you might like to browse our list of great dating sims, or learn about why the dating sim genre is so popular.
Please don’t point out that I wrote both of those articles. I’m not sad, I’m just surrounded by handsome fictional men.
Story of Seasons
Image Source: Marvelous Games
Since those nostalgic days playing Harvest Moon on the SNES, the franchise now known as Story of Seasons has offered a selection of eligible townsfolk for you to woo and wed. After all, the best thing for running your stables is, undoubtedly, a stable relationship.
The latest entry, 2023’s remake of the GameCube title Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, only has eight candidates for marriage, but they’re all so charming it’s still worth the effort. You can seduce them in the conventional manner, by engaging them in uplifting discussions and gifting them with their favorite items.
Or, you can play the role of sleazy creeper by tracking down their hidden diaries to ascertain exactly what their darkest desires crave. Maybe it’ll be a fun story to tell your grandkids later on. Or maybe, it’ll result in a restraining order. Only one way to find out, so let’s hunt down those juicy farmin’ secrets.
Final Fantasy XIV
Image Source: Square Enix
Do you remember back when you were a little kid, and you swore to your mother you would marry a catgirl someday? Oh, how she laughed, but who’s laughing now, mom? Me and my super cute Miqo’te waifu, that’s who.
Final Fantasy XIV doesn’t have traditional marriage, but instead, the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding. You’ll be able to invite 40 of your closest friends — or your worst enemies, just to keep them in check — and exchange rings with your betrothed.
This bling will allow you to teleport directly next to your partner, which makes the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding a helpful option if you like to adventure with your sweetheart. The Ceremony of Eternal Bondage, on the other hand, is much less romantic but I hear the fanart is quite stunning.
Skyrim
Image Source: Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda’s seminal open world RPG is an intense, heroic romp where you must slay foul beasts, save the planet, and shout with pure ferocity at thine foes. With that being said, it does have a marriage feature, so if you’d prefer you can shout with pure ferocity at your spouse, instead.
Though you’re not able to pick from every single one of the various races in the kingdom (no Khajiit means my kitty waifu dreams are over before they ever really began), there’s still an extensive roster for the discerning Dragonborn.
Married life has its own benefits, including skill-learning bonuses or delicious meals that boost your Health, Stamina, and Magicka. I’m not sure what kind of affectionate cooking Borgakh the orc warrior has within her repertoire, but it almost certainly involves meat. Maybe just don’t ask what kind of meat.
Fire Emblem
Image Source: Nintendo
Marriage between two units has been a mechanic in Fire Emblem for quite some time, and is still ongoing to this day on the Nintendo Switch. Engage’s Alear can form an eternal bond with their beloved, and Byleth can cross the boundaries of appropriate teaching conduct by taking the hand of one of their former students. May I suggest Raphael?
Never was the function quite as prevalent as it was on the 3DS. In both Awakening and Fates, nearly all of your colleagues can wed one another, producing a child unit who shares in their unique traits. It’s up to you whether you want to pair the two best suited to one another in-universe, or just awkwardly mash them together in the hopes of their offspring being really handy with a lance.
Alas, Western audiences were robbed of Fire Emblem Fates’ true potential; in the original Japanese release, marrying an ally would lead to a mini game where you could lovingly stroke their face. It was weird as hell, and in the end you probably just ended up poking Felicia in the eye repeatedly until she demanded a divorce.
Love is fickle, I guess. Now back to the relentless poking.
Tomodachi Life
Image Source: Nintendo
Living on a remote island sure has its advantages, and you’d be surprised just who ends up moving in. While I was playing Tomodachi Life, I was resolute that LeBron James was destined to marry Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada.
It took some hard work — as well as deterring the interferences of the lovestruck Margaret Thatcher, who was convinced that LeBron should have eyes only for her — but eventually the pair fell in love, got married, and moved to a quiet abode nearby.
This barely scratches the surface of this game’s potential for matchmaking bliss. You can create a Mii lookalike based on yourself, and tie the knot with your childhood crush. Or you can let fate take its course and wait until two neighbors take an interest in one another.
The result is a baby that ages at an alarming rate, and upon reaching their teenage years is sent off on an endless mission to travel the world. It’s not exactly model parenting, but I never picked Miranda as the motherly type in the first place.
Fable
Image Source: Lionhead Studios
Up to this point, this list has been a mostly romantic affair. Meet someone, fall in love, and join one another in holy matrimony.
Action RPG Fable plays its cards a little differently, on the other hand, as not every marriage is smooth sailing, and you’ll have to work hard to keep your spouse appeased. Treat them poorly enough and they’ll call the whole thing off — and yet, they can count themselves lucky.
For you see, if you are well and truly through with the old ball and chain, you can elect to instead murder them and put yourself back on the market. Perhaps on your Tinder profile, you can imply that you’re “dangerous” in order to build intrigue.
Would you swipe right on a murderer? I’m not picky, myself. Technically I think I’m married to a Probopass at this point in time.
Stardew Valley
Image via Blue_Starkiller
Considering it is almost eight years old at this point, we can’t exactly proclaim Stardew Valley to be the new kid on the farming sim block anymore. Despite this, it’s still a huge deal, and the discourse rages on as to whom in Pelican Town is the most eligible bachelor/bachelorette/béchamel sauce.
By building up your affection with the various denizens, you’ll undergo a series of events that reveal their true character. This allows you to really get to know them over a sustained period of time before you deign to pop that important question.
If you’re feeling indecisive, please take a moment to consider the above image of a shirtless, muscular, and hirsute Clint. As this is merely the result of a third party mod and not in fact representative of actual gameplay, it is largely irrelevant to this piece.
And yet, grrrrrrr, daddy, am I right?
The Sims
Image Source: Maxis Studios
For generations, the Sims games have been a realistic facsimile for the trials and tribulations of a long life. Just like us, the Sims can fall desperately in love, get married, and settle down with a baby. Just like us, sometimes everything catches fire and one Sim is forever haunted by the ethereal presence of their deceased lover.
That’s probably the worst case scenario, and in fairness, I’m not always haunted by the ethereal presence of my deceased lover (it’s only in the evenings, and all day on the weekend unless it’s football season). Your love-filled Sims session might pan out much better.
The safest way to ensure this is by reading our list of the best Sims 4 mods, so I recommend you do that now. If you don’t, well, I hope you don’t mind hanging out with the ghosts of those you failed, you heartless wretch.
My Time (Series)
Image Source: Pathea Games
In the same vein as Story of Seasons and Stardew Valley, the My Time games plonk you in the middle of a struggling society and task you with restoring it. In My Time at Portia, you’ll do so as a famous builder. In My Time at Sandrock, you’ll do much the same except with sand! Glorious.
Once again, gifts are the name of the game, and you’ll have to listen hard if you’re keen on courting one of several eligible parties. Sandrock’s range of romanceable characters includes a tightlipped doctor, a recent divorcee, and a hardened criminal.
Different strokes for different folks, I’m actually inclined to believe the doctor would be the least considerate in the bedroom. These are the kinds of things I think about when I’m playing the video games.
BitLife
Image Source: Candywriter
Look, marriage isn’t some treasured thing for all of us. Some folks just want to secure a suitable partner, procreate, and then spend the rest of our existence in quiet disdain. You might find it passionless, I’d prefer to think of it as highly efficient.
In the life simulator BitLife, your goal is to guide a particular soul toward your preferred destination. You might want to see them become a world-renowned athlete, or maybe you’d like for them to pursue a career in the porn industry. Either way, little BitLife child, just know that your mumsy and dada are very proud.
Marriage is of course a possibility, and you can even be coerced into an arranged marriage. If you refuse, your digital parents may push the issue until you’ve become completely estranged from the family and are banished from the lineage forevermore. I think at one point I implied that this was supposed to be a romantic article, so my (in)sincerest apologies for leaving things on a sour note. I ain’t got Valentime for this nonsense.
We hope you enjoyed this passionate compendium of games where your character can get married. Perhaps you’ll feel inspired to try them for yourself, or even to go out and have a shotgun wedding at the earliest opportunity? Seems a bit drastic to me, but you do you, boo.
About the author
Tony Cocking
A miserable little pile of secrets. Unabashed Nintendo stan, Resident Evil fancier and obscure anime enthusiast who insists everything is funnier when the rule of three is applied. Oh, and once I saw a blimp!
Gamers are a passionate bunch, and we’re no exception. These are the week’s most interesting perspectives on the wild, wonderful, and sometimes weird world of video game news.
The Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: August 2023 Edition
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the new animated series based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novels, is out on Netflix. The eight-episode series reunites the voice cast of the 2010 live-action movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and is a hilarious blend of the series’ quick wit and well-measured pop culture references. All of this sounds like a recipe for success, right? Well, it’s a little more complicated. Read More
Ubisoft’s new The Divisiongame isn’t even out yet, as it’s still in beta testing and won’t launch officially until 2024. But after trying the beta, I already want one feature from the upcoming game to become standard in every video game I play in the future. Read More
OpenAI is the research organization behind ChatGPT, the AI-generated chatbot that took the internet by storm last year for its capacity to have really weird conversations with tech journalists. It’s at the center of Microsoft’s big bet on generative AI tools transforming the world, gaming, and more, and it’s now at risk of imploding after its CEO, Sam Altman, was mysteriously ousted by the OpenAI board of directors and Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear was desperately recruited to replace him. Here’s all you really need to know about OpenAI to appreciate what a clusterfuck the last few days have been. Read More
How much time has to pass before it becomes acceptable to remaster or even remake a game? 10 years? 15 years? What about three-ish years? Is that enough time between the original and the remaster? Well, that’s what’s happening early next year as Naughty Dog is remastering 2020’s The Last of Us Part II.Read More
Image: Kotaku / Asier Romero / Luis Molinero (Shutterstock)
Whenever a new blockbuster first-person shooter drops, gamers limber up so they can once again argue over how multiplayer matches get made and the algorithmic systems that determine who plays against whom and when. The recent release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is no exception—not long after its multiplayer servers booted on November 10, players began flocking to Reddit, X (Twitter), and everywhere in between to complain about the quality (or perceived lack thereof) of Activision’s matchmaking. But, as with so many issues in the gaming industry, there’s a serious lack of nuance and true understanding at play here. Read More
Remember when it took us seven years to get a new The Last of Us game? Remember when there was even a question about whether or not we’d ever get a sequel to Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic action game because the ending was so intentionally ambiguous and thought-provoking?
Now, it seems we can’t go a year without being reminded that Sony thinks as many people should experience this series as possible, while folks associated with the HBO adaptation praise the game in ways that border on the absurd. Now, we’re getting a remaster of The Last of Us Part II, and it feels like we’re reaching peak Last of Us fatigue. Read More
Gamers are a passionate bunch, and we’re no exception. These are the week’s most interesting perspectives on the wild, wonderful, and sometimes weird world of video game news.
6 Things To Know Before Starting Persona 5 Tactica
This is Lars Wingefors, the CEO of Embracer, a Swedish holding company that owns multiple video game publishers, dozens of studios, and employs over 16,500 people. Or at least it used to. Embracer has been laying off hundreds, canceling projects, and closing studios as it reckons with deals that fell through, ambitious bets on big games, and an unprecedented acquisition spree that saw the investor group hoover up everything it could, from the studio behind Deus Ex to the license for The Lord of the Rings. One company to rule them all. That seemed to be the extent of the strategy. Read More
I love Persona 5, but over the years, Atlus’ stylish, supposedly socially-conscious RPG hasn’t loved me. Queer Persona fans know the series to be fraught, and even the most passionate among us treat it like the fun uncle who claims to love everyone and still says something extremely out of pocket each holiday. I figured Persona 5 Tactica, the tactical spin-off launching on November 17, would follow all the previous games and find some way to throw a jab at queer people for no reason. But after years of feeling like one of my favorite series has been trying to push me out, Tactica opened the door for me, if only for a moment. Read More
It’s been nearly a decade since GamerGate, the misogynistic game industry tantrum that harassed women under the guise of demanding journalistic ethics—yet 2023 has felt like we’re not that far past it at all. Read More
I liked Crash Team Rumble. I even said as much on this very website when the brawler MOBA launched back in June. But man, seeing them add Spyro, Crash’s flying, fire-breathing, OG PlayStation platformer contemporary to the roster just makes me wish we had a new Spyro the Dragon game. Read More
With the wind at their back, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan and head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst recently presented the state of the PlayStation 5 ecosystem to investors and hinted at what’s coming in the near future. Among other things, the company promised new IPs, more live-service games, and a big push behind cloud gaming.
Type S: Chiaki’s Journey II Volume 4
While Sony’s big gaming showcase will offer specific details on new game announcements, release dates, and potential hardware refreshes, the investor presentation was a broader look at the current state of the PlayStation business and where it’s headed next. We got a pretty granular breakdown of some interesting sales data as well as cryptic teases of upcoming initiatives, like Sony’s rumored cloud gaming handheld, Q Lite [Update 5/25/2023 11:07 a.m. ET: the devices was revealed in the showcase and it’s wild looking]. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the company’s latest business meeting.
PS VR2 is already outselling the first virtual reality headset
Sony’s new virtual reality headset is a comfortable but pricey bundle that requires users to already own a PS5, but initial sales numbers show it’s actually tracking ahead of the first PS VR headset. PS VR2 sold 600,000 units in its first six weeks, while the PS VR1 sold closer to 550,000. Whether that momentum will build the platform into something more than an expensive accessory for enthusiasts remains to be seen.
Image: Sony / Kotaku
Analysts previously called for a price cut to fuel sales, and it’s unclear if big new games will arrive without a larger install base, especially as companies like Meta lay off VR developers amid cutbacks.
Sony plans to invest a ton in new franchises
Since the PS5 launched, fans have been waiting to see what new IPs would grow out of the latest console generation. So far it’s been mostly sequels to series that already existed or got their start on the PS4 like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Spider-Man. But Sony revealed that new franchises are planned. PlayStation Studios’ investment in new IP will hit 50 percent in 2025, compared to only 20 percent in 2019. However the lag in production means we might not end up seeing the results of that spending until late in the PS5’s life cycle.
Live-service games will be over half of that spending
Sony’s first-party single-player games have been setting the bar for story-driven blockbusters for years now, from The Last of Us to Ghost of Tsushima. It’s clear the company now wants to do the same for live-service multiplayer games as well, and will be leveraging its recent acquisition of Destiny 2 maker Bungie to achieve that.
Image: Sony / Kotaku
The breakdown of total spending on content this year will be 55 percent on live-service business models vs 45 percent on “traditional” ones. The difference will be even more stark by 2025, when live-service spending will reach 60 percent of seemingly all production costs. It’s possible some of those games will still have a traditional single-player emphasis and just include cosmetic shops, like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Others are sure to be multiplayer-focused affairs more like Destiny 2.
PS5 owners spend a ton on microtransactions
Prestigious exclusives might help sell consoles, but it’s not what makes the most money once players are locked in. Sony revealed that PS5 players are spending over $100 more than PS4 players were at a similar point in the console cycle. That extra money isn’t coming from more games sold, however. It’s coming from spending on add-on content, meaning paid DLC and microtransactions.
Full game sales actually dropped by 10 percent on the PS5, while add-on content grew by 210 percent. Although Sony collects a 30 percent commission on all in-game purchases in Fortnite, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, and Apex Legends on the platform, it would stand to make a ton more if those purchases were made inside its own first-party exclusives.
Spider-Man sold great on PC while The Last of Us Part I is off to a slower start
2018’s Spider-Man didn’t arrive on PC until last year. In the eight months since it hit PC, the game sold an additional 1.5 million copies on the platform. The Last of Us Part I, meanwhile, has sold 368,000 copies since it arrived on Steam in March. That’s not bad considering it’s a remaster of a decade-old game many people have already played on PS3, PS4, and PS5. But it’s not exactly God of War numbers, which sold nearly a million copies in its first two and a half months on PC.
Image: Sony / Kotaku
It’s not clear how much The Last of Us Part I’s rough performance and poor optimization at launch hurt its initial momentum, compared to the overall increase in sales of the game across all platforms following the success of the hit HBO adaptation. It seems like the port was in part a learning exercise for Naughty Dog, potentially as Sony eyes bringing the rest of its games to PC.
Half of all game releases won’t just be on PS5 by 2025
In the past Sony seemed afraid to cannibalize console sales by releasing its games on PC. Now it’s clear the company is ready to do just the opposite, porting its exclusives and investing in potential mobile spin-offs. The company plans for 50 percent of its releases in 2025 to be either PC or mobile games.
A lot of players are paying for the more expensive PlayStation Plus subscriptions
When Sony unveiled its overhauled PS Plus program, creating three separate tiers and folding its PlayStation Now streaming service into the priciest one, it seemed needlessly complicated. The highest tier, Premium, also didn’t seem worth the extra price in exchange for a slim selection of PlayStation Classics and cloud gaming features that are still a work-in-progress.
Image: Sony / Kotaku
It turns out a lot of people were willing to upgrade, however. Sony says 14.1 million subscribers joined the higher tiers in the first 10 months, which now represent 30 percent of all PS Plus users. And Premium actually accounts for the majority of those with 17 percent of total subscribers, while the middle-tier, Extra, only has 13 percent.
The first PlayStation mobile game will arrive as early as 2023
Sony said it’s currently “partnered with established teams on games,” and “bringing some of our most celebrated IP to mobile,” with the first set to release in fiscal year 2023. The company acquired mobile maker Savage Game Studios last August and Bungie has also long been rumored to be working on a mobile version of Destiny 2. According to Sony’s charts, the mobile gaming market is already bigger than console and PC gaming combined, and it only projects that gap to widen in the coming years.
Sony’s doubling-down on cloud gaming
In the most cryptic part of the presentation, CEO Jim Ryan said the company has “some fairly interesting and quite aggressive plans to accelerate our initiatives in the space of the cloud.” He didn’t elaborate on what those are, but made the comment in the context of mobile gaming and portability. It certainly raises eyebrows since Sony has also now revealed a cloud gaming handheld codenamed Project Q that would be a remote play accessory for the PS5.
PS Plus also doesn’t currently support cloud gaming on smartphones either, requiring you to use a PS4, PS5, or PC. We do know that Sony has been developing a number of patents to decrease latency while streaming games, and The Verge previously reported that the company is hiring for a number of roles to build out its cloud gaming infrastructure. Cloud gaming has been at the center of the regulatory fight over Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, and it seems like whatever the outcome of that proposed merger, Sony wants to take back some of the video game streaming market share it previously ceded to Game Pass and xCloud.
Before I became a game reviewer, an investigative reporter, and an all-around troublemaker, I was an award-nominated game designer who put stories in video games. Alas, that didn’t pay very well or consistently. So, as I ran out of my parents’ healthcare, I moseyed over to this website thinking I might give this “blogging” thing a shot. After all, as a freelancer I’d managed to trick no fewer than two Kotaku EICs into believing that I could write, and I did know how to put some words together. How hard could actually working here possibly be?
An Anime That Might Make You Put Your Minecraft Bed Next To Someone
Nearly two years later, I have no choice but to laugh. And cry a little bit. But mostly laugh.
No matter what legacy media executives think about covering our massive ecosystem, there are so many incredible and important stories about video games that are happening every day. You just need smart and motivated people who know where to look. Despite the horrible things that are constantly happening in the community, there’s a big beautiful world out there. I just wish that I got to chronicle it all. When I arrived at Kotaku, I wanted to make readers more curious about things they assumed they knew. I wrote stories about the biggest franchise that gamers have never heard of. I interviewed whales about their spending habits. I actually played the mobile games with terrifying social media ads. Never settle for what you already know about gaming, y’all. Always keep running towards the horizon.
Despite the confidence I project on here out of necessity, it’s hard to feel like the smartest person in the room when I work with the smartest nerds in the industry, and we’re subject to some of the harshest criticism. Of course, public outrage is part of the prestige: Readers are vocal because they take video games, and our website about them, seriously. While my reported features demanded a ton of persistence, the hardest part of being a Kotaku writer was simply showing up every single day and being held to the highest standards in gaming journalism. I think most people would have buckled under the pressure. We turned it into diamonds. And we did it again, and again, and again.
Now, I realize that every single blog is a miracle. Yes, even the ones about Animal Crossing porn or the surgeon who allegedly fought a console war in the middle of an operation. Nonetheless, I fought for readers and I fought for my colleagues. While the New York Times battled progressives over whether or not transphobia is a legitimate stance, I was an openly nonbinary and Chinese reporter in a country where it’s increasingly dangerous to be any single one of those things. I did my time in the culture war, and it’s someone else’s fight now. Godspeed.
Just kidding. See, one of the curious things that happens to people who work at this website is that they start to care an absurd amount about journalism. The industry is moving in a direction where corporations and influencers are shaping how games are being talked about, rather than writers bound to a professional ethics code. Corporatefuckshit continues with alarming regularity. Layoffs have hit or shutteredmultiplegaming news outlets over the past year. Yes, reporting on games is more important than ever, but it seems that, right when we need it most, fewer opportunities exist compared to when I first started writing.
I don’t know how to fix any of it right now. There’s no band-aid solution to the problems that plague digital media, which extend far beyond the gaming realm. But I know that what doesn’t help is when gamers decide that their favorite brands and influencers ought to monopolize the narrative on why video games are important. Gaming is not mainly a relationship between product and consumer. Games are art, community, and politics. Gameplay allows us a mirror into ourselves, provides a vessel for our collective apocalyptic grief, and forces us into delightful contradictions. Please find your own reasons to value video games, rather than doggedly adhering to corporate and parasocial loyalties. Otherwise, the culture will become truly and irredeemably rotten. One day, games journalism as a whole will make its comeback. I’m just hoping the good parts of gaming culture will still be intact by then.
Okay, enough doom and gloom. Despite working one of the hardest jobs in the entire industry, I had some truly baller opportunities here. In between writing “The News,” I got to interview developers from outside of North America/Western Europe/Japan. I talked to people who played games nearly every single day, but didn’t consider themselves to be “gamers.” I got game makers to give us the no-bullshit view into AI automation in gaming. I didn’t need a gaming company to give me the go-ahead. All it takes is the instinct to go “Oh, really?” when a claim goes against personal truth.
I’m near the end of my writing time, and I just realized that I need to talk about my colleagues. I forgot to talk about the time I tried to convince Jalopnik’s Steve to not to run over his colleague for automobile science. Or the countless times that Ethan walked me through investigating companies’ dirty laundry despite how terrifying it was at the time for a baby reporter. Or when I was losing steam for a blog idea, but one of Isaiah’s inspired Photoshops sent me flying to my Google Docs. I should talk about all the times that Ari was my Emotional Support White Guy, but that might give him an even more swollen head than he currently has. Carolyn, you absolutely spoiled me for review editing. Thanks for never allowing me to have fewer than 5-10 thoughts for anything that I wanted to say about a video game. Alyssa! Alyssa, Alyssa, Alyssa. You are probably the most chaotic goblin I’ve ever worked with anywhere, and I hope that energy never leaves you. Thank you for saying yes to my most diabolical ideas, and sorry that you were forced to edit them. Patricia, thank you for hiring me and going to bat for my stories. Sorry about the times I went into your office and pretended that I was in charge of Kotaku.
And to my readers: Thank you so much for giving your time to my silly little articles. Stay curious, and don’t let gaming culture go to shit while I’m out. Smell ya later.
I’ve reviewed a lot of board game adaptations of video games on this website, and with good reason: it’s the most intimate intersection of our board game and video game coverage. In nearly every case, the key consideration has been how does the board game feel compared to the original. What kind of concessions have been made, how does it differ, does it match the video game in terms of vibes, if not exact mechanics.
Frostpunk is different. It’s a hulking huge board game that seeks, in almost every meaningful way, not to adapt the video game to the tabletop, but to bring it wholesale, warts and all. It’s an ambitious undertaking if nothing else, but I’m also not quite sure if it’s worth all the effort.
And it is an effort. When I went to play the game for the first time I was at least 30 minutes into setting it up when I started to get the sweats. I had spent half an hour painstakingly punching cards, reading the manual and placing tokens on the table and it looked like I’d barely begun. Was I doing something wrong? Was I just a very slow guy? After reading this Dicebreaker story called “I spent an hour failing to set up a board game and it made me question everything” it turns out no, thankfully I’m fine, it’s the game that’s slow.
Photo: Luke Plunkett | Kotaku
Frostpunk is one of the most complex board games I have ever played, let alone set up (and that’s not just me talking, it has a 4.32/5 “weight” rating on BoardGameGeek, which is very high). There are a seemingly endless array of tokens, multiple decks of cards that look the same but aren’t and loads of different rules that bend and sway for each player. Most maddeningly, there are eight boards you have to keep track of.
Eight. Boards. That’s too many boards.
If you’re wondering why the board game version of a (relatively) straightforward city-builder needs to be so complicated, it’s because this edition of the game, for whatever reason, didn’t want to vaguely recreate the spirit of playing Frostpunk. It wants to recreate the whole damn thing, substituting tabletop components for mouse clicks. Nearly everything you can do in the video game, from the politics to the resource gathering to the quest expeditions to city-building is here, and it works much the same way it does on PC.
It is, in many ways, a staggering achievement. Once you (eventually) get on top of the game’s vast array of components, boards and rules it really does feel like you’re playing Frostpunk, the pressures and nagging responsibilities of the digital wasteland transplanted perfectly to the physical world. Indeed some of those pressures are even better here, because Frostpunk is a co-op game, meaning there can be 2-4 of you (there’s also a singleplayer mode, but I didn’t play that) taking on different jobs within the city, working together while at the same time arguing over every decision. If you thought the social and political stuff was cool in the video game, it’s great here since you’re essentially acting out a lot of those debates in the flesh.
Yet in other ways it all feels a bit pointless? The board game cuts so close to the video game’s cloth that at times you wonder why you’re bothering at all, since the video game does all this for you, without the arduous setup time or constant consultation with the rules. Sure, that’s a more solitary experience, but there’s a point where that trade-off can be worth it, and for many people—myself included—that point can come when you’re hours into a single game and find you’re not even close to finishing it.
Photo: Luke Plunkett | Kotaku
At least some of that setup is worth it. The game ships with an enormous plastic recreation of The Generator, which doesn’t just look amazing on the middle of the table but has actual gameplay use as well, since players need to drop coal into it almost every turn as they play, an act that rivals Deep Rock Galactic’s robot mining as one of the most satisfying physical actions in recent board game history.
And, in a very rare occurrence for these reviews, I want to give a shout out to the game’s documentation. For whatever reason most board game rulebooks in 2023 still suck, but Frostpunk, despite the game’s complexity and scale, never let us down.
There’s a very specific type of person out there for this game. Someone who is into Frostpunk but gets lonely playing it, or someone who has never played the video game but is intrigued by the density and politics on offer here. Sadly I was neither of those people, I found its setup time and length just too much, but like I’ve said I can at least appreciate the exhaustive design effort that went into the approach taken here, if nothing else.
One of the most interesting developments in the emulation and coding scenes in recent years has been the increasing trend in taking classic old video games and completely reverse-engineering their code.
We’ve seen fans do this for everything from Mario 64 toOcarina of Time to Grand Theft Auto, all with varying degrees of legal opposition. The reasons for doing this are multitude; there’s the challenge of the reverse-engineering itself, of course, but also the benefits it brings, mainly in the form of being able to create genuine PC versions of classic console games, rather than relying on emulation.
What’s the difference? As we’ve explained previously, emulation relies on your computer pretending it’s an old console to run a game coded to run on that console. A reverse-engineered port is able to be built for the PC (or other platforms!) from the ground up, allowing for the seamless insertion of stuff like widescreen support and even (in the case of polygonal games) graphical tweaks like ReShade.
The latest game to receive this treatment is The Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past, first released in 1991 on the Super Nintendo and then re-released a number of times since on everything from the Game Boy Advance to Nintendo Switch Online.
As Nintendo Lifereport, a team of 20, led by xander-haj, managed the feat after working their way through 70-80,000 lines of code, and in the process “key enhancements have been added, such as faster transition times, speedier text, widescreen support, pixel shaders, and a more detailed overworld map. Perhaps most significantly, a secondary item slot has been added, allowing users to quickly switch between two items on the fly without having to go into the inventory screen to pick them out one by one.”
SWAPPABLE FACEPLATES Each set of Morph Earphones is crafted as a wearable street fashion accessory, as they come with swappable faceplates that you can switch out to change up your look at will. Choose from everything from trippy smileys to sakura blossoms and much, much more.
Here’s footage of the original game (running in an emulator on PC) compared to this new PC “port”:
zelda 3 emulation vs pc port
Neat! This is now the part of the post where we point out that, legally, this is still a very weird grey area. Reverse engineering itself isn’t illegal, but the use of a company’s assets can be, and these projects are a mix of both. Only they’re also not; the creators or reverse-engineered games like this simply provide the underyling code and ask you to get the assets from a ROM yourself. This game’s description, for example, says “You need a copy of the ROM to extract game resources (levels, images). Then once that’s done, the ROM is no longer needed.”
Nintendo would argue that doesn’t matter, the creators would argue it’s an important distinction, and until we start getting some definitive rulings in disputes like this I’m going to have to keep typing this out at the end of every post about it!
Photoshop is my true Elden Ring, and I haven’t gotten gud yet.Image: FromSoftware / Kotaku
In recent years, it’s become harder and harder for me to make the kinds of in-depth, year-end personal best lists that I once prided myself on. That newfound difficulty is for one reason: I’m not playing as many games. This year, there are so many games I either didn’t play at all or didn’t spend enough time with that may have earned a place on this list if only I’d given them more of a chance. Those games include (but are not limited to) Perfect Tides, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Pentiment, Citizen Sleeper, and Norco. I’m sorry I didn’t make time for you this year. I’m sure some of you, at least, are great.
So I’m keeping this year’s list to a tight five, acknowledging that it might have looked very different if I’d played more games. Please accept it in the spirit in which it’s given, not as an exhaustive evaluation of games in 2022, but as a snapshot of some of the games I spent time with and admired throughout the year.
Honorable Mention: God of War Ragnarök
Screenshot: Sony
I dunno, man. I didn’t love it. I’ll certainly remember it, though, in all its frustrating rigidity, and it’s one of the few games I played to completion this year, so it earns a spot on this list, if not a number. God of War Ragnarök is a game in which the main character, ostensibly a god, is frequently unable to leap across tiny gaps to smash the chest or reach the path on the other side because the true gods here, the game designers whose heavy hand you feel at every turn, say he has to do it the intended way. It’s an endlessly limiting game, with Kratos as trapped as Pac-Man in his maze. It’s a game in which characters are constantly wondering and worrying about whether their fates are dictated by prophecy, which is ironic given that the game itself is so trapped by formula and expectation.
Ragnarök seems to want to deepen Kratos as a character, to question all the unbridled rage and quick-time-event sex-minigame misogyny of the original God of War games, but it can’t actually shatter the chains that bind it, because then, what would it be? What would it be if Kratos didn’t haveto be an angry killing machine? What if he could actually show more emotional growth and expression than a tiny, late-game bit of tenderness, which only feels significant because we’re so used to seeing him express no tenderness at all? What if he could cast off patriarchy altogether and find a new way forward?
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Sadly, we may never know, as the marketplace still seems to set strict limits on just what a “AAA,” prestige release can be. The one thing I really appreciate about Ragnarök is how, in the end, one character is left truly broken by grief, and the game doesn’t try to bring it to a tidy resolution. There’s nothing anyone can say to fix it, to solve it, to make it go away. It felt like a kernel of surprising emotional honesty in a game that is mostly just going through the motions of being what fate dictates it must be.
Honorable Mention: Vampire Survivors
Screenshot: poncle
Here’s one that didn’t quite make the list but that I fully appreciated, without qualm or reservation. I’m normally very suspicious of games that seem focused on letting you become a ludicrously powerful figure who can wipe out enemies by the hundreds. Vampire Survivors, however, is just so gleefully unapologetic about it, fully embracing its nature as a video-game-ass video game, that it won me over. There’s a real sense of joy and discovery here as you pursue powerful new weapon fusions which let you harvest your unending legions of Castlevania-inspired foes even more effectively and in even more dazzling ways. On a really good run, the screen can get filled with so much 8-bit weaponry and pixelated carnage that it all starts to look like a psychedelic kaleidoscope of holy vengeance. Now that’s what I call gaming.
Atari 50
Screenshot: Atari / Digital Eclipse
Now the true list begins with this, game number five in my ranking. Almost certainly the best video game compilation ever made, this 50th anniversary Atari retrospective offers both a look back at one of the most important and influential forces in early home gaming, and a look at what the future of gaming retrospectives could and should be.
What elevates Atari 50 head and shoulders above your standard collection of older games is its gorgeous, timeline-format presentation. As you make your way through various aspects of Atari’s history—early arcade games, early console games, home computers, and so on—the games and the hardware are contextualized with tons of wonderful new interviews, archival footage, and other material that helps tell the story of just why these games, and the people who made them, are so important. Here’s hoping other developers take a cue from Atari 50 and give their early games the treatment they deserve.
Artist and writer Brianna Lei’s follow-up to her 2017 visual novel may be the most deeply human game of the year. The four central characters continue to navigate things like crushing parental expectations, confusing thoughts about gender, and romantic yearning for other girls in scenes that are by turns hilarious and heartbreaking.
It’s not just the subject matter or the great sense of humor that makes Butterfly Soup 2 remarkable, though; it’s that Lei reveals to us the rich and complicated inner lives of her characters—their hopes, their insecurities, their fears—in ways that feel organic, honest, and compassionate. In video games, the explorations of character that get the most attention and praise are often those that accompany big-budget mainstream action. In my opinion, though, there’s more heart and more insight into the human condition in this two-hour game about queer Asian high-school girls than there is in most post-apocalyptic blockbusters or games about violent dads trying to be better.
I was both excited about and wary of Return to Monkey Island, series creator Ron Gilbert’s return to the helm of the comedic pirate adventure saga. The last entry he oversaw was 1991’s Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, which has one of the all-time great video game endings—one so good, in fact, that for a long time I swore off later games in the series, as they both lacked Gilbert’s guiding hand and flew in the face of 2’s conclusion. Could even he, I wondered, make a game worthy of following up such a boldly uncompromising moment?
But here’s the thing. I’m a teensy bit older now than I was when Monkey Island 2 came out. I’m less wowed by raw artistic boldness and more moved by human frailty, kindness, and honesty. Ron Gilbert is older, too, and you feel a gentle reckoning with that in this game, as Guybrush goes on a kind of existential quest, one of those “what does it all mean” things that calls into question what his whole life as a pirate has really even been about. Return to Monkey Island is suffused with tenderness, above all. Sure, it’s still funny, and Guybrush is as irresistibly likable as ever, but there’s a poignant quality to him and the game itself this time around, an acceptance that things change and that life doesn’t quite play out the way you think it will. There’s beauty in that, too. Return to Monkey Island is just lovely.
Elden Ring
Screenshot: FromSoftware
When I first played Dark Souls, I felt like something in my brain was being rewired as I discovered all the intricate ways its interlocking, shortcut-filled world turned in on itself. And like many others, I found a kind of therapeutic catharsis in throwing myself against its grueling gauntlet, facing defeat again and again and again until finally, bruised and bloody, I stood victorious. It became a way of facing internal demons of doubt and fear, of enduring the world’s transphobic slings and arrows and remaining unbowed.
Elden Ring couldn’t quite match those glorious heights for me, though I appreciate that its open-world format, which makes its myriad challenges more approachable but no less uncompromising, meant that with this game, many got to experience those thrills for the first time. But even if it didn’t burrow into my very soul (no pun intended) the way Dark Souls did, the Lands Between still captivated me with their faded grandeur and their sense of true mystery—mystery of the sort that reveals, by contrast, just how embarrassingly eager so many game worlds are to force-feed you everything they have to offer.
Fortnite
Image: Epic Games
But alas, there was one world which captivated me even more. Epic’s battle-royale juggernaut continues to have, for my money, the best world in all of games—a world that is constantly changing, constantly evolving and slipping away; a world that, unlike most game worlds, actually exists in time and feels its passage. (It’s because the game is constantly reinventing itself that I have no qualms about including it on a 2022 list.)
Over the course of the game’s seasons and chapters, the world shifts in ways big and small, always in flux where so many worlds feel stagnant. Locations that come to feel as familiar to you as an old hoodie sooner or later fade, and when they’re gone, you can never, ever go back. As the world evolves, so too does the game, which is in a state of constant change—and loss. New gameplay mechanics, too, come and go with the seasons, not because the game is striving for some kind of ultimate, perfect “optimization” of mechanics and balance, but simply because things change.
The ever-evolving island is the perfect setting for this game of wild, radical contingency, a game in which the actions of players ping-pong off of each other in ways so complicated by chance and choice that there’s no room for the bullshit “meritocracy” mindset that poisons so much of gaming culture. Sure, some people are much better at the game than others, but with 99 players running around, their encounters influenced by so many factors, Fortnite is at least as much a big chaos-theory playground as it is a test of skill. Each match is home to a dozen or more stories that unfolded just so and will never, ever happen quite that way again. And as you make your way across the island, you see the evidence of them—a pile of goodies marking a player’s death near a few hastily tossed-up walls; a smoking semi-truck half-submerged in a river; a confrontation happening in the distance with players ping-ponging across the landscape, using this season’s shockwave hammers to fling themselves wildly into the air and then come crashing down on their opponents.
Of course, Fortnite constantly breaks my heart, too. In what I can only assume is an effort by Epic to make it so that all of the game’s human players win, on average, somewhat more than one out of every hundred games, it’s flooded the island with bots, beginning with the start of the game’s second chapter in October of 2019. They may seem like human players of rudimentary skill to those players who weren’t around back in the game’s pre-bot days, but their presence and simplistic behavior saps the game of much of its dynamism. I’d much rather have every confrontation be with a human adversary whose desire to survive and to win I can feel coming through in their actions, even if it means I rarely score a victory royale myself, than frequently encounter these non-human opponents who practically offer themselves up to my crosshairs.
But what can I do? The kind of life, vibrancy, comedy and tragedy that Fortnite offers remains unique in my experience in the gaming landscape, so I’ll keep leaping onto the island, always eager to see what signs of life and change I might stumble upon this time.
Another one aimed at older kids, Nuts is the bonkers combination of Firewatch and…squirrel conspiracy theories?
In this one, you set up cameras to observe the behavior of squirrels in Melmoth Forest, and start discovering some very odd stuff. This develops into a story about the effect corporations have on the environment, and doesn’t wrap things up with a neat bow and happy ending. It’s obviously a great conversation starter, as well as a fun, sometimes unsettling game to play.
The reason it’s rated Teen is because of the presence of one curse word, “bullshit,” so there’s a good chance that’ll breeze past the more innocent, or not really bother the less so. But obviously the subject matter won’t quite match the “cute squirrels!” expectations of younger players.
There are more suggestions over at the Family Video Game Database, and you can curate your own lists based on your own kids’ proclivities.
Hopefully there’s something here that’ll help pass some of the yawning stretch of Sundays that makes up Christmas to New Year, and you might even end up not entirely resenting it.
Updated 12/21/22: We’ve removed Boomerang X, and added on Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Trombone Champ, and Escape Simulator.
Books make for a wonderful present, whether the recipient is into cooking, biographies, sports, video games, and more. Here are some of the best books to gift this holiday season.
The 2023 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records takes readers on a journey that’s out of this world, revealing the latest and greatest record-breaking achievements here on Earth and across the vast distances of space. A wonderful book for all ages, and something that will become a collectible in the future.
A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories offers an unprecedented glimpse into the formation of the legendary talent of Leonard Cohen. In A Ballet of Lepers, readers will discover that the magic that animated Cohen’s unforgettable body of work was present from the very beginning. The pieces in this collection offer startling insight into Cohen’s imagination and creative process, and explore themes that would permeate his later work.
The Series: What I Remember, What It Felt Like, What It Feels Like Now by Ken Dryden is the new book by the Hall of Fame goalie and bestselling author. It celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series that is considered one of the most important moments in hockey history. Dryden says it changed the game, on the ice and off, everywhere in the world, and became one of the most significant events in all of Canada’s history.
The Trapped In A Video Game series is a fantastic collection for chapter readers who love both books and video games. Getting sucked into a video game is not as much fun as you’d think – there might be jetpacks, hover tanks, and infinite lives, but what happens when the game starts to turn on you? In this best-selling series, 12-year-old Jesse Rigsby finds out just how dangerous video games – and the people making those games – can be.
Down And Out In Paradise: The Life Of Anthony Bourdain is the first book to tell the true and full Bourdain story, relating the highs and lows of an extraordinary life. Author Charles Leerhsen shows how Bourdain’s never-before-reported childhood traumas fueled both his creativity and the insecurities that would lead him to a place of despair.
The Lonely Planet guides are must-have travel books for anyone who loves the sport of globetrotting. Whether you’re buying a gift for someone who has a specific destination in mind, or a wanderlust that flies by the seat of their pants, there’s a Lonely Planet book designed specifically for them.
And while you’re curled up with a great book, be sure to have a Glade candle or plug-in nearby. Their incredible scents for the holiday season are warm, inviting, and homey, including Apple of my Pie, Snow Much Fun, and Pine Wonderland, to name just a few.
Mystery Flesh Pit National Park is a fictional project by Trevor Roberts, who having started on Reddit has for the past few years has been posting stories and artwork to his website, fleshing (sorry) out the tale of a huge creature that is discovered underground in Texas and…turned into a tourist attraction.
It’s a very cool pitch, like some kind of Lovecraftian Jurassic Park, full of absurdity but also abject horror, and it has slowly been picking up enough fans that it has been covered on sites like USA Today. Given the success of the project, and the fact that Roberts has built more of a detailed diorama of a world than a linear story, a video game adaptation must have seemed to a lot of people like a really good idea.
So last week Roberts announced that, courtesy of Village Fox Media, a Mystery Flesh Pit video game would be going into development, and would be seeking its funding on Kickstarter. Billed as a “survival horror video game for PC”, it would centre around the efforts of a crew tasked with helping the Park recover from a disaster—remember, it’s inside a giant beast—that kills 750 people.
A week later the Kickstarter—which was very light on demonstrations or detailed information on development—has been binned, with Roberts saying the decision was made after a combination of “fan feedback, a fumbled marketing push, internal disputes, and some deep introspection”. Specifically, it seems the process of handing off work on the game to other people…did not go well, with Roberts since writing (emphasis mine):
To those who were looking forward to a videogame, I apologize. Most people do not fully appreciate what a substantial undertaking it is to produce even a modest videogame. I have personally and carefully created each and every piece of the Mystery Flesh Pit project, but something as large as a videogame is wholly beyond my scope as an individual artist. When I am not the one directly responsible for overseeing its creation, I cannot ensure its quality. After this experience I can firmly state that there will be no endorsed videogame adaptions of the Mystery Flesh Pit as long as I am alive.
I sincerely hope that by cancelling this overly-ambitious Kickstarter campaign I have avoided what could have been a rushed and inferior gaming experience at best, and an unmitigated disaster at worst. It is also my hope that my decision to endorse this particular Kickstarter does not harm or hinder the superior work of other credible, talented creators that are and have been working hard behind-the-scenes to bring you a Mystery Flesh Pit Tabletop Gaming Experience late in 2023.
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“I have no hard feelings towards the developers”, Roberts tells me. “It was a mutual decision in the end to cancel it. I think they were a little bit too ambitious, and I had a moment of clarity where I saw the disaster this was going to become for all involved. I think I did the right thing. And, for the record, I have always been and continue to be wholly supportive of fan games. My statement about there not being a Mystery Flesh Pit videogame ever was, admittedly, a little overzealous. Fan games are awesome. I just think there are already too many games/movies/series that are poorly planned cash grabs by burnt-out creators, and I’m not about that.”
It’s refreshing to see Roberts see the writing on the wall and pull the plug like this now, and not months/years down the line—having already taken the money—like so many other doomed campaigns have done on the platform.
The tabletop adaptation, which as Roberts says is still coming, should be out early next year.
ADDISON, Ill., November 18, 2018 (Newswire.com)
– Toynk Toys has officially announced their newest product line by EMCE TOYS, featuring figures from the hit video game franchise, Fallout.
– The new line will contain a total of 52 collectible figures, ranging from characters, artifacts, to weapons found in the Fallout gaming franchise.
– Offers gamers a second chance to own their own Fallout figures similar to those of Bethesda’s now sold out Fallout 76 Armor Edition.
The Fallout Nanoforce™ Series 1 Army Builder Collection includes 52 highly detailed, army men styled figures from the Fallout Universe, designed for die-hard Fallout fans who want to decorate their vault with the newest collectibles found in the Wasteland. The Series 1 Collection will be packaged in collectible boxed and bagged sets, and will be released in phases, starting from late 2018, to early 2019. Bag 1 can be ordered now at pre-ordered now at Toynk.com. All products are officially licensed by Bethesda and will be exclusively distributed by Toynk Toys.
Each figure is digitally sculpted for maximum detail and authenticity.
Products will be packaged in 4 collectible boxed sets with 3 “drugstore peg” bagged sets.
Box sets can be Play or Display. This allows your figures to be safely returned back to their package after opening.
Boxed Sets will feature 12 two-inch figures and 1 four-inch bonus figure.
Bagged Sets 1 & 3 will include 12 two-inch figures.
Bagged Set 2 will include a total of 24 two-inch figures, making it the deluxe edition.
A select number of boxed figures will remain a mystery, offering a surprise to any Fallout fan looking for an entertaining surprise.
Miss out on Bethesda’s Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition?
Here’s your chance to get your own set of Fallout & Fallout 76 figures! Fallout Nanoforce™ Series 1 Line can be found and pre-ordered at Toynk.com.
ABOUT EMCE TOYS: In 2006, EMCE TOYS was started to relaunch the classic “Mego-style” clothed, posable action figures of the 1970s. Since then, EMCE has manufactured dozens of different product categories, from toys to office products and housewares for brands as diverse as Star Trek, Rob Zombie, Harry Potter, and Impractical Jokers. EMCE’s parent FOURTH CASTLE also produces, designs, sources and manufactures all kinds of products as white label service for several other pop-culture consumer products companies.
ABOUT TOYNK: Back in 2001, tired of the boring corporate grind, three friends: Steve, Ron & Mike, hatch a brilliant plan to develop a company centered on fun products. What couldn’t be more enjoyable than a business selling costumes, toys and collectibles? The Toynk Toys team has since grown and varies from 40 to 200+ diverse, fun-loving people, depending on the season.
Today, our Addison, Illinois location boasts a 125,000 square foot facility; home to our offices, retail store, and warehouse. Visit us at one of the 200 toy shows/Comic-Cons we attend worldwide yearly. Toynk Toys aims to deliver an ever-expanding array of cool costumes, geeky toys, and hot collectibles. Our team comes together each day, working hard to improve our customers’ experience. It’s not really considered work when we know that our products bring adventure, joy, and happiness to life. It’s no wonder that we love what we do, and we love doing it for you!
Media Contact: Sarah Peterson Phone: 951-317-1857 Email: Sarah@Toynk.com
