Welcome to Stealing Cars an experiment at Kotaku. This is a column/round up of GTA and Rockstar news, rumors, and some nuggets of "stuff" I hear that isn't enough for a full report, but fits perfectly in here. Today, I talked to someone with knowledge of Rockstar about the engine rebuild claim

“PvP Zeni Hajiki was always an idea we were interested in,” Bridges told Kotaku. “But based on the fan response after the game launched, we knew it was a good investment. There was also strong advocacy within the studio – we did our PvP rule playtesting using real coins on a real table!”

Minishoot is 2026's Hollow Knight in that it came out last year but no one* was talking about it until now because it's finally on Switch

Dreamt last night I hosted a fancy Hollywood party but also staged for it to be robbed Heist style by multiple gangs so that I could actually kill them and take their loot but get away with it without raising suspicion from the police. Anyway I'm gona take a break from Marathon for a bit.

No Margin Call or Changing Lanes is an affront to God

Take-Two has reshuffled its AI department, seemingly laying off the head of the division and an undisclosed number of other employees. The company declined to comment. kotaku.com/take-two-ai-...

Respect the knife

Sorry to say that The Mario Galaxy Movie sucks. What I find so disheartening about it is that I think if Nintendo stuck to (the cinematic equivalent of) the principles that made its games so great, the films would be so much more interesting. Read my full review here: kotaku.com/super-mario-...

Man windows sucks so bad

It's bad out there

not an april fool!! www.ign.com/articles/bab...

REALIS, the science fantasy TTRPG I’ve been working on for the last five years, is now live on Kickstarter! 55 Player Classes 150+ NPC Classes 29 Factions 20 Example Moons of Realis GMing and Prep Guidance Over 100 incredible illustrations from 17 artists! www.kickstarter.com/projects/cru...

If you want to know who I am was a person consider this: I set a daily wakeup alarm for GDC weeks ago and still haven't deleted it. My phone just randomly starts shouting every day at 9am.

Life Is Strange: Reunion breaks the series' reality for what feels like a coddling piece of fanfiction. The Kotaku review: https://kotaku.com/life-is-strange-reunion-the-kotaku-review-2000683662

You can, actually, do both Real Criticism and a useful 'product' review within the same piece of writing. The presence of one doesn't necesarily lessen the impact of the other. A great piece of writing and intellect can also be in service of others' needs - and can even be better for it.

Past PlayStation consoles used to be very affordable at this point in their life cycle. The PS5 price hikes aren't just bucking traditional console gaming trends, they're turning console gaming into a luxury.

I have been hyping this thing up all week to my kids

pax good

too much discourse about bad writers not enough discourse about bad readers

The best part is when the impact makes his carrot nose go flying

"Hello Ethan, hope you’re doing great! What happens when a lethal AI decides to put your reflexes to the ultimate test?"

A person who wasn't a big GTA fan found a weird-looking Xbox 360 at a flea market. Now, fans have access to a new, never-before-seen beta build of the 18 year open world game. Here's my interview/story.

Best headline of the week and it's only Monday www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/to...

EA's Battlefield 3 included a multiplayer assault on Kharg Island map. 15 years later, Wall Street bankers had to race to sell debt financing for the publisher's $55 billion leveraged buyout by Saudi Arabia before Trump escalated a war with Iran that could include an assault on Khargh Island.

If you have even the slightest interest in how great games are made, make time for this interview with the creator of Esoteric Ebb -- the year's best RPG (so far). It's rare for a designer to create a masterpiece. It's even rarer for them to explain HOW they did it. Clear, thoughtful, and funny!

Warhorse said it's a "talent driven" studio but won't comment on the translator who claimed he was fired and replaced with AI: "Out of respect for the privacy and dignity of both current and former colleagues, we will not discuss individual situations publicly." kotaku.com/kingdom-come...

I had a few back-to-back-to-back 3am nights and my body kind of shut down at some point which is when I started dreaming of the Kotaku CMS but using Marathon's inventory screen to post to the site.

An unthinkable situation compounded by a bureaucratic nightmare. My thoughts are with Mike and his family.

pax east people let me know if there’s some smaller games i should see that might get featured on kotaku

I'm obsessed with the comments below random Crimson desert guides on YouTube

It feels like things are changing without anything actually changing

What are the most interesting things you read about games this week?

Reporting new info takes a lot of time. Writing up the new info takes very little. Unless it's very complex info in which case the manner in which the info is presented is as important as the reporting part. Unclear what the AI achieves beyond the illusion of efficiency at the expense of craft.

Weird one here: The PS5 Pro is going to be the best place to play GTA 6 for at least a few months. Sony is seemingly done porting PS5 games to PC, so the Pro will be the best way to play stuff like Wolverine. But come next week's $150 price hike and the PS6 replacing it one day...ehhhhhh

Xbox: partner showcase is a bust PlayStation: where else you gonna play give us $600 Nintendo: what if Glenn powell was a fox that where's a Saiyan scouter and flies a space ship?

We say websites are so back. Which ones are we talking about, though? Our list here: www.mothership.blog/which-indepe...

The vibes over in the PlayStation Blog comments are more brutal than usual

The price of a PS5 has gone up $200 in just 8 months. It now starts at $600. A new PS Portal is $250. A PS5 Pro is approaching $1,000. This is absolutely unprecedented. There's no way we don't see the Switch 2 going up to $500.

Now it's time to look beyond the tragic lesbians that never were, and talk about how this game is also jettisoning all the interesting parts of its historical and literary influences... www.avclub.com/1348-ex-voto...

you can connect a straight line between the things being discussed in this episode and today’s kotaku story about gamers falling for fake screenshots about marathon astroturfing

Fake gamer conspiracies, non-apologies for weird incest lore, Nintendo spoiling its own movie. Every day we are blessed by the breadth and depth of videogame news and culture

I wrote about Nintendo for @artreview.bsky.social — on the company's genius marriage of pastoral nostalgia with acquisitive hyperconsumerism, and how longform video game experiences breed IP intimacy. artreview.com/nintendo-nos...

Very curious for people's takes on Marathon PVP etiquette. I've never not shot first and had someone else reciprocate. Exfil camping feels like it's gotten especially brutal. Surprising range of opinions in this thread compared to what I've actually encountered in the game.

People getting mad at me for spoiling this and like... official Nintendo / Mario movie accounts are posting this. This shit is not a spoiler, I'm so fucking sorry.

Why would you post this

Would pay $100 for Zelda on Switch 2 if it came with a translucent green SD card

Blundell and JCbackfire talk about what Dark Outlaw Games was working on and how they're processing the sudden closure. The project was not live service and while they were enthusiastic about the game they don't hold a grudge against Sony.

A friend finally returned some books