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Though Disney Infinity is an undeniable hit, the Wall Street Journal reports "several hundred" employees at developer Disney Interactive are to be laid off later this week.

Citing unnamed sources "close to the company," the report claims that these layoffs are "expected to begin after the media giant releases its quarterly financial results Wednesday." The Wall Street Journal offers no concrete motivation for the mass dismissal, though it references a recently announced effort to reorganize Disney Interactive by president Jimmy Pitaro.

Intriguingly, the report also mentions Disney Infinity expansions based on Star Wars and Marvel Comics. "New versions of 'Infinity' featuring characters from Disney's Marvel superhero unit and the Star Wars universe it acquired along with Lucasfilm in 2012 are being developed," the Wall Street Journal claims, again citing an unnamed source. While this would be the first confirmation we've seen of such additions to Disney Infinity, it comes as no surprise that Disney Interactive might want to tap those two, wildly profitable licenses for its game. [Image: Disney Interactive]

The term "free-to-play" has become toxic to some gamers, and Nintendo doesn't seem to like it all that much either. In fact, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata says he believes that this trend is actively hurting their hardware business. Read more...

Yesterday, we brought you a happy story on the free copy of Ms. Pac-Man included with early purchases of Pac-Man Museum. Today, we bring you gloomy news: The compilation's 3DS and Wii U ports are no longer planned for release.

Pac-Man Museum was first announced last summer. At that time it was slated for release on Steam, Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network, and the Wii U and 3DS eShops. That story from yesterday only mentioned the Steam, Xbox Live and PSN iterations of Pac-Man Museum, prompting Nintendo Everything to contact publisher Namco Bandai. According to the site's report, both the Wii U and 3DS versions of Pac-Man Museum have been cancelled "as a result of delayed development."

While this cancellation is depressing news for Nintendo devotees, those who have access to any of the platforms Pac-Man Museum will be appearing on should give the game a shot, if only for Pac-Man Battle Royale. Unless you frequent Japanese arcades, you probably won't have many other chances to experience the gleeful chaos that is four-player Pac-Man.

After debuting in Brawl, the high-risk-high-reward Pokémon fighter is now confirmed to be part of the new Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U.Read more...

Thanks the maker. Realising that the Wii U is a drag to fire up then slog through to get playing, Nintendo is going to streamline the way you get into games and programs on the console. How? Like this.Read more...

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata revealed the company is looking into non-wearable health monitors during a financial briefing in Japan today. New details on this venture, Iwata said, would be revealed this year, with a planned launch for Nintendo's fiscal year ending March 31, 2016.

Iwata said, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, that Nintendo's main theme for the next 10 years will be enhancing the quality of life through entertainment. Health is a large part of that, and Iwata even called out the cadre of wearable health devices already available on the market as evidence of the sector's importance to consumers.

Still, this is an especially odd direction granted Nintendo's inability to launch its first foray into health tech, the Wii Vitality Sensor. The Vitality Sensor was announced in 2009 and was designed to monitor the users' heart rate while playing games. Nintendo cited a problem with Wii Vitality Sensor prototypes reading a small percentage of users as the reason for canceling it.

The 3DS is doing pretty well! The Wii U, however, is not. You know it, I know it, and you bet Nintendo knows it, because the company just announced a raft of changes and improvements they're bringing to the system (and the way it's marketed).Read more...

Flat Wii U sales. Decreases in executive salary. Wishes for Nintendo to do something radically different. There's no doubt that the House of Mario is facing serious challenges. They're having a big investor meeting tonight. And the image above, tweeted out by a parody account pegged to Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime earlier today, suggests that Nintendo's going to do its own thing, confident that its faithful will follow them.Read more...

The Wii U isn't doing as well as Nintendo had hoped. Someone must take responsibility! That someone is Nintendo president Satoru Iwata—as well as other Nintendo execs.Read more...

When a new year starts, I go back and finish the previous year's Assassin's Creed. I spent early 2013 rediscovering AC III. I've rung in 2013 by playing 23 more hours of Assassin's Creed IV. I have some more thoughts about this one...Read more...

When the Reven virus leads to people disappearing from space station Nexum, hero SyRek swoops in to cure the virus - by shooting the infected, mutated population in the face. We're just gonna say it: people in power armor don't make good doctors. They do, however, make good action game stars, provided the game they star in gets the $18,000 funding it needs from Kickstarter.

Reven by Varia Games is inspired by shooter/platformer games like Metroid and Mega Man, while incorporating player customization elements seen in Crysis and Deus Ex. Players explore the hostile world of XR-Keres as SyRek, blowing up monsters and discovering ancient secrets along the way. SyRek will also gain access to new weapons, suits and powers as his journey progresses, and players can customize his attributes using the game's Energy Divergence Module (EDM).

The EDM works by giving SyRek a set number of points to be spent in the areas of Mobility, Shield, Sensors and Weapon. Want to be quick and nimble? Dump your points into Mobility, but realize you won't be as strong or be able to take as much damage. The game also features a mission creator for players who want to build their own stories and levels.

Reven's inspiration by the Metroid series seems more apparent the more we look at it - SyRek goes dungeon-crawling in 2D, gains new abilities by collecting power cores, and even has a cannon where an arm would be. He's not a girl though, so no infamous surprise ending.

The game is expected to release on Wii U, PC, Linux and Mac, though when it will be released depends on the amount funded. At the minimum level of $18,000, the Kickstarter page notes that it could take up to two years to finish development, "possibly a little longer." At $37,000, the game will be ready "much sooner than expected," though no date more specific was mentioned.

[Thanks, John!]

Japanese indie developer Comcept has released a series of screenshots showcasing the current alpha build of its crowdfunded Mega Man spiritual successor Mighty No. 9, giving backers a peek at the team's progress so far.

The backer-exclusive screens, obtained and reprinted by NeoGAF, show protagonist Beck facing off against minor enemies while navigating Mega Man-inspired environments. Mighty No. 9 wrapped up its crowdfunding campaign in October, earning over $4 million from backer pledges.

Artist Liza van Kempen did a great job showing us what the characters in a Japanese-themed The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker would look like, by changing the atmosphere and everyone's outfit, yet keeping the original art style of the game.Read more...

A spade is a spade is a spade, unless it's a shovel in which case it can be a mighty weapon of heroes. Shovel Knight will prove just that when it rocks its 8-bit vibe on Wii U, 3DS, and Steam on March 31, as announced via a new trailer. While Yacht Club Games pinned a date this week, it noted there may be slight variations "in the exact day" across platforms.

The crowdfunded platformer was due in 2013, but after raising more than four times its $75,000 goal, Yacht Club Games said the extra time has been put to good use.

"And if you're wondering why it took so long," reads an update on the game's Kickstarter page, "let's just say the game got a lot bigger than we originally intended, and we think everyone will be happy with that!"

It doesn't take a Mega Man or a Scrooge McDuck to spot the NES era inspirations in Yacht Club's debut, but we're hoping it'll dig deeper than sheer nostalgia. As Kat Bailey put it in her October 2013 preview, "Shovel Knight isn't a rehash or collection of ill-fitting parts to feed off nostalgia in the modern era. It is its own game and could stand in the pantheon of respected 8-bit platformers."

Shovel Knight hits PC, Wii U, and 3DS on March 31, which should be good news if you've been itching for some high quality retro-platformin' action. Also, there's a lovely new trailer for you to watch above. Enjoy!Read more...

Here at Kotaku, we love insider info. We like getting information both from random tipsters and our own sources. And because of those people—to whom we grant anonymity in our reporting—we're able to tell you stories you might not otherwise know about, and give you all the details about games like Titanfall and Alien: Isolation before they're even announced.Read more...

The folks at Retro Studios might not yet be making the Metroid game everyone wants them to make, but their next release sure looks great.Read more...

Hard to tell which parts of this amazing Legend of Zelda picture are painted, and which parts are real. It's a matte painting, made by artist Saad Alayyoubi for the ambitious Zelda Project, and you can check the original photo reference to see how a rocky environment transformed into Hyrule.Read more...

The uncanny valley might be a problem for video games featuring living characters, but cars? The better gaming hardware gets, the better these shiny motor vehicles look. To the point where I think I like these video game cars better than the real thing.Read more...

Disney Infinity may have been named as a reference to its own potential revenue - The New York Times reports that Disney Interactive has sold three million Disney Infinity Starter Packs, which include figurines of three Disney characters and the game itself. Infinity was also the tenth best-selling game of 2013, according to data from the NPD Group.

Activision's Skylanders Swap Force, Infinity's main competition, was not one of the top 10 best-selling games of 2013, but the Skylanders series' revenue from retail sales surpassed $1.5 billion earlier this year. Consoles have received annual installments of the Skylanders franchise since its introduction with Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure.

Plans to expand Infinity's cast have resulted in new figurines for Disney's Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled films, with references to classic moments from past films being recreated in Infinity's Toy Box mode. With Infinity's introduction doubling Disney Interactive's fourth-quarter earnings, Infinity's play set is likely to keep expanding. Future additions might not be determined by developers though - only The Claw knows who will go and who will stay.

Even with the less than stellar Wii U sales, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said he won't resign. According to Iwata, "There will be no major management shake-up in the short term."Read more...

Piracy is half off at Amazon! What I mean is you can grab Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag for $30 on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PC right now. Now that's what I call a sai-*gunshot*

Rubble Rouser and Stink Bomb, the final two Skylanders Swap Force figurines in the third series, have been released and can be found at your local Toys R Us store in the US, Kotaku reports.

You may already have a shoebox full of Swap Force characters, but these two characters are of particular interest, as they allow access to the final content in Skylanders: Swap Force. Rubble Rouser, the first earth elemental Skylanders: Swap Force character, is necessary for bypassing certain gates requiring a rocky touch. If a masked gunman is forcing you to choose between Rubble Rouser and Stink Bomb, it's worth knowing that Rubble Rouser's extra content can be accessed during co-op games - those dual-element gates can also be opened by two separate Skylanders playing together.

Stink Bomb, on the other hand, is the first character able to unlock Swap Force's sneaking mini-games. If players want to fully experience absolutely everything Skylanders: Swap Force has to offer, Stink Bomb is a must-have character.

Skylanders: Swap Force is the latest entry in Activision's toy-driven action platformer series, which converts real-life toys into in-game characters by use of a special portal. Swap Force is the first entry to have figurines with a top piece and bottom piece that can be combined with other Swap Force characters to create new combinations.

Rubble Rouser and Stink Bomb, the final two Skylanders Swap Force figurines, have been released and can be found at your local Toys R Us store in the US, Kotaku reports.

You may already have a shoebox full of Swap Force characters, but these two characters are of particular interest, as they allow access to the final content in Skylanders: Swap Force. Rubble Rouser, the first earth elemental Skylanders: Swap Force character, is necessary for bypassing certain gates requiring a rocky touch. If a masked gunman is forcing you to choose between Rubble Rouser and Stink Bomb, it's worth knowing that Rubble Rouser's extra content can be accessed during co-op games - those dual-element gates can also be opened by two separate Skylanders playing together.

Stink Bomb, on the other hand, is the first character able to unlock Swap Force's sneaking mini-games. If players want to fully experience absolutely everything Skylanders: Swap Force has to offer, Stink Bomb is a must-have character.

Skylanders: Swap Force is the latest entry in Activision's toy-driven action platformer series, which converts real-life toys into in-game characters by use of a special portal. Swap Force is the first entry to have figurines with a top piece and bottom piece that can be combined with other Swap Force characters to create new combinations.

Space, as a general rule, is a quiet place. And space travel is by all accounts a very lonely profession. Few games capture that sense of desolation. RymdResa, however, does.Read more...

As a spiritual successor to classic motorcycle combat game Road Rash, Road Redemption includes all manner of violent implements to splatter your fellow racers across the asphalt - including a borderline-cruel grenade launcher.

You can see the explosive ordinance in the footage above alongside the newly revealed uzi, though keep in mind the game is still in the relatively early stages of development. Far from an actual trailer for Road Redemption, that clip was issued to backers of the game's successful Kickstarter campaign to demonstrate the development team's progress so far.

If you like what you see, you can pre-order Road Redemption from developer Dark Seas Games. Pricing options range from $15 to $500, depending on how much bonus swag you're interested in. There is currently no official release date for Road Redemption, though the game's Kickstarter page estimates an August 2014 debut.

Mario & Co. in Wonderland, which is a bit darker than the Mushroom Kingdom. And the best part of DeviantART user SkribbliX's fan art? No, not the edgy princess or the evil Goombas, but the Donatello Koopa!Read more...

Red Thread Games have released a gameplay demonstration video of Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey, their Kickstarter-funded entry in the Longest Journey series. The video showcases almost 30 minutes of pre-alpha gameplay, complete with developer commentary.

The game's dialogue system works a bit differently than most adventure games; before making a choice, a player will hear the thoughts of the character they are playing. This could help inform decisions or reveal more about a character. Creative Director Ragnar Tornquist states in the video that the feature will be of particular benefit to players who haven't played the previous two games in the series, since they'll be able to understand situations that would otherwise be confusing.

When given a choice between mercy killing a prisoner, the team also showed how it was possible to bring up statistics that showed how many people chose each option. "We're giving sort of a social element to the single-player, story-based experience by letting you see what the world has chosen and what your friends have chosen," Tornquist says in the video. Tornquist also points out that while every moment can be shared, they don't have to be; players will have the option to turn off the feature.

It won't be a long journey before players can test it out for themselves - Dreamfall Chapters is slated to arrive on PC, Mac and Linux in November of this year, with a Wii U release sometime after.