Best Buy Is Selling Pokémon TCG: Prismatic Evolutions ETBs at MSRP — But You'll Need An Invite

For years now, every time I’ve taken a day off or a full-blown vacation here at Kotaku or my previous job, there was always a nagging feeling in the back of my mind: “What if BioWare shuts down while I’m gone?” Much of my career has involved talking about this studio’s work, and with every step I heard publisher EA’s executioner take toward the Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio’s execution block, I worried more and more that I wouldn’t be working that day to write about the end of a studio whose work pretty much put me where I am today. Now, that day has come, and even though I’d braced for it, I’m still gutted and angry, because things didn’t have to be this way. On a professional level, I run a semi-popular podcast about BioWare games, and cut my teeth writing about how games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age allowed for levels of player expression you wouldn’t find in most AAA games. In a way, my entire ethos about what roleplaying in video games is was born out of playing and thinking about these games. Personally, however, I don’t think I’d be the person I am today without playing Mass Effect 19 years ago.

Brian VanHooker is a Pop Culture Writer specializing in Celebrity Interviews and In-Depth Oral Histories in the areas of Comedy, TV, Film, Cartoons, Comic Books, 80s/90s Nostalgia, Fatherhood, Retro Games and Food (especially Pizza). He was the Senior Features Writer at Cracked and a Staff Writer at MEL. He has written for Inverse, Inside Hook, Maxim, Men's Health, Fatherly, SFGate and more. He's the co-creator of the comic book/cartoon Barnum & Elwood and The Tramp, an award-winning comedy pilot starring John O’Hurley. He also hosts a TMNT interview podcast called Turtle Tracks and was once called a “Good Guy” by Mr. T. Do you have to stick around until after the credits for the new DC movie?

Patricia is the former editor-in-chief of Kotaku, where she spent a decade writing and editing. Prior to that, she served as the Culture Editor at Polygon, and as a reporter at The Verge. Hernandez specializes in Pokémon TCG, Nintendo, and offbeat internet culture stories. Bethesda is presenting a handful of new post-apocalyptic RPG experiences for Fallout 4

Microsoft is in the middle of decoupling its cloud gaming service from Game Pass. Starting today, Xbox Insiders will have the option of streaming games even if they aren’t current subscribers. It’s turning what was once known as Xbox Cloud Gaming into Xbox Cloud Playtime with a pay-as-you-go model that’s more flexible. The program is expected to roll out “more broadly” in November. At that point, people will be able to pay for cloud gaming time a la carte starting at $0.40 an hour. Here are the pricing packages: 10hrs for $4 25hrs for $8 50hrs for $12 These “Cloud playtime packs” are ad-free and “high-quality streaming,” but Xbox has also moved toward offering an ad-supported streaming tier for people who just want to try it out or are less worried about connection quality and interruptions. This new model comes as Xbox has started limiting the number of hours existing Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can stream each month. How do the prices compare to those from competitors like Geforce Now? Nvidia’s cloud gaming service requires you to already own the games but provides up to 100 hours of “premium monthly playtime” for just $10 a month.

Included in the shocking news of EA's restructuring , which includes layoffs and the closure of BioWare , is a mention from the publisher that Apex Legends studio Respawn Entertainment and…

Michael McWhertor is a New York-based journalist and editor with more than 20 years of experience covering games, industry events, technology, movies, and TV. Blizzard and Glass Cannon Unplugged reveal an all-new Diablo adventure