Does Crimson Desert have the word-of-mouth juice to be a GOTY contender, or will its initial momentum stall as more people get their hands on it? Can an activist investor convince FromSoftware to add more microtransactions to its games? And will we catch a glimpse of CD Projekt Red’s new IP before PlayStation 7? It’s the latest Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news, rumors, and culture.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has said Steam’s AI disclosure rules “make no sense,” but most developers don’t seem to agree with him. A Gamesindustry.biz survey of nearly 900 game makers found nine in 10 disagreed with the Fortnite company’s decision not to include similar disclosures on the Epic Games Store. While Valve is taking a victory lap for not using genAI to promote events like its spring sale, Epic is still on the defensive over recently raising V-Buck prices despite winning legal battles for better margins on app stores.
“We’ve been fighting for competition in mobile stores and payments for all developers,” Steve Allison replied to one critique on X. “When Fortnite players buy V-bucks using Epic’s payment system instead of Apple or Google’s they earn 20% back in Epic Rewards. Epic Rewards are granted instantly for Fortnite purchases on mobile or PC.” I’m not sure people are buying it.
Mixed reviews aren’t slowing down Crimson Desert‘s sales momentum
The open-world action-adventure from Pearl Abyss has been out for less than 24 hours and it’s already sold over 2 million copies, the company announced on Friday. “Thank you so much to our fans, community, and everyone who has joined us in Pywel,” it wrote on X. “We will listen closely to the wide range of feedback shared by the community and work to make improvements quickly, doing our utmost to make the journey ahead even more enjoyable for our players.”
Crimson Desert has already been getting lightning-quick updates, including the addition of a fast-travel point for the main city that wasn’t in the review build of the game. The not-quite-an-RPG formula has been polarizing, with some players embracing the beautiful, sprawling spectacle and others being disappointed by the confusing controls and clunky story. The game was originally envisioned as a prequel to MMO Black Desert Online and has been in development for around seven years.
Elden Ring studio’s parent company faces new pressure from an activist investor
Automaton reports that Oasis Management Company has acquired an 8.86 percent stake in Kadokawa, which owns a big manga publishing business and also FromSoftware. Why should you care about Oasis Management Company? As IGN points out, the group wrote a letter to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata back in 2014 suggesting the Mario maker bet big on mobile games and even charge per power-up.
“We believe Nintendo can create very profitable games based on in-game revenue models with the right development team,” Oasis chief investment officer Seth Fischer wrote at the time. “Just think of paying 99 cents just to get Mario to jump a little higher.”
Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed TV show spills more details
Ubisoft revealed the full main cast and when the game takes place: Rome, around 64 AD. That sets it during the reign of Nero and the year of the Great Fire of Rome. The show stars Toby Wallace, Lola Petticrew, Laura Marcus, Tanzyn Crawford, Zachary Hart, Claes Bang, and Nabhaan Rizwan. If filming begins next year we probably won’t see it hit Netflix until 2028 at the earliest, by which point we’ll also be due for a new Assassin’s Creed.
Witcher studio continues working on a new IP
“In 2025, we also continued work on our new IP, codenamed Hadar, which is being developed internally by the Company, based on its own resources and skills,” CD Projekt Red confirmed in its latest financial report. “The team has established the foundations of this entirely new IP,” it went on. There have been multiple prototypes implemented in UE5. CDPR currently has 499 developers working on The Witcher 4 and 149 developers on Cyberpunk 2.
Diablo 4 dev gets how hard the game’s constant changes are to keep up with
“We know that it’s also really hard for players to keep up with [Diablo 4], particularly those who aren’t playing at the cutting edge of everything all the time,” game director Zaven Haroutunian told PC Gamer. “The team has to constantly evaluate how much change should happen at once and whether or not it’s worth risking players being too overwhelmed to come back.”
The game undergoes another significant overhaul next month with the Lord of Hatred expansion. “I said this before, I believe in it: If a part of the game isn’t working, we have to give it some attention,” Haroutunian added. “I don’t think anyone’s too thrilled about having an obsolete part of the game just sort of linger and not do its job and not contribute.”
Chuck Norris has died
The highly accomplished martial artist known for a slew of martial arts and action movies and the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger was 86.
