What’s the proper punishment for Resident Evil Requiem leakers? One of gaming’s most outspoken developers has an idea. Will the new Castlevania be an RPG? Balatro still has new content coming, eventually. It’s the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news, rumors, and culture. Philadelphia, like much of the Northeast Corridor, was just blanketed with over a foot of snow. It looks like my favorite winter level of all time.
Otherwise, like the rest of you, I’m still processing last week’s bombshell Xbox news. It feels like something just blew up but also everything is going to continue on the current trajectory set in early 2024 when Microsoft started bringing games to PlayStation. But also nothing about the way it all happened makes any sense. In the meantime, I can’t stop thinking about this old Ron Funches sketch.
Hideki Kamiya unloads on anyone spreading Resident Evil Requiem spoilers
Physical copies of Capcom’s latest survival horror sequel got out into the wild way ahead of schedule. People started playing and you can find out major story beats now if you go looking for them. The company is begging fans to be chill so nothing gets spoiled. Resident Evil 2 lead Hideki Kamiya was less chill in his condemnation of anyone leaking the game.
確かバイオ2の時も終盤の展開を写真週刊誌にスッパ抜かれたよなー…
テメエ個人の利己的な満足のために、楽しみにしてるユーザーの気持ちも、力を尽くして制作したクリエイターの気持ちも踏み躙る、全ての人の幸せを破壊する唾棄すべき行為で、万死に値するだろ…二度とゲームを遊べない呪いにかかれ… https://t.co/iKueo8axFC— 神谷英樹🍀 Hideki Kamiya🍀 (@HidekiKamiya_X) February 21, 2026
“I remember back on Biohazard 2 [Resident Evil 2], I’m pretty sure its late-game twist was completely spoiled by some weekly photo magazine too,” the current Okami 2 director posted on X (via VGC). “For the sake of your own selfish satisfaction, you trample on the feelings of players eagerly awaiting the game, and the creators who poured their hearts into making it. It’s a despicable act that destroys everyone’s happiness – you deserve to die a thousand deaths. May you be cursed never to play games again.”
Arc Raiders boss becomes an even bigger boss
Embark Studios CEO Patrick Soderlund is moving on up at Nexon after its extraction game continues to be a major hit. Soderlund, an industry veteran from EA, will now help the broader company with its “long-term strategy and creative directions” in what sounds like a chief content officer-type role. He’ll be working directly with the publisher’s CEO, Junghun Lee, while continuing to oversee Embark and Arc Raiders.
Evo promises Saudi ownership won’t change its values
“Under RTS ownership, Evo’s traditions, values, and identity will remain unchanged, with a continued focus on serving players, fans, and publishers at every level of the industry,” the esports tournament organizers wrote in a new statement (via Eurogamer) after Evo became 100 percent a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. “Key leadership will remain in place, ensuring long-term stability, including Stuart Saw in his role as Chief Executive Officer at RTS.”
Fighting game fans aren’t buying it. “Return to grass roots,” one wrote on Reddit. “Embrace combo breaker.”
New Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse details
Some info was recently discovered on a developer’s LinkedIn page that points to as many as 25 characters in the new 2D sequel and hints at the possibility of branching dialogue and subquests. Are we getting a full-blown retro Castlevania RPG?
Where the heck is Balatro update 1.1?
Developer Localthunk promises they’re still working on the indefinitely delayed content drop in a new blog post that is mostly about how the very first game they ever worked on never got released. “I worked on that game for over two years,” Localthunk writes. “It never had a name, it was never completed, and apart from showing it to a few friends and family nobody knew it even existed.”
The post continues, “But it was exactly what I wanted to make and the feeling of absolute freedom I had while working on it is the reason why I kept game development as a hobby years later. That project was the template. I found the files for that project and played it for a couple days recently; it was pretty fun.”
