Leaks and analyst forecasts have fans buzzing about the possible hope for one last unexpected content update to The Witcher 3. Helldivers 2 will continue to evolve in wild ways. And an older mobile JRPG that spawned two great console spin-offs is finally coming to PC in the West next year. It’s the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture.
There’s only a few days left to go in 2025 and I will be spending at least one of those cleaning my PS5. It shut off from overheating three times during my Nightreign run last night. The Everdark Balancers had nothing on the giant dust bunnies roaming around inside my console.
Rumors keep swirling about new Witcher 3 DLC
Polish leaker Borys Nieśpielak first claimed back over the summer that the decade-old game would get more content, adding earlier this month that he expected some sort of tease at the Game Awards. We didn’t get one, but that hasn’t put the rumors to bed. Now Polish Noble Securities analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski is forecasting a new DLC as well.
“We expect another paid add-on (DLC) for The Witcher 3 to be released in May 2026. We anticipate sales of 11 million copies at USD 30 each next year. We estimate the production budget at PLN 52 million,” he wrote in a memo earlier this month according to a Google translation (via Dexerto). “The release should kick off the actual marketing campaign for The Witcher 4.”
That seems both hard to believe and not completely unthinkable. The only known update CD Projekt Red is currently working on for the 2015 open-world RPG is mod support for the console version. A new content add-on, however small, would no doubt help boost sales of the current-gen version as the studio works on getting The Witcher 4 done. The sequel still sounds so far out it might be a PS6 game.
The original Granblue Fantasy is finally coming to Steam over a decade later
The 2014 mobile RPG behind spin-offs Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising and Granblue Fantasy: Relink will be available for the first time in the West on PC starting March 10, 2026. It’s a turn-based game with summons, classes, and multiplayer raids that includes contributions from ex-Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu and art director Hideo Minaba.
Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming program expands its monthly caps
A 100-hour monthly limit used to only apply to new subscribers. Now it will apply to everyone, PCMag reports. GeForce Now users will have to pay an extra fee each month to continue streaming games beyond that. The price will be $3 for 15 more hours on the performance plan ($10 a month) and $6 for 15 more hours on the Ultimate plan ($20 a month). The move suggests Nvidia will continue looking to crack down on costs as the program grows.
Helldivers 2 could get “sequel-level” features like eight-player missions
“There’s quite a lot of [new features] actually and I think the community is pretty good at picking up where they sort of want the game to head when you consider sort of the sequel-esque approach to it,” creative director Johan Pilestedt said on a recent Arrow Game Studios livestream (via Gamesradar). “Eight-player missions would be one of those,” he continued. “Larger open-world maps where you maybe come across other Helldiver teams to then take on bigger challenges together. Operations that affect other teams, as well, would be those kind of level of features.”
Will we see Arkane’s Blade game in 2026?
The team is hard at work, everyone is super proud and out doing themselves. Please be patient, it will be a special game and we all hope it will be meeting the high standards that we set for ourselves and for you all. 🧡🖤
🦴
— Dinga Bakaba 451 (@DBakaba) December 23, 2025
Probably not, but never say never. “The team is hard at work, everyone is super proud and out doing themselves,” director Dinga Bakaba wrote on X over the holiday break while responding to a fan. “Please be patient, it will be a special game and we all hope it will be meeting the high standards that we set for ourselves and for you all.” We will probably still see it before the actual movie escapes Hollywood development hell.
Nier fans are steeling themselves for disappointment
Series producer Yosuke Saito just teased something for the game’s ninth anniversary. “We’re also preparing just a little something, so please don’t get too excited with anticipation,” he told 4Gamer, according to Gematsu‘s translation. Maybe it’s only a “little something” because Square Enix is finally giving director Yoko Taro carte blanche to make his next game.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is finally having a moment
Two years after it came out, Ubisoft’s Far Cry-like adaptation of James Cameron’s sci-fi fantasy blockbuster series is more popular than ever on Steam, TheGamer reports. That’s thanks in part to new updates and an expansion tie-in for the recent Fire and Ash sequel. Meanwhile, Cameron is promising that if he doesn’t get to make Avatar 4 and 5, he we’ll subject everyone to a press conference explaining what would have happened.
