Call of Duty is ready to celebrate weed day with a reference to an almost 30-year-old movie. One of the most wishlisted games on Steam has an Early Access release date. And a new PlayStation handheld rumor has fans of portable gaming buzzing. It’s your Morning Checkpoint for April 1, 2026. One thing you can count on here at Kotaku is that we will not be joining in with video game companies and some of our digital media peers to trick you with terrible gaming news jokes.
Instead I will simply share with you the important news currently going viral of crows pecking out Rapunzel’s hair at the Tokyo Disney theme park. She was later removed from her tower following the attack. The Disney robots are dropping like flies. Thankfully, the internet keeps rewarding us with new angles on the animatronic malfunctions. Don’t worry though, Olaf is back in action today. Or is it just a replacement?
シーのラプンツェル、カラスに食われててやばい pic.twitter.com/WYSJLoQdn8
— ᴋ_ᴍᴀʀᴜ_ᴅᴀᴜ_ʙᴀʙʏ (@k_maru_dau_baby) April 1, 2026
Dave Chapelle from Half Baked is coming to Call of Duty
I thought it was another dumb April Fool’s gag but it’s actually a real pack for Black Ops 7‘s annual 4/20 celebration. “There’s something going on at Frankencense & Burr Pharmaceutical, and Thurgood Jenkins is right in the middle of it,” reads the Activision blog post. “The master of custodial arts takes his chance to have some fun and save a friend, memorialized in this Bundle inspired by the 1998 hit comedy, Half Baked.”
The pack includes the “Smoke ‘Em Dead” VST SMG Blueprint, “Lickity Clean” Animated Calling Card, and “Trippin’ Green” Animated Emblem, among other cosmetics. Weirdly, the blog post does not actually mention Dave Chappelle by name anywhere, even though the promotional art clearly shows him decked out in two Black Ops 7 “Thurgood”-inspired Operator Skins.
You are scaling this back the wrong way… nobody remembers these 4/20 events because of the garbage collabs, people like the effort put into the LTM’s like High Trip Resurgence in MW3/BO6 Warzone. pic.twitter.com/0AZHYXAGN4
— Xen HunterTV☄️ (@itsHunterTV) March 31, 2026
Last year’s event featured Seth Rogen. While fans were already down on the branded-skinification of gaming’s top military shooter, there was at least more content to go along with it, including additional limited-time modes. This year, Activision is already in damage control mode. “We know a lot of players enjoy them, but we’ve scaled back the 4/20 celebrations this year to a single bundle for fans of the Half Baked movie,” the official account wrote on X. “No events or LTMs this time.”
This only made things worse. “You are scaling this back the wrong way…nobody remembers these 4/20 events because of the garbage collabs, people like the effort put into the LTM’s like High Trip Resurgence in MW3/BO6 Warzone,” one player wrote back.
Eidos Montreal’s canceled game was reportedly called Wildlands
According to Insider Gaming, it was nearly complete but parent company Embracer pulled the plug on the mythical open-world action-adventure after seven years of troubled development. “[Protagonist] River was part of a group of teenagers called Spiritbounds, who could ward off bad spirits with their magical staffs and ride mythical creatures,” Insider Gaming said of the canceled project. “River’s companion was a giant-moose-looking animal called ‘Redhear,’ which the player could ride to navigate around the map more quickly.”
Space Invaders maker Taito has found the second-ever crane game it produced
The Crown 603, as it’s called, was discovered as part of the company’s ongoing attempts to track down its first-ever crane game, the Crown 602. The sequel remains in rough shape but the company’s going to see if it can rehab the ancient arcade artifact, according to FNN Prime Online (via Automaton).
Tomb Raider skins accused of being AI slop have been fixed
OMGGGG THEY UPGRADED THE COSTUMESSS THEY LOOK SO GOOD AND DETAILED https://t.co/BcsLRHEnmn pic.twitter.com/U4l9BYGUxd
— Ulthimas 女天狗 ♥︎ (@ulthimas) March 31, 2026
Aspyr previously denied that the comically bad-looking cosmetics were made with generative AI but has gone ahead and patched them to fix the quality issues. Fans are now confused as to why the studio didn’t just wait to release the better versions.
Arc Raiders tweaks matchmaking to reward players for risking more gear
This week’s Flashpoint update adds new content, but buried in the patch notes is an interesting change to how the game treats players with custom loadouts versus free kits. “As part of an ongoing look at free loadout usage and how it impacts the game, we’re going to bias the matchmaking to put players with custom loadouts into fresh servers,” the developers explain.
They continue, “This won’t be a guarantee, as map choice, time of day, and region will still affect the number of players available to matchmake. This does have an effect on overall matchmaking times so we’ll be keeping a close eye on it. Free Loadouts are primarily meant as a safety net for a player’s personal economy. With these kits, those who play carefully should have enough to build themselves back up, accomplish a few tasks, or make a bit of progress.”
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era arrives later this month
The strategy revival comes to Steam Early Access on April 30. Game Pass PC subscribers can access it day-one for free.
Will the PS6 handheld be better than an Xbox Series S?
Hardware leaker KeplerL2 is claiming so. “GPU is a bit ahead of XSS in raster (and ofc massively ahead in RT/PT),” the wrote in a recent thread discussing next-gen rumors.
