The disappointing saga of Mighty No. 9 has reached its long, meandering conclusion. Blizzard has big plans for World of Warcraft in 2026. And Diablo veterans are working on their own not-Diablo ARPG rival. It’s the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news, rumors, and culture. Rainbow Six Siege is getting Fortnite-ified. The tactical shooter teased Solid Snake as its next operator. I doubt it’ll be as lucrative for Konami as those millions of eFootball downloads, though.
The messy, sad saga of Comcept finally comes to a definitive end
Legendary Mega Man artist Keiji Inafune launched his own independent studio in 2010 after leaving Capcom following the cancelation of Mega Man Legends 3. It was called Comcept and one of its early projects was a spiritual successor to Mega Man called Mighty No. 9. It was a 2D action platformer that relied on Kickstarter backing and ended up being a disaster both as a game and in terms of the promise of crowdfunding.
Comcept was eventually acquired by Level-5 in 2017. In 2024, the company announced Inafune had departed amid a reboot of life sim RPG Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. Oversight of the project shifted back to Level-5’s Osaka Office. It came out last summer and was very good. But the last trace of Inafune’s legacy there is no more. The final, official dissolution of what remained of the studio was announced this week.
Hytale lays out an ambitious update schedule
The Minecraft clone that has early players importing all sorts of wild modes and creations is promising a rapid update pipeline to help the Early Access release grow and iterate quickly while still experimenting. “Going forward, we’ll use the pre-release patchline to be a bit more adventurous,” Simon Collins-Laflamme, founder of developer Hypixel, wrote on X. “It will be updated weekly and may be unstable by design; this is where new features, larger changes, and iterations happen. FYI, we might skip a week from time to time for holidays, PTO, or other reasons.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 gets a mode that’s been MIA for seven years
Safeguard, which first debuted in Black Ops 3, is back for season 2 beginning February 5. It’s essentially escorting the payload from Overwatch but with a robot. There will of course be new maps, cosmetics, and other unlockable with the new content drop as well.
Darkhaven is a new ARPG from Diablo veterans
It’s got a spiffy retro-looking trailer and promises a twitchier combat and traversal loop than your average loot clicker. “From the very beginning, we wanted Darkhaven to feel good to play,” Diablo co-creator Erich Schaefer told PCGamesN. “Being able to jump over attacks, climb cliffs, dash out of danger, or swim across a lake that may or may not be infested with riverfangs changes how combat feels in this kind of game. It’s not just about numbers fighting numbers any more. It’s much more engaging. For me, it becomes more about skill, finding flow, and making smart decisions in the moment. I’ve never had more fun making and playing an ARPG.” No release date yet.
World of Warcraft is getting massive new dungeons
They’re called Labyrinths and they’ll launch in the 12.1.5 patch slated for fall 2026, Blizzard revealed in a Thursday showcase. The event outlined what fans of the MMORPG can expect in the year ahead beyond the upcoming March 3 Midnight expansion.