Valve is supposed to reveal pre-order options for the Steam Machine in early 2026 but PC gaming prices are getting out of control. Ubisoft is already hyping up The Division 3. And a mystery game is set to appear at the first Xbox showcase of 2026. Pentiment 2? It’s another edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture.
While it’s been the case for years now that physical games come with almost nothing inside the case but the disc, I still feel a brutal pang of disappointment every time I encounter it. I recently bought a handful of discounted games over the holidays and while their presence on my shelves pleases me, I can’t totally shake the disturbing void hiding within. It makes the rare game that does come packed full of inserts all the more special.
A Czech retailer has placeholder pricing for the Steam Machine starting at $950
Clawsomegamer discovered the detail in the source code for the web listing at Smarty.cz. That’s not an official retail partner for the device, making it extra unlikely that this is actually reflective of Valve’s pricing strategy rather than retailers just inserting placeholder guesstimates (Smarty.cz has $1,070 for the 2TB version). Still, it does have people worried about what kind of sticker shock they might eventually see as recent RAM shortages propel PC gaming component prices through the roof at the start of 2026.
Big grain of salt:
A Czech retailer (https://t.co/XIPdLHBOif) has already put up a preliminary listing for the upcoming Valve Steam Machine (512GB) 👀
The product page doesn’t display a public price yet, but checking the site’s source code via browser developer tools reveals a… pic.twitter.com/QRqJxbnT6x
— Clawsomegamer (@Clawsomegamer) January 9, 2026
Valve previously promised to reveal more information about its new living room console early this year, but those plans could be pushed back if the current supply chain issues are making it harder to get the first wave of devices manufactured at an affordable price point. While Valve has hinted that Steam Machines would be priced more like a gaming PC than a $500 console, no one knows if that means closer to $700 or closer to $1,000. The company did hint that it’s not going to be using profits from Steam to subsidize the price.
An Xbox showcase later this month hides a mystery game reveal
A fourth game at the Dev Direct taking place on January 22 was first teased by Shinobi602. VGC corroborated the hint and reports that the mystery release is “a smaller-scale original game from one of Xbox Game Studios’ first-party developers.” That suggests it could be a side project in the mold of Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment.
Fable will come to PS5, too
But there’s more! Alongside Forza Horizon 6 and Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation, both already confirmed for PS5, VGC also reports that Fable is in development for the Sony platform as well. Xbox exclusivity is dead, yes, but the question remains whether Microsoft will push to start getting these multiplatform releases out day-and-date or still stagger them where it sees fit.
Helldivers 2 kicks off its deadliest year yet
Strange new Illuminate structures are popping up in the extraction shooter after Arrowhead Game Studios promised players that 2026 would be even bloodier for the forces of space fascism. “A lot of Helldivers will die,” CEO Shams Jorjani recently teased on the game’s Discord when talking about the studio’s upcoming plans. Arrowhead will have its work cut out for it after fans spent the early part of last summer beating back an invasion of Super Earth.
Where Winds Meet starts 2026 off strong
The surprise open-world hit on console and PC has dropped its 1.2 update that adds a new boss fight, Guild Battles, and other activities ahead of additional chapters coming later this month and next.
The Division 3 is shaping up to be a “monster”
That’s according to executive producer Julian Gerighty. “It’s shaping up to be a monster,” he told fans in a new Ubisoft vidoc. “I can’t really say anything more than that. But within these walls [at] Massive, we are working extremely hard on something that I think will [have] as big an impact as The Division 1 was.” There’s no release date in sight for the sequel and Massive is still producing new content for The Division 2. Finding a way to combine the innovation and novelty of the first game with the gameplay polish and scope of the second could be a recipe for something special. Also something that takes a long time to make.
Warner Bros. Games has laid off staff at its San Francisco studio
Game Developer reports that an unknown number of staff at the mobile studio that works on games like DC Worlds Collide were fired back in December.
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