More on the Clair Obscur AI drama, a new Arc Raiders bug that’s the perfect excuse for dying, and the French Final Fantasy 9 cartoon is still in the works. Welcome to a special Christmas Eve edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture. Why am I sitting here at my desk click-clacking away on my keyboard instead of watching my kids play Plants vs. Zombies? Because of you, dear readers. The words written mean nothing without the people on the other end. From all of us here at Kotaku, we wish you a happy holiday and a restful winter break.
No AI in Clair Obscur 2
Director Guillaume Broche was asked about the controversy surrounding the game and the tech in a recent Q&A with YouTuber Sushi (via Gamesradar). “Yeah, we’re aware of what’s been going on with that, but I can say everything in the game is human-made,” he said. “When AI first really came out in 2022, we’d already started on the game. It was just a new tool.”
He continued, “We tried it and we didn’t like it at all. It just felt wrong. We had originally used it as a placeholder for textures we missed, but we took it out as soon as we saw it. But yeah, the concept art, voice actors, everything is humanmade. It’s pretty hard to predict what the future of the industry will look like, but everything will be made by humans from us.”
Clair Obscur was recently stripped of its Indie Game Awards wins over AI-generated textures that were in part of the game at launch but quickly removed. But the devil is in the details. Everything in a finished game being made by humans isn’t quite the same as saying no gen AI tools will be used at some point in the process, though it sounds like so far at least, Sandfall Interactive doesn’t think they’re worth the trouble moving forward.
Arc Raiders players are dealing with a bugged guns
There appears to be an ARC Raiders bug not allowing players to pull their gun out
Happened to both Ninja and Nadeshot pic.twitter.com/I5OHM5yUHr
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) December 23, 2025
A clip making the rounds online shows Richard Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins explaining that he died in a fight because he wasn’t able to take out his gun. Other players in the comments have reported similar incidents where they’re unable to pull out a second firearm. It’s unclear how widespread the issue is but feel free to tell your friends this the next time you’re the first one down.
This might be the most painful way to try and pay Silksong
PC Gamer reports that YouTube user Bloblumordthe3rd is trying to beat Hollow Knight: Silksong using only taunts. It’s going about as slowly as you’d expect. According to them, Hornet’s garama does a total of six damage with the Hunter’s Crest on, or about as much damage as the starting attack. “This is like watching Sisyphus push the boulder and win,” wrote one commenter.
A big voice protests Evo over the Saudi deal
Fighting game commentator Stephen “Sajam” Lyon will not be participating in Evo 2026, he said on a recent stream (via PC Gamer). “You know, I’ve been going to EVO since 2014 and I’m not going now because of the buyout,” he said. “And before you type anything, I’m like ‘Yeah man, if the US Army bought EVO I would also not go.’”
He explained his thinking future. “Evil corporations purchasing or owning the things you like always sucks. But the difference, I think, for most people here is the purpose of the ownership and then what exactly they’re doing with it. It’s not just ‘The Saudi government owns EVO’, it’s like ‘The Saudi government owns EVO and lots of other things with the express intention of using these as a vehicle to promote tourism and sportwash.’”
A Final Fantasy 9 remake is MIA but an animated adaptation is still in the works
French magazine Écran Total reports (via RPG Site) that the FF9 cartoon in production at now defunct Cyber Studios Group will continue on under Euro Visual. The show will be aimed at kids and have 13 episodes running about 22 minutes each. What does this mean for an eventual remake that’s been rumored forever? Probably nothing.
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