Forza Horizon 6 will star in Microsoft’s first gaming showcase of 2026. Rockstar is still claiming fired employees were leaking game secrets. And the anime studio behind Neon Genesis Evangelion is officially no more. Welcome to the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture, which is even later than usual today because we’re all hung over from The Game Awards.
I apologize. It was a late one. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 went home with almost everything. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 went home with literally nothing. But who’s really keeping track? Only 10 percent of the show actually involved people winning awards and making speeches. But some players are still crashing out over a gacha game winning multiple trophies, including “Player’s Voice.” At least they didn’t get murdered by the Okami social media account. Did Hideki Kamiya forget he was still logged in? Unfortunately for the person involved, it sounds like it was one big misunderstanding.
is this more to your liking pic.twitter.com/iCrcxbvqqc
— Okami (@OkamiOfficial) December 11, 2025
Microsoft will hold its first Xbox showcase of 2026 in January
The company has a big raft of games due out next year and will kick things off next month with its first Developer Direct of 2026. It’ll include Forza Horizon 6. “I will tell you that Playground Games is going to be in the Dev Direct,” President of Microsoft gaming content Matt Booty told Variety. “But we’ll have more stuff next year to ship than we can fit into one Dev Direct show in January, which is a good place to be.” Fable, Gears: E-Day, Halo Remastered, and more are expected to launch during the 25th anniversary of Xbox.
Microsoft admits annualizing Call of Duty is “difficult”
Black Ops 7 has performed poorly enough that Activision hasn’t released any sales metrics and has promised never to release back-to-back franchise sequels again. But Matt Booty isn’t worried.
“Shipping a major franchise like clockwork every year is a really difficult task, and I’m really proud of what the team did to move the franchise forward in that way,” he told Variety. “And the interesting thing about Call of Duty is, I think that as an IP, it is really well positioned to continue to deliver content for players going forward; the system of seasons. And it’s not just about the launch, but it’s kind of in its own unique category and ability in terms of how the team keeps delivering content throughout the year. So we’re real happy with where we’ve landed with that.”
Mortal Kombat 2‘s producer isn’t happy about getting dunked on by Street Fighter
The cast of the Street Fighter Movie just threw BIG shots at the Mortal Kombat Movie Kast at #TheGameAwards! Oh it’s on! 😤 pic.twitter.com/IbclswNMnq
— David (@unCAGEDgamez) December 12, 2025
Andrew Schulz, who plays Dan Hibiki in the new Street Fighter movie, made a very funny joke when the cast was on stage at the Game Awards last night about how the Mortal Kombat 2 cast didn’t care enough about the fans to show up. Mortal Kombat 2 producer Todd Garner is either playing along or very thin-skinned. “I don’t climb over others to get ahead,” he wrote back on X.
Rockstar doubles down on claim it fired GTA 6 devs for leaking game secrets
“Rockstar Games took action against a small group of individuals, across the UK and internationally, who distributed and discussed confidential information (including specific game features from upcoming and unannounced titles) in a public forum, in breach of company policy and their legal obligations. Claims that these dismissals were linked to union membership or activities are entirely false and misleading,” the studio wrote in a new statement to IGN.
The union representing the fired developers still claims this isn’t true. “Rockstar’s latest statement is littered with falsehoods and disinformation-they have given multiple, conflicting reasons to explain why the workers were fired, as if attempting to reverse engineer a rationale for the dismissals,” the IWGB responded in a new statement of its own. “Once again, they have chosen to mischaracterize workers speaking about their working conditions in a private forum as ‘leaking information.’”
Anime powerhouse Gainax officially shut down this week
Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno shared his thoughts about the studio’s troubled collapse. “As someone who has been with the company for over 20 years since its founding and has been involved as a shareholder until today, this is a truly disappointing end, but I am accepting it with a sense of urgency,” he wrote. The animation veteran described his view of the company’s demise which included a legal fight with its management, some of whom were once his close friends.
Anno continued, “Specifically, upon learning about the various false statements made by former Fukushima Gainax representative Yoshinobu Asao, Hiroyuki Yamaga, and Yasuhiro Takeda, whom I considered friends since college, toward my company and myself, including instructions from then-President Yamaga [who was arrested in 2019] to Gainax employees to pretend he was hospitalized, statements that viewed our company as hostile, and schemes to unfairly avoid repayment, I have gone beyond anger to sadness.”
Xbox exclusive South of Midnight moves to Switch 2 and PS5 in the spring
That’s roughly a year after it launched. Along with Avowed and Keeper, it was one of the rare new Xbox releases that was still a console exclusive. The action-adventure won the “Games For Impact” award last night.
ICYMI:
Watch this:
First teaser for ‘LANTERNS’.
Releasing in 2026 on HBO Max. pic.twitter.com/DXJuYNtrXH
— DC Film News (@DCFilmNews) December 12, 2025
