Good morning and happy Game Awards Day to you all! It’s that time of the year when Mr. Videogames himself, Geoff Keighley, shows up to bury us in new game trailers for three hours. But before that happens later tonight, we have to get through Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku’s daily round-up of news and other stuff you might care about. Today, we have bad news for Blade Runner fans, good news for people playing Skyrim on Switch 2, and funny news for people who hate AI slop.
Over 175,000 players logged onto Warframe on Wednesday
Yesterday, Digital Extremes released the latest big update for its 12-year-old free-to-play sci-fi co-op shooter, Warframe. And people are going wild for The Old Peace. At one point on December 10, over 170,000 players were logged in on Steam trying to enjoy the new Warframe content. And remember, that number is only for PC, and Warframe has a sizable audience on console, too. So many players were trying to play the new update at the same time that Warframe‘s servers started to buckle under the strain, leading to many issues. However, I imagine the devs must be pleased that, a decade after launch, Warframe is more popular than ever.
Looks like Annapurna just canned its upcoming Blade Runner game
Remember when Annapurna Interactive announced a new Blade Runner game? Probably not, as we haven’t really heard much about Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth since it was announced in June 2023. Now, it looks like the game is dead. As spotted by The Escapist, the Steam store page for Annapurna’s Blade Runner game now lists that it is no longer available on the storefront. It’s likely that Labyrinth will be removed entirely from Steam in the near future. This news isn’t shocking, as in 2024, Annapurna Interactive seemingly imploded, though it is still publishing projects.
Helldivers 2 might be getting a roguelite mode
On December 10, Arrowhead Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt casually tweeted that the studio was working on a new game mode for Helldivers 2. “We have a prototype of a rogue-lite mode – it changes the game fundamentally!” replied the Helldivers 2 boss to a fan pitching their own idea for a new mode. No other details were shared, but you have that to look forward to now.
Hey! We have a prototype of a rogue-lite mode – it changes the game fundementally!
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) December 10, 2025
McDonald’s comments about that terrible AI ad it pulled
Remember that terrible AI-generated McDonald’s commercial that got deleted from the internet earlier this week after everyone yelled about it? Well, McDonald’s has officially commented on the whole ordeal, telling the BBC: “This moment serves as an important learning as we explore the effective use of AI.” Sounds like they haven’t been bullied enough.
Bethesda is investigating Skyrim’s performance issues on Switch 2
Bethesda is apparently looking into the various technical issues players are having with Skyrim on Switch 2, following the game’s shadow drop on Tuesday. In a post on the company’s official support page, Bethesda said it was “investigating reports of performance issues” with the new port of Skyrim.
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