Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and The Witcher 4 are both skipping The Game Awards 2025. What big trailers might take their place? Why is the “overperforming” Assassin’s Creed Shadows not getting another big DLC? And when will things start going right for Paradox Interactive again? It’s a special Thanksgiving Day Edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture.
HUNTR/X performing “Golden” at the 99th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York pic.twitter.com/QTloRwAlL2
— EJAE Updates (@EjaeUpdates) November 27, 2025
THE LABUBU FLOAT IM SCREAMING #MacysParade pic.twitter.com/yMyMKds3Sn
— SΞAN (@Seanlofficial) November 27, 2025
Super Mario float in the Thanksgiving Parade! pic.twitter.com/TapXBzg5gk
— TY! (@TYxki) November 27, 2025
Mario is once again here to save the holiday season with a massive parade balloon, a hot new console, and another box office blockbuster just months away. But it was actually the obligatory Kpop Demon Hunters performance that stole the show. And if you see the Labubu float break containment, well, please call 911. Meanwhile, I’m jealously checking in on everyone else’s Black Friday gaming haul. Now let me go check on my candied yams before they burn.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is a $37 million flop
Paradox Interactive announced the write-down to investors yesterday. It takes full responsibility for the game’s troubled reception following years of development hell and multiple studios at the helm. The RPG is currently sitting below a 60 percent positive rating on Steam.
“A month after release we can sadly see that sales do not match our projections, which necessitates the write-down. The responsibility lies fully with us as the publisher. The game is outside of our core areas, in hindsight it is clear that this has made it difficult for us to gauge sales. Going forward, we focus our capital to our core segments and, at the same time, we’ll evaluate how we best develop World of Darkness’ strong brand catalogue in the future,” CEO Fredrik Wester said.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows won’t get a second expansion
“As of now at this moment for Year Two there is no expansion on the size of Awaji that is planned currently,” associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois recently told YouTuber JorRaptor. “We’re still working on content for post-launch and supporting it, but it’s not a full-on DLC the way a Season Pass would have had in the previous years. And whether or not this is the the right way to go, I think it’s more an experience we’re trying, to keep things small and reactive and see how the community feels about it.”
He suggests that the game’s original delay and resources spent on improving the Assassin’s Creed engine are the reason a second big DLC felt out of Shadows post-launch roadmap, rather than soft sales or a lack of player interest.
The Witcher 4 won’t be at The Game Awards 2025
“I’m very happy to see The Witcher 4 nominated in the Most Anticipated Game category at The Game Awards,” CD Projekt Red co-CEO Michał Nowakowski wrote on X. “Thanks to everyone who has already voted – your support means a lot of to us. We won’t be bringing any new content to TGA this year, but we’re, as always, excited to watch the show and celebrate this amazing industry’s great night alongside all of you.”
The backlash to OpenAI’s war on anime continues
The Japan Commercial Broadcasters’ Association released a new statement pushing back on AI plagiarism machines. The group is “strongly urging generative AI developers,” Asahi Shimbun reports (via IGN). The association also called on OpenAI to “respond sincerely to claims made by member companies in regard to copyright infringement caused by generative AI.” I’m sure that will happen any day now.
The great Pokémon vs Digimon debate
“Digimon and Pokémon are fundamentally different in their core concepts and appeal,” Digimon Story: Time Stranger producer Ryosuke Hara said in a recent interview (via VGC). “Each has its own unique strengths. We believe that these differences will naturally become apparent as players experience this title.” He doesn’t go into detail about what those differences are, though they’ll be obvious to anyone who has played both Time Stranger and Pokémon Legends: Z-A this fall.
He said Time Stranger is trying to be less insular than past Digimon games by easing players into the world. “Simply delving into the appeal of powerful Digimon like the Olympos XII would only resonate with existing Digimon fans, so we made sure to introduce several mysteries at the beginning of the narrative—designed to spark curiosity and encourage all players to move forward with interest,” Hara explaioned.
Splitgate 2 will re-launch next month
The portal shooter came and went in the blink of an eye earlier this year is headed back to a soft launch beta on December 4. CEO Ian Proulx is confident things will be different this time, and no, he wont’ be back at the Game Award with a new hat.
“The thing that has me most optimistic is the results from the playtests,” he wrote on Reddit. “Even though the numbers aren’t crazy big, we have seen them grow every time both in terms of player count and in terms of Net Promoter Score (NPS). Our NPS score is the highest it has ever been by far (which basically in the survey measures how likely people are to recommend Splitgate to a friend). This has been our most important metric to improve, and we have done just that.”
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