Good morning. Unfortunately, I swear it’s not my fault but yes, today is Tuesday, aka the worst day of the week. But hey, at least we are here together to enjoy another installment of Kotaku’s Morning Checkpoint, a daily round-up of video game news and other stuff you might care about. Today, we have data on how well Elden Ring‘s DLC is selling, a weird Stranger Things crossover, and a report of a new 2K studio with connections to that canceled Perfect Dark game.
Bosses Behind Canned Perfect Dark Reboot Reportedly Creating New 2K Studio
First announced in 2020 and then officially revealed in 2024 with a snazzy gameplay trailer, Xbox’s Perfect Dark reboot had a lot of buzz around it before it was canned by Microsoft in July. The studio behind the game, The Initiative, was also shut down. And now, following a reported attempt at Take-Two to save Perfect Dark, the publisher behind GTA and NBA 2K has apparently hired two of the bosses behind the canceled reboot and is funding the creation of a new game studio.
As first reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier on Tuesday, former Perfect Dark director Brian Horton and former The Initiative studio head Darrell Gallagher are building a brand new studio within 2K Games. Gallagher later confirmed the news on LinkedIn. We have no other details about the studio, but it is interesting to see this saga unfold. I guess some people at Take-Two were really impressed by that Perfect Dark demo, huh?
Earlier this year I broke the news that Take-Two was close to rescuing Xbox’s Perfect Dark but the deal fell apart.
Now, a new development: Take-Two has hired Perfect Dark studio head Darrell Gallagher and director Brian Horton to start a brand new studio within 2K.
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) 2025-12-08T21:51:37.009Z
Why Resident Evil 2 Featured No Returning Characters
Resident Evil 2 game director, Bayonetta creator, and famed online poster Hideki Kamiya has recently been talking more about Capcom’s beloved 1998 survival horror game on social media. And on December 9, Kamiya explained to a fan why he didn’t include any characters from Resident Evil in the sequel, saying:
“At the time, I was a selfish idiot who didn’t consider the feelings of the users, so when I was making Biohazard 2, I decided to remove all the characters from the previous game and start a new one. In the end, this was buried in the dark as Biohazard 1.5, and when Sugimura-sensei joined the team later, he got mad at me, saying, ‘Why aren’t you including the characters from the previous game?’, so I added Chris’s sister, Claire…”
Elden Ring: Nightreign’s First DLC Has Already Sold Over 2 Million Copies
In less than two weeks, Elden Ring: Nightreign’s first DLC, Forsaken Hollows, has already sold two million copies. The news comes via FromSoftware, who posted a thank you to all the fans who have “joined the hunt against the Dreglord.”
And now for one of 2025’s weirdest crossovers
When I think of Microsoft Flight Simulator, I think of realistic planes, gorgeous landscapes, and of course, a hit TV show set in the 80s featuring demons and sci-fi monsters. Wait, sorry, I wrote that sentence after falling down the stairs and landing on my head really hard. Anyway, yeah, Stranger Things is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Yay?
