Take-Two is reeling from GTA 6 leaks, but no, its stock isn’t in trouble. A studio head opens up about escaping the event horizon of Microsoft’s latest Xbox cuts. And another robot crash-out goes viral. It’s another late edition of Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s roundup of gaming news, rumors, and culture, where we are all hungry for food that won’t make us shit our pants.
Frozen blueberries were just upgraded to the “highest” risk level because of e-coli. They found salmonella in the granola. Even the jalapenos aren’t safe. Meanwhile, generative AI is making even burritos look horrifying. At least RAM prices have finally peaked. Just kidding.
Robot death, cometh
机器人跑太快不及刹车，撞上垫子后把腰折断了🤯 pic.twitter.com/wwJ4HfgiC5
— 偏航 (@pianhangx) August 20, 2026
It’s the second World Humanoid Robot Games this weekend in Beijing, China and things are going great. Mashable reports that some teams have arrived at the National Speed Skating Oval ahead of time to make final preparations. This has included some robots running full-speed into walls like they’re auditioning to work in a particle accelerator.
Robotics expert Eren Chen and others have been sharing viral clips of these incidents, which are as entertaining as they are cathartic. The trend of expensive robots causing chaos continues. According to Chen, the robots are struggling at the games this year because they now have to navigate the events autonomously rather than with human controllers. So far at least, some of them haven’t learned when to slow down or change direction, something my two-year-old toddler will find very relatable.
Take-Two’s $2.8 billion rollercoaster ride
You may have seen reports earlier this week that Wall Street shaved billions off Take-Two’s market cap following the recent Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks. And there certainly was a drop in the stock price. But Take-Two’s stock price often fluctuates day-to-day and week-to-week.
And while $2.8 billion is a lot of money—just shy of Ubisoft’s entire market cap—it’s almost a blip relative to the company’s overall $45 billion market cap. In fact, just before midday today, Take-Two’s stock was back up to where it was at the start of the week. Things are trending back down following a Bloomberg report that Rockstar still doesn’t have a handle on its current security breach, but for now it’s pretty much business as usual as far as the stonks are concerned.
South of Midnight studio head opens up about leaving Xbox
CEO Guillaume Provost founded Compulsion Games back in 2009. Earlier this summer, he had to race to find the financial backing to take the studio private again amid a hasty Microsoft pivot away from smaller games. Compulsion released its award-winning South of Midnight under the Game Pass model last year, but Xbox, which purchased the studio in 2018, is now retreating to focus on major franchises.
“I did this deal for the team first and foremost,” he told GamesBeat in his first interview since the divestiture. “I asked the team: ‘Do you want to stay together?’ The team told me we would rather eat rocks and drink gasoline than be split up.” He said the team is incubating new projects, but isn’t in a rush to decide what’s next and will be exploring partnerships in its first few months after returning to independence.
Mattel and Microsoft team up for a $325 Xbox that doesn’t play games
The Mattel Brick Shop’s 3,509-piece Lego-like replica of the original Xbox is life-sized and comes with neat dioramas for classics like Halo: Combat Evolved, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and Psychonauts.
The last of those is somewhat ironic since the studio behind it, Double Fine, was one of the other teams Microsoft just cut loose in Xbox’s latest round of downsizing. The set is releasing October 1 for the 25th anniversary of Xbox, and while it’s pricey, it’s still a bargain compared to the $900 translucent-green Series X.
New Gabe Newell meme just dropped
The International is going on right now; you know, that big Dota 2 tournament that Valve hosts every year with massive cash prizes funded by one of its many money-printing, in-game skin economies. Owner Gabe Newell often makes a brief appearance at these things via pre-recorded video, and this year’s view of the big boss has left Steam fans shocked by the tech founder’s new physique, PC Gamer reports.
“Live long enough to see Lord Gaben turn to Russell Crowe, while real Russell Crowe becomes Gabe,” one person commented on YouTube. “Lord Gaben is getting healthier, love to see it,” wrote another. Another said he looked like Hugh Jackman. Is it all those gymnasiums on his $500 million super yacht or the influx of GLP-1s? Either way, he’s richer than ever, and I’m doing my best to not re-install Dota 2 this weekend.
ICYMI:
- We reviewed Mortal Shell 2, Stardew Valley-like Fields of Mistria, and Metal Gear Solid 4 this week
- Industry legend Warren Spector is retiring after his latest game didn’t work out
- A beer company wants you to send jars of piss to the AI data centers
- Sony is rebooting the multiplayer Horizon game nobody seems to want
- Riot Games is abandoning its new 2D fighter already
- Xbox unions held rallies across the country in the face of ongoing mass layoffs
- The creators of new indie hit Big Walk gave us a big interview about the game’s development, puzzles, and ending
Watch this:
World's First Skyrim All Achievements No Damage run completed.
Almost a decade of challenge runs and this is probably the hardest run ive done. pic.twitter.com/dtz5oUQ1Fh
— GinoMachino (@GinoMachino) August 20, 2026
