What’s next for Star Wars after Grogu interest plummets? Can a Streets of Rage movie be as funny as Sonic’s live-action debut? Will a Baldur’s Gate 2 remake give the classic CRPG a Baldur’s Gate 3–style makeover? It’s a belated edition of Kotaku Checkpoint for June 1, 2026, where we are getting prepared like everyone else for this week’s Not-E3 Geoff Keighley–palooza. It’ll be interesting to see how this year’s showcases contend with the Grand Theft Auto 6-sized sinkhole waiting near the end of the holiday release window. I hope we still get plenty of cool announcements, even if no one wants to release their game until next February.
Grogu is getting crushed at the box office
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu continues to trail off at the box office. It brought in only $25 million domestically during its second weekend. That’s $246 million globally vs. a $165 million filming budget and an unknown marketing budget. The 69 percent drop put it in third place behind Obsession.
The middling reviews and poor word-of-mouth might not matter much over the long term once the movie starts streaming on Disney+. Still, it’s pretty bad for one of the only franchises left that’s supposed to be bankable every time. The memes are already coming in for co-writer and producer Dave Filoni, who was recently anointed the co-head of all things Star Wars. Industry watchers have been contrasting Grogu’s swift decline with the unexpected success of indie horror juggernauts Backrooms and Obsession, both of which have been picking up steam rather than losing it.
Sonic the Hedgehog movie writers pivot to another classic Sega franchise
Pat Casey and Josh Miller have signed on to do a Street of Rage movie with The Harder They Fall filmmaker Jeymes Samuel set to direct, Variety reports. The adaptation of the 1991 Sega brawler will apparently lean “heavily into the cult classic game known for its iconic characters, acclaimed electronic soundtracks and beat ’em up action.”
Baldur’s Gate 2 might be getting a remake
That’s according to PC Gamer, which reports that the original BioWare RPG’s co-lead designer, Kevin Martens, has started working on one. It’s possible that both the first and second games could be remade simultaneously, though it’s far from clear what form these new games would take.
Arms dealer Palmer Luckey’s N64 clone has a release date
— ModRetro (@modretro) June 1, 2026
The M64 from ModRetro will launch on July 28 for $230. That’s roughly $30 less than its competitor, the Analogue 3D. It plays your original Nintendo 64 cartridges and comes with an M64 Pro Controller.
Ex–Dragon Age producer suggests gaming needs more product placement
“The over-reliance on microtransactions is overemphasizing certain genres and stopping others from flourishing,” former BioWare developer Mark Darrah said in a new YouTube video (via VGC). “Everything can’t be a live service, which is something I hope we’ve proven pretty definitively over the past year and a half, and if monetization is coming predominantly from live services, we run the risk of living in a world where there are no AAA games that aren’t live services. And I don’t think that’s a world that any of us want to live in.”
He continued, “Product placement is a very small part of video games right now compared to movies and television. Maybe it could be a larger part of development. Maybe there are relationships there to be formed.”
Steam hit Factorio is getting its final update 10 years later
“We envision 2.1 as our last major update of Factorio, and we will shift the focus onto long term support,” developer Wube Software explained in a new blog post. “So things like bug fixes, platform support/compatibility, modding features, etc. Other than that we feel we’ve reached a good place to conclude the active gameplay development.” The final update will be focused mostly on quality-of-life improvements, so existing fans shouldn’t expect any new planets, enemies, research trees, or resource chains.
The PlayStation store shovelware purge continues
Webnetic, which had over 1,000 listings on the PlayStation store, is being deplatformed, Insider Gaming reports. “These are our final days on PlayStation, so if you’ve ever wanted to check out our games, now is the perfect time to do so before they’re gone. But this isn’t the end for us,” the publisher announced on X. “We’re continuing our journey on Xbox, Nintendo, and Steam, and we have exciting projects ahead — including more updates on Panic House: Awakening.”
ICYMI:
- The Xbox showcase’s logo-gate is a symptom of a deeper division that won’t be easy for its new CEO to bridge
- The Stop Killing Games movement lands its first big legislative win in California
- Normal Golf is the newest game from the designer of Fruit Ninja and there’s nothing normal about it
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