Hideo Kojima canât say what the very P.T.-looking OD is but suggests it wonât be as easy to explain as his new espionage game. The Shenmue 4 footage going around is fake. And an Elon Musk robot failed at its one job during a recent Tesla event. Itâs the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, our daily roundup of gaming news and culture. The Game Awards are this week. Last call for bets and predictions. Which befuddled celebrity will appear on stage? My moneyâs on Glen Powell.
Pay no attention to the low-paid worker virtually operating your Tesla hydration bot
A short clip of an Optimus robot at a Tesla autonomy event in Miami over the weekend is going viral. Thatâs because the robot appears to try to take a headset itâs not wearing off before going completely limp and falling backwards. It suggests the real-life operator needed to go on a piss break or something and forgot part of the shutdown sequence.
âI think Optimus needs an update,â wrote one user on the Tesla subreddit. It looks like the 1X Neo isnât the only not-actually-automated robot awaiting some major breakthroughs. Elon Musk has been hyping Optimusâ future potential as an âincredible surgeonâ and an âinfinite money glitch.â It currently doesnât seem like it could even get the soon-to-be trillionaire to the level cap in the latest season of Diablo 4.
That Shenmue 4 video going around is fake
A video that could be mistaken for alpha footage of a new Shenmue game has been making the rounds on social media and Reddit. While some fans hoped it was real, others immediately tagged it as AI slop. âThis video has absolutely no connection to YS NET,â the studio founded by former Sega legend Yu Suzuki wrote in a statement (via Automaton). âFurthermore, at this time, YS NET has not released any trailers, footage, or other promotional materials related to âShenmue 4.'â Itâs not the first time false rumors of Shenmue 4 have been spread. Suzuki previously told fans he hopes to make another sequel but one has yet to be officially confirmed.
The boys are âdead men walkingâ
The first trailer for The Boys season 5 was released over the weekend at CCXP 2025 in Brazil, revealing that things are worse than ever for Butcherâs anti-Supes resistance as Homelander rounds people up into âfreedom camps.â The Amazon Prime showâs fifth and final season will debut April 8, 2026 with a two-episode premiere.
Hideo Kojima could practically make Physint in his sleep
The director, nominated at The Game Awards 2025 for Death Stranding 2, was speaking to Ananweb about the differences between the upcoming stealth game for PlayStation and his more experimental horror project called OD (via Automaton). âI canât say exactly what [OD] is yet, nor do I know if it will work out,â he said. âWeâve created stealth games and delivery games which were unlike anything before, but system-wise, they were similar to other games.â
Kojima continued, âThis time, weâre trying to change the service model from the ground up, so it should be quite challenging. Weâve packed the trailer full of hints, so if you keep thinking about it, you might figure it out.â He added, âAs for Physint, because itâs an espionage game, I could practically make it in my sleepâŠfor exampleâyou have a soldier who infiltrates, gets stopped by the enemy, gets attacked, and sneaks around to take them out one by one. No matter how that plays out, itâs fun and easy to make.â
Netflix, EA, and Dead Space
Bloomberg reports that prior to offering over $80 billion for Warner Bros., Netflix was toying around with other massive acquisitions, including Electronic Arts. Apparently even Disney was on the table. Itâs unclear how much of the EA acquisition would have been for the games vs. just gobbling up more IP. Instead, EA is set to be purchased by Saudi Arabia. The Insider Gaming podcast reports that IP like Dead Space are currently on ice, with some hoping the new owners sell those franchises off rather than keep them on hiatus.
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