We’re getting more Halo games, but which ones? Can Battlefield really threaten Call of Duty for the military shooter crown? And is the future of OpenAI really a porn bot service? Welcome to the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming culture and news. I’m getting this one out extra early to make up for yesterday. Tron: Ares bombed at the box office with a $33 million debut that Hollywood insiders believe will doom Jared Leto and the franchise. That’s a shame because I saw it last night and it didn’t suck nearly as much as I expected. I would even say the first half of it was pretty great!
OpenAI is getting ready to unleash “erotica for verified adults”
A big sexting update is coming to ChatGPT in December, Sam Altman teased on X this week. “We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues,” he wrote. “We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.”
Having unfurled the aircraft carrier “Mission Accomplished!” sign despite ongoing wrongful death lawsuits, Altman says it’s time to embrace easily outmaneuvered age-verification tools and treat people like grownups. “In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults,” he concluded. It sounds like the trillion-dollar bubble is going back to the chattier and more sycophantic version of ChatGPT that paying users got hooked on earlier in the year.
Master Chief’s voice is teasing a big Halo announcement
Repped for our girl, @jentaylortown, in Chicago this past weekend! Jen and I can’t wait to see you guys at the Halo World Championships in Seattle, October 24 & 25!
PS: BIG NEWS A’COMIN!! #halo #haloworldchampionships #hcs #seattle #stevedownes #masterchief #jentaylor… pic.twitter.com/vHI5zMeQWC
— Steve Downes (@SteveDownes117) October 14, 2025
Steve Downes, the voice of Master Chief, is plugging the Halo World Championships later this month where he will appear with Cortana voice actor Jen Taylor. “PS: BIG NEWS A’COMIN!!” he posted on X. We already know a Halo: Combat Evolved remake is in the works but could Microsoft be ready to peel back the curtain on the next chapter of the sci-fi franchise as well? The tech giant previously promised to reveal the future of Halo at the esports tournament on October 25-26.
PS Plus leans into Halloween with more horror game additions
October’s tentpole game for PS Plus Extra is last year’s PS5-exclusive remake of Silent Hill 2, but according to billbil-kun at Dealabs Magazine, the remaster of Until Dawn will also be joining the subscription service lineup. Horror adventure As Dusk Falls and vampire survival sandbox V Rising will apparently be coming to PS Plus this month as well.
Battlefield 6 is off to a roaring start
Data firm Alinea Analytics is projecting launch weekend sales of 6.5 million copies. The majority of those are on PC, with roughly 45 percent divided surprisingly evenly between PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. If accurate, that’s a solid rebound for the franchise, though nowhere near the momentum of previous Call of Duty games. Battlefield 6 has also been shedding Steam concurrents since its weekend peak.
Arc Raiders is free for everyone ahead of launch
Look alive, ARC Raiders is free to try this weekend!
Step into the Rust Belt early. No codes. No sign-ups. You’re already in.
Check the full blog https://t.co/09gqwdLisH pic.twitter.com/lSr8Lginyp
— ARC Raiders (@ARCRaidersGame) October 14, 2025
The most-wishlisted extraction shooter on Steam will have a free weekend (October 17-19) for players to test its servers ahead of the October 30 launch. The Arc Raiders “server slam” will take place across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The server test will feature the Dam Battlegrounds map which players can take on as a squad or solo.
