The case between Rockstar and fired Grand Theft Auto 6 developers who were unionizing gets messier. Discord is secretly preparing for a possible IPO. And Square Enix might ban you if you share Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined spoilers. It’s the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture.

I’m trying to go into this new year by once again limiting my social media intake. There are a lot of cool things that get shared around and I love to see, and also too much of anything will kill you. Curated feeds. Strict time limits. This is the way.

Discord is getting closer to an IPO

Bloomberg reports that the gaming chat platform “filed confidentially for an initial public offering.” While that doesn’t guarantee it will move forward with a Wall Street stock offering, it does suggest the company has moved another rung up the ladder toward enshittification. Discord recently boasted over 200 million monthly users and has promised to remain a user-first enterprise that doesn’t monetize its audience for short-term gain. We’ll see!

Rockstar shares new details about the unionizing GTA 6 developers it fired

Claims were heard from both sides at a labor tribunal this week, IGN reports. Rockstar also shed more light on the union-focused Discord that developers were chatting in before they were fired. “This channel contained at least 25 non-Rockstar employees, including employees of competitor game developers, a video games industry journalist, as well as dozens of anonymous, unidentifiable members,” the company said in a statement to IGN. “Meanwhile, employees who posted union-supportive messages, but who did not breach confidentiality policies, were not dismissed.”

While the IWGB has claimed only union business was discussed, Rockstar maintains that game features were also leaked. “We regret that these dismissals were necessary; however, confidentiality is fundamental to everything Rockstar Games does,” its new statement continued. “Global interest in our games is unparalleled.”

Rockstar went on, “Even the smallest leak of any information relating to our products and practices can cause major commercial and creative damage — as we have seen in the past — and damage the experience of our loyal players and dedicated team. This was never about union membership. We have always taken a zero-tolerance approach to unauthorized releases of information — and we always will.”

The free Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined demo is out

Players will get an in-game reward for trying it, and save progress carries over to the final game which is out on console and PC on February 5. Be careful, though, as Automaton reports that Square Enix is threatening to ban anyone who potentially posts unmarked spoilers for the remake of 25-year-old game. The spoiler warnings will continue until morale improves.

Fallout season 3 starts filming in just a few months

Amazon is wasting no time getting the next batch of episodes for its hit TV adaptation of the RPG series going. According to a new production alert, filming will resume in May.

Balatro and Silksong prove conventional wisdom can’t always predict hits

That’s one of the points NYU professor Joost van Dreunen made in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “The success of a Balatro, a Silksong: These are all games that shouldn’t really exist,” he said. “They don’t make rational sense financially, and yet somehow they are deeply loved and commercially very viable and popular.”

ICYMI:

• Some big blockbusters are headed to Xbox Game Pass this month
• What Logan Paul doesn’t get about Pokémon
• FPS Quest is a neat-sounding game with an incredible trailer

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