Magic: The Gathering Sets A New $1.7 Billion Record For Turning Cardboard Into Gold

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We might not be getting Harry Potter-themed Magic: The Gathering cards anytime soon, but Hasbro is still finding plenty of other franchises to pump into its money-printing furnace. If you want to play FromSoftware’s next game, you’re gonna need a Switch 2. And is the next Metro game coming later this year?

It’s the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news, rumors, and culture. What’s on your fake PlayStation State of Play leak wishlist? For me it’s an Armored Core 6 expansion or, better yet, an entirely new standalone game.

Magic: The Gathering makes so much god damn money

Parent company Hasbro revealed in its earnings this week that Magic: The Gathering raked in $1.7 billion in revenue in 2025. That was up 59 percent from the year prior, much of it on the back of the fastest-selling set it’s ever produced: Final Fantasy Universes Beyond. Hasbro is sitting on a golden goose that shits cardboard, even if some investors are currently suing the company for allegedly mishandling that asset by printing too many cards.

MTG might be as overexposed as Timothée Chalamet but it is currently paying huge dividends to Hasbro’s shareholders. With new Marvel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Star Trek sets all planned for the coming year, the toy maker is already promising $1 billion in stock buybacks. Don’t think of it as the Wall Street equivalent of milling your deck for short-term advantage, think of it more as exiling equity for a rainy day.

The Duskbloods isn’t coming to PC

FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa also released its earnings this week in which it confirmed Elden Ring and The Duskbloods are still both set to come to Switch 2 in 2026. There’s no firm release dates yet, but The Duskbloods in particular “will only be available for the Nintendo Switch 2,” suggesting no timed exclusivity or parallel launch on PC.

Embracer teases a “long-awaited, major” game coming soon

Guess who else was doing earnings this week? The once-almighty investment vehicle/game-publishing conglomerate Embracer got people talking with its remarks to investors. “For the next financial year, we look forward to one long-awaited, major, in-house-developed and in-house-published title together with a range of important mid-sized titles,” the company said (via VGC). That points to 4A Game’s new shooter in the post-apocalyptic Metro series. Embracer also owns Gunfire Games, which is working on Darksiders 4, but that sounds like it’s farther tout.

Battlefield 6‘s season 2 trailer is finally here

Alongside the updated roadmap, it outlines new maps, modes, and gear coming to the game starting February 17. Will two new maps per season be enough to keep players satiated? Not if they’re not big enough, and the bigger ones sound like they’re still a few months away.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Remastered is still out there, lurking

Ubisoft’s worst-kept secret just had its art book listed on Amazon. The game was originally rumored to be coming this winter but now appears to have been delayed ahead of Ubisoft’s recent poor earnings report.

The Arc Raiders domination train hasn’t lost steam

For every half-dozen live service stumbles, you get a durable new hit or two, and Arc Raiders is one of them. Publisher Nexon revealed this week that the game has sold 14 million copies so far, and reached nearly 1 million peak concurrent players across all platforms in January. Months after launch it’s still reportedly sustaining 6 million weekly active users. Those are MMO numbers, which is maybe why Embark Studios CEO Patrick Soderland recently told IGN he feels the extraction shooter needs more social hubs that are better utilized.