Is there a disturbance in the force when it comes to Pokémon Legends: Z-A‘s week-one sales? Will Steam Deck compatibility help aid the Switch 2 on its road to becoming a handheld port machine? And why are Sims 4 creators abandoning EA’s official affiliate program? It’s another edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture.
People are once again debating whether Nintendo should bring back Virtual Console instead of forcing fans to rent all of its games in perpetuity. While it’s true that people had been wanting Nintendo to do a low-cost Netflix-like retro service for a while, much of that was due to constantly needing to re-purchase the games across non-backwards-compatible devices. With the Switch 2, that’s no longer an issue. Personally, I’d prefer to just buy the original Luigi’s Mansion again instead of pay $50 a year to play it.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is selling less than other recent games in the series
The Pokémon Company announced the latest entry sold 5.8 million copies in its first week, split roughly evenly between Switch and Switch 2. Sounds impressive, but it’s slightly behind other recent Pokémon games:
- Pokémon Sword and Shield: 6 million copies in its first three days
- Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl: 6 million copies in its first week
- Pokémon Legends: Arceus: 6.5 million copies in its first week
- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: 10 million copies in its first three days
That’s a little surprising given the hype around a new console launch and the fact that it’s been three years since fans received a mainline Pokémon game. Are those viral videos about the bad graphics and how lifeless Lumiose City looks putting a damper on things? Are some fans aging out all these years later? Or is this just a momentary slip on the way to Pokémon Legends: Z-A still becoming one of the top-20 best-selling Nintendo console games ever?
The Simpsons‘ takeover of Fortnite continues leaking
FORTNITE SIMPSONS SEASON (HD KEY ART) pic.twitter.com/eL7l1skLRJ
— Shiina (@ShiinaBR) October 23, 2025
Now we have the key art which gives lots of clues for what to expect, including Homer with a magic TV remote that might spawn donuts, Bart in a mech suit, and Flanders flying in on a loaf of bread.
There’s a fresh rumor about Baldur’s Gate III coming to Switch 2
Leaker NateTheHate writes, “Have heard something on BG3 for SW2 but need more verification on it before I can share.” Larian Studios recently went out of its way to make the RPG natively Steam Deck compatible.
Some of the biggest Sims 4 YouTubers are leaving EA’s creator program over the sale to Saudi Arabia
PC Gamer reports that James Turner, Jesse ‘Plumbella’ McNamara, and Kayla ‘lilsimsie’ Sims have all left what is essentially an affiliate program for the game run by EA where they can make money off of creating mods and other content related to the game.
“Due to the recent sale, I have asked to leave the EA Creator Network and I will not buy or make content around any future release. I think taking this stand is the right choice for me personally, but I’m not going to judge anybody on their decision,” McNamara said. “I’m in a privileged position to be able to say I’m leaving so easily.”
In a separate discussion, Sims said, “This situation is a nightmare for our community. Nobody supports this sale, and it is putting creators in a very difficult position. They have built their entire career and livelihood over a game that they have no control over.”
Factorio: Space Age is already confirmed for Switch 2
The hit survival crafting assembly game sequel will be coming to the Nintendo console around Christmas. The original Factorio, already on the original Switch, will also be getting a free Switch 2 upgrade to help it run better and add mouse controls.
Borderlands 4 accidentally nerfed a big loot grinding time-saver
A fix to another bug related to camera movements caused an unintended QoL hit here. We’re going to add the cooldown reset back.
— Grant (@grantkao) October 24, 2025
Moxxi’s Big Encore machines let you instantly respawn bosses to make loot grinding as fast as possible. As PCGamesN points out, however, players recently found that activating a vendor no longer reset their skill cooldowns, significantly nerfing the time-to-kill for each repeated encounter. Associate creative director Grant Kao confirmed that this was a mistake and it will be fixed in an upcoming patch.
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