Someone Might Have Just Bought The Last Brand-New Physical Copy Of 2008’s Spore

Good morning! Welcome to the coolest show in town, Kotaku’s Morning Checkpoint. This is our daily roundup of video game news and other interesting stuff you might care about. Squeeze in, find a seat, and get ready to be blown away by this morning’s showcase, which includes bad news for fans of The Finals on PS4, more layoffs, Sakurai wanting to live a chill life, and more.

Some games that sold a single physical copy in October

According to data from Circana’s Matt Piscatella, some odd, old games sold exactly one new physical copy in the United States during October. If you were the person out there who bought a physical copy of Spore in October, email me a photo of the receipt. I want to talk to you about your life. I hope things turn around for you. And if you are the person who bought Incredibles 2: Rise of the Underminer on GBA last month, you are a wild individual, and I respect it. Here’s the full list:

• 360- Burnout Paradise
• 3DS- Carnival Games: Wild West 3D
• GBA- Incredibles 2: Rise of the Underminer
• NDS- Imagine Fashion Stylist
• PC- Spore
• PS2- Backyard Baseball
• PS3- Hasbro Family Game Night 3
• PS4- Cooking Mama Cookstar
• XBX- Ultra Bust A Move

Avalanche Liverpool closes, 31 devs laid off

In September, Avalanche Liverpool, the studio behind the canceled Xbox game Contraband, announced it would be shutting down. And now that has happened. On November 19, the studio announced via its official website that it had completely closed its doors and 31 developers had been laid off as a result.

“The exceptional talent, passion, and commitment from everyone leaving have impacted every project. We are truly grateful for the dedication and invaluable contributions to Avalanche Studios Group. Our focus remains on supporting the Avalanchers through the transition and to carry on making great games for our player communities.”

Leave Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai alone

In a new interview with Game*Spark, Smash Bros. and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai talked about how he doesn’t consider his life all that interesting and wishes people would just focus on the games and not who made them. So he was surprised that people wanted to turn his story into a manga.

“I think I’ve always wanted to live an unassuming life,” Sakurai told the outlet, as translated by Gamesradar. “Even with [being contacted about creating the manga], I’m sure my response was something like ‘really?’”

“I try my best to communicate my work to others, but I refrain from trying to promote myself. I think I’ve always wanted to live an unassuming life. I think it’s best if people just play games, instead of looking at who made them.”

The Finals on PS4 will be shut down next year

Before Embark Studios released the massively popular Arc Raiders last month, the company published the destructive shooter The Finals across consoles and PC. It wasn’t as big of a hit, but it’s still kicking and getting updates. But not for much longer on PlayStation 4, as confirmed by the studio earlier this week.

“When Season 10 begins (18th of March, 2026), we’ll be retiring The Finals on PlayStation 4 and focusing our support on current generation hardware,” posted Embark Studios. “From that point on, you’ll need to play there to keep enjoying the game. Your progress and purchases will be stored in your Embark ID and will transfer to anywhere you choose to play. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who’s been part of the PS4 community.”

Huh, Panic Button handled some Switch 2 port upgrades for Nintendo

Remember how, when the Switch 2 launched, some popular OG Switch games published by Nintendo, like Super Mario Odyssey, got upgrades to look and play a bit better on the new machine? Well, turns out that Switch port experts Panic Button were contracted by Nintendo to handle those upgrades.

Panic Button was honored to be selected by Nintendo to help update marquee games from the Nintendo Switch™ library. Nintendo asked us to help demonstrate new capabilities of the Nintendo Switch 2 system, while remaining faithful to the original games. pic.twitter.com/5P96V9DFUq

— Panic Button (Official) (@PanicButtonGame) November 19, 2025

I find this very interesting, as it seems like something Nintendo could have done internally. But instead, they trusted the folks at Panic to handle the upgrades. I bet Panic is feeling very good about that right now, and it will likely help the studio get even more work porting games to the new Switch 2.

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