Hello everyone. I’ve got a lovely spread of stories below for you to enjoy on this fine Tuesday. Sure, the world is on fire and everything is horrible, but at least you have Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku’s daily round-up of news and stuff you might care about. That’s something to be happy about, right? Today we have news about a lawsuit against Sega, the reveal of a new Palworld game, bad news for Xbox fans, and some friends bonding over the fun of skateboarding.
Costco seemingly done selling Xbox consoles and games
If you try to buy an Xbox console or video game on Costco’s website, you’ll discover that the company no longer sells Xbox-related gear or software. As reported by TheGamer and spotted by others online, Costco has quietly stopped selling Xbox consoles and games on its online shop with no warning in both the UK and the United States. If you try to search for Xbox on Costco’s website, you’ll be greeted with a message saying nothing was found. Interestingly, the retail giant still sells PlayStation and Nintendo games and devices as well as VR-related gear. Some have recently reported that physical stores are stocking fewer Xbox consoles, controllers, and games, too.
What’s going on? Well, it’s possible that Xbox consoles and games just haven’t sold well at Costco over the years, and the retailer is cutting its losses and moving on. In 2024, it was reported that some retailers weren’t sure if they would keep selling Xbox games in the future due to poor sales. It likely doesn’t help that the price of an Xbox in some places keeps going up and up. Just last week, Xbox raised prices again on all Xbox Series X/S consoles.
Palworld farming spin-off announced two weeks after Pokémon revealed a similar game
🚨Palfarm – A Palworld Spin-off!🚨
Create your own amazing farm with your favourite Pals!🌱
Till fields, grow crops, and enjoy a carefree, slow-paced life in this Palworld spin-off game!Currently in development by a new team! pic.twitter.com/ldwQyLmd9W
— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) September 23, 2025
On September 22, Palworld developers PocketPair announced a new game, Palworld: Palfarm. As the name might suggest, this is a spin-off of the company’s incredibly popular Palworld, aka “Pokémon with guns” aka that game Nintendo is suing. The new spin-off looks to be a cozy farming sim in the spirit of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. There is no release date for Palfarm, and at the moment, it appears to only be in development for PC.
Interestingly, less than two weeks ago, The Pokémon Company announced its own cozy farm life spin-off, too. There’s no way that PocketPair created this trailer and game in two weeks, but the timing of Pokémon Pokopia‘s announcement being closely followed by Palfarm‘s reveal is funny considering the whole situation between the companies involved.
One of Sonic‘s most famous songs is still in legal limbo
Late last year, Crush 40 musician Johnny Gioeli sued Sega over ownership of “Live and Learn,” a song closely associated with the hedgehog since appearing in Sonic Adventure 2. Gioeli argued he fully owned the master recording of the song and that Sega had used it in multiple games, and in the live-action film Sonic 3, without proper permission. Now, as reported by Eurogamer, the case has been dismissed without a judgment given, leaving the famous song in legal “limbo.”
“Everyone- the news is out that the case against SEGA was dismissed,” said Gioeli in a statement posted online. “I want you to understand that the reason for the dismissal was based on time, not on ownership. The song remains in ‘limbo’. Just 2 weeks ago, I was contacted by Epic Games to potentially use ‘Live & Learn’… and the amazing part is SEGA had them call me for the rights to use the song. So there you have it. The most epic song remains in the ‘abyss of ownership’.”
Gioeli ended his statement saying that the beloved track is his and not Sega’s, adding: “I wrote it with Jun, I sing it, I created the melody, I recorded the vocals in my studio.”
Arc Raiders is doing one final and very large open beta
There have been a lot of playtests and betas for the upcoming sci-fi extraction shooter Arc Raiders, and there’s going to be one more. But this time, everyone is invited in an effort to test the highly anticipated shooter’s servers before it launches next month. On September 22, the devs behind Arc Raiders announced one final open beta. The idea behind this multi-platform open beta, which starts on October 17 and ends on October 19, is to slam the game’s servers ahead of its October 30 release date.
“Please invite your friends and give those servers a challenge,” asked the devs in a post announcing the final beta test as well as revealing some pre-order bonuses.
Stardew Valley creator warns people not to get too hyped (yet) for the 1.7 update
In April, Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, known online as ConcernedApe, explained that after Stardew Valley‘s massive 1.6 update, he was going to focus on finishing up and launching Haunted Chocolatier. And then in August, he announced a 1.7 update was in the works for Stardew Valley. Since then, he’s been mostly radio silent about the update.
That changed on September 21 when a fan reshared his old 1.7 tease with a sad face. Barone asked why they were sad, and they admitted they just hated waiting. When another fan asked Barone to give people a tease for 1.7, he promised that information about the update would arrive in the future. For now, though, he doesn’t want people to get too hyped because there’s still a long wait.
“More will come,” posted the Stardew Valley creator on Twitter. “I just don’t want too much hype at this point. It’s going to be a while before the update is ready.” Will Barone ever stop updating Stardew Valley? Time will tell, but I know what I’d bet on.
