Beginning with the new map, the trailer shows off pristine buildings with the occasional bit of anti-vigilante propaganda from Mayor Fisk thrown in, and some familiar spots that are sure to be a great backdrop for all the action that’s about to unfold. But it isn’t just open streets, as you’re also going to be venturing deep underground into secret labs that harbor some mysterious energy.

Fisk seems connected to it all, as he usually is, but what’s even more interesting is the cloak that’s enclosed in a glass case that looks suspiciously like the one a fan-favorite villain usually dons. We’re talking, of course, about The Hood and you can be sure this will fuel speculation about his imminent arrival in the hero shooter. Regardless, it’s going to be interesting to see how things play out once Lower Manhattan drops on April 2.

Marvel Rivals is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, but it’s also in the works for Nintendo Switch 2.

Of course, that’s not all, as the hero shooter is coming to Nintendo Switch 2. Executive producer Danny Koo has confirmed as much in an interview with IGN, confirming rumors that the game was indeed making its way to Nintendo’s latest portable powerhouse.

“We’re working on it, but when we have news, we’ll announce that one…We will do it.”

Marvel Rivals has been a successful outing for NetEase games, with its hero-shooter formula being put to good use to bring several fan favorite characters to life in ways that feel aligned with the broader lore established in the comics and other media. However, when quizzed about a potential port to iOS, Android or both, Koo was quite emphatic in shutting down that particular possibility, emphasizing that it was going to be a tough sell on touchscreens.

“Yeah, this one on the mobile game is not going to work,” he said. “If we’re going to do a mobile, it’s going to be a whole different game. Because of the feedback, the touch. The controls are just so different.” Which sounds similar to Blizzard’s approach with Overwatch Rush.

That’s a bummer, but hey, you’re going to be playing it on the fly if you happen to have a Switch 2 around. And of course, the game’s console and PC versions are always around if you don’t.

The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

She packs quite the punch with her firearms, switching between her pistols and a shotgun to deal with enemies up close and at range, while her enhanced physical capabilities allow her to dodge quite effectively. From a lore perspective, she’s had quite an extensive history with several important characters in the Marvel Universe, having previously worked with the Midnight Suns and several key characters like Wolverine and Iron Man over the course of her career as a monster hunter extraordinaire.

Indeed, it seems she’s managed to bring some of her targets to heel as she weaves them into her special attacks. Well, one of them does do their best impression of Juggernaut before launching themselves off a ledge. We hope they’re okay! But the other one is pretty cool, as it allows you take control of the field with a slam attack that can be quite effective at close range.

Elsa carries the Bloodstone name with pride and could be quite the challenge for players who aren’t familiar with her character’s devastating abilities when she becomes available on February 13 as part of the Season 6.5 refresh.

What makes this all the more incredible is that it’s the ninth straight week that it achieved this feat, beating the free-to-play Counter-Strike 2 and Battlefield 6, which had a much larger launch in terms of sales. It even scored ahead of heavy hitters like Marvel Rivals, Helldivers 2, Rocket League, Warframe, and Baldur’s Gate 3.

While its console rankings aren’t nearly as dominant, it’s still in eighth place on PlayStation and seventh place on Xbox. Plus, you have to consider that the top five most-played games have remained relatively static since 2024.

What’s next for ARC Raiders, especially with Embark promising a roadmap “soon”? Aside from multiple new maps across a “spectrum of size,” you can apparently expect a new map condition this week in Toxic Swamps. The developer is also looking to implement bigger ARC threats, but those expecting Speranza to become a hub that players can traverse will have to wait a bit longer.

As a Duelist, Wade Wilson wields his signature dual katana and pistols. The former can be tossed and spin in a circle to deal damage to enemies while you pelt them from afar. However, he can also negate hostile Ultimates by, well, posing for the camera. His own Ultimate is something to behold, as it seemingly throws off an enemy’s aim.

If that wasn’t enough, by scoring enough mid-air strikes for a Jackpot, every subsequent hit seems to be an instant-kill. His kit as a Strategist is a lot more straightforward, with Deadpool generating an aura around himself to heal surrounding allies. He can also shoot to heal at range, which is nice.

Playing as a Vanguard allows for throwing in a barrier that blocks enemy Ultimates. Inspired by his rapid healing, this Ultimate can soak up a lot of damage and generate shields. It’s nearly enough to tank a Punisher Ultimate and kill the enemy, which is surely balanced. Stay tuned for more details on Season 6, including its new maps and events, ahead of launch.

The game is also putting its most chaotic mascot back in the spotlight with the return of Jeff’s Winter Splash Festival, a limited-time event centred on a brand-new map called Jeffland. Designed as an all-new three-way brawl, Jeffland pits players against three distinct Jeff builds, each with its own skill set, turning every match into a messy, slapstick showdown.

The mode leans into variety and replayability: different Jeff variants bring different tools to each fight, encouraging teams to adapt on the fly as the battle swings between the map’s arenas. Jeff’s Winter Splash Festival is scheduled to kick off on December 18. For Marvel Rivals, it marks a seasonal break from standard competitive play in favour of something louder, and stranger.

God of War 

There aren’t many games that are able to deliver a stunning experience in such a smooth manner as Sony Santa Monica was able to do with the 2018 reboot. This story sets the protagonist in a new setting; new boss fights and outstanding level design. It’s both fresh and recognizable at the same time, and the new combat and the camera on offer also embodies the spirit of modern third person game while making it more intentional. The 2018 reboot is definitely one of the best games on the PS4, and is a great starting point for newcomers.

That’s Rivals’ term for “Support,” as in healer or damage amplifier. Remy brings some other fairly nasty tricks though, from a devastating staff swing that can knock back enemies to dispelling crowd-control effects. So the next time you’re hit by Doctor Strange’s Ultimate and die, blame your Gambit for not caring you.

His Ultimate is a bit trickier to understand but it essentially buffs attacks and even improves allies’ jumping abilities, making it easier to surpass obstacles while healing. Between the ricocheting cards and flamboyant nature of the King of Thieves, Gambit looks to be a fun addition to a roster that’s desperately in need of more Strategists.

“We really believe that having a consumer-friendly monetisation system is super important… first, make the gameplay fun, and second, encourage players to spend money based on their love for the game,” he said. “When players find the game enjoyable and immersive, they naturally want to invest in it… that’s when they’ll start picking up costumes and other cosmetics.”

That stance lines up with NetEase’s previously published framework. The studio’s monetisation dev diary states that cosmetics are the only paid content, typically sold in bundles that package a costume with presentation items like MVP animations, emotes, sprays and nameplates. Core gameplay elements like heroes, maps, and balance updates sit outside the store, keeping progression and competitive viability away from the checkout screen.

Rivals also tackles the dreaded “use it or lose it” pressure that defines many live-service grinds. Luxury Battle Passes do not expire once purchased, letting players chip away at older seasons over time via the Nexus interface rather than racing a countdown every eight weeks.

Bottom line: The practical effect is a store that aims to feel optional: fashion and flair for those who want it, with competitive integrity protected for everyone else. It’s a familiar premise for F2P shooters, especially nowadays, but it’s nice to see the Rivals team sticking to its guns after nearly a year of launch.