The leader of the X-Men certainly knows how to put his optic laser beams to good use, and he’s looking quite potent as a fighter who keeps his distance while firing off shots at distant enemies. Of course, those beams aren’t just for single-shot attacks, as he can chain them between enemies at mid to close range for some incredible DPS potential. Meanwhile, his special attacks could decimate opponents if you’re good with your timing and placement.

All in all, he’s a pretty versatile combatant and could round out any team of heroes (or villains) that he’s in. Oh, you can also use his beams to launch yourself in the air if you need to create some space. He’s got his own trailer, and we’re pretty curious to see how he’s going to spring from his prison at Alchemax before he enters the fray (and takes revenge on those foolish enough to detain him).

Marvel Rivals is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. And while it didn’t appear during the latest Direct, it is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 at a later point.

Not just because of the shift in focus that’s gone back to what matters most, but also because that has resulted in a fresh new look at Alchemax HQ – a brand-new map that’s going to be the stage for a daring rescue op. Moon Girl seems to have brought the entire building to the current timeline, and it holds a very interesting prisoner indeed. That’s none other than Scott Summers, or Cyclops, as we all know him, whose optic blasts seem to be quite contained within his prison. Not for long if we have anything to say about it.

We’re pretty excited to try this one out for ourselves, especially with the pristine surfaces and general air of sophistication it brings to the table. We’d expect nothing less from Miguel O’Hara, after all. Of course, we can’t wait to see how Devil Dinosaur and his rampaging behavior fit into all of this. The trailer’s below if you want a closer look at the new map, so you can begin plotting your strategy ahead of its May 28 release.

The development team at NetEase Games is quite miffed at the “blatant disruption of our fair battlefield”, and understandably so, considering how this one’s managed to be an awesome hero-shooter for quite a while now, thanks to many popular faces and places from the Marvel universe consistently added to it.

The team goes on to reassert its commitment to a “fair and honorable arena,” and has permanently banned all accounts flagged by its investigation into the situation. It’s taking things a step further with an immediate ban on any accounts with cheats in the future, too. There will be device and IP bans for repeat offenders, while it has left the door open for those to appeal a ban if they were erroneously locked out of their accounts.

There’s a long list of accounts across various accounts, in what we can only call a name-and-shame situation, alongside a trio of device bans. Suffice it to say that anyone trying to cheat in Marvel Rivals may want to think twice, given the zero-tolerance policy on display.

It’s a character trailer for Devil Dinosaur, a new playable character who fans of Moon Girl might already be fawning over. He’s a gentle soul with some very potent attacks that he reserves for those who raise a hand against the innocent. He’s on his way to “save his BFF” and it’s hard not to see him crossing paths with Cyclops as the season unfolds. Aside from snapping, slashing and tail-whipping opponents, he can unleash a powerful long-range beam to deal with flyers and a dome shield to block damage.

This is one dinosaur we really don’t want to mess with, though, especially when he takes point as the enemy team’s Vanguard. The fun begins on May 15th when Season 8 goes live, and we’re going to be scouring the trailers below for hints of what’s to come. Stay tuned for more details on when Cyclops joins the roster, with the mid-season update likely set for late June, in the meantime.

It’s an almost perfect recreation of one of the most iconic scenes from the first Avengers film, but that’s not all. It does bring Loki to the forefront, introducing him as the main threat in the game’s new asymmetric PvP mode.

Thor’s adoptive brother is quite intent on making the world, and its greatest heroes, kneel and submit to his will, and he might just get his way if you’re not careful, given that he towers over the superhero team that started it all. We’re quite sure his new size will be a problem when we try to take him down.

We’re a little taken aback that we didn’t get to see Black Widow in action in the new trailer. But the rest of the OG team gets its due as they take on Loki in what’s shaping up to be a very exciting addition to the popular hero shooter. The odds are going to be stacked against us when we dive into it, but hey, we have a Hulk!

Path to Doomsday begins April 30th, and we recommend ensuring that your squad is ready for action. The trailer’s below if you want to keep the hype going.

Called Bloodhunt, it pits you against undead hordes that come at you in waves, and require all of your skill and tactical prowess to overcome. But that’s not all. You’re going to have to join up with up to four other heroes and take on familiar yet upgraded threats. Captain America’s prominent in the launch trailer below, bringing a feral ferocity with werewolf form that might impede his ability to distinguish friend from foe.

Other heroes face a similar predicament courtesy of the Count, and of course, defeating them brings you face-to-face with Dracula himself. While we’ll probably enjoy wiping that arrogant expression off his face, that might be easier said than done. Maybe it’s a job for Elsa Bloodstone, especially after her addition to the roster last season.

Marvel Rivals is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. It’s also in the works for Nintendo Switch 2, though a release date is a ways off. In the meantime, you can check out the Season 7.5 update, which adds Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat, to the roster as a new Duelist.

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.