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It’s been an extremely eventful start to Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 4, with Epic already pulling this season’s medallions from circulation for being too overpowered and ridiculous after two weeks of backlash. Fortunately, Fortnite is always introducing new ways of being absurd and over-the-top, and this week’s update is proof of that, as it added two very silly new vehicles: the Roly-Poly bug, and Hammerhead Choppas.

The Roly-Polys are extremely easy to find since they’re just lying on the ground all over the place. If you see bugs running around, then there are some Roly-Polys, too. There are enough of those for everybody, more or less. But that’s not the case with Hammerhead Choppas, of which only a handful spawn each match.

It makes a lot of sense for there to be more Roly-Polys than Hammerhead Choppas. The Choppas, which are new, much cooler-looking versions of Fortnite’s old helicopters, have enough room for a full squad of players and a hired NPC. Roly-Polys, by contrast, can only fit a single player each–they’re essentially new, bouncier versions of Ballers. So, while there are dozens of Roly-Polys that spawn around the island each match, there are only a few Hammerhead Choppas.

Where to find the Hammerhead Choppas in Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 4

There are five guaranteed Hammerhead Choppas at four main spawn locations–one of the spots actually has two of them. The Hammerhead Choppas spawn at each of the three OXR outposts, which is where the “push back the bugs” events happen, and there are two that spawn at OXR HQ to the north of the center of the island. All five of these Choppas appear to have a 100% spawn chance.

That said, there are also a few other spots where Hammerhead Choppas have some unknown chance of spawning. You can see the spawn locations in the handy map we’ve provided below. Black stars indicate a spot where a Hammerhead Choppa may spawn, red stars indicate a guaranteed Hammerhead Choppa spawn, and red with a black outline indicates two guaranteed Choppas.

There are five guaranteed spawns (red) and three other potential spawn locations (black) for Hammerhead Choppas.

The guaranteed Hammerhead Choppas won’t just be on the ground, of course. The reason they spawn in these locations is that OXR has all the helipads. So when you’re in one of those places trying to nab your fun new method of air transportation, look for it on platforms like this.

For those locations where there’s only a chance of a Choppa spawn, however, they’ll be parked on the grass.

How to use the loudspeaker on Hammerhead Choppas

Fortnite is celebrating the arrival of Hammerhead Choppas to Battle Royale by adding two weekly quests, neither of which is particularly complicated. The first is to damage players from 50 meters or more away while in a Choppa, and while the Choppa itself has no weapons, you presumably would–all you have to do is switch to a passenger seat and fire away. You don’t have to kill anybody. You just need to hit a few shots. And shots on the bugs counts, for the record.

All five guaranteed Hammerhead Choppas spawn on platforms like this.

But while anybody who plays Fortnite has shot some enemies before, the other Choppa quest involves a non-standard mechanic that is completely unique to Choppas: the ability to blast music over a loudspeaker while you fly around. There’s a quest to do just that within 100 meters of an enemy player. It’s not a difficult task, but since it’s only something Choppas can do, and Choppas aren’t in the game very much, most folks probably don’t know about it.

Fortunately, this quest is as easy at they come, because you can turn on the loudspeaker by pressing the emote button–that’s down on the d-pad on a controller, or B on a keyboard. If you didn’t immediately complete the quest when you fired it up, just fly around until you find somebody. Considering that a 100-meter radius is pretty large, it’ll probably happen by accident.

The Mesa update in Peak introduced the Scout Cannon, and with it, the infamous cannon glitch. As the name implies, the Scout Cannon allows players to shoot themselves a great distance. The glitch, however, makes it possible to skip entire areas altogether, potentially getting to the peak without dropping a sweat.

The glitch was discovered shortly after the Mesa update, which introduced the namesake biome. The developers acknowledged it in patch 1.25.a, and applied some changes to the game. If you’re wondering how to do the Scout Cannon glitch in Peak and whether or not it still works after the patch, we’ve got you covered.

How to Do the Cannon Glitch in Peak

The cannon glitch in Peak requires a few pieces to fall into place. Since every new run is randomly generated, meaning that the items are always different, it might take you a while.

For starters, here’s what you need for the glitch:

• A Scout Cannon, which is one of the items added in the Mesa update.
• A flare.
• A backpack.
• And, last but not least, speedy hands.

The Scout Cannon has a chance to appear in suitcases, albeit the rate is quite low. As a reference, I restarted the game about 20 times, and only saw the Scout Cannon three times.

It will take a while, but make sure to open all nearby suitcases and see if you’re lucky with the drop.

The glitch works best if you do it from the starting point of a run in the Shore biome, meaning that, if you want to save time, you should only open any suitcases that are close to the start. If you don’t see the cannon in any of them, go ahead and restart and try again.

Doing the glitch from this location is also beneficial since there’s always a flare and a backpack nearby–you can get them from inside one of the crashed planes and the shore, respectively.

Now, it’s time to prepare the cannon. A good reference spot is behind and to the right of one of the broken plane wings on the shore, which is set on fire. Make sure the cannon is pointing toward the peak. In terms of angle, I didn’t adjust it, and just left it as is. Moreover, make sure that there aren’t any palm trees nearby that might cause a premature collision.

Make sure the backpack is inside the cannon before attempting the glitch.

The second step involves the backpack. After grabbing it, head to the Scout Cannon and jump inside. Your character must be standing in it. Then, select the backpack and drop it. The idea is that the backpack needs to be inside the cannon. Then, go ahead and exit.

Stepping outside the cannon after dropping the backpack is admittedly a bit buggy–we’re prepping a glitch after all. If you’re having trouble exiting, grab the backpack and repeat the steps. Also, the position of the backpack itself doesn’t matter, but it needs to be inside.

Use the broken wings as a reference point when placing the cannon.

Now comes the fun part. Make sure to have the flare with you, and once ready, light the back of the cannon to start the explosion. As soon as you do this, run around and jump inside with the backpack.

The explosion will trigger shortly. Now, as soon as you’re in the air, you have to spam the Play Dead emote. Using a mouse and keyboard, this requires opening the emote wheel with R and moving the cursor toward the emote. You must repeat this multiple times and in quick succession.

If you’re successful, you’ll start skipping entire levels. You’ll know this because you’ll see the title screens appear rapidly. Depending on the achievements that you’ve gotten so far, you may also have a few new ones pop up–for me, that was the Cool Cucumber Badge for climbing past the Mesa biome without ever having more than 10% heat.

If successful, the glitch will lead you to an empty version of the peak.

You’ll eventually stop flying and be at the peak, which will look, well, glitched. You’ll be surrounded by light blue walls, which will slowly give you the cold debuff. As soon as you stop moving, go ahead and light the flare. This is so you can trigger the helicopter, which you can then use to escape and finish the run. Try not to take too long, or the cold might overtake you.

As one last note: it’s likely that you won’t make it to the peak on the first try. It’s a tricky glitch to pull off. But I was able to do it on my third attempt, so keep on trying.

Can You Still Do the Cannon Glitch in Peak After the Patch?

The short answer is, yes, the cannon glitch in Peak still works after patch 1.25.a, which was issued in late August.

One of the major fixes made fog walls taller, which are the walls that separate biomes from each other, in order to prevent people from exploiting the glitch too often. That being said, I can confirm the glitch still works. It took me three tries to pull it off, as the first two attempts had me colliding against a surface and killing me on the spot. Your mileage may vary, of course, but the patch itself didn’t outright remove the glitch.

Best of luck skipping all levels using the cannon glitch in Peak. If you’re looking for more guides, we’ve also covered how to find the Scoutmaster and the different methods to encounter him.

Finding the Scoutmaster in Peak is a tough endeavor for multiple reasons. It requires patience, playing the game in an odd way, and most of all, the fortitude to go face-to-face with a horrifying enemy.

The Mentorship Badge achievement requires you to have a one-on-one encounter with the Scoutmaster, who might sound familiar, as he’s the instructor who has penned the guidebook you find at the start of a run. If you’re wondering where to find the Scoutmaster in Peak to unlock the badge, we’ll be detailing the methods below.

Funnily enough, the first rule of the guidebook is an important clue for the achievement.

Where to Find the Scoutmaster in Peak

If you want to find the Scoutmaster in Peak to unlock the Mentorship Badge achievement, note that you first need to summon him. He’s not a random encounter, and there are specific steps to follow beforehand.

There are two methods for the Scoutmaster to appear in your game. These depend on whether you’re playing solo or with others online, and are noted below:

• In single-player, you must use the Scoutmaster’s Bugle, which is a rare item in Peak.
• In multiplayer, you have to defy Scoutmaster Myres’ advice and actually leave a friend in need by deviating from teammates.

For the first method, the Scoutmaster’s Bugle is a rare item, meaning that it has a very low chance to appear in the game. You have a chance of getting the item from either Ancient Luggage–which are the suitcases that have the red emblem on them–or from the Ancient Statues that appear at the summit of each biome. Note that for the latter, all players must be alive when you interact with it. Otherwise, the statue will revive any fallen climbers, instead of dropping an item.

It’s indeed possible for the Scoutmaster’s Bugle to appear in multiplayer matches as well. In either case, the chances of encountering it are quite low. In over 26 hours of playing Peak, I’ve only seen the item twice–but again, there were several instances where the statue didn’t drop an item since one of our teammates had died in the biome, so your mileage may vary.

The Scoutmaster is not messing around.

If you’re playing Peak in multiplayer, encountering the Scoutmaster is somewhat easier. You need to distance yourself from your co-op buddies, whether that’s just one more person or several of them. A way of ensuring you trigger the encounter is by having everybody else but you stay at the starting point of the Shore biome. Then, head over to the opposite side toward the peak and start climbing.

After a few minutes of gaining latitude, you’ll begin hearing a different music than the usual background environmental track, similar to bells in the distance. The Scoutmaster is designed to chase whoever splits from others, so you’re likely to see him get close to you. A good way of knowing when he’s nearby is a film grain effect on the screen, which will gradually obscure your visibility the closer he is.

If the Scoutmaster is in your vicinity, get close and you’ll see the Mentorship Badge achievement appear. There’s a chance of him falling off a ledge and interrupting the chase, but he’ll likely climb back up again shortly. From here, you can either attempt to escape–the Scoutmaster is quite fast, mind you–or let him trap you. When tackling this myself, the Scoutmaster grabbed me and promptly threw me off the mountain.

That’s all you need to encounter the Scoutmaster. Bear in mind that there’s a chance of triggering the encounter by accident if you stray from other players. It’s a punishing and quite terrifying way of ensuring that you’re lending a helping hand whenever possible.

For the first time since 2021, new installments in the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises are releasing in the same year, and this has prompted the inevitable comparisons between the two long-running multiplayer first-person shooter franchises to resurface.

Early impressions of Battlefield 6 from its open beta suggest that Electronic Arts and Battlefield Studios have a hit on their hands, but Battlefield 6 is unlikely to dethrone Call of Duty this year, even if the sentiment around Black Ops 7 is not tracking so highly. While EA would like to take some market share from Call of Duty, and it’s possible that happens, Call of Duty’s reign as the No. 1 paid FPS franchise will likely continue.

“While Battlefield 6 has the potential to perform better than any Battlefield game ever has– financially and critically–it almost certainly won’t outsell Call of Duty,” said Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics.

Elliott said Call of Duty has a core audience that buys in every year, and that isn’t expected to change in 2025 “just because Battlefield 6 is rad and tracking incredibly well.”

EA’s Battlefield boss Vince Zampella, a former Call of Duty higher-up, and others like Battlefield GM Byron Beede (also a former CoD boss), have said games like Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 are the inspiration for Battlefield 6. That’s resonating with fans who are looking for a return to form for the series that strayed too far, in their eyes, with Battlefield 2042.

The last entry into the Battlefield series made a number of changes to the franchise’s underlying formula, like abandoning its player class system for selectable characters who each had unique, specific abilities. It also had an infamously rough launch that turned away many longtime fans. In a lot of ways, Battlefield 6 is a return to the old way of doing things, and players are responding well so far.

In short, at this stage, EA and Battlefield Studios appear to be saying and doing all the right things to get Battlefield back on track. The recently concluded Battlefield 6 open beta reportedly had a player base of 20 million people, and apart from some negative feedback around Rush mode and map sizes, the sentiment was largely positive.

But even if Battlefield 6 launches to solid reviews, positive sentiment from fans, and big-time sales numbers, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 may remain on top given the sheer size, scale, and momentum of the Call of Duty brand.

“For many gamers, Call of Duty is an annual ritual,” Elliott explained. “Tens of millions of players, many of them casual gamers, buy the newest CoD every year without hesitation. This ‘autopilot purchasing’ habit is decades deep, and breaking it requires more than one awesome Battlefield release/”

The masses love Call of Duty, even if they complain

Battlefield 6 may appeal to the “hardcore FPS crowd,” but the masses of casual players will show up for Call of Duty year in and year out, Elliot said that’s not expected to change.

“CoD’s muscle memory in the market is so strong that players will buy it even if they complain about it,” he said.

Also helping Call of Duty’s mainline annual releases is the perennial battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone, which exists in the Call of Duty HQ launcher alongside each year’s new release. Elliott said this is a key point because, even if Warzone engagement is dipping, it still has a gigantic player base that will see Black Ops 7 ads every time they log in.

“Battlefield simply doesn’t have that scale of cross-promotion,” Elliott said.

For what it’s worth, Battlefield Studios is building its own Battlefield battle royale game, but it’s early days and there is no word on how EA plans to support, grow, and promote it over time. To be sure, we don’t even know if it’s a game, a game mode, or something else.

“CoD’s muscle memory in the market is so strong that players will buy it even if they complain about it” — Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics

To put things further into perspective, Elliott cited some data points that speak to the enormity of Call of Duty relative to Battlefield.

“The reality is that CoD’s sales floor is higher than Battlefield’s sales ceiling so far, for the year anyway,” he said. “Even in Battlefield’s highest highs (BF1 in 2016), Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare–a widely disliked entry–still outsold it by millions of copies. That’s brand inertia at work.”

Game Pass muddies the waters

Kade Barr, an equity research associate for Wedbush Securities, told GameSpot that Black Ops 7 being on Game Pass and Battlefield 6 only being available to purchase complicates any direct sales comparisons between the two. (For what it’s worth, Battlefield 6 will be on a subscription service via EA Play Pro, but it’s a much smaller service than Game Pass.) Barr believes the fact that Black Ops is on Game Pass and Battlefield is not could actually help Battlefield 6 perform better.

“Black Ops 7 is bound to have more unique players within its first year of launch, but sales of each game will likely be close should each launch go smoothly,” Barr said. “There is obvious overlap in the player bases, but Call of Duty’s inclusion in Game Pass could actually result in a net benefit to Battlefield. With a large portion of Call of Duty players not having to pay $70 for the game, it leaves room to purchase other games like Battlefield.”

In total, Barr said Wedbush is modeling Battlefield 6 to become the second- or third-best-selling Battlefield game of all time, trailing Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 3. Barr believes Battlefield Studios has to really “nail it” with the planned battle royale mode, capitalize on the user-generated content that will come from its Portal mode, and deliver post-launch content successfully to make a dent in Call of Duty’s massive share of the premium FPS market.

“All in all, I think Battlefield’s ultimate success hinges on a stable launch,” Barr said. “The hype is there, but any inkling of a buggy launch will turn people away. I do think this game’s launch needs to be exceptionally smooth given a lack of trust following Battlefield 2042. Any sort of large-scale issues will likely result in a meaningful decline in sales.”

Historical data

In 2021, the last time new Call of Duty and Battlefield games were released in the same year, Call of Duty: Vanguard was the No. 1 best-selling game overall in the US, followed by 2020’s entry, Black Ops Cold War, at No. 2. Battlefield 2042, meanwhile, ranked No. 5 overall in 2021 for US sales, meaning it was outsold not just by its main competitor that year, but also by 2020’s Call of Duty game (along with Madden NFL 22 and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl). EA stated that Battlefield 2042 missed the mark critically and commercially, while Activision said Vanguard, too, failed to sell up to expectations.

Meanwhile, 2018’s Battlefield V ranked No. 16 in the US, whereas Black Ops 4 that year landed at No. 2. For 2016, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was No. 1 for the year in the US, with Battlefield 1 coming in second. Battlefield 6 has been called a spiritual successor to Battlefield 3 and 4, two fondly remembered games. When those games came out in 2011 and 2013, Call of Duty’s latest releases were No. 1, with Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 ranking No. 4 for each year. A Battlefield game has never ranked higher than No. 2 on the US sales charts for a given year.

Come year’s end, many will be watching with keen eyes how high Battlefield 6 can go on the charts, even if that won’t tell a complete story.

But didn’t someone say Battlefield 6 will “boot stomp” Black Ops 7?

Former Xbox executive Mike Ybarra, who now heads up the sports betting company Prize Picks, published a social media post recently in which he said, “Battlefield will boot stomp CoD this year.” He said sentiment around Call of Duty has been trending down in recent years as Activision leans into the wacky licensed skins and other features fans don’t universally enjoy.

A lot of commentary you may read online about Call of Duty is negative, but that also raises the question of how much stock one should place in online conversations when algorithms today incentivize stirring things up to drive engagement, and, in the case of X, direct payments go to people who post the most extreme takes. Despite the negative rhetoric, the numbers show that Call of Duty is still a juggernaut. And while online comments may not always lead to real changes, sometimes that can happen. After all, Activision just recently announced that it was cancelling the Carry Forward program for Black Ops 7, which means the oft-criticized wacky and outlandish Call of Duty skins from Black Ops 6 may not appear in Black Ops 7. Activision also said it’s listening to fans who want Call of Duty to feel more grounded, and acknowledged their concerns that Call of Duty has “drifted” from its core.

In any event, Elliott had some words for Ybarra: “Chill out, son.”

To be fair, Ybarra did not say Battlefield 6 would outsell Black Ops 7. As a 19-year Microsoft veteran who worked on development and publishing initiatives at Xbox, he is no doubt aware in some capacity of the sales volume of Call of Duty relative to Battlefield. His second point was that Battlefield 6 coming to market with fan-focused design choices could end up helping Activision make a better product with Call of Duty, due in part to increased competition in the marketplace, and that’s something Call of Duty fans would surely like to see.

For Activision’s part, Black Ops 7 associate creative director Miles Leslie was recently asked to comment on Battlefield 6’s successful beta. He said he’s played it and found it to be fun, but he is focused on his own product.

“We’re fans of the FPS genre,” he said. “We’re fans of lots of games. Let’s all have fun.”

The Legend of Zelda and Street Fighter 6 Amiibo figures that launched alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 are steeply discounted at Amazon and GameStop. All four Tears of the Kingdom Sages are on sale for $20 each, down from $30. The trio of Street Fighter 6 characters are also available for $20, but these are 50% discounts, since each one retails for an eye-watering $40. Fans can also snag the GameStop-exclusive Street Fighter 6 Amiibo Card Starter Set for $20 (was $40).

At the time of writing, GameStop had all seven Zelda and Street Fighter Switch 2 Amiibo for $20 each, but Amazon only has four figures for this price: Tulin and Sidon from The Legend of Zelda and Luke and Jamie from Street Fighter. That said, we’d recommend checking the store pages for all seven figures, because Amazon’s prices have changed a couple times already. It’s likely Amazon will soon price match the other two Sages from Zelda.

Nintendo Switch 2 Amiibo Deals at Amazon

• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Amiibo
  • Tulin — $20 ($30)
  • Sidon — $20 ($30)
  • Yunobo — $30
  • Riju — $30
• Street Fighter 6 Amiibo
  • Luke — $20 ($40)
  • Jamie — $20 ($40)
  • Kimberly — Sold out

Nintendo Switch 2 Amiibo

Nintendo Switch 2 Amiibo Deals at GameStop

• Street Fighter 6 Amiibo Card Starter Set — $20 ($40)
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Amiibo
  • Tulin — $20 ($30)
  • Sidon — $20 ($30)
  • Yunobo — $20 ($30)
  • Riju — $20 ($30)
• Street Fighter 6 Amiibo
  • Jamie — $20 ($40)
  • Luke — $20 ($40)
  • Kimberly — $20 ($40)

The $20 offers align with Nintendo’s recently updated prices for Amiibo released prior to the Nintendo Switch 2’s launch. For instance, Nintendo is reprinting the King K. Rool Amiibo, and you can preorder the Donkey Kong villain for $20 at Best Buy. You can pair original Donkey Kong big boss with the Donkey Kong & Pauline Amiibo, which released alongside Donkey Kong Bananza in July. Because the DK and Pauline figure is in the Nintendo Switch 2 line, it carries a $30 MSRP and has yet to be discounted at a major retailer.

• See Nintendo Switch 2 Amiibo at: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | Target | GameStop

Check out our gallery below for a closer look at all seven Nintendo Switch 2 Amiibo figures on sale right now.

Without being hyperbolic–and as someone who has been an on-and-off again Overwatch fan since the original game’s release back in 2016–I don’t mean it lightly when I say that I believe Overwatch has never been better.

I’ve critiqued the series quite a bit throughout the years. In my Overwatch 2 review, I wrote at length about how it felt “detached from the principles and charm of the original,” was seemingly struggling to retain its identity, and how its new monetization models felt disingenuous and “at odds with the spirit of the original Overwatch.” Harsh words, yes, but I meant them. I was frustrated by what one of my all-time favorite games had become, and worried that I’d be chasing the same bliss I felt playing in 2017 endlessly and to no avail.

So, with all that said, how did we get here?

I recently had the opportunity to discuss the state of Overwatch 2 with game director Aaron Keller and associate game director Alec Dawson in an exclusive interview for GameSpot, and it seems a lot of this dramatic turn-around boils down to two things: an increased emphasis on responding to player feedback, and a sharp pivot away from the “conservative” mentality the Overwatch 2 team once clung to. The result is a vastly improved game that is taking big swings with more efficiency.

Be it Stadium mode, Perks, the inclusion of heroes with never-before-tried mechanics, map voting, hero bans, or one of the many other tweaks and additions made to the game, Blizzard is not shying away from shaking up Overwatch 2’s core gameplay loop; Season 18 is no exception. And according to Keller and Dawson, all these changes are just the beginning of the studio’s push to “explore how big” Overwatch can become.

GameSpot: A lot of changes have happened this year in Overwatch 2, so I would love to start by unpacking that with you both. How do you think things are going? How are you feeling about the overall health of the game?

Keller: When you look at the way that 2025 has gone for the game, we’ve done a lot of big releases. Earlier this year, we released our Perk system, which was a pretty substantial game mechanic that changed the way moment-to-moment gameplay can happen. It gave players more strategic choices that they could make over the course of a match and put more emphasis on what a hero can do and [fulfilling] that power fantasy.

In Season 16, we released Stadium. It’s probably the biggest new game mode we’ve ever introduced to the game and there was a lot of player excitement there. We’ve done a lot of other things, too. We introduced hero bans this year. We introduced map voting this year. We’ve introduced a new hero as well, with another one soon to come.

A lot of players are now telling us that this is the best state that Overwatch has ever been in and we think that some of that is because we’re making bigger changes to the game than we typically would have in the past. If you look back on the history of Overwatch, you could say that maybe we’re a little bit conservative, but we have a new mindset and a new vision for how we operate the game. [We want] to be taking bigger swings and bigger bets with Overwatch, and I think you’ll see that when we get to Season 18.

That’s great to hear. Touching on that, I would love to hear a little bit more about what’s coming tomorrow in Season 18.

Dawson: We look at Season 18 as sort of the next steps for a number of the big swings we’ve taken this year. There’s around 60 new Perks that are brand new–every hero gets [a refresh]. Quick play is coming to Stadium, and then you have four new heroes coming: Brigitte, Winston, Farah, and then Tracer.

A lot of what we’re doing in [Season] 18 [stems from] evaluating what’s in the game currently and evolving it in some way and/or even revamping it. Our progression system is a great example. It’s been one of those things that’s been in the game for a bit now, but there’s a lot of screen space that players weren’t really caring about; a lot of bars going up, a lot of things you’re leveling up. We want to simplify it–make sure it’s a lot more visible, make sure it’s a lot more surfaced.

Keller: We are doing a total revamp to our progression system. When you looked at our progression system before, it kind of just felt like there were just a bunch of bars going up all the time. It was pretty complex and so we’ve simplified it. But the exciting thing about it is that, not only is it easier to understand, but it has a lot of cool new rewards too.

There’s a whole rewards track where you’re updating things like emotes and Play of the Game [intros]–even loot boxes and legendary loot boxes. There’s a whole Ascended State where you get a really cool icon with VFX on it that lets you and other players know just how much time you’ve put into each one of your heroes. We have a new Hero [Skill Rating] system coming out, so you’re going to know how good [you are] not just at a [particular] role, but how well you play each of your heroes in Competitive. You can see which ones you’re better at, and which ones you’re worse at. We also have a new advanced hero info panel, where you can look up stats on what all of the different heroes do.

We’re bringing Stadium to Quick Play, which is one of the biggest requests that our players have for the mode, and that’s coming with cross-play enabled. We have four new heroes coming to Stadium, a new game mode, Payload Race, and two brand new maps for it. You mentioned Wuyang, our new support hero, is coming, and we have changes to Roadhog too. Lucio Ball is back–this time in third-person–and there’s mouse and keyboard support coming to console.

We even have [things] on the cosmetic side. Kiriko’s getting this skateboard emote [that lets her] travel around the maps riding a skateboard. The Mythic [Character] skins and Mythic Weapon skins are really cool this season… It’s a huge update to Overwatch. This is going to be one of the biggest seasons we’ve ever had for the game.

Is this the biggest update in terms of sheer content? Because I feel like, based on what you’re saying, I don’t know if there’s ever been an update quite this big.

Keller: I don’t want to jump into hyperbole and say like this is the biggest one coming, but man, it’s… it is big.

Dawson: There’s truth to that, though, to some degree. I think our team has been getting better and better about structuring our seasons to where, now, we can create some really big beats. Season 9 felt like a big change in the game, and then they went to Season 12 which had Juno and a bunch of competitive updates. 15 and 16 [added] Perks and Stadium. And now 18, is another massive update for Overwatch. We’ve been getting a lot more efficient and a lot better at planning over time, which has led to these big moments for Overwatch. [We can now] decide, like, “Hey, how do we want to change the game for the middle of the year?”

I can sense that. Even with your newest hero, Wuyang–he feels extremely different.

Keller: Yeah, there’s a lot of unique mechanics and abilities with Wuyang that I just think it’d be great to touch on. He can surf on his own private wave and cruise around the map. He gets this speed boost with it, too, and is able to jump over gaps and things like that. He can use his staff to create this wave of water in front of him that knocks down enemies, and can turn himself or allies basically into ticking time bombs by imbuing them with water. But what I’m most excited about with Wuyang is his primary fire. He shoots out this orb, and you can kind of do it rapid fire, but at any moment, you can also take control of it and steer it, turning it into a guided missile. Even if they take cover, you can actually bend it around a corner. There’s some skill expression here. It takes a little bit of practice to actually be able to do it, but once you get it, it feels so satisfying.

Dawson: I think he’s one of the best support heroes we’ve ever made. He’s an example of what a support is in Overwatch 2, where you can have a ton of impact through your offense and can make game-changing plays. Wuyang is dynamic in the sense that he has to go from offense to defense quite quickly. All of your attention is gonna be on the primary fire, landing some of those shots, and tracking people down, but then you have these defensive options that you’re going to [need to] be really timely with. His guardian wave is this big wave that gives healing and gives heal boosts–it can change the fight instantly.

I think players are going to really love him. I know we’re not supposed to play favorites, but he’s a joy to play with and I think he’s really special.

I think he’s also one of the first heroes where his skills and powers feel almost more magical rather than technological, right? I feel like Overwatch historically has always leaned more into tech rather than magic. Was that a conversation that had to be had when developing him?

Keller: Oh yeah, and we have those conversations all the time. We had those conversations a lot with both Hanzo and Genji, you know, because when they summon the dragon, that feels like a pretty magical thing there as well. We do have our own internal explanations for that that we’ll actually get into at some point with our players, but we’re not quite ready to yet. I guess all I can really say right now is that Overwatch is a science fiction game, and so there is an explanation behind the way those work.

At this point, do you feel like you’re still fighting that initial nature of being conservative? Like you both said, for a long time, Overwatch was more conservative. Are you still fighting that hesitation or is it like, “Nope, we’re all in”?

Keller: I think the team has left a lot of the hesitation about being conservative behind. The question for us really is, how big do we go with releases for Overwatch? Because there’s two sides of this coin. There’s an active player base that really appreciates the way that the game plays right now, you know. But we also see that, anytime we do make a big release for the game, players respond to it really positively.

So we want to keep going big. I think what we want to do is explore how big we really can go for Overwatch. And I think as we hit seasons like 18 here, and we see players’ excitement, that gives us the confidence to know this isn’t just the right direction–this is something that we can expand on in the future. We can keep pushing the boundaries of what a release for Overwatch can be.

With the implementation of Stadium, did you see a spike in people playing Overwatch 2? If so, how is retention following that?

Keller: There was a huge spike of people jumping into Stadium when it first came out. I think we went public at one point saying that over 50% of play hours in Overwatch were in Stadium. And when we do have new modes for the game, we do always see that initial burst of excitement and then it’ll kind of taper off after that. And Stadium did taper off, but not to the extent that our other modes have. It’s still, I think, our third most popular mode in the game right now, just behind Quick Play and Competitive.

Dawson: We view Stadium as one of the main ways to play Overwatch, and Season 18 as almost Stadium’s 1.0 launch. A lot of players are clamoring to have Quick Play in there. They’re clamoring for something that’s a little bit more brief and doesn’t have a rank associated with it. So with Quick Play, it’s a best-of-five round structure and you power up your hero even faster as well.

And then the other main piece of feedback from players is, “Hey, my favorite hero isn’t here.” So we’re continuing to release new heroes into Stadium. We’re going to be doing that throughout the rest of the year and there’s four this season who I’m really excited about. Tracer in particular. I think… She’s a little wild.

Keller: I’m super excited about Winston jumping into Stadium. I love playing as him and using his mobility. Sometimes with Winston, you just feel like you’re holding down primary fire a little bit too long to actually be doing what you want to do. [With Stadium], you can really juice his gun and it feels so satisfying.

How did you land on those four heroes and what are some other heroes who you see people clamoring for and are on the docket? If you can’t say right now, can you share what gameplay styles you’re focused on bringing in?

Keller: There’s a lot of things we look at when we’re looking at heroes for Stadium. First and foremost is how well we feel like we can make a really cool set of abilities for them. We want every hero in there to really double down on “hero fantasy.” We want to make sure that comes across to our players.

For the first few seasons of Stadium, we really tried to have at least a few heroes per role. Eventually, I think we’re going to have to break that pattern and start moving into other patterns. I think we’ll start seeing, you know, maybe different numbers of heroes coming to Stadium with different role ratios.

We want to make sure that heroes that we know a lot of people play are available there. Like Alex said, you know, we have a lot of people saying things like, “Hey, I’m just sitting on the sidelines, waiting for my hero to join the cast.” So we want to make sure that we’re opening up that funnel.

There’s also a few heroes we’re avoiding, you know? Like Widowmaker, who is a controversial hero that’s designed around a one-shot [kill]. I think that there’s probably some learnings we need to do with how we build those heroes–how we build counters for some of the sharper mechanics.

There was a recent IGN article in which you said that you’d “dropped the ball with story in Overwatch 2,” and I thought that was interesting to bring up this far removed from the announcement of PvE being dropped. So do you have plans to course-correct going forward?

Keller: Yeah. When you look back at the history of Overwatch, there are moments where there was more or less lore–where we were developing more or less story for players. And one of the things that we hear from our community–and we’ve been hearing it a lot lately–is that they just want there to be more of that in the game. That it feels like we’re doing less of it.

So I think I’m actually really excited for the Wuyang hero trailer to come out and for people to get a glimpse at that hero and maybe how they tie into the bigger, broader universe. It’s something that I can’t really go into a lot right now, but I’m excited for players to be able to get in touch with more lore over the coming seasons this year.

Based on that, do you plan on having more heroes come from similar factions or the same countries? I know that, for a while there, there was more avoidance since you’re trying to represent a lot of different backgrounds. But at the same time–and with the lack of PvE–do you find yourself thinking “Well actually let’s add this person’s best friend and have more storytelling through voice lines?” Or “Let’s try to add folks from the same factions.”

Dawson: Yeah, there’s a delicate balance to it. We don’t want to make it feel like heroes are appearing out of nowhere and like [players always have] this brand-new thing to learn. I think we’ve created a universe over quite some time that is very rich with tons of different characters from different factions, and we want to lean into that more and more.

Even some of the things you saw in the Freya story trailer earlier this year link back to some of the things we’ve already built in the world. We want to make sure that we’re pulling from that world because there are characters that people have only gotten glimpses of, that they love, or that could end up as heroes one day.

Keller: As far as where our heroes hail from, we do still like to spread heroes out across like all over the globe. That’s a really important value that we’ve got. We do like our heroes to feel like they represent Earth, but not in the strictest sense. We don’t have 40% of our heroes from China and India, which is maybe what a true representation of the global population would be.

Has the team considered any other avenues for more large-scale storytelling? I’m sure you see the success of series like Arcane and Castlevania on Netflix, and I wonder if that has been something that you’re interested in pursuing.

Keller: The team would love to have something like that come out. You know, we’re also fans of those shows and fans of those universes. To have something like that for Overwatch would be really, really cool. But I can’t really discuss the plans for future stuff like that.

I completely understand. I just ask because it’s something that I want to manifest into the universe. But on the subject of Overwatch’s story–and now that we’re a little bit more removed from what happened–do you want to go into a little bit more detail on why things didn’t really work out with story missions?

Keller: I know Blizzard holds their cards kind of close to their chests sometimes. But I don’t think we really saw the critical success that we wanted and it forced us to really analyze where we were putting our time and resources. At the end of the day, what we’ve been telling our players is that we want to make the game that they want to play. And the game that our players have been playing is this competitive, PvP-focused hero shooter. We really realized that that was the game that we needed to invest our time into.

Following the release of our sole campaign, we did a really big pivot internally on the team. We wanted to focus on what it means to be a best-in-class hero shooter. What are the competitive systems that we need in order to do that? What are some of the other systems?

In the year since that, we’ve focused on evolving the game our players play–on how we turn it into the best version of Overwatch it can be. That’s why we started doing these much bigger systems, like Perks and Stadium. Now that we’ve corrected the course, it gives us the opportunity to make bigger steps with the game. And some of those are things that players are asking for, but then some of them are really big surprises. That’s the future for Overwatch right now.

The above interview has been lightly edited for clarity, readability, and brevity.

Fans of cooperative climbing game Peak know that ticks aren’t the only bug in the game, and for the last week they’ve been subject to a particularly frustrating one that developers are now aware of and working to resolve: the brand new biome, the Mesa, has been missing for the last week, with only the original Alpine biome showing up in the game’s seed-generated maps.

“For the last 7 days, every map has had the ALPINE,” developer Team Peak wrote in a post on the game’s Steam page. “Players are starting to wonder if the MESA was a dream all along. A mirage.”

The developers chalk this up to one of two potential causes. One is that “[the game’s map generator] randomly rolled ALPINE 7 days in a row which has a 0.78% chance of happening.” While that’s possible, they submit another potential cause: “Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr its (sic) a bug.”

For the last week, climbers have been subjected to the bitter, whipping cold of the Alpine biome. But sometimes you’d rather free solo El Capitan than the north face of the Eiger. To give us all a break from the cold, the team is forcing Mesa as the game’s third biome “until further notice,” which they specify will be later this week.

On the beta side of the game, the developers are working on reenabling rising lava in the final level, the Kiln, and testing a photosensitive mode.

Previously, the team has been working to quickly update the game with new features, with the most recent being getting the Steam Deck Verified checkmark on their game, as well as adding optional cannibalism to the game in the Totally Normal Update and adding the aforementioned Mesa biome. The game has been a hit on Steam since June, and Geoff Keighley confirmed during Opening Night Live that the game has sold 10 million copies since launch.

Best Buy has a handful of awesome deals on first-party Nintendo Switch games this week. Regardless of whether you prefer physical or digital games, you can take advantage of almost all of the offers. The exception is Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition – Deluxe Set, because the eShop cannot dispense collectibles through the vents on your console. On sale for a new all-time best price of $40 (was $60), the retro-fueled party game’s collector’s edition comes packaged in an oversized display box filled with nostalgic merch.

Inside the box, you’ll find a replica gold NES cartridge with a sleeve and display stand, 13 Nintendo art cards, and five enamel pins featuring 8-bit depictions of Mario, Link, Samus, and Donkey Kong as well as the Nintendo World Championships logo.

Nintendo Switch Game Deals at Best Buy

Here’s a list of the Switch exclusives on sale at Best Buy. The other one that stands out is Emio – The Smiling Man, as this is the first discount yet for the latest entry in Nintendo’s Famicom Detective Club series. Walmart and Best Buy have a couple of these Switch game deals, too.

• Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition – Deluxe Set — $40 ($60)
• Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club — $40 ($50)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening — $40 ($60)
• Mario & Luigi: Brothership — $40 ($60)
• Mario Strikers: Battle League — $40 ($60)
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door — $40 ($60)
  • Also at Walmart
  • Also at Amazon
• Super Mario Maker 2 — $40 ($60)
• Yoshi’s Crafted World — $40 ($60)
  • Also at Walmart

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition – Deluxe Set

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition – Deluxe Set:

• Best Buy — $40 ($60)
• GameStop — $60
• Walmart — $65 (reseller)
• Amazon — $70 (reseller)
• Target — Sold out

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is an ode to the original Nintendo console and the real-life 1990 Nintendo World Championships. It compiles over 150 minigames spread across 13 NES titles, such as racing through the first level of Super Mario Bros., eating enemies the fastest in Kirby’s Adventure, and defeating Octoroks as possible in The Legend of Zelda. If you have a Nintendo Switch Online membership, you can compare your scores to players around the world.

If you aren’t a NSO member, you can still enjoy local multiplayer for up to eight players. After each round, you’ll receive a letter rating to let you know how well you’ve performed. You’ll earn in-game coins based on your performance, which can then be used to unlock additional challenges.

Here’s a look at all 13 games in the collection:

• Balloon Fight
• Donkey Kong
• Excitebike
• Ice Climber
• Kid Icarus
• Kirby’s Adventure
• Metroid
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels
• The Legend of Zelda
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Super Mario Bros.

The collection is meant to be played with NES controllers, but there are some great alternatives to the $70 pair only available to Switch Online members. The 8BitDo SN30 Pro Wireless Controller is available for $40.49 (was $45). This controller is modeled after the SNES controller, but it also has thumbsticks and both triggers and bumpers, so it has the added benefit of working well with modern games, too. Alternatively, you can get the 8BitDo Pro 2 for only $42.49 (was $50). The Pro 2 is has longer handles and feels fairly similar to the DualSense controller. It also has customization options, including a pair of remappable back buttons.

8BitDo recently launched the Pro 3 Bluetooth Gamepad for $70. The price difference may sound like a lot, but we’d recommend reading our review that highlights all of the impressive upgrades and new features.

All three 8BitDo controllers mentioned above are compatible with Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.

For another rarely discounted, retro Nintendo product, check out the deal on the 1,215-piece Lego Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi building set at Walmart and Amazon. Like Nintendo World Championships, the Mario & Yoshi Lego display model has almost always sold for full price since launching last year. Plus, it’ll help you pass the time until Lego’s highly anticipated Game Boy building set releases October 1.

Sony recently announced a new NBA 2K26 PS5 Slim Bundle is set to arrive on September 5. As the name implies, this will include the PS5 Slim model with a disc drive, a DualSense controller, and the upcoming NBA 2K26. It’s arriving on September 5, the same day NBA 2K26 launches on PS5, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch. We’re still waiting on pricing details for the new bundle, but considering Sony increased the PS5’s price on August 21, we’re expecting it to be more expensive than previous bundles. Still, bundles like this are always popular, so set a reminder for September 5 if you’re thinking about picking one up.

If you’re worried about pricing–or don’t need NBA 2K26, consider grabbing a PS5 at Amazon. The online retailer still offers all three PS5 models at their previous price points–meaning you can get the PS5 Slim for $500, the PS5 Slim Digital for $450, or the PS5 Pro for $700. We don’t know how long these prices will remain, so grab one while you can.

PS5 Consoles at Amazon

• PS5 Slim — $500
• PS5 Slim Digital — $450
• PS5 Pro — $700

For those looking to pick up NBA 2K26 on its own, you can preorder it now on PS5 and all other platforms. There are three editions of the game available, all of which include 10,000 Virtual Currency as a preorder bonus. Physical preorders for the $70 standard edition are available now at multiple online retailers. You can also grab the digital-only $100 Leave No Doubt Edition and $150 Superstar Edition that include a bunch of exclusive content, a Season Pass, and 7-day early access to the full game starting August 28. See our NBA 2K26 preorder guide for more information.

NBA 2K26 Preorders

Philipp Batura didn’t expect one of his most successful designs to be a giant red bow. Simple and cartoonishly oversized, the Big Hair Bow became one of Roblox’s biggest fashion hits during Christmas, selling more than 455,000 copies and generating over $150,000 in revenue.

“What’s funny is that it’s such a simple design, but that’s probably why it worked,” Batura told GameSpot via email. “It appealed to a wide audience. I remember logging into games and seeing it on so many players, and I still spot it in YouTube and TikTok videos.”

It’s a story that illustrates how Roblox fashion works and why it’s so different from the real-world fashion industry. In Milan or Paris, designers might obsess over silhouettes or fabric innovation. In Roblox, the fashion ecosystem moves at the speed of memes, and sometimes the winning accessory isn’t high-concept at all; it’s a giant bow anyone can slap onto their avatar.

The Big Red Bow

Batura, who goes by Topcat in Roblox, didn’t enter the User Generated Content Creator program expecting to become a digital fashion powerhouse. He has, in a way, since he leads a full-time team of modelers and a rigger that help him design multiple items a day. When he first started selling avatar accessories in early 2023, he gravitated toward tongue-in-cheek ideas inspired by internet culture.

“The weirdest design I made that sold well was the SIGMA Chain,” he wrote. “It was part of my very first UGC drop in early 2023 and ended up getting over 13,000 sales. That moment was a turning point–it made me realize this could be more than just something I did for fun. It could be a real business.”

That business began with meme-driven accessories like the Mr. Peebles Head–a giant cat head–and the Rizz Frame, a literal frame you wore around your face. They were funny, eye-catching, and briefly popular. But Batura soon realized the downside.

“While meme-based items might spike in popularity, they aren’t a sustainable niche,” he said. “So I pivoted toward streetwear, which allowed for more consistent results and long-term growth.”

At first glance, it might seem strange that the bow outperformed more complex or trendy designs. But in Roblox, simplicity is a superpower. Players want items that work across multiple outfits and social settings. The bow managed to be playful without being tied to a specific meme or cultural reference, making it endlessly adaptable.

It also didn’t hurt that it dropped during the Christmas season, when the Roblox avatar shop is flooded with players looking for festive ways to dress up. Big, bright, and jolly, the bow was the right item at the right time.

Topcat and his team.

And once enough players picked it up, it became inescapable. Roblox fashion spreads not just through the in-game store, but through visibility in popular experiences, streamers’ avatars, TikTok edits, and YouTube skits. The bow wasn’t just an item–it was a trend, woven into Roblox culture.

The success of the Big Hair Bow underscores how Roblox fashion has matured into its own industry. The UGC program has empowered thousands of independent designers to create and sell virtual clothing, and with hundreds of millions of monthly users on the platform, the audience is massive.

For some, like Batura, it has become a career. The fact that one digital accessory can generate six-figure sales is a reminder that digital fashion isn’t a novelty; it’s an economy. Roblox has seen collaborations with luxury brands like Gucci, Ralph Lauren, and Nike, but the real pulse of its fashion world comes from homegrown creators. They move quickly, understand the platform’s culture, and know when to trade high-concept ideas for something as straightforward as a bow.

“Seeing something I created become part of the culture like that has been incredibly rewarding,” he wrote. While it may amuse Batura that his most iconic creation is essentially a cartoon bow, it’s fitting. Roblox fashion is democratic and often surprising. Success doesn’t always come from complexity–sometimes it comes from knowing what players will actually want to wear.

For Topcat, that realization has transformed a hobby into a livelihood. For Roblox, it’s another reminder that in the world of digital fashion, anyone–with the right idea–can become the next big trendsetter.

Read more: The latest developments in the controversy involving Roblox.