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.

Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King fans can secure a preorder for a highly collectible 4K Blu-ray edition of The Shining at Walmart. Part of The Film Vault collector’s series, The Shining Special Edition Steelbook is available to order for $100 at Walmart ahead of its September 2 release in the US. Along with the steelbook case with new artwork, this limited-edition release comes with cigar box packaging, a double-sided poster, and a bunch of art cards. It looks like the ultimate collector’s version of the legendary horror movie, so snag a copy while you still can. A cheaper edition without the extras releases the same day. The Shining Solus Steelbook Edition is $65 and has sold out at least twice already.

Created by Vice Press in partnership with Warner Bros. UK, The Shining Special Edition is one of two early ’80s horror films in The Film Vault Wave 3. The Shining will launch alongside the 1982 supernatural horror film Poltergeist. Walmart is also taking preorders for Poltergeist’s Special Edition Steelbook and Poltergeist Solus Steelbook. Both editions were in stock at the time of writing. The Shining and Poltergeist Film Vault limited editions come with region-free 4K Blu-ray and 1080p Blu-ray discs.

The Film Vault Wave 3 at Walmart

• The Shining Special Edition Steelbook (4K) — $100
• The Shining Solus Steelbook (4K) — $65
• Poltergeist Special Edition Steelbook (4K) — $100
• Poltergeist Solus Steelbook (4K) — $65

Note: Both of the Film Vault editions listed on Walmart’s site, along with a couple of other retailer-exclusive versions, sold out months ago in the UK and at specialty Blu-ray shops.

Walmart will almost certainly sell out of both editions before launch. If you missed out on the 2025 Walmart-exclusive Steelbook Edition of The Shining, now’s your chance to grab one that looks much cooler. But you may want to move fast. I wrote an article about Walmart’s The Shining Steelbook when preorders opened last December, and it sold out the following day.

The Film Vault: The Shining Special Edition

The Shining Special Edition Steelbook by Vice Press & Warner Bros. UK

The Film Vault places the movie title and other text on acetate O-rings, allowing fans to choose whether to display the cigar box with or without words and logos. The new artwork by Matt Ferguson and Florey looks beautiful. The cigar box has a large silhouette of Jack Torrance with the fireman’s axe overlooking (sorry) the Overlook Hotel. On the back is Jack’s typewriter, and there are even words on the paper–likely the same sentence over and over again. The artwork on the steelbook case recreates the scene where Jack trudges through the hedge maze.

The steelbook artwork is also featured on the double-sided movie poster. The other side is a retouched version of Saul Bass’ well-known poster that was created for The Shining’s 1980 theatrical release. The eight art cards showcase memorable shots from the film as well as behind-the-scenes production photographs.

If you’re unfamiliar with The Film Vault, it’s a series of collectible editions of classic movies from the Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures film catalogs. The Film Vault was created in 2022 by Vice Press, a UK company specializing in officially licensed movie collectibles and artwork. All of the 4K Blu-rays released by The Film Vault are region-free discs, but as a UK company, these limited-edition versions of all-time classics aren’t regularly found at US retailers. We suspect The Shining is exclusive to Walmart in the US.

The Film Vault: The Shining Steelbook Edition

The Shining Solus Steelbook Edition by Vice Press & Warner Bros. UK

At the time of writing, The Shining Solus Steelbook Limited Edition is sold out–but we’d recommend checking to see if Walmart restocked it. It has already received at least one restock. It was sold out when I first found the store page August 22, but I was able to order a copy on August 23, just a few hours before writing this story.

The above image provides a look at the back cover of the steelbook case and the hedge maze landscape artwork on the inside covers. Just like with the Special Edition, the Solus Steelbook comes with an acetate O-ring with with the title and other text. It is worth noting that the Special Edition’s O-ring is for the cigar box–you won’t get a second O-ring for the steelbook case.

Arcade1Up’s Countercades are great for those who have limited space as well as anyone who doesn’t want to drop $500 on a standing home arcade machine. Unfortunately, Arcade1Up seems like it could be done with its series of compact machines. All of the manufacturer’s Countercades are discontinued. Until this month, we hadn’t seen an Arcade1Up Countercade in stock since last holiday season. So we were surprised to find the Arcade1Up Class of ’81 Countercade in stock at Amazon this week.

Arcade1Up Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga Countercade

The Class of ’81 Countercade is themed around Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga, though it also includes Dig Dug. The cabinet launched last October for $150 and then disappeared before Christmas. It had a peculiarly brief lifecycle, and now it has a fittingly strange restock. The Class of ’81 Countercade is sold and shipped by Amazon, but the price is $167.16. It’s only $17 above the original MSRP, and the $150 MSRP was surprisingly low to begin with–and contributed to it selling out so fast.

Snag the Arcade1Up Class of ’81 Countercade while you can; over on StockX, resellers have it listed for $299. The compact machine is one of only about a dozen Arcade1Up cabinets available on Amazon at the moment.

The previous Pac-Man Countercade retailed for $200. Amazon’s store page makes it seem like $167.16 is MSRP. This sometimes happens when Amazon restocks discontinued products. Amazon sometimes has really random prices for things that have effectively turned into Amazon exclusives.

The Ms. Pac-Man Head-to-Head machine is the only arcade table from Arcade1Up available on Amazon today. Some of Arcade1Up’s traditional standing Deluxe Edition Cabinets are still actively being produced today. Most are priced at $600, though a few such as Pac-Man, NBA Jam, and Mortal Kombat are $500.

Arcade1Up Deluxe Edition Arcade Cabinets (August 2025)

• Golden Tee 3D (8 Games) — $500
• Mortal Kombat II (14 Games) — $500
• NBA Jam (3 Games) — $500
• Pac-Man (14 Games) — $500
• Big Buck Hunter Pro (4 Games, 2 Light Guns) — $600
• The Fast & the Furious (2 Games, Racing Wheel & Pedals) — $600
• Terminator 2 (2 Light Guns) — $600
• Wheel of Fortune Casinocade (4 Games) — $475
• Full-Size Claw Machine — $500
• Dig Dug Legacy Edition — $400

If you’re interested in Namco arcade classics, check out the upcoming Atari 2600+ Pac-Man Edition Console Bundle. This special-edition system plays real Atari 2600 and 7800 cartridges and comes with a yellow wireless joystick and Pac-Man: Double Feature, a cart with a newly developed version of Pac-Man and the original 2600 release. Extra joysticks themed around the Ghost Gang are available to preorder separately, as are three additional Namco classics on cartridge, including Galaga and Dig Dug.

KPop Demon Hunters’ fictional bands have become some of the hottest musical acts on the planet since the Netflix animated film released in June–but before Huntrix and Saja Boys were tearing up the charts, a quartet of League of Legends characters were making waves in virtual K-pop.

Even before KPop Demon Hunters was released, the film’s fictional K-pop band was seeing comparisons to Riot Games’ virtual girl group, K/DA. It’s not a stretch to spot the similarities–two animated girl groups releasing catchy K-pop anthems in between fighting enemies with signature weapons and battle costumes. Even some of the costumes and color schemes feel familiar, and both groups have collaborated with real-world K-pop girl group Twice.

Though it feels likely that the team behind KPop Demon Hunters was inspired by K/DA, it hasn’t commented much on the comparison. One of the only official references to K/DA comes from KPop Demon Hunters’ music supervisor Ian Eisendrath, who confirms that Riot’s virtual band was “one of our many influences” for Huntrix’s musical sound. Eisendrath adds that K/DA was just one of “8-12 references” that was mainly used to “envision what these songs could sound like.”

No matter what level of inspiration K/DA had on KPop Demon Hunters, the Riot K-pop project proved almost seven years ago that fans would get behind a virtual girl group.

Made up of League champions Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, and Kai’sa, each member of K/DA is voiced and performed by a real-world pop artist. American artists Madison Beer and Jaira Burns provide the singing voices for Evelynn and Kai’sa, respectively, while members of K-pop group I-dle (formerly (G)I-dle) Miyeon and Soyeon voice Ahri and Akali, respectively. The group is structured like a classic K-pop girl group, with each member having a performing strength, and they mirror certain K-pop archetypes in personality and style.

K/DA was formed back in 2018 as an opening act for the League of Legends World Championship–and as a vehicle to sell their shiny popstar outfits as skins. The single and music video launched the same day as K/DA’s debut augmented-reality performance in Incheon, South Korea, and quickly took off.

The debut single, Pop/Stars, charted at number one on the K-pop music charts and number five on the overall pop charts for Apple Music in the US, as well as topping Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart. The music video went viral on YouTube, reaching over 100 million views in its first month. Despite being a fake band, K/DA made history by becoming the first K-pop girl group to have a single certified platinum with Pop/Stars.

Viranda Tantula, the creative lead on the opening ceremony performance, explained in an interview that Pop/Stars’ success was all about commitment to the “fantasy of the champs being in the real world.” In order to sell this fantasy, Tantula explained, they had to create a pop song that stands up against real-world pop music and a performance that competes with real-world stadium-level pop.

Despite how much went into K/DA’s debut, it initially wasn’t intended to be any more than the one single. “We really went into it wanting to make the singular moment as dope as possible and intentionally weren’t thinking much further into the future than that,” Tantula said in the same interview. When Pop/Stars started taking off, far eclipsing anything the Riot music team had released previously, Tantula says the team started “chatting about where this could go.”

K/DA was quiet for a while after their debut, though they remained popular with fans who created art, cosplay, and dance covers for Pop/Stars–and spent plenty of cash on K/DA skins. After two years of speculation, the group finally returned with a bang in 2020, releasing the five-song EP All Out and once again gracing the Worlds opening ceremony with an augmented-reality performance of lead single More.

While none of the All Out tracks reached the viral peak that Pop/Stars saw, the EP performed well as a musical release in its own right–with play counts on Spotify comparable to Huntrix’s discography at the time of writing.

Riot hasn’t revisited K/DA since the All Out release–though it did experiment with a boy band, Heartsteel, and an Akali-led side project, True Damage, all of which exist in the same alternate universe of League of Legends lore. The rise of KPop Demon Hunters seems to have brought fans back to K/DA, however: The Pop/Stars YouTube comments are full of people who say they’re watching because of KPop Demon Hunters, while the K/DA subreddit is full of Huntrix/K/DA mashups and fan art.

Some fans who were introduced to K-pop by the Netflix film even appear to be jumping to K/DA for their next fictional K-pop fix. Though this could just be because both bands have a similar sound, there’s an argument to be made that virtual acts may be less intimidating for first-time fans who aren’t ready for the complexity of real-world K-pop fan culture. No matter the reason, both K/DA and Huntrix have proven themselves successful gateway artists for fans who have never engaged with K-pop before.

The similarities between K/DA and Huntrix may be undeniable, but there’s one major element that sets the two groups apart: K/DA is a virtual K-pop group, while Huntrix doesn’t exist outside of the narrative of KPop Demon Hunters–for now. The difference is the conceit that K/DA is a band that really exists in our world–they’ve performed stadium shows, filmed music videos, and even held interviews and addressed fans directly via social media.

Riot’s handling of K/DA as a virtual band provides a template that Netflix could very well follow with KPop Demon Hunters. In a Reddit AMA with members of the KPop Demon Hunters team, a fan asked if Huntrix and Saja Boys could become bona fide virtual bands, and music supervisor Ian Eisendrath replied, “I would love that.”

Just like K/DA before them, both Huntrix and Saja Boys are blowing up the charts right now–going head to head with some of the most popular real K-pop groups. Huntrix surpassed Blackpink as the highest-charting K-pop girl group when it hit number two on the US Spotify charts, while Saja Boys surpassed the likes of BTS and Stray Kids to become the highest-charting K-pop boy group. There’s no word yet on Netflix’s plans for either fictional group, but it’s not hard to picture them selling out stadiums.

If you’ve been using the jump button a little too often in the Battlefield 6 beta, then you’re going to notice some changes upon launch. DICE has announced that there’s now a penalty for making consecutive jumps that lowers the jump height. Momentum carried from a slide into a jump has also been tweaked to reduce its speed. Nevertheless, Battlefield 6 principal game designer Florian “DRUNKKZ3” Le Bihan wants players to know that the movement changes “are not drastic.”

“Movement is also getting more responsive in general in places that have felt a bit clunky before. so there is a lot more that is getting quality improvements [and] polish in this same area,” wrote Le Bihan on X. “Adding diminishing returns to jumping is what we’re actually doing, an initial slide or an initial jumps will not be affected. We’re still trying to retain depth to movement with some skill curve to it, just making sure it doesn’t become insane.”

The Battlefield 6 devs also recently defended the changes to Rush mode in the beta, including smaller lobbies of 24 players for 12v12 matches. According to the programing team, Rush mode doesn’t work as well with more than 24 players at a time.

Another upcoming change change before for launch is the nerfing of the M87A1 shotgun, which was overpowered in the beta. Now, the shotgun will “[require] more pellets to secure a kill.”

According EA, the recent play test was the biggest beta in Battlefield’s history in terms of players. Research firm Oppenheimer estimated that the beta reached more than 20 million people.

Battlefield 6 launches on October 10 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Steam darling Peak’s latest patch changes the game for Steam Deck players and speedrunners who love nothing more than a good glitch.

Peak version 1.25.a makes a few major changes and a bunch of minor ones. The biggest alteration is that the game is now Steam Deck Verified.

“Finally…..the game is good on Steam Deck,” the team wrote in the patch notes. “Deck players will know it’s been good for a while! The Mesa Update added the last of controller support needed and with this patch we’ve added some text adjustments needed to get the Verified badge.”

There are a whole bunch of fixes and adjustments as well. Most prominently, it’s much harder to glitch your way to the top of the mountain than it has been over the last couple of weeks.

“Made fog walls taller so you can’t shoot over them to win the game in a minute with the Scout Cannon exploit,” Team Peak wrote. “A lot of you asked us not to change the Scout Cannon but no promises were made about the map.”

Previously, players could use the Scout Cannon to blast themselves so high that they were able to clear all five of the game’s biomes and reach the goal at the peak. With the fog wall change, cannons can still send players ridiculously far under the right circumstances, but they’re now much more likely to smack into the wall of shifting fog that separates each biome and fall to their deaths. That said, we did manage to use the cannon to clear at least a couple of biomes before crashing back to earth when testing the update, so ridiculous cannon stunts remain possible.

Interestingly, this patch also added the ability to toggle off The Looker, a character who could randomly appear behind certain rocks, and who would disappear if you got too close or looked at them for too long. Even if you do leave the feature enabled, the character’s appearance will be more rare moving forward.

One issue many Peak players have run into is that a bunch of the game’s merit badges, tied to its Steam achievements, don’t seem to unlock, even after doing everything required to earn them. Those issues have been resolved for the Cool Cucumber, Plunderer, Clutch, and First Aid badges.

Other issues addressed in this patch include problems with beehives (insect phobia textures work now, and you can’t put beehives into your backpack anymore), alongside several balance changes (hot rocks in the Kiln now damage players correctly, the Cure-All item can cure some thorns in the Mesa biome, and the Magic Beanstalk is faster to climb).

Peak is the latest and one of the best examples of the genre that gamers have began to lovingly (or not-so-lovingly) as “friendslop”–relatively simple co-op-first games that include an element of humor, such as R.E.P.O. and Lethal Company. Getting to the top of Peak’s mountain requires skill and knowledge, but things like exploding spores, the fact that you can lose consciousness and fall off the mountain, and lots of other hazards, are undeniably meant to cause laughter.

Peak has sold over 10 million copies on Steam according to Geoff Keighley, and has recently added features like a Mesa biome, cannibalism, and more.