New indie and live‑service updates

A small strategy game and a giant free-to-play shooter both shipped fresh updates this week, with *Smash it Wild* launching on April 15-16 and *Marvel Rivals* rolling out Season 7.5 on April 17. (store.steampowered.com, marvelrivals.com) *Smash it Wild* comes from Goblinz Studio and Ernestine, and its pitch is unusually specific: turn-based tactics built around volleyball and dodgeball, with roguelike runs that reset after a loss. Steam lists the PC release date as April 16, 2026, while PlayStation and Xbox stores list April 15, 2026. (store.steampowered.com, store.playstation.com, xbox.com) The game launched at $11.99 on Steam and PlayStation, with Steam showing a 20% introductory discount through April 30 that drops the price to $9.59. Official store pages also show versions on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. (store.steampowered.com, store.playstation.com, xbox.com, nintendo.com) Roguelikes are built around repeat runs, where failure sends players back to the start with lessons and unlocks, and *Smash it Wild* applies that structure to a sports-like tactics format. Steam says each defeat ends the tournament run, while between matches players choose training, skills, items, and event decisions that shape the next attempt. (store.steampowered.com) *Marvel Rivals* moved in the opposite direction: not a new release, but a new season update for an already live game. NetEase and Marvel Games published Season 7.5 patch notes on April 15, saying the update went live on April 17 after about two hours of maintenance. (marvelrivals.com) The biggest listed additions in that patch are Black Cat as a new hero, a new ESU Open Day event running from April 17 to June 12, and a returning Season 2 battle pass available from April 17 to April 30. The official site still describes *Marvel Rivals* as a “Super Hero Team-based PVP Shooter,” which underlines that its core mode remains player-versus-player even as the content cadence expands. (marvelrivals.com, marvelrivals.com) That split helps explain the week’s two headlines. One game is asking players to buy a self-contained tactics experiment up front; the other is asking an existing audience to keep returning through heroes, events, cosmetics, and timed rewards. (store.steampowered.com, marvelrivals.com) There is one limit to the comparison: the official sources I could verify do not show a *Marvel Rivals* mode named “Bloodhunt” in the latest April 2026 patch notes or on the game’s current news pages. The verified update is Season 7.5 with Black Cat, ESU Open Day, Twitch Drops, and balance or mode adjustments in duel settings. (marvelrivals.com, marvelrivals.com) What both releases do show, in concrete terms, is how broad the current games market has become in a single week of April 2026: a $12 animal-sports roguelike shipping across four platforms, and a free-to-play Marvel shooter adding another season’s worth of reasons to log back in. (store.steampowered.com, nintendo.com, marvelrivals.com)