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Fortnite has exploded into wild popularity thanks to its free-to-play Battle Royale mode, thanks in part to its availability as a free-to-play game. But Fortnite’s original Save the World mode will also eventually transition to a free-to-play model. However, those plans have been pushed out of 2018, as developer Epic Games says it needs to progress on some reworks and additional features before it makes the switch.

In an update about its Save the World mode, Epic suggests that the popularity of Fortnite as a whole means it needs to be prepared for a large influx of new users once STW goes free for all.

“We’re working on a broad set of features, reworks, and backend system scaling we believe are needed to go free-to-play,” it said. “Scaling up for the legions of player heroes who will be joining the fight is key to providing an excellent experience. This applies to all of our players, old and new, so we’re taking the time to get this right.”

If you just can’t wait for it to go free-to-play, Epic is hosting a 50% off sale for the Standard, Deluxe, Standard Deluxe, and Limited Founder’s Packs starting later this week. That means that your cheapest option will be $20 soon, until it goes free. Founders will also get a Brainiac Jonesy and Skull Ranger Ramirez for free if they log on during the Fortnitemares Halloween event.

The update also details a big change to the Hero System to give you more flexibility in the loadouts, along with several front-end UI improvements.

The cooperative PvE Save the World mode was the original pitch for Fortnite, and has remained in development as the free-to-play PvP Battle Royale has exploded in popularity. It’s fair to say the free version of the game has overshadowed its original vision, especially since the PvE isn’t available for some versions, including the Nintendo Switch or mobile games. But at least some of its large audience is likely to jump into Save the World once it’s free, so Epic is looking to be prepared.

If you need a hand on earning your rewards in Battle Royale, make sure to check out our challenge guide for this season.

Xbox One Game Pass has updated with a few extra tricks and treats this month, adding some extra horror games to the library in honor of Halloween. These are all part of the “2Spooky for Halloween” promotion, which includes more than 20 spooky and scary games as part of Game Pass. The new additions are Dead Island: Riptide DE, Outlast, Hello Neighbor, and Observer.

Dead Island: Riptide takes you to the Banoi Archipelago to fight to survive a zombie apocalypse. The Definitive Edition features remastered access and grants access to all of the bonus content produced. Outlast is a first-person survival horror game that takes you into the heart of a creepy asylum reopened by a corporation with some questionable initiatives. Hello Neighbor is a sandbox stealth horror game that has you investigate your neighbor’s dark secrets. Finally, Observer is a cyberpunk game that has you investigate crimes by delving into your suspects’ fears.

The full Halloween Collection on Game Pass also includes Graveyard Keeper, State of Decay 2, Dead Rising 4, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0, and more. In case those are all too scary for you, a kinder, cuter Halloween game is also available in Costume Quest 2.

Xbox Game Pass is a subscription-based service that gives you access to download more than 100 full Xbox One and Xbox 360 games. Microsoft adds new games each month, and it offers new first-party releases like Forza Horizon 4 to subscribers on the day of release. Other new additions for October include Wolfenstein: The New Order, Metro 2033 Redux, Westerado: Double Barreled, Lego Indiana Jones, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, and Split/Second.

The competition between subscription services appears to be heating up as well, because Sony recently expanded its own PlayStation Now program to allow game downloads.

The long-awaited Red Dead Redemption 2 is due this week, but Rockstar is working to counteract an unexpected controversy. Following comments about 100-hour work weeks, the studio has repeatedly made attempts to tell fans that it doesn’t expect such long hours from everyone. Now it has reportedly sent that message to its own employees too.

Variety reports that Rockstar held a meeting on Friday to tell its employees that overtime is not mandatory, though it is occasionally requested and scheduled. Rockstar’s Jennifer Kolbe said the meeting was held to clear up any misconceptions about what was expected of employees.

“Some people have said that they felt it was effectively mandatory because it was expected of them. In light of the discussion around this issue, we got the team together today to make sure it is clear to them that OT work is not mandatory,” she said. “We are also pushing to make any OT worked more flexible in terms of schedule (i.e. ‘work when makes sense for you’).”

Rockstar Lincoln is said to have worked the longest hours approaching the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2, with some weeks topping 60-70 hours. The meeting came to light after Flik Green, an animation assistant at Rockstar North, spoke about it on social media. She went on to say that when she worked at Lincoln as a QA tester she and her coworkers never assumed the overtime to be optional–but that the environment at North has been very different with more standard hours and only slight overtime.

The controversy kicked off when co-founder Dan Houser casually mentioned working 100-hour weeks several times in 2018. He later clarified that he was referring only to the senior writing team, including himself, but it had sparked a larger discussion about development crunch and the expectations put on developers.

Rockstar encouraged its employees to speak out about their own experiences, and several gave anecdotes about their time at the company. Many anecdotes noted that the studio does go through crunch, but that the environment had improved over the years and isn’t as extreme as 100-hour weeks.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming on October 26. For more details check out our pre-order guide.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 recently opened its Black Market cosmetic shop on PlayStation 4, quickly followed by a special Halloween stream of items. These debuted on PS4 already and will be available on PC and Xbox One on October 27. This first event likely gives us an idea of what to expect from these holiday-themed streams in the future.

The limited-time event stream is a supplement to the general Contraband stream, which offers a series of free cosmetic items that are unlocked through game progression. They’ll rotate roughly every two months. The initial one, called Operation First Strike, offers new Blackout characters, signature weapons, Specialist outfits, tags, and gestures.

The Contraband and events streams will be joined by a paid tier of items joining the shop in November. So far Activision and Treyarch have not detailed what we can expect for the pricing of those items.

Meanwhile, Treyarch is working to improve crashing and stability bugs, most recently with a patch that fixed several crashes across Zombies and Multiplayer modes. The studio also says it will be prioritizing network performance over the next few weeks.

This first round of Halloween cosmetics includes some ghastly war paints and playful gestures, along with a jack-o-lantern spray. Check them out below.