Here at Goonhammer, we know that it’s hard to keep track of all the news happening all the time in the games industry. So much is always going on with games of all sorts, and their related media, it can be a real blink-and-you’ll miss it situation.
That’s why every week, we round up five of the biggest stories in the gaming sphere from the past week in the Games Industry News Roundup. Our trusty news boy, Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson, is here with the scoop
AdeptiCon Announces New Venue for 2025 Event
AdeptiCon, one of the largest tabletop wargame events in the entire world, announced on Monday that it would be finding a new home for its 2025 event.
AdeptiCon has been held annually in Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago, since 2015. Since then the convention experienced consistent growth in attendance, with a major 20% jump in attendance between 2023 and 2024. While this growth is great for the future of AdeptiCon, it’s become apparent that the event is outgrowing its current venue. Regarding this, AdeptiCon admin team said, “That type of growth creates challenges, and the unavoidable fact is that our current venue is no longer a sustainable option for the size of the convention. With that foremost in mind, and with sincere gratitude to our current venue and hotel partners, we have decided to relocate AdeptiCon to the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for 2025.”
The next AdeptiCon will be held from March 26th-30th, 2025, at the Baird Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Baid Center is located in downtown Milwaukee, and its exhibit hall is nearly 40,000 ft larger than AdeptiCon’s previous venue. Since the Baird Center is located in the heart of the city, attendees of AdeptiCon also have more options for dining and hotel accommodations when attending the 2025 event.
“We believe that the Baird Center is both. 2025 will ring in a new era for AdeptiCon,” the Adepticon Admin team writes, “We will build new partnerships while fostering existing relationships and we believe AdeptiCon will be better than ever. So stay tuned for important dates and hotel information and we will see you in Milwaukee in 2025.”
Game Development Company Possibility Space Abruptly Shut Down
While the Industry News Roundup is no stranger at this point to reporting on the layoffs and closings affecting video game development companies in the recent past, the current situation occurring with Possibility Space may be one of the most bizarre.
Possibility Space opened in 2021 as a subsidiary of Prytania Media. Prytania Media was founded by Jeff Strain, founder of ArenaNet and State of Decay developer Undead Labs, as well as his wife, Annie Delisi Strain.
On Friday, Possibility Space was shut down with little warning, without having released a single game. In an internal email obtained by Polygon reporter Nicole Carpenter, Strain cites internal leaks to a Kotaku reporter concerning Project Vonnegut, the unannounced game currently in development by Possibility Space, in a currently unpublished article as the reason for the shutdown. Elaborating further, Strain writes, “Given the company’s own strict confidentiality and notification obligations, I immediately got on a plane for in-person meetings with our publishing partner to discuss the impact on the project. During that discussion our partner expressed low confidence they would be willing to invest the additional resources needed to complete the game, so we mutually agreed to cancel Vonnegut.”
With Vonnegut canceled, Strain made the decision to immediately close Possibility Space without warning. This is the second Prytania owned studio closed this year, with Crop Circle Games being the first one closed due to being unable to find investors in Crop Circle Games. The reporting from the unpublished Kotaku article was also cited in the statement regarding Crop Circles closing, with Annie Delisi Strain writing, “I stepped down as CEO this winter on a medical leave and while I don’t know the content of Mr. Gach’s article, I have no assurances that my personal health struggles as a rare female game industry CEO will not be covered in his article.”
As for the staff at Possibility Space, the entire team seems to be stuck up creek without a paddle. Austin Walker, former IP Director at Possibility Space and former Editor in Chief at Waypoint, put his feelings on the matter in two simple words. “Lol. Lmao.”
Actual Play Series Dimension 20 Confronts Live Show Ticket Prices
Dimension 20, an actual play TTRPG series from the comedy entertainment channel Droptout, opened ticket sales last week for a show at one of America’s most iconic venues: Madison Square Garden in New York City. The team expected ticket sales to be slow to fill the house. The Dimension 20 team couldn’t have been more wrong.
The show 2025 at Madison Square Garden sold insanely well almost immediately. It sold so quickly that Ticketmaster’s Dynamic Pricing system kicked in as seats became scarce. This unpopular system is designed to raise ticket prices with surging demand, and caused tickets for the live show to soar over $1,000. The Dimension 20 team later claimed that they reportedly were unaware that their shows were affected by Dynamic Pricing, or that it was something they could opt out of, and have ensured that future live shows, as well as the remaining tickets for the Madison Square Garden show, will not use this model.
For the remaining tickets, Dimension 20 will be experimenting with using a fixed price lottery system where those who opt in may be selected to purchase up to two tickets for any of the remaining seats at the show. Additionally, a live recording will be made available on Dropout’s website for those subscribed to the service.
World of Warcraft Returns to the Chinese Market
Blizzard Entertainment and Microsoft announced last week that it successfully negotiated a partnership with NetEase Games, bringing World of Warcraft and other Blizzard titles back to the Chinese market after they were suspended last year.
NetEase, which has been in the public eye recently with its partnership with Marvel Games to bring a new hero shooter based on Marvel heroes to life, has been a longtime collaborator with Blizzard. Until last year, NetEase was the primary distributor and operator of Blizzard games in China, but the relationship hit a rough patch last year, possibly due to Microsoft leadership, and NetEase ceased support for Blizzard products in January of 2023.
As of this week, it appears that Blizzard, Microsoft, and NetEase have come to an agreement that will allow for NetEase to resume Blizzard’s operation in China, as well as the distribution of NetEase games on Xbox. Blizzard Games, like world of Warcraft, will reopen for players in the summer of 2024. As of this writing, two million players have pre-registered for World of Warcraft in the region.
Johanna Faries, President of Blizzard Entertainment, said “We at Blizzard are thrilled to reestablish our partnership with NetEase and to work together, with deep appreciation for the collaboration between our teams, to deliver legendary gaming experiences to players in China. We are immensely grateful for the passion the Chinese community has shown for Blizzard games throughout the years, and we are focused on bringing our universes back to players with excellence and dedication.”
Keanu Reeves Cast as Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic 3
After months of fan speculation, it looks like we finally have an answer to who will play Sonic’s edgelord nemesis in the third Sonic movie.
Multiple sources have told The Hollywood Reporter that Keanu Reeves has been cast as Shadow the Hedgehog. The reveal came following last weeks Paramount presentation at CinemaCon, which featured the first footage of Ridley Scotts new Gladiator sequel. The footage is also rumored to show Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik to be out of shape and depressed following the end of Sonic 2 and once again being thwarted by the blue blur.
As of this writing, Paramount has yet to officially comment on the casting. Reeves seems like an incredible fit for the role of Shadow, if only because the meme potential between John Wick and Shadow the Hedgehog is so extraordinarily high.
Sonic 3 is slated to release on December 20th, 2024.
And that wraps it up for our Games Industry News Roundup this week! Join us again next week for more news about the tabletop games industry and related media.
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