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
Creative Assembly Changes Format of Upcoming Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC
Creative Assembly is offering an olive branch to Total War: Warhammer fans the best way it knows: with sweet, sweet downloadable content.
With the shadow of last year’s fan backlash over DLC pricing for Total War: Warhammer 3’s Chaos Dwarves expansion and Shadow of Change Expansion, Creative Assembly released a blog post last week to address how the next expansion for the game will be rolled out. The new DLC pack, titled “Throne of Decay,” focuses on updating three factions with new campaigns: Nurgle Daemons, the Empire, and Dwarves. Unlike other DLC packs, Thrones of Decay will allow for each of these campaigns to be purchased separately, rather than having no choice but to buy all three campaigns. Creative Assembly states that this is a one time experimental change based on fan feedback, and purchasing one campaign will provide a discount on purchasing the others. Those who want all three campaigns can still buy all three new campaigns in Thrones of Decay as one set.
“This is a new approach for us, and something that we’ll have plenty to learn about as we do it, but we think it’s the right approach and something that we feel we can do in response to the pricing changes that we brought in late last year,” Creative Assembly Head of Community Adam Freeman writes, “giving you more choices about the ways in which you can access all-new content is important to us, and we’re keen to listen in on the conversations that will rise from the back of this news.”
The blog post also addresses the news from last week that Sega laid off members of the Creative Assembly staff. Freeman attempts to assure fans of Creative Assembly’s work, saying, “You may have seen the news from SEGA last week of potential changes happening to our teams here at Creative Assembly. No matter the outcome of these changes we will still be a team who love making content for Total War: WARHAMMER III and we hope that continues to shine as we move forward with the project with even more all-new content.”
More details about Thrones of Decay is set to be announced this week. Until then, here’s the trailer.
Ravensburger Expands Player Cap at Lorcana Competitive Circuit Events
Ravensburger, the company behind the popular new TCG Disney: Lorcana, is no stranger to dealing with massive unexpected demand. With the shortage of product availability now sorted, Ravensburger is now addressing its sold out Challenge events.
The Disney Lorcana Challenge events are official competitive circuit events for Lorcana organized play. The first two flagship events in the series, held in Atlanta, GA and Lillie, France, sold out near-instantly when tickets became available. In an update released last week, Ravensburger announced that it would be expanding the player cap for these events to account for the high demand. The player cap for both of these events were lifted to 2048 players, up from 1024.
Additionally, the post announces that future Lorcana Challenge events will also accommodate a higher player count than initially planned, and that Ravensburger would be accelerating the timeline of its Lorcana Challenge series to keep up with player demand for organized plate events. Ravensburger will also use it’s own tournament platform, Melee, to link with tickets for Challenge events directly in the future, to better protect against ticket scalping and other issues that may arise.
Darktide Teases New Update Titled “Path of Redemption”
Fatshark Games put up a new article on its website announcing the next update for its co-op horde shooter, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
The update, titled “Path of Redemption,” includes updates to existing systems within the game as well as brand new content for players to explore and shoot through. The bulk of the update centers around a complete rework of the Penance system in Darktide. Previously, this system was linked to completing certain challenges in a manner reminiscent of achievements. Some of these Penances would unlock cosmetics, and all of them would reward Penance points that didn’t have a function. Now, the Penance system resembles a more traditional battle pass seen in many current live service games, with over 40 tiers of unlockable items and a new NPC vendor to track them all. The update also includes a plethora of new challenges and cosmetic unlockables to accompany the expansion of the Penance system.
Along with the Penance revamp, Path of Redemption will be adding new puzzles, more ways to update your characters appearance with The Personality Scourge, and a new enemy type. This enemy, the Dreg Tox Bomber, can throw putrid Blight Grenades at players, enveloping them in poisonous gas.
Path of Redemption is set to be released later this April.
CMON Games Announces DC Heroes United
CMON Games, the creators of the card game Marvel United, have decided to expand their United game system beyond the Marvel Universe and into the universe of its longtime rival, DC Comics.
The new game, titled DC Heroes United, is a game for 1-5 players focusing on a conflict between The Joker and the “holy trinity” of DC heroes: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Players take on the role of the heroes as they defeat The Jokers henchmen, foil his plots, and collaborate to bring the Joker to justice. The game also has an option for solo play, as well as a game mode where one player takes direct control of the villain for an asymmetrical showdown.
DC Heroes United’s predecessor, Marvel United, found success as an easy to understand experience targeted for family board game nights, and released several expansion packs after successful kickstarter campaigns focusing on different Marvel hero teams. While the DC Heroes campaign doesn’t go live until this summer, it’s likely that DC Heroes United will get the same treatment if it can find the same popularity.
Hasbro’s Women Innovators of Play Returns for 2024 Event
In a March 27th press release, Hasbro announced that the Women Innovators of Play event and challenge that the company launched in 2023 will be returning in 2024.
The event as well as the contest focus on women in the board game development sphere, giving them an opportunity to collaborate and share their ideas and promote the next generation of tabletop designers. The event not only includes digital seminars to attend, but also includes a challenge. This contest focuses on board game ideas from women internationally, and last year’s three winners received $10,000, as well as a paid trip to Hasbro headquarters to meet with the Hasbro investor teams and receive mentorship from Hasbro’s Women leaders. Ellie Dix, one of last year’s winners, is working with Hasbro to have her game published and released through the company in the future.
This year, Hasbro will also be partnering with the girls leadership group Girl Up! to hold the Girl Innovators in Play event, with the goal of providing mentorship to girls who are excited about developing games of their own in the future.
Kim Boyd, President, Global Brands and Franchise Management at Hasbro, shared her excitement about the event, writing “We are on a mission to attract more women and girls to the toy and game industry, and I could not be more inspired by the response to our Women Innovators of Play event and Challenge.”
The Women Innovators in Play will be hosted on October 10th, 2024.
Bonus- Dune: Messiah Film Officially in the Works
No further details at this time, aside from the fact Dennis Villenueve is set to return to the project. Dune fans stay winning.
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.
Have any questions or feedback? Have an interesting tabletop news story we should be including in our round-up? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. And if you want regular updates in your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.
