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.
Games Workshop Releases FY 2024 Annual Report
Games Workshop published its finalized financial report for fiscal year 2024 last week, posting record profits and growth during the time period.
The report, which covers the time period between May 29th, 2023 to June 2nd, 2024, shows an impressive profit surge for Games Workshop. The company posted a core revenue of £454 million, and a pre-tax operating profit of £203 million. This is a nearly 20% increase in pre-tax profits for the company since FY 2023, when Games Workshop reported a pre-tax profit of £170 million.
Speaking further on these financials and the company’s future in the strategic report, CEO Kevin Rountree attributes the success of Games Workshop to a focus on “long term goals, with short term gains.”
Games Workshop elaborated their plans for a fourth factory in Nottingham in the report as part of the company’s success strategy for the near future. The factory is expected to cost around £9 million to construct, with an estimated completion date of spring 2026.
Speaking of challenges during the fiscal year, Games Workshop cites its continued struggles with legacy IT systems, as well as struggling to find balance in the company’s level of stock between too much or too little.
Still, with the release of Warhammer 40,000 tenth edition during this fiscal year, it’s little surprise that Games Workshop has posted strong financials. As for FY 2025, while major releases like Age of Sigmar 4.0 and licensed products such as Space Marine 2 are sure to drive strong profits, it will be difficult to top such a strong year.
Game Informer Suddenly Shut Down After 33 Years
Iconic gaming magazine Game Informer shut down suddenly last week, with parent company GameStop pulling the plug on the publication’s online archives shortly after.
Game Informer, a magazine focused on gaming reviews, previews, and editorial pieces, announced that it was closing doors last week.
“After 33 thrilling years of bringing you the latest news, reviews, and insights from the ever-evolving world of gaming, it is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Game Informer,” a statement on the website reads. “From the early days of pixelated adventures to today’s immersive virtual realms, we’ve been honored to share this incredible journey with you, our loyal readers. While our presses may stop, the passion for gaming that we’ve cultivated together will continue to live on.”
Game Informer staff gave the magazine a more sincere goodbye, before the GI account was deleted. “Our 33-year legacy deserves a genuine goodbye, written by a former Game Informer member. Were heartbroken by the shutdown of our publication, yet we leave with pride knowing we poured everything we had into it. In the words of our editor-in-chief: ‘Be well, Play well.'”
According to former staff at Game Informer, the small team of writers and editors at the publication were given no warning of the magazines closure, and were not warned before the online archives of articles from the magazine were deleted. This includes recent issues, such as the exclusive coverage of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which can now only be accessed through tools like the Wayback Machine.
While GameStop has stated that severance packages will be provided to the former staff of Game Informer, the video game retailer has little to say about the reasons behind the sudden closure.
Lancer Creator Releases a New RPG Project on Solo Indie Label Chasm
Lancer Creator Tom Bloom released a new TTRPG last week on his solo label, Chasm, titled “Cain”.
The twitch.io page for Cain describes the game as “a new narrative role playing game about playing psychic death soldiers hunting monstrosities made of human trauma. So it goes.” In the game, players take on the role of Exorcists in a shadowy organization known as CAIN. Your task is to hunt down creatures known as sins, which are manifestations of the dark impulses and trauma found in the human psyche.
Play revolves around moving through investigation scenes to gather information about the target sin, before transitioning to action scenes where players confront the monster in psychic combat. Tom Bloom describes the tone of Cain as “something between shonen battle manga and found footage horror”, and describes the aesthetic of the art as “stickercore.”
Tom Bloom’s previous works for his solo label include the excellent Magnagothica: Maleghast, which we reviewed here on the site.
Bungie Lays Off 220 Following the Success of The Final Shape
Despite the international success of Destiny 2’s most recent expansion, The Final Shape, Bungie announced that it will be cutting 220 roles from the company effective immediately.
Bungie CEO Pete Parsons opened the blog post announcing these layoffs by saying, ”Today is a difficult and painful day, especially for our departing colleagues, all of which have made important and valuable contributions to Bungie. Our goal is to support them with the utmost care and respect. For everyone affected by this job reduction, we will be offering a generous exit package, including severance, bonus and health coverage.”
Amid these layoffs, Bungie has scrapped several projects in development to focus on its two main franchises, Destiny and Marathon.
Parsons cites the quality issues of Destiny 2: Lightfall, economic slowdown in the games industry, and rapid expansion earlier in the decade as major reasons for the layoffs. Bungie still plans to move forward with deeper integrations into Sony Interactive Entertainment, which acquired Bungie in 2022. As a part of this, 155 employees from Bungie will be transferred over to SIE to work on a brand new science fiction IP for Sony over the coming months.
Bungie made no statements one way or the other on how this would affect the ongoing development of Marathon and destiny, only promising to reveal more soon.
Magic The Gathering’s Next Big Secret Lair Drop is Dungeons & Dragons
Wizards of the Coast next big company to collaborate with for the new Magic the Gathering set is a real jaw-dropper, as Wizards of the Coast plans to partner with Wizards of the Coast to release a new secret lair based on Dungeons and Dragons.
“This is a special year for Dungeons & Dragons fans, and we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate 50 years of such an amazing game than by bringing our two games together,” Mark Heggen, Vice President of Collectibles at Wizards, wrote in a press release for the Secret Lair announcement. “Each of these Secret Lair drops represent the legacy and impact of Dungeons & Dragons and it’s thrilling that Magic: The Gathering fans can be part of this celebration.”
The new Secret Lair is part of an ongoing 50th year anniversary celebration for D&D, which is getting a new updated ruleset this year as part of the celebration. This collaboration will feature five releases of cards, also known as “drops”, based on some of the most iconic characters and moments in the storied tabletop roleplaying game. These secret lair limited sets offer alternative version cards of current Magic: The Gathering cards based on different IPs or done by various guest artists. We won’t know the full list of cards for the new drops, but two cards that have been already teased are based off of popular companions from Baldurs Gate 3: Karlach and Astarion.
These D&D 50th anniversary releases will be available only while supplies last, a shift from the earlier print on demand model of Secret Lair. This change, which was made due to production issues and shipping backup times according to Wizards, has caused frustration from fans due to card shortages and prices spiking on the secondary market for Secret Lair releases.
Secret Lair: Dungeons and Dragons 50th Anniversary will be available on August 27th while supplies last.
Bonus: The United Paizo Workers Union Wins Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming
The Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming, a prestigious award given out every year for “person, product, company, event, movement, concept or any other thing that has, in the opinion of its committee, best demonstrated the quality of ‘excellence’ in the world of hobby-gaming in the previous year,” has been awarded to the United Paizo Workers Union. A heartfelt congratulations to the United Paizo Workers Union for the award, and for setting an example for unionization in the tabletop gaming space!
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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