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.
Trench Crusade Backerkit Surveys Go Live After Thanksgiving Delays
After a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that raised over $3 million, you might think that it’s all sunshine and rainbows for Trench Crusade. But for the games creators, Factory Fortress Inc, there’s no time to rest on their laurels as the team has to navigate the terrifying logistics of fulfilling thousands of Kickstarter pledges. On Monday, after several weeks of delay, Factory Fortress sent out its Backerkit survey for fans who backed the campaign.
The survey was initially planned to be sent out a week following the campaign’s end on November 12th. This survey would let those who pledged to the Trench Crusade Kickstarter select what rewards they would receive, such as their preferred faction warband box, as well as provide necessary shipping information if they pledged for physical rewards.
This survey was initially set to be done through Gamefound, but during the setup process Factory Fortress found that Gamefound’s systems are unable to calculate sales tax for products coming from multiple regions. This necessitated swapping to using Backerkit, another platform that can send out fulfillment surveys for crowdfunding campaigns, but was a setback on the timeline.
While the team was able to work with Backerkit quickly enough to have the survey ready by the end of that week, it coincided with American Thanksgiving weekend. Much of the Backerkit team was out of office for the holidays, and Factory Fortress decided it would be wise to wait until Monday, December 2nd, to roll the survey out in case of technical issues.
Following a small test rollout on Friday, the Trench Crusade Backerkit survey was successfully sent out as scheduled, a major step forward in getting the game into the hands of its excited player base.
Vallejo Paint Factory Workers Go On Strike
Workers at Vallejo went on an indefinite strike last week, vowing to only end the strike when their demands are met.
Vallejo, a leading company for miniatures paints based out of Spain, has a near ubiquitous presence in hobby circles for its paint lines, selling its products in 70 countries.
The 74 workers at Vallejo’s main factory have partnered with the CGT union to enact a partial strike, limiting each worker to only two hours of work each shift with total monitoring by CGT organizers. The workers at Vallejo demand better working conditions for their safety and hygiene, updated workplace machinery in their workspaces, protection for workers against harassment in the workplace, and a 15% salary increase in line with the company’s turnover.
This strike follows last year’s buyout of the paint company by private equity firm ProA Capital, who purchased a 70% stake in the company. Before this buyout, Vallejo was a family owned company since its founding in 1965.
Workers and management met for their first mediation session on Friday of last week, and were unable to come to an agreement.
Cross Play Added in Baldur’s Gate 3’s Final Major Update
Larian Games is moving on to greener gaming pastures with two unannounced projects currently in development. But it looks like Larian has one last heartfelt gift to give to Baldur’s Gate 3 fans before it closes the book on major updates for the massive hit game.
The update includes two of the most requested features for the game from its fanbase: cross play and photo mode. The cross play functionality will cover all of the platforms that Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on by using the Larian Network, and players will be able to invite anyone directly into their multiplayer lobbies.
Photo mode will come with several tools for players to use for the perfect screenshot, including filters, camera settings, and lens settings. Additionally, players can toggle different poses and expressions for characters in photo mode, modify post processing effects on cinematic screenshots, and add frames and props to their hearts content.
Not content to just add two widely requested game features, Larian is also adding a new subclass for each of the game’s classes with this update. Highlights from the lists of subclasses include Barbarian’s Path of the Giant for throwing big things, Cleric Domain of Death for cosplaying the grim reaper while ringing bells that hurt people, and Drunken Master for Monk so that you can save Faerun while absolutely blitzed.
This major update, patch 8, is scheduled for a 2025 release, with a stress test to test the new features and servers to be run before the patch goes live.
Hasbro Announces TTRPG Tie-In for Next Triple A Video Game, Exodus
Remember that one trailer from the game awards last year where the whole thing was set in space and Matthew McConaughey was the narrator? You know, Exodus, by Hasbro-owned Archetype Entertainment? Well, it looks like it’s getting a TTRPG tie in!
Announced last week on the Exodus website, the Traveler’s Guide allows for players to explore the extended universe of Exodus as a Traveler, adventuring around space, stealing alien tech, and confronting time dilations. The rules are written by James Olhen, the main creative force behind Exodus, who’s design credits include Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 as well as Knights of the Old Republic.
While the design credits of Olhen are impressive, and TTRPG tie-ins are nothing new nowadays, there’s little in the announcement to inspire confidence or even give a reader an idea of how the game will play. Much like the video game the TTRPG is based off, details on how the Exodus TTRPG are basically nonexistent. Even the TTRPG’s release in in question. Those who sign up for “founder” status are able to order the limited early run of the Traveler’s Guide between now and December 10th, but there is no information as to the wider release of the tie-in game.
Elon Musk Calls Dungeons & Dragons “Too Woke,” Threatens to Buy Hasbro
If you felt exasperated just reading that headline, I can assure you that you can only imagine how awful it was to write it. Yes, the world’s richest and also possibly most annoying man has threatened to buy Hasbro. It’s as dumb as it sounds.
The whole debacle started earlier this November on Twitter/X, when Musk responded to a post complaining about “Fifty Years of Dungeons and Dragons”, which tells the story behind the creation of the super popular TTRPG, whining that the book “slanders Gary Gygax” for including paragraphs that address the parts of the game and setting that have proven problematic over the years. Jason Tondro, one of the lead designers for D&D, responded in a facebook comment, dismissing the fake outrage and saying it’s not worth listening to. This comment was shared in a screenshot on Twitter/X, and Musk responded by writing “How much is Hasbro?”
Fortunately, this seems like the musings of a man with too much time and money on his hands and little else, as Musk hasn’t made any follow up comments regarding the acquisition. That’s not to say that the offhand comment didn’t have real world ramifications, as Hasbro’s stock jumped following the comment.
While there’s probably too many shiny jangling keys around Elon Musk for him to pay attention to D&D longer than it takes for him to pretend to care and be mad about it, the posts sent ripples of concern through the D&D community, worried that the whims of one man could dictate the direction of a game enjoyed by millions worldwide.
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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