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.Â
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.
Sony Cancels Two More In-Production Live Service Projects
Sony’s gaming division announced the cancellation of two more live service game projects following a “recent review” of the company’s current strategies last week, with one of the cancelled projects purported to be a live service spin off of the God of War series.
Sony has bet big over the last few years with live service games as the new big thing and have faced both sides of the coinflip, with Helldivers 2 pulling in the big bucks and Concord… being Concord. At the very least Sony has announced they will be working with the studios behind the cancelled projects to “soften business impact”, though whether this means protecting developer jobs remains to be seen.
If you’ve followed the video game industry for a while you’ll recognise a familiar pattern at play: The bubble is about to burst and the big players are bailing out while the going’s still good. We saw it in the 00’s with everyone jumping into MMOs following World of Warcraft’s success, we saw it in the 10’s with everyone wanting their own Call of Duty, and now that Fortnite has a veritable throne of skulls from all the live service model guff churned out in its wake, it looks like we’ll be seeing a massive shift away from the model over the next year or so as spiraling budgets and development time make the prospect of eternally updating a game a pipe dream for anyone not fully throwing everything they have at their disposal at the plan of fleecing players for skins and lootboxes.
Nintendo Announces Switch 2
One of the worst-kept secrets in the video game industry is no longer a secret, with Nintendo formally announcing the Switch 2 for release in 2025 at the end of last week. The Switch 2 will be slightly bigger and slightly more powerful than the previous iteration of the hybrid handheld/TV console, and is planned to be backwards compatible with many games for the original Nintendo Switch, though Nintendo’s announcement on their website does highlight that, “Certain Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2.” It is unknown at this time which games this lack of support or compatibility will apply to, or if indeed it is simply an acknowledgment that given the number of third party games now for sale on the Nintendo Store marketplace, it’s impossible to guarantee that all of them will work on the new hardware.
Nintendo has announced in-person events to show off the new Switch 2 through late May of this year across the world, and a release date for the console is expected in the back half of 2025.
Wizards of the Coast Pulls Support for VML Tournament Org
Magic: the Gathering tournament organization VML has announced they will be forced to shut down after Wizards of the Coast pulled all financial and organizational support in a sudden change of heart.
Since being founded five years ago, VML promoted marginalized voices within Magic’s competitive scene, via specialized events and support for minority players wanting to play at Magic’s highest levels. Without Wizard’s backing to provide official event invitations and funding however, VML has taken the decision to shut down as they would be no longer be able to provide the support for players that they were founded for.
Its hard not to feel a prickling feeling of concern that this is part of a larger trend we’ve been seeing from companies since the events of last November, with companies silently retracting stated support for progressive causes if not outright blaring their cowardly retreats from the rooftops. That lies in the realm of speculation and rumour however; we wish VML’s members all the best in their future endeavours.
Marvel Snap Gets Caught in TikTok “Ban”… For All of Five Hours
Did you hear? TikTok got banned! For about 5 hours or so.
Following a decision by the US (whatever branch of Government was responsible for this circus, my British brain is too puny to follow) [A law passed Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April 2024, but we will preserve the Britishness of the original draft. -Ed] TikTok and its owners Bytedance were forced to shut down all services to the United States as the company refused to divest control over its US operations to a US based company. This had the knock-on effect of shutting down several other products owned by Bytedance, including the digital TCG Marvel Snap to the sudden surprise and consternation of its players Sunday morning.
Well, at least until TikTok suddenly returned a few hours later.
While the ban is still currently in law, an executive order by the incoming Trump administration has delayed its enforcement by 75 days, with a lot of buzz that a deal may have already been reached to ensure TikTok et al remain accessible to US consumers. It’s currently not fully clear what sort of deal is in talks to keep Bytedance’s access to the US market, and it’ll probably be something miserable and horrible to the average person, but hey! We got our treats back for now.
This is all very stupid.
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