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
Louise Sugden and Chris Peach to Star in Warhammer Actual Play Series
Former Warhammer TV presenters and current hobby influencers Louise Sugden and Chris Peach are collaborating to launch an actual play series set in the world of Warhammer 40,000 called Heretic Hunt.
According to the team interview with Polygon, the Heretic Hunt crew consists of author Daniel Saye taking on the role of Game Master, and actor Greg Jones and actress Jamila Hall joining Peach and Sugden as players. The series will consist of eight forty-eight minute episodes, featuring “miniatures and terrain built and painted by the players.” Rather than using one of the several bespoke Warhammer 40k TTRPG systems, Heretic Hunt will be using a modified version of Dungeons and Dragons.
Saye expands on the decision to use D&D as the core of their actual play in the interview with Ploygon, saying “The thing is… when we were producing this, my issue is that all of our players know D&D. It is a beautiful shared language. I love other RPGs: I love Vast Grimm, Mörk Borg, Wrath and Glory, Soulbound. I am deep in an RPG space, and I adore them. But D&D is maybe the shared language that the majority of RPG players have.”
The plot of the series follows a group of inquisitorial henchmen sent to stop a Chaos ritual in an Imperial Hive, and the hijinks and action that follows the team from there. Saye cites some of the more grounded 40k novels by Dan Abnett, such as the Eisenhorn or Ravenor series, as inspirations for the series.
Heretic Hunt is set to premiere sometime later this year on the OddVoid YouTube channel.
Games Workshop Announces Staff Bonus with Preliminary Profit Figures
Games Workshop posted a brief year end trading update last week on their investor relations webpage ahead of their 2024 annual report.
In the update, Games Workshop shared that the company profits have soared since last year, estimating that in fiscal year 2024 “core revenue to be not less than £490 million (2022/23: £445 million) and licensing income of £30 million (2022/23: £25 million). The Group’s profit before tax (“PBT”) is estimated to be not less than £200 million (2022/23: £171 million).”
To accompany this surge of profits, Games Workshop stated in the report that it will be paying out a bonus to all company employees. The sum total of this bonus will be £18 million, divided equally among the Games Workshop staff. This staff bonus is up from last year’s group profit share sum of £11 million in 2023.Games Workshop shareholder dividends in FY 2024 were reported at £138 million, up £2 from FY 2023.
The full annual report for 2024 will be released on July 30th.
Preorders Go Live on Mantic’s Website for New Firefight Starter Set
Mantic Games gave fans a release date for their new Firefight 2-Player Starter on the Mantic community blog.
The starter set, titled Edge of Sanity, is set to release on July 15th, with pre orders currently open on the Mantic website. The starter box contains 70 hard plastic miniatures from two of Firefight’s newest model lines. The first are the newest Firefight faction, nightmarish Nightstalkers, beings created and spread by fear that terrorize their foes from interdimensional portals. Fighting the Nightstalkers are the recently refreshed sleek Asterians, an enigmatic alien empire that looks down on its young upstart galactic neighbors. The new starter box also includes tokens, dice, the 2023 command protocols rulebook, and a quick start guide for playing games of Firefight.
While supplies last, pre-orders of the new starter box will include a free scatter terrain set for Firefight.
Warscroll Builder to be Sunset with Age of Sigmar 4.0
Warscroll Builder, the longtime go-to application for Age of Sigmar fans to use for army constriction, will not be updated for Age of Sigmar’s new 4.0 edition according to a post from Warhammer Community on Monday.
Launched seven years ago during Age of Sigmar’s first edition, Warscroll Builder was one of the first ways the community had for attempts at balanced army construction. Following the popularity of Warscroll Builder, Games Workshop reached out to its creator, Tony Pacheco, and collaborated with Pacheco for official support and advertisement for Warscroll Builder.
“I’m sad to stop developing it,” Pacheco writes in the article, “It’s really my baby and I’ve been working on it for so long, but life has a way of just adding new stuff onto your plate all the time and I don’t have the bandwidth to continue developing it anymore. It’s been harder over these last couple of years already, and this seemed like the right time to step away.”
Games Workshop noted in the post that Age of Sigmar 4.0 will have official army construction tools in the Age of Sigmar 4.0 app launching “very soon”. As for Pacheco, he wishes a fond farewell for the Warhammer team and fanbase and thanks them for the support for Warscroll Builder.
“From the very beginning this has been a great partnership, and I have nothing but great things to say about Games Workshop and the teams I worked with. The Warhammer community at large is awesome, and with their support, they really helped me continue to improve Warscroll Builder over the years. I’m very thankful to everyone who has helped keep this project going for almost a decade!”
Evil Genius Games Pitches TTRPG NFTs, Despite Public Promise Not To
Last year, the Goonhammer Industry News Roundup featured a story about Evil Genius Game’s lawsuit against Netflix due to the cancellation of the Rebel Moon tie-in TTRPG. This week, Evil Genius Games is back in the roundup, for much worse and dumber reasons: NFTs.
According to a report by ENWorld, Evil Genius Games CEO and founder Dave Scott pitched a plan in May to integrate Web3 and NFT compatibility with their line of TTRPGs. This pitch was made to a panel of judges at the Consensus 2024, a cryptocurrency convention held annually in Texas. Scott’s presented his plans against several others during the Coindesk Pitchfest competition event, with his pitch being selected as the winner.
Scott described Evil Genius’s plans for NFT integration during the event, saying, “Imagine a scenario where you could actually buy NFT utilities that are exclusive to these licenses you could actually pilot Gypsy Danger, you can carry Rambo’s M60, all of these that have value that can be bought sold and traded but more importantly in the Roblox fashion we’re going to allow other people to actually create their own NFTs which can be thrown onto a marketplace where they can buy, sell and trade those adventures as well.”
This push into the crypto space is despite Evil Genius Games’s public statement in February of this year against the use of blockchain tech in their products. This statement was to help stop the flood of departures from the company earlier this year, citing ethical concerns and failure for Evil Genius Games to pay its staff as reasons for leaving.
Evil Genius Games hasn’t made any statement regarding this at time of writing.
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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