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 at the very real and cool Goonhammer newsdesk with the scoop.
Jarvis Johnson Joins Trench Crusade Team
Trench Crusade’s already star-studded design team just added another big name this past week, with the announcement that Jervis Johnson would be assisting the design team.
Johnson is one of the biggest names in the history of Games Workshop, with his career there spanning a total of 38 years. To name a few notable things he accomplished in that time, Johnson was a major player in the development of Rogue Trader as well as Warhammer 40,000’s second edition, created Necromunda with Andy Chambers, and was part of the core design team of Age of Sigmar.
“I am absolutely delighted to have been given the chance to contribute to the Trench Crusade project,” Johnson wrote on the official Instagram page, “I have been watching its progress over the past few months, and I’ve found its ‘creative led’ approach truly inspiring. I’m very much looking forward to getting back together with some old friends and colleagues and getting to know the ‘young bloods’ that I haven’t had a chance to work with before. I can only hope that I can live up to the standards that they have already been set for Trench Crusade!”
The team at Trench Crusade noted that Johnson’s inclusion in the team won’t be full time, as he has several other projects he contributes to and is also probably trying to enjoy something that at least somewhat resembles retirement. If his time at Games Workshop says anything though, it’s that Johnson loves to design games, and it appears that’s a passion he’s not ready to quit just yet.
Other confirmed contributors of note for Trench Crusade include Graham McNeil, Andy Chambers, and Gav Thorpe.
Wizards of the Coast Shuts Down Development of Virtual Tabletop App
Well, it seems that as surely as the sun rises in the east, there’s going to be news about industry layoffs and cancellations in the roundup. I’m sorry to say that this week is no different, as a leaked internal email from Wizards of the Coast states that development on its virtual tabletop project, Sigil, is being shut down.
Said email was sent by Dan Rawson, Senior Vice President of Dungeons and Dragons and Hasbro Direct, and its contents were verified later that same day by Andy Collins, a former member of the Sigil team, on his LinkedIn page.
Rawson cuts to the chase in the start of the email, writing, “Dear Team, I want to share an important update regarding Sigil. After several months of alpha testing, we’ve concluded that our aspirations for Sigil as a larger, standalone game with a distinct monetization path will not be realized. As such, we cannot maintain a large development effort and most of the Sigil team will be separated from the company this week.”
This communication followed an in person meeting where the layoffs were announced to the Sigil team. When the dust settled, only three members of the team remained onboard, tasked to maintain the current Sigil alpha build accessible to D&D Beyond members subscribed at the highest level. The rest of the team, thirty in all, were unceremoniously let go.
According to former members of that team, Sigil’s failure can be attributed to a confused idea on what Sigil would be, as well as scheming by internal leadership. Former Sigil team members state that Hasbro saw Sigil as more of a video game rather than a virtual tabletop, which caused infighting between the Sigil team and Hasbro.
Senior leadership at the company stepped in to directly guide development of the software following the negative reception to Sigil’s tech demo at last year’s Gen Con. Former Sigil team members accuse said leadership of deciding shortly after this demo to axe development of Sigil once it went into public alpha.
At this time, it appears that the alpha of Sigil available to Beyond subscribers is the final version of the program, and Wizards of the Coast has not made an official statement about the fate of Sigil at time of writing.
Flesh and Blood Brings Tournaments to Germany, Marking a Major TCG Milestone
Flesh and Blood made major headway in the world of TCGs last week, with the announcement that after over a year of working with authorities, it is hosting a major event in Germany with a cash prize.
This is a rare sight in the TCG world, as Germany’s strict gambling laws makes it nearly impossible for any major organized play event to offer a cash prize. According to the announcement, the team at Flesh and Blood worked with authorities for over a year, showing them statistical models for Flesh and Blood to argue that the game was not a game of chance which would be subject to gambling laws but instead a game of skill. It looks like Germany was convinced, and the Calling tournament series will be coming to the country in Q4 2024.
This follows prolonged efforts for Flesh and Blood to penetrate the international market. In 2022, Flesh and Blood finished localization efforts for cards in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, In 2024, Flesh and Blood also completed localization for Japanese cards. Flesh and Blood now sets the sights for the game on expanding organized play in these regions by bringing in major tournament circuits, and providing local organizers with translated Organized Play promotional materials.
Frosthaven Is Coming to PC
Last week, the team at Cepholair Games and Snapshot Games announced that the critically acclaimed sequel to Gloomhaven, the much icier Frosthaven, would be getting its own PC port that some fans could get their first taste of very soon.
In the press release for Frosthaven’s digital reveal, Snapshot Games writes, “We’re thrilled to announce FROSTHAVEN, the video game adaptation of the highly acclaimed board game from the creative mind of Isaac Childres. In development from Snapshot Games, led by CEO Julian Gollop, who’s best known as the creator of X-COM, with Isaac Childres serving as a consultant on the project, FROSTHAVEN is a dark fantasy tactical RPG with single player and co-op multiplayer support and is an evolution of the board game experience.”
Along with recreating the systems, scenarios, and models from the original board game, Frosthaven’s PC port will include an in depth tutorial scenario that was created with the assistance of the original creator of Gloomhaven, Isaac Childres.
Frosthaven’s full release date has not yet been announced, Snapshot games only sharing that the game is scheduled to hit Steam early access sometime in 2025, but a closed beta test is being planned for the game starting March 27th. Interested fans can go to sign up for possible access to the beta, which will include six playable characters and twenty scenarios for folks to try out. The closed beta test is scheduled to end on April 24th, 2025.
Mantic Announces a Bite Sized Way to Enjoy Rank-and-Flank Games with Kings of War: Champions
It looks like the success of Age of Sigmar’s Spearhead mode has turned some heads in the industry, including those at Mantic Games. Last week, Mantic announced a very similar game for it’s fantasy line of miniatures, called Kings of War: Conquest, with an emphasis on the rank-and-flank style gameplay Kings of War is famous for.
Much like Spearhead, Conquest is a standalone game apart from the full Kings of War experience, and see’s players using bespoke heroes and their company of chosen troops rather than full on listbuilding. From the preview, it appears that the heroes are able to give special orders that add a dynamic twist to games of Conquest, and the experience is designed to be a great intro point for the Kings of War curious as well as for established fans of the game who are looking for a new way to play.
Conquest is currently available for preorder, with a two player starter set between the human Basilea and the demonic Forces of the Abyss scheduled to hit store shelves at the end of April. Set to release alongside the two player starter is two additional champion force boxes, a neoprene game mat, deluxe 3d terrain, and a basic rulebook with a getting started kit.
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