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.
Warhammer Relics Previews Upcoming Licensed Merch, New Horus Heresy Roleplaying Game
Last year, Games Workshop debuted its “Warhammer Relics” event to showcase upcoming licensed products, with products ranging from Old World cosplay to display cases. This year the Warhammer Relics event returned, and though the fanfare going into the event was more subdued, there was still plenty to be excited about for fans.
A few of the reveals are familiar from last year, such as the Lego display case company Wicked Brick rolling out a new line of Warhammer-themed display cases, DK rolling out two new coffee table encyclopedia books for Warhammer characters and video game art, and Joytoy returning to show off a new Angron figure, in case the tabletop version of him already wasn’t big enough. There are a few newcomers this year as well, like Foam Brain’s upcoming line of Warhammer themed enamel pins.
The highlight of Warhammer Relics this year came from Cubicle 7 Games, the longtime official creator of Warhammer Tabletop RPG projects. This year, they unveiled a new game that takes us back to the Age of Darkness, with Warhammer: The Horus Heresy Roleplaying Game. In this game, players take control of Space Marine Loyalist Consuls following the betrayal at Istavaan, as well as a secondary character to control, such as a fleetmaster or remembrancer. While Traitor Legions appear to only be adversaries for now, I imagine that a future expansion will add in the ability to play as them.
Warhammer: The Horus Heresy Roleplaying Game is set to go on pre-order later this year, with a predicted Spring 2026 release.
Warner Bros Shuts Down Several Game Studios, Including Monolith Productions
Well, this is bleak. Bleaker than usual, to be honest.
The news was broken by gaming’s busiest journalist, Jason Schrier, that Warner Bros. Games shut down several major studios, including the studio behind the popular F.E.A.R franchise and Shadow of Mordor franchise, Monolith Productions.
This news follows a disappointing year for Warner Bros., which reported in a recent letter to shareholders that year-over-year profits were down almost 30% in Q4 2024 on top of an already difficult year with the failure of its Suicide Squad game. Additionally, Warner Bros also took a hit earlier this year when it announced the company would be ending support for Multiversus, a fighting game intended to be a competitor to Nintendo’s Smash Bros. series.
The three studios affected by this shutdown are the studio behind Multiversus, Player First Games; the Warner Bros Games San Diego office; and Monolith Productions. Monolith is well known for genre innovation with classic series like F.E.A.R, Condemned, and Shadow of Mordor. At the time of its closing, Monolith was working on a Wonder Woman game, which was confirmed to be cancelled by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros gave a statement to Kotaku regarding the closing, saying “We have had to make some very difficult decisions to structure our development studios and investments around building the best games possible with our key franchises -– Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones. After careful consideration, we are closing three of our development studios – Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them.”
The exact number of those affected is unclear, with estimates from gamesindustry.biz hovering between 250-750 people between all three studios. While the closure of almost any games studio is a shame, the unceremonious closure of a studio as storied as Monolith feels like a particularly nasty punch in the gut.
Wizards of the Coast Swings In With a First Look at Upcoming Spider-Man Set
Onto better news, then. Much better news, if you love Magic: The Gathering and Spider-Man. While we have known for some time that a Universe Beyond Set for Spider-Man would be coming this year, Wizards of the Coast finally gave us a first look at the set itself at Toy Fair 2025.
The Spider-Man set features cards based around the webslinger himself, as well as his extended cast of allies and his notorious foes. No better place are these villains seen than in the Scene Box for the set, Spidey’s Spectacular Showdown. The box set includes premium art cards that together form a diorama portraying Spider-Man facing off against Doc Ock, Venom, and Green Goblin.
Aside from the art, we don’t have much in the way of material spoilers on the set itself, like what the set mechanic might be. We do know that this set will be the second Universes Beyond set to be playable in standard, and it will be the first Universes Beyond set to include the oval stamp on the bottom of the cards, rather than the inverted triangle previously used for UB sets. It is also the first set of a long-term collaboration between Marvel and Magic: The Gathering, so we can expect more releases based on Marvel heroes in the future.
The Spider-Man set is scheduled to release on September 26th, and is currently available for preorder.
Games Workshop Expands the Warhammer Open Series to Canada
Games Workshop made an announcement this week that the Warhammer US Open Series is no more. Unshackled by borders, the US Open series is now the Warhammer Open series as it expands into the great north of Canada.
The Canadian leg of the Warhammer Open series will be held in Edmonton from June 13th-June 15th, 2025, at the Edmonton Expo Centre. Unlike previous Warhammer Open/US Open events, which took place independently from any other conventions, the Warhammer Open will be a part of Game Con, the largest gaming convention in Canada. The convention debuted in 2023 in Calgary, and nearly 35 thousand people visited the event with 27 thousand paid attendees.
Along with the announcement of the Canadian leg of the Warhammer Open, Games Workshop announced that it would be using a new ticketing company this year for all of its Warhammer Open events. Previously, Warhammer open ticket sales were done through Eventbrite, but this year the Dallas, Tacoma, and Grand Narrative tickets will be done through Cvent, and the Edmonton tickets will need to be purchased through the GCC website itself.
Tickets for all four events went live this past weekend. For more on the details of what you can play at each event, the Warhammer community post lists the docket of games for each event in full.
Suikoden Returns with New Mobile Entry
It looks like someone at Konami said, “Oh, remember when we made games?” and everyone else in the office was able to stop thinking about how much they hate Hideo Kojima, and could they make that hate into a new Pachinko machine, for just long enough to remember, “Yeah, we did do that, huh? Better do that some more then.”
In this lucid flash of game making, Konami has decided to focus on the 90s classic RPG series Suikoden. While it was popular in its time, Suikoden hasn’t had any games released in North America since 2009.
That all ends this week though. On March 3rd, Konami hosted a Suikoden broadcast, which had three trailers. One was for the Suikoden I & II HD Remaster releasing for Nintendo Switch on March 6th, while another was an announcement for an Anime adaptation of Suikoden. The star of the show was the trailer for Suikoden Star Leap, a long awaited new installment for the series.
It probably isn’t the new installment many fans would’ve thought it would be, though. Star Leap isn’t going to release on any console platforms or PC. Rather, Star Leap will be a free to play mobile game with microtransactions, though it is unknown at the moment what form these microtransactions will take. The teaser trailer for the game is impressive for a mobile game, with a blending of pixelated 2-D characters in a 3-D world. If anything, it’s a reminder that the phones most of us carry around in our pockets are pretty powerful computers in their own right.
No release date has been announced for Star Leap as of this writing.
Bernhardt: As one of “many fans,” a high-production value gambling app is precisely the new installment I thought this would be given the decisionmakers involved, and in a way I’m glad I can just go back to not caring about this franchise for another five to ten years.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
