Here at Goonhammer, we know that it’s hard to keep track of the news cycle for 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 Kickstarter Soars Past Crowdfunding Goals
Last week, the grimmest and darkest game around, Trench Crusade, launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring a full model line to the game. The initial goal for the campaign was a cheeky $66,666. As of this writing, the crowdfunding campaign has raised over $1.6 million, blowing past its funding goal in only eight minutes.
Multiple exciting stretch goal rewards have been announced for Trench Crusade, such as background stories from Black Library veterans Graham McNeil, Andy Chambers, and Gav Thorpe. The one million dollar stretch goal reward was the announcement of a campaign supplement book for Trench Crusade, The Carcass Front. This expansion book, which has an estimated release of December 2025, will feature a map-based campaign set in the titular Carcass front. Players will be able to step into the roles of major characters from the front, and introduces new campaign mechanics and special scenarios for players to sink their teeth into.
The Trench Crusade Kickstarter is set to end next week, with the team at Factory Fortress Inc working to begin delivering physical models around January of 2025.
Developer Behind Concord Closes Permanently
The fate of Concord and its developer, Firewalk, was uncertain following the game’s disastrous launch and subsequently being immediately pulled from shelves. Last week, that fate became much more certain as Firewalk studios was shut down by it’s parent company, Sony.
In an internal email shared by Sony on their website, Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Buisiness Group CEO Herman Hulst wrote that “After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.
The PvP first person shooter genre is a competitive space that’s continuously evolving, and unfortunately, we did not hit our targets with this title. We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to advance our live service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area.”
While the email does state that Sony will work to find new positions for Firewalk team members within the Sony family of studios, it is unclear as of this writing just how many of the developers at Firewalk will be able to find new work within the Sony umbrella.
It’s been pointed out that Concord reportedly cost $400 million to make, as reported by Colin Moriarty of Last Stand Media, making it the largest video game flop of all time and a disaster which eclipses any film in recent memory, including this year’s Borderlands.
Games for Freaks Brings New Content for Maleghast and CAIN
Tom Bloom, writer of webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons and co-creator of Lancer, released his first supplement zine for the games on his indie label Chasm, titled “Games for Freaks”.
The new semi-annual publication includes new content for both the heavy metal skirmish wargame Maleghast, and supernatural investigation RPG CAIN. For Maleghast, a new faction called “Steepleghast” focuses on speedy swarming tactics to overwhelm their foes in avian monstrosities. CAIN fans get to add the virtue system into their games, which allows for players to pick powerful bonds for their characters to follow based on traits like Justice and Faith.
The zine is part of a larger release for Icon’s two game systems. Both Maleghast and CAIN received free balance updates for those who already own either system.
While Games for Freaks likely won’t include content for Lancer in the future, additional content for both of these game systems is very exciting, especially considering that older volumes of Games for Freaks will be made free as new volumes come out.
Games for Freaks, as well as CAIN and Maleghast, are available on Tom Bloom’s Itch.io page.
Mantic Games Releases Two Advent Calendars
Mantic Games is getting into the holiday spirit early this year by not just releasing one, but two different advent calendars to celebrate the season.
Each one of the advent calendars corresponds to a different theme and game systems. One calendar is sci-fi themed, and includes miniatures, accessories, and even a playmat for Mantic games like Deadzone. It also includes a special solo scenario featuring the included playmat, where players must fight off as many waves of space ratmen as they can.
The other advent calendar is fantasy themed, and focuses on Kings of War. Much like the science fiction version, this calendar will feature a special game board and solo tavern brawl scenario to go with a slew of miniatures and accessories.
Both advent calendars are available for pre-order on the Mantic site, with a guaranteed delivery date of December 1st.
Drive Thru RPG adds AI Content Filters
The most popular digital storefront for TTRPGs, Drive Thru RPG, added an AI filter to its search function.
This function will allow for players to filter out any RPG that uses AI created assets, like art or writing, by selecting the Handcrafted filter. The other two available filters lets users search for products that may contain AI content, or products that do not indicate whether or not AI generative content was used in their creation. Additionally, users can set a permanent filter on their account that does not show any products that use AI in their creation, much like the current adult content filter already available on the site.
While Drive Thru RPG has put its foot down on projects that are entirely created through the use of AI generation, the platform does allow for products with some AI content as long as it is indicated on the store listing. Drive Thru RPG also does not moderate any fan content for RPGs, and instead defers to the AI policy of those companies publishing to the platform.
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.
Have any questions or feedback? Have an interesting tabletop news story we should be including in our round-up? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. And if you want regular updates in your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.
