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.
Gamescom Shows Off Warhammer’s Video Game Future
It was a huge weekend for Warhammer fans, with several titles being shown off at the Gamescom Video Game convention, including Dawn of War 4.
In the world of announcements for games we already knew about, Gamescom was our first look at gameplay for the upcoming strategy title, Mechanicus 2 by Kasedo Games. The gameplay video gives us our first real look at how the Necrons will play in the sequel, who trade out the Cognition points of their Mechanicum foes for Dominion points, a meter that builds up as the fight progresses, as well as showing off the Necron ability to reanimate. Other major new features for the game were shown off in the trailer, including a revamp to Cognition points as well as a new overworld campaign map.
The real star of the show, however, was the announcement of a new Dawn of War game. Helmed by a new studio, King Art Games, the fourth installment of the venerable RTS franchise returns the series to Koronus, a planet featured in the Dark Crusade expansion of the original game. Fans can take control of one of four currently announced factions: Space Marines, Ad Mech, Orks, or Necrons. King Art has confirmed that the game will ship with four single player campaigns, with a combined 70+ missions between them, penned by Black Library alum John French. From what we currently know of the gameplay, Dawn of War eschews the mechanics of the second and third game in the series to instead return to the games roots.
Dawn of War 4 currently does not have a specific release date, with King Art only stating it expects to release the game in 2026. Mechanicus 2 currently does not have an announced release timeframe.
For more excitement on the newest installment of this series here on Goonhammer, don’t worry, Rob’s got you covered.
Oh, also announced at Gamescom, Silksong is real and coming to a store near you on September 4th. Who would’ve thought we would see the day?
CMON Set to Lose an Even Wilder Amount of Money First Half of 2025
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse for CMON, it gets way, way worse, so much worse than most folks probably even would think is possible. Last week, CMON issued a profit warning to its shareholders on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, stating that the company expects to lose around $6 to $8 million in the first half of 2025.
This would dwarf the $3 million profit loss from 2024 that sent the company into a spiral, and is even larger than CMON’s largest profit loss for a year on record, which is $4.9 in 2020.
CMON blames the profit loss on a “significant decrease in revenue”, which makes sense. Faith in the company is at an all time low following the profit loss from earlier this year, compounded by multiple undelivered Kickstarters as well as the nightmare tariff situation. The financial situation was even dire enough to force CMON to sell its most well known IP, Zombicide, to Asmodee earlier for an undisclosed amount. It is currently unclear if the money gained from this sale is included in the profit loss figure provided to shareholders. If it is, then, well, yikes.
CMON intends to report the full extent of its fiscal woes in an interim report at the end of this month.
Pete Parsons Steps Down as Head of Bungie
Bungie is back in the roundup this week with one of the biggest corporate shakeups of 2025 thus far. Pete Parsons, longtime CEO of Bungie, announced last week that he is stepping down from the CEO role.
“After more than two decades of helping build this incredible studio, establishing the Bungie Foundation, and growing inspiring communities around our work, I have decided to pass the torch,” Parsons writes in the official announcement post. “This journey has been the honor of a lifetime. I am deeply proud of the worlds we’ve built together and the millions of players who call them home – and most of all I am privileged by the opportunity to work alongside the incredible minds at Bungie.”
Parsons joined the company in 2002, working on both Halo 2 and 3 as a producer and studio manager. In 2015, it was announced that he would be stepping into the CEO role at the company effective in 2016.
Since then, Parsons has been the target of frequent criticism from Bungie fans. In 2021, both current and former associates at Bungie claimed that Parsons was responsible for creating a toxic and sexist workplace culture at the company. Large scale layoffs were also a common occurrence during Parsons tenure, including a layoff of around 17% of the company’s workforce that former Bungie employees criticised as “unexcusable”.
Chief Development Officer Justin Truman is stepping into the CEO role following Parsons’s departure from the company.
Truman writes in the post “I am committed to supporting and working alongside every member of the team here as we continue pouring our hearts and souls into these worlds. Worlds that we love, and that we hope have been worth your time and your passion. Because ultimately those worlds only exist, and thrive, with you in them.”
PlayStation 5 Price Goes Up in US
Another major gaming console is set to see a major price hike in the United States, following the tariffs placed on nearly every country on Earth. As announced last week by Sony, the PlayStation 5 is increasing the price of all of its models in the US.
Isabelle Tomatis, the Vice President of Global Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), wrote on the change on the PlayStation blog.
“Similar to many global businesses, we continue to navigate a challenging economic environment. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to increase the recommended retail price for PlayStation 5 consoles in the U.S. starting on August 21.”
The PlayStation 5 is increasing its price by $50 for all three of its current models, raising the base model price to $550, the Digital Edition to $500, and the Pro version to $750.
This price change follows in the footsteps of the other major video game consoles that increased their prices this year. In May, Microsoft announced that the Series S would be increasing by around $80 for most of its current lineup. The Switch 2 had its price increased by 15% in the United States before the console was even released.
SIE notes that at this time, there is no plan to adjust the pricing for any of its pricing for its lineup of accessories and that it does not plan on adjusting the price of the PS5 in any other region, making this clearly a corporate response to tariffs hacking into corporate profits at Sony.
Assassin’s Creed Board Game Soars Past Funding Goals
The Kickstarter for Mantic’s Assassins Creed boardgame, titled Assassins Creed: Animus, went live last week and has already found runaway crowdfunding success, raising over four times as much as its initial campaign goal at the time of writing.
Animus reached its funding goal of $47 thousand in under one hour, and as of this writing is sitting a little above $225 thousand raised. This has opened up multiple stretch goal rewards to backers of the game, including new playable character such as Yasuke from the recent Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, as well as metal Pieces of Eden for those who pledge at the Master Assassin level.
Mantic shares more details about the game in a press release, writing “Assassin’s Creed: Animus is a competitive board game for 2–4 players, immersing fans in the adventures at the heart of the Assassin-Templar conflict. Players take on the roles of legendary Assassins from across the series with asymmetric gameplay mechanics – including fan-favourites like Ezio Auditore – and race to complete their objectives while navigating rich historical settings.”
The Kickstarter Campaign for Animus is set to end on September 10th, with the current planned fulfillment period for backers to be between August and September of 2026.
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