Ah, the day before Valentine’s day. A day buzzing with last minute gifts and empty store shelves that once held heart-shaped boxes. If Valentine’s is a day full of romance, the day before is a day full of romantic comedy blunders.
On busy days like this, it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on. Especially when we are in a heated argument with the cashier that there absolutely has to be one more teddy bear in the back, yes we insist they check, and yes we know we are causing a scene. Fortunately, keeping up with the latest trends in the games industry and related media is one thing you don’t have to worry about while you try to save Valentine’s day. Our personal St. Valentine of sharing the news, Dan ”Swiftblade” Richardson, is ready to help you with love’s true arrow of news.
IGN Staff Votes to Unionize
The weekly news roundup here at Goonhammer has been host to mostly bad news about employment in the video game industry, as each week seems to come with a new announcement of heartbreaking layoffs. Fortunately, this week we get to report on something more hopeful for the industry.
IGN, one of the best known websites for video game coverage, announced last week that a super-majority of its writing staff joined together to create a group called the “IGN Creators Guild,” and voted unionize through the NewsGuild-CWA Labor Union.
According to the announcement, the move to unionize is directly related to the tumultuous times faced by the entertainment industry in 2023. Between the video game layoffs, the rise of AI written articles, and the entertainment strikes last year, the writers at IGN decided to come together through collective action in order to protect their work.
The IGN Creators Guild also wants to ensure fair pair, benefits, and a focus on improving the diversity and inclusivity for those who work at IGN.
The IGN Creators Guild launched a petition to ask for support in getting IGN management, as well as the management of its parent company Ziff Davis, to voluntarily recognize the union to speed up negotiations between the union and management.
Chris ‘Peachy’ Peach Starts Own YouTube Channel
Former Warhammer TV presenter Chris “Peachy” Peach announced that he is starting his own painting channel on YouTube, Peachy Tips.
Peachy was one of the first big personalities to emerge from Games Workshop’s push into the landscape of social media during the late 2010s, alongside Duncan Rhodes and Louise Sugden (who have both launched YouTube channels of their own after leaving Games Workshop). Peachy appeared in many different promotional videos for new models, as well as being a longstanding host for the Warhammer TV painting team.
Peachy left Games Workshop in 2022 and joined the Youtube channel “The Painting Phase,” which created video guides for painting models as well as hosting interviews with notable personalities in the tabletop gaming sphere and ex-Games Workshop employees.
In a post on Twitter/X, Peachy elaborates on his decision to leave The Painting Phase: “As time passed, it became increasingly evident that despite my contributions, dedication, and loyalty, it (The Painting Phase) would never evolve into something I would be considered an equal partner in and will always remain driven by the vision and aspiration of its original creator.”
Peachy’s new channel, Peachy Tips, has only one video currently announcing the launch of the channel with more videos in earnest starting in March. The channel currently has over 17,000 subscribers.
New Edition of Dungeons & Dragons Launch Date Announced
Wizards of the Coast announced the launch dates for the core books in it’s next edition of Dungeons & Dragons, known as One D&D, to coincide with the game’s 50th anniversary this year.
One D&D can be best described as a “Dungeons & Dragons 5.5 Edition,” as the new rulebooks will be built from the bones of 5th Edition while making new changes and improvements to the popular system. According to Wizards of the Coast, the mission is for One D&D to be a constantly evolving “forever” ruleset, embracing full integration of digital platforms like D&D Beyond and Roll20 to eliminate the need for an entirely new edition. The One D&D system has been in public beta since the summer of 2023, with the upcoming rulebooks featuring changes based on feedback from this playtest period.
The new revised core rulebooks for One D&D will still receive physical releases, despite this digital focus. The first three D&D One books will be the core three rulebooks for the game: The Player’s Handbook, The Dungeon Master’s Guide, and The Monster Manual. According to the press release, we can expect The Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide later in 2024 in September and November, respectively. The Monster Manual will be released a little over a year from now, in February of 2025.
“A Song of Ice and Fire: Tactics” Beats Crowdfunding Goal
CMON Games launched a crowdfunding campaign last week for a new game set in the land of Westeros, called “A Song of Ice and Fire: Tactics.”
A Song of Ice and Fire: Tactics is the second game CMON has created set in the popular fantasy setting penned by George R.R Martin. The first one, A Song of Ice and Fire Tabletop Miniatures Game, has found international success after its own crowdfunding campaign in 2020. While the first game aims to recreate the large scale battles of the books and popular TV show adaptation, Tactics aims to focus the action on just a handful of heroes from the setting in a tight skirmish battle across several eras of its history. While the game may be smaller in scale, it retains a focus on intrigue that its larger cousin is famous for, allowing for coins to be spent on gear upgrades and abilities during the game, and having win conditions based on secret motivations for each side.
The crowdfunding campaign on Gamefound also features an option to get an exclusive diorama battlefield featuring a massive dragon as its centerpiece, and includes a special scenario for 1-2 players where you battle against the dragon.
As of this writing, the crowdfunding campaign has raised over $760,000 of its $300,000 goal, and is expected to ship in February of 2025.
For more information about the upcoming game, you can check out our coverage of the announcement of Tactics here at Goonhammer.
“Dragonlance” TV Series from Joe Manganiello Is Dead in the Water
Popular actor Joe Manganiello announced during an interview with Comicbook.com that the TV series based on the Dragonlance setting from Dungeons and Dragons is no longer moving forward.
In the interview, Manganiello says that despite early scripts for the show getting high praise from producers, the potential Dragonlance series hasn’t gotten any support from Wizards of the Coast and thus has not been able to move forward with production. Manganiello states that the poor performance of the 2022 board game based on the Dragonlance setting and the Hasbro sale of eOne studio were major reasons the show would not be proceeding.
Manganiello worked with Dragonlance novel authors Tracy Hickman and Margret Weis on the script for the project, and was inspired by the handling of HBO’s True Blood, which itself is an adaptation of the book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries. According to Manganiello, “The biggest fantasy literary agent in town, he said and these are his words and not mine, that it was the best fantasy pilot he had read since the original Game of Thrones.”
While the project has no current plans for moving forward with production, Manganiello is keeping his hopes up, saying “Maybe somewhere down the line, someone comes back or the company switches hands and somebody sees the value.”
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.
