Ignorance is bliss. A common saying that almost everyone on earth has used before. Unless you are ignorant of “ignorance is bliss”, which itself seems pretty blissful.
If you’re ignorant and blissful, one might accuse you of living under a rock. Which doesn’t seem very blissful at all, honestly. You’ve gotta find a pretty big rock if you want to live under it, and rocks are well known for being damp, dark, and lacking central air conditioning. Ergo, ignorance must not be that blissful at all, due to this heavy rock you’re stuck under.
Here at Goonhammer, we decided that we will do our part in clearing away heavy rocks related to ignorance by reporting out on the weekly news from the gaming industry and related media. Our anti-big rock expert, Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson, joins us again this week to keep you both informed and blissful!
Major Factions Appear to Not Get Warhammer: The Old World Releases
The news that Warhammer: The Old World fans dreaded finally arrived this past week, as it appears that there’s no plans for Kislev or Cathay factions in the game. Not anytime soon, at least.
The news broke from an article on the Warhammer Community site detailing new units coming to Total War: Warhammer III. While the majority of the article has little to do with the video game’s tabletop cousin, a note at the bottom of the article states, “Fans of Warhammer: The Old World should note that there aren’t any current plans to bring Kislev or Grand Cathay to the tabletop for the foreseeable future.”
This news is disappointing, but not much of a surprise. When the core factions for The Old World were announced, Cathay and Kislev were conspicuously absent, and Games Workshop has been silent when it comes to these two human empires.
Neither faction had standalone armies in Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and it makes sense that if The Old World is to be a successor to WFB then Kislev or Cathay wouldn’t be on the roster. What makes this news so strange is the early promotional material for The Old World, such as this article, focusing on Kislev and Cathay appearing in the game.
It’s currently unclear as to why Kislev and Cathay are no longer set to appear in The Old World anytime soon. The Warhammer Community team may have received incorrect information from the design team, or the project could have been scrapped during development of the game. All we know is that for now, the status of these two major players in The Old World coming to tabletop is unclear.
Former Employees of Funko Games Create a New Studio
While the recent major layoffs in the video game industry were well-reported, tabletop gaming has also suffered a brutal year of lost jobs and canceled projects. Amongst those layoffs was the team at Funko Games and their board game division, Prospero Hall, who were all let go this past January when Funko sold their board games division to Dutch company Goliath Games.
On Monday, the former game development team lead for Funko Games, Chris Rowlands, announced on his LinkedIn profile that he was collaborating with some of his former team in the creation of a new studio called Tempest Workshop. While not all of the former team returned to be a part of Tempest Workshop, many did return to share in Rowland’s creative vision.
Rowlands writes in the post, “We love making games. We believe they can change the world, we sincerely do. It is an absolute honor and privilege to be able to make amazing products alongside this team. The best is yet to come.”
Funko Games and the Prospero Hall team specialized in bringing licensed IPs to the tabletop to create standout games, such as Disney’s Villainous and Jurassic World: Legacy of Isla Nublar. Tempest Workshop is currently in conversation with several publishers about future opportunities for Rowlands’s team, and has created a website for the new studio.
Gale Force Nine Brings More Board Game Heavy Hitters to Gamefound
Last week, we reported that tabletop giant CMON games would be exclusively bringing their crowdfunding campaigns to Gamefound in the future, marking a departure from the go-to crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Now, game studio Gale Force Nine has announced it’s following suit, promising to bring any of its future crowdfunding campaigns to Gamefound as well.
This is another major victory for Gamefound, a tabletop-focused crowdfunding site, as Gale Force Nine brings with it several exciting crowdfunding campaigns to open in the near future. Gale Force Nine’s 2024 crowdfunding plans include a dice game based on the universe of Conan: The Barbarian, as well as the “Final Frontier” collectors edition of Star Trek Ascendancy. The studio plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign in 2025 for Dune: Kwisatz Haderach, which bundles the 2019 rerelease of the Dune board game along with some new content and the three modern expansions for the game developed by Gale Force Nine.
GAMA Trade Show Begins Next Week
Next week is the return of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) Expo in Louisville, Kentucky, from March 3rd through March 7th.
GAMA Expo is a trade show for industry professionals to meet, share games and unveil new projects, and network over the course of a few days. Many of the industry’s biggest names have booths at the event, such as Games Workshop, Mantic Games, Asmodee, The Army Painter, and Wizards of the Coast.
The GAMA expo is a private trade show meant for industry professionals, and attendee badges for the event are not available to the general public. With most of the reveals and announcements from the GAMA expo still tightly under wraps, there isn’t much more we can report on about the event yet. For tabletop games fans it’s like the night before Christmas, and we will share as many of the big reveals from the event as we can here on Goonhammer.
New TTRPG Set in the Tomb Raider Universe in Development
Evil Hat Games announced last week that it would be bringing the iconic Tomb Raider games franchise to the tabletop with its new TTRPG, Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth.
The Evil Hat Games website goes into further detail about the game in the announcement post, saying, “In this officially licensed tabletop RPG you play members of the Truth Seekers: contemporaries of Lara Croft who strive to reveal long-hidden knowledge and thwart those who would steal and exploit artifacts for their own gains. It is a game of action, exploration, and self-discovery. Face perilous challenges and tough choices as you learn what it takes to be a hero.”
Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth can be played by 3-6 players as well as one game master, and is expected to be launched in 2025. A public playtest will be announced soon, and more information for signing up for that playtest can be found by signing up for the Society of Raiders newsletter.
Evil Hat is the publisher of several tabletop roleplaying games, including The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, FATE, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians.
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.
