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.
CMON Sells Most Popular IP to Asmodee
I have to give CMON credit where it’s due: Every time I think, “It just can’t get any worse for these guys,” CMON finds a way. Last week, Asmodee announced that the company had acquired the rights to Zombicide from CMON for an undisclosed amount.
This purchase is the first in Asmodee’s planned acquisition spree following its separation from Embracer group last year, having become its own publicly traded entity again this spring. Asmodee has already set up a pipeline of 20 planned acquisitions, and Thomas Koegler, the CEO of Asmodee, told Boardgamewire that the global tariff crisis has done little to stall this plan.
Koegler told Boardgamewire: “We have a very healthy balance sheet, we have cash available, so we have the means to execute our M&A strategy – this doesn’t change.”
Meanwhile, this sale only adds more anxiety for CMON’s future. Zombicide was the game series that launched CMON onto the global stage, and is still a popular game series. Popular enough that its most recent entry, Zombicide: White Death, raised over $3.8 million on Kickstarter in 2023. The project was in the final stages of shipping, and CMON will oversee the fulfillment efforts for the next six months before turning operations fully over to Asmodee.
Asmodee has certainly come out the gates swinging with this high profile acquisition, and only time will tell if selling off its most prized IP will be enough to save CMON and right the company’s finances.
Atomic Mass Games Raising Product Prices by 15%
Atomic Mass Games joins the wave of tabletop companies forced to increase the prices on their products due to tariffs, announcing a 15% hike in prices on new releases set to go into effect at the start of July.
The official blog post reads “Atomic Mass Games has been evaluating the rising costs of keeping our prices stable, however due to the import situation we will be adjusting the price of our products in the US by approximately 15%.”
These 15% price increases are currently only planned to affect upcoming products releasing after July 1st. However, Asmodee does mention that some products that released before the July 1sr cutoff will see an increase in cost of around 10%, though there is no mention at this time at what current products in particular will see that bump. These products will have their price changes two weeks later on July 15th.
Like many other tabletop gaming companies, AMG produces most of its product overseas in China and then imports them into the United States for distribution. Currently, the US has a “temporary” 30% import tax on Chinese goods during trade talks, with the looming threat of returning to the previous untenable rate of over 150%. Even at a 30% rate, a 15% price increase by AMG means the company is still taking a 15% hit on their profit margin in the United States.
“We work hard to bring premium miniatures to the tabletop, featuring iconic characters from across your favorite worlds,” Atomic Mass Games writes. “Increasing pricing is not a decision that comes lightly and we will continue to share updates for our products as more information comes.”
Games Workshop Crashes Own Webstore to Combat Scalpers
Games Workshop decided to take notes from the biblical Book of Judges and combat scalpers by bringing the temple down on both their heads by temporarily shutting down its webstore last week.
The shutdown occurred last Tuesday, during the preorder for the limited collectors edition release of the final book in the Siege of Terra series, Era of Ruin. During the preorder go-live window, Warhammer.com had a queue system in place to try and ensure that as many people as possible got a fair shake at getting their hands on a copy of the book. However, according to the post put out by Games Workshop, the site was so quickly overwhelmed by bots that combating them would be impossible. So, Games Workshop took drastic measures and shut down the entire webstore.
During the outage, the limited edition of Era of Ruin was taken offline until a future unknown date. Games Workshop is also sifting through the purchases that did go through to find and pull any orders believed to have been done by a bot, rather than a real person.
It’s unheard of to shut down your entire website to combat bots, especially since shuttering the webstore means both a potentially massive loss in sales as well as the cost of bringing the store online again. With technology improving at rapid pace and fan outcry getting louder each time one of these limited collector edition books is sold out in seconds though, it makes sense that pulling the plug on the whole webpage was probably the only way to stop the surge in time.
For more on this, you can read about our very own Jay “Lorehunter” Kirkman’s experience with the website shutdown here!
SAG-AFTRA Approves Agreement Ending Video Game Strike
SAG-AFTRA announced last week that it’s finally come to a tentative deal with several large Video Game publishers, which was then confirmed by the union’s national board, bringing an end to the strike that launched in 2024.
Major points in the agreement include a general increase in wages of 15.17% for union actors involved in video game projects, with a 3% increase to that rate over the next three years, as well as guardrails against A.I. These planned protections include the requirement for informed consent from actors for their voice or likeness to be digitally reproduced using AI, for that actors right to suspend their informed consent during a strike, and for increased royalties for actors who allow for their likeness to be digitally replicated using A.I.
The strike, which launched in July of 2024, targeted major game published like Activision, EA, Disney, and WB Games, who refused to come to the table with SAG-AFTRA regarding protections against rising A.I use in game production. The strike lasted just a few weeks short of an entire year before being officially called off on June 11th, 2025.
Two Famous Ex-D&D Designers Join Daggerheart Team
Darrington Press, the company behind the wildly popular TTRPG Daggerheart, is no stranger to star power. After all, it was created by members of the cast of Critical Role, the most popular actual play series on earth. But the most recent two additions to the Darrington Press team are two of the most widely recognized names in the TTRPG world: ex-Dungeons and Dragons designers Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford.
Both Perkins and Crawford have a long history with Dungeons and Dragons and its parent company, Wizards of the Coast. Among their more recent achievements, Perkins was as well as the lead designer of the Curse of Strahd adventure module. Crawford was the lead designer for D&D fourth edition, as well as a co-lead designer for fifth edition alongside Mike Mearls. Perkins and Crawford now join Darrington Press in the same roles they left Wizards of the Coast in, with Perkins picking up the title of Creative Director and Crawford as Game Director.
“I was committed to staying with Wizards until after D&D’s 50th anniversary, which gave me lots of time to work on succession planning and exit strategies,” Perkins told the L.A Times. “What brought me out of retirement was the chance to work with Jeremy and the brilliant folks at Critical Role on things that have a lasting, positive impact on the world.”
Crawford writes in the Darrington Press release that “This team is passionate, wildly creative, and committed to building welcoming, connected, amazing story-driven experiences—I can’t wait to expand on what Critical Role has already created to develop some really fun and unique games.”
Daggerheart launch was already successful enough to sell out of the core rulebook’s first print run in a matter of days. With the addition of two of the most influential names in the industry today, the future for the game seems very bright.
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