The chilly nights of February give way to the warm mornings of March, meaning that Spring is upon us. Well, technically, it’s upon us in about three weeks, but let’s be real. Only dorks recognize when a season starts on the “official first day” of that season. Real ones say, “Oh, it’s new season month? Cool, then it’s new season time.”
With all this warm weather returning, it’s easy to just want to relax without a care in the world. This is a bad idea. There are too many things happening to not have a care in the world! If you close your eyes to take in the moment, all the important news you should’ve been taking in will zoom right past you!
No, the best thing to do in this season of renewal is to stay even more informed, so that nothing can “spring” up on you and catch you off guard. You should always keep tabs on what’s happening in the great world of the news. Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson is here to tell you about the top bits of Games Industry, no matter the season.
New Round of Big Layoffs at Sony and EA
We had a good run there for a bit where we didn’t have any layoff headlines, huh? I miss those days already.
This past week, two massive layoff rounds were announced for Sony Interactive Entertainment and Electronic Arts, which laid off 900 employees and 670 employees respectively.
Jim Ryan, CEO and President of Sony Interactive Entertainment, wrote to his team in an email that, “Through discussions over the past few months about the evolving economic landscape, changes in the way we develop, distribute, and launch products, and ensuring our organization is future ready in this rapidly changing industry, we have concluded that tough decisions have become inevitable. The leadership team and I made the incredibly difficult decision to restructure operations, which regrettably includes a reduction in our workforce impacting very talented individuals who have contributed to our success.”
Sony’s layoffs include the cancellation of a live-service Twisted Metal game, as well as the closure of the PlayStation London Studio completely. Several partner companies will be affected by the layoffs as well, including Naughty Dog Studios, Guerilla Games, and Insomniac Studios.
On the EA side, the reorganization is expected to affect about 5% of the company workforce, which translates to around 670 employees. The statement from EA CEO Andrew Wilson also says that the company will be “…sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry.” This likely means the cancellation of games currently in development, but at this time what games those are is unclear.
Popular Emulator Shut Down by Nintendo
Tropical Haze LLC came under legal fire a week ago when Nintendo sued the company over their Nintendo Switch online emulator program, yuzu.
In the lawsuit, Nintendo sought damages for business lost because of the emulator, as well as demanding the emulator get shut down entirely. In their legal preliminary statement on the case, Nintendo stated that, “Defendants… are fully aware of the use of Yuzu by others in performing circumvention and facilitating piracy on a colossal scale.” According to the post by Stephen Totillo on Twitter/X, Nintendo backs up this statement by pointing out how Yuzu’s Patreon spiked when Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was leaked early online and downloaded over a million times.
After a week of silence, news broke on Monday that Tropical Haze and Nintendo came to a mutual agreement settled out of court. In the settlement, Yuzu must pay Nintendo $2.4 in damages, agree that the program’s primary purpose is to circumvent and pirate Nintendo games, cease operations of the Yuzu program immediately and surrender the domain to Nintendo, and additionally cease operation the Citra program used to emulate 3DS games.
Had the case gone to court, Tropical Haze could have potentially argued that Yuzu does not facilitate piracy and circumvention in the manner that Nintendo claimed in the lawsuit. The emulator itself does not contain keys to any Nintendo software, and any software that is emulated via the program must be brought into the program to function. Part of the settlement, however, is to specifically acknowledge that Yuzu does facilitate piracy and circumvention directly.
First Look at Mantic’s Halo Game at GAMA
Mantic Games gave us a glimpse of the highly anticipated tabletop game Halo: Flashpoint during this year’s GAMA Trade Show.
The reveal includes a trailer centering around four different Spartans fighting one another in one of Halo’s iconic multiplayer arenas, and a corresponding model is teased for each one of the four Spartans shown in the trailer.
Mantic released a press release to accompany the trailer, stating the game’s website will launch later this month and full playable demos will be shown at this year’s Adepticon. The game will come with pre-assembled plastic miniatures, and pre-colored, easy-assembly terrain.
“The team at Mantic has an excellent reputation for futuristic skirmish experiences,” Mantic claims in the press release, “and promises a dynamic game built on proven mechanics that reward tactical thinking, encourage bold playstyles, and create awesome cinematic moments that authentically reflect the very best of the Halo universe.”
Warhammer Celebrates Its Merchandise with Warhammer Relic Festival
Games Workshop announced a surprise week-long event on Monday centered around Warhammer Merchandise, called Warhammer Relics Official Merchandise Festival.
The festival comes with discounts on merchandise items from the Warhammer Merch store, ranging from 15% off mugs on Tuesday to 25% off t-shirts on Friday. Additionally, several new collaborations with outside companies for licensed Warhammer products were announced. The highlights of these include display cases from Wicked Brick, an Old World cosplay set from Burgschneider, and teasers for an Abaddon the Despoiler statue from Weta Workshop.
This Relics festival is apparently the first of many in the future, and is a prime example of just how large the Warhammer brand has become over the past few years.
Discworld Returns to Tabletop with a TTRPG
After an almost 30 year hiatus from tabletops, Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is returning to tabletop later this year.
TTRPG company Modiphius, who have previously published games set in the Star Trek and Dune universe, are tackling the project with the full support of the Pratchett estate.
As reported by Dicebreaker, the head of Pratchett’s literary estate Rob Wilson is thrilled about the new game, writing that, “Terry had a lifelong affection with roleplaying games and it’s an entirely logical path along which you can follow his career from dungeon master to him becoming one of our most celebrated and beloved fantasy authors of all time.”
Modiphius also states intentions to develop board games set in the Discworld universe, once the RPG is published. The RPG itself will arrive on Kickstarter in late 2024, and Modiphius has asked for fans of Discworld to fill out a survey to give the development team a better idea of what the fans want to see in the game.
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.
