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.
Giant Bomb Purchased from Fandom by Creative Team, Now Fully Independent
After the grim news last week of Polygon’s editorial staff being gutted following a buyout, it was very easy to be pessimistic about the fate of Giantbomb. Earlier this month, Giant Bomb’s parent company, Fandom, put all future content for the site on hiatus as several prominent members of the creative team spoke out against their ownership. Staff members who spoke out against Fandom included the creative director for the site, Dan Ryckert, who accused Fandom of incompetence and was refusing to appear in any future Giant Bombcast content.
Fandom, a user-generated wiki site, acquired Giant Bomb, as well as its former parent company Gamespot, in 2022.
Despite the uncertainty and apparent pause on content, Giant Bomb made the surprise move to move forward with their PAX East panel this past weekend. There, the Giant Bomb team made the announcement that the creative team at Giant Bomb staffers bought out ownership of the website from Fandom, and that Giant Bomb was now a fully independent entity.
The Giant Bomb team shares their excitement on their website: “I guess this is basically Giant Bomb’s Independence Day. We’re not serving an algorithm or executives, we’re serving you, the audience. We want to lean into what’s always made Giant Bomb special, and that’s the people you see and hear on our content, and our extremely passionate community.”
As part of this newfound independence, Giant Bomb laid out their new subscription model. While the bulk of the company’s content, including the Bombcast, will remain free, Giant Bomb is asking fans for $9.99 a month to get access to exclusive subscriber only content as well as ad-free versions of their shows.
“All of your support goes straight to Giant Bomb and its lovely personalities,” writes the Giant Bomb team, “Can’t wait to build this bomb with you (again).”
New Edition for Horus Heresy Announced via Pun
Games Workshop announced last week that a new edition of Horus Heresy is coming soon in a very unusual way.
Rather than putting together a cinematic action trailer as they’ve done in the past, Games Workshop released a video featuring members of an imagined Games Workshop office discussing the new edition. A woman mentions that a new edition of HH is coming, and her coworker replies “I think it’s just hearsay.” Groans ensue, as the coworker stares directly into the camera before an ending title card reveals a new site for the games next edition. The site doubles down on the pun, using the URL TheHorusHearsay.com.
The website itself has an embedded version of the announcement video, as well as an assortment of content ranging from whats probably bizarre misleads to possible truths about the new edition. These include strength 3 bolters, White Scars in the starter box, and the wild idea of an eighteen sided dice in the box. More concrete clues can be seen in the form of picture previews from sprues, one of which shows off what could be a push to fit sprue for Heresy.
Following this teaser, Games Workshop put out an article on Monday via the Warhammer Community website with even more cryptic information to parse. The article says that planetfall is coming in t-minus 399 hours, which is a little over 16 days. Presumably, there’s something big coming up for Heresy on May 28th.
While it’s fun that Games Workshop is announcing the new edition in an unusual way, there isn’t much beyond wild speculation that can be done at this point for how the game will change. As more concrete details emerge, you can read all about them here at Goonhammer.
Women of Warhammer Gather at Warhammer World to Celebrate Female Hobbyists
In a proud celebration of one of Warhammer’s most forgotten about groups, several prominent female influencers, writers, and hobbyists organized a “Women in Warhammer” day at Warhammer World last week.
The event was organized by Lucy and Em, who jointly run the social media account “sistersofeldar”, with the cooperation of the team at Warhammer World who offered the duo a space reserved specifically for the event. The event itself was host to several tables dedicated to playing, painting, and teaching Warhammer, all while highlighting the women who love the hobby. Sistersofeldar even put together goody bags for the event, which included branded dice, and shipped these bags to those interested in the event who were unable to go due to not living in Great Britain.
The event even had some very notable names in attendance, such as Victoria Hayward, who wrote the Black Library Novel “Deathworlder”, and Rogue Hobbies host Louise Sugden.
Props to both Lucy and Em for putting this together, overcoming the challenges of being an independently run event as well as organizing for a community that’s often pushed to the sidelines of the fanbase, and giving the ladies a turn in the Warhammer spotlight.
Matthew Lillard is Coming to Dead By Daylight in Upcoming Collaboration
One of the most iconic names in slasher horror, Matthew Lillard, is coming to the subgenre’s most successful video game spinoff, Dead by Daylight, in an upcoming collaboration revealed as part of the game’s upcoming roadmap.
Lillard will feature in the next major release, or chapter, for Dead by Daylight, which is a collaboration with the megahit horror game series Five Nights at Freddies. The new killer added to the game for this chapter is “The Animatronic”, based on the character of Springtrap from the FNAF. One of the alt skins for The Animatronic, set to drop some time after the release of the chapter, will feature a version of the character played by Lillard in the 2023 movie. Lillard is confirmed to be providing voice lines as well for this alternate skin.
The roadmap also included reveals for other major collaborations in the games future, such as with The Witcher franchise and major hints at a Walking Dead collaboration, as well as as gameplay improvements based on player feedback. Speaking of that feedback, Dead by Daylight’s developer, Behavior Interactive, spoke of plans in the roadmap of rolling out a community outreach program to get player input on what should be included in the games tenth anniversary update next year.
At this time, it’s unknown when the FNAF chapter will release, only that it’s the next release on the docket for the popular game.
Court Dismisses FTC Appeal to Microsoft and Activision Mega-Merger
A major turning point in how American courts will deal with some of the largest names in the video game world happened quietly in an appeals court last week, when the court upheld the 2023 ruling blocking the FTC’s attempt to stop the mega-merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.
According to the 9th Circuit court, the FTC failed to provide any evidence of the “likelihood of success on the merits as to any of its theories,” which stated that a merger between these two companies could potentially siphon off potential players en masse by making massively popular titles like Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive. The court found that the practice of first party game releases being exclusive to a console to attempt to siphon players is not a new practice, and other companies in the space, particularly Nintendo, use this strategy to their great advantage without anyone batting an eye.
“The FTC had not raised serious questions regarding whether the proposed merger was likely to substantially lessen competition in the relevant markets.” the court wrote in its decision statement.
The FTC initially planned to oversee a case about this merger in their own in-house court, before the ruling was challenged by Microsoft and thrown out. Now, the FTC’s case is in limbo, as the only place the FTC can now appeal to now is the US supreme court. Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
