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.
Pause on Trump Tariffs Creates New Problems for Board Game Industry
Last week saw a major development in the ongoing board game tariff apocalypse, as the Trump administration announced it would cut back on the majority of tariffs imposed on Chinese imports for 90 days.
At first blush, this agreement is a tremendous sigh of relief for board game publishers, who largely rely on Chinese manufacturing for their games. The trade war sparked by these tariffs forced multiple game developers to lay off large swaths of employees, if not forced to close all together. Even Cephalofair Games, the developers behind the wildly successful Gloomhaven, was forced to indefinitely delay shipping of the games second edition to the US due to the eye-watering 145% tax rate that tariffs would impose. On its face, this 90 day “truce” could provide the industry with a much needed moment to catch it’s breath and return to business as usual.
It’s not nearly that simple though, as boardgamewire’s report on this pause makes it clear that the industry’s economic nightmare is not over.
While a 30% tariff rate is light compared to a 145% rate, it’s still a steep tax for most distributors to navigate. “But even though 30% is much better, let’s be clear, we’ve come from a level (145%) that was absurd and devastating,” Scott Gaeta, founder of Renegade Game Studios, told Boardgamewire. “30% is still problematic but more manageable.”
Additionally, while board game companies may get reprieve from tariffs, they’re now likely to face an inevitable shipping scramble as everyone tries to ship their products during the truce window, especially with the looming threat that those high rates may return once the grace period is up. Board games may have rapidly increased in popularity over the last decade, but the industry is still a small fish in the larger economic world all battling for the same limited ship space. Many developers will be simply unable to afford or even have a chance to acquire the spot on a boat to move their product to US shores.
At the time of writing, it’s unknown whether or not the tariffs on Chinese imports will return to 145% at the end of the 90 days, or if an agreement will be reached. As it stands, this leaves developers in limbo. Do they restart production and eat the high shipping costs in case this is their only chance, or do they wait it out in hopes of something better? It seems like an unwinnable situation for the entire industry, and likely that we will still see more layoffs and closures as the situation unfolds.
Bungie Catches Major Heat for Plagiarized Art Assets in Marathon Preview
Bungie was the target of widespread criticism last week as it was caught plagiarizing art assets in a recent alpha build of its upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon.
Artist Antireal took to social media on May 15th to confront Bungie about the use of her art in an alpha build of Marathon without her consent.
“I don’t have the resources nor the energy to spare to pursue this legally but i have lost count of the number of times a major company has deemed it easier to pay a designer to imitate or steal my work than to write me an email,” Antireal wrote. “In 10 years I have never made a consistent income from this work and I am tired of designers from huge companies moodboarding and parasitising my designs while I struggle to make a living.”
Antireal tagged Bungie as well as the company’s art director, David Cross, who followed her account. Bungie addressed the plagiarism in a post a few days later, removing the art and apologizing to the community. The company blamed the stolen art on an artist that is no longer at Bungie, and assured it’s fanbase that it would commit to preventing any further incidents.
“We immediately investigated a concern regarding unauthorized use of artist decals in Marathon and confirmed that a former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game. To prevent similar issues in the future, we are conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets, specifically those done by the former Bungie artist, and implementing stricter checks to document all artist contributions.”
This is the fourth time that Bungie has been accused of stealing art in it’s works since 2017. Neither Antireal nor Bungie have come forward to speak on just how Antireal will be compensated, only that Bungie does intend to do so.
Mantic Announces Price Increase for Most of Product Line in the US
While miniature wargame companies have fared reasonably well following the global Trump tariffs, they aren’t wholesale immune to the challenges they present. Last week, Mantic announced it would be raising the prices of most of its product line in the US, and change how it ships Halo: Flashpoint into the country.
Mantic notes that most of the company’s product line is manufactured in the UK, which is currently only facing a 10% import tax on goods. While this does still mean that prices for Mantic products will go up in the US starting June 1st, the company has managed to keep product price increases small at around 5%.
Halo: Flashpoint presents a much more complicated problem for the US market however, since it’s manufactured in China. Mantic announced that in order to keep the prices down on Wave 3 Halo products releasing this summer, the company is “self importing” these products in the US. This means that Mantic will eat the cost on the 30% import tax for the restocks and preorders coming to the country when Wave 3 releases, rather than put those additional costs on the consumer. While the costs of Halo: Flashpoint products in the United States will also see an increase on June 1st, they’ll be much smaller than if Mantic made consumers pay for the tariff cost. It also means that restocks of Halo product in the United States will be very limited, until new reprint waves arrive to self-import in bulk.
“We believe that sharing what we’re doing openly (and as things are happening) will help give you the confidence to enjoy our games, and continue supporting your FLGS stores. We will keep monitoring developments, and if things change again we will adapt to try ensuring the minimum disruption to your gaming plans!” Mantic writes in their blog post about price changes. “Thanks for your patience while we’ve been working out our next steps. We can’t wait to see you all at future U.S. events, and playing games together long into the future.”
Universal Distribution Completes Purchase of Major US Games Distributor
Universal Distribution, a major Canadian distributor in the tabletop industry, completed its bankruptcy buyout of Alliance Games Distributors last week for $49.6 million, following a troubled bidding process.
The purchase of AGD was a part of a larger bankruptcy auction for assets owned by Diamond Comics, one of the largest distributors in the comics space. Despite this success, it filed for bankruptcy in January of this year, with tens of millions of outstanding costs unpaid to creditors.
Universal Distributions acquisition of AGD comes at the end of a messy bidding process. Initially, Alliance Entertainment (AENT) appeared to be the new owners of AGD, placing the winning bid for AGD as well as much of Diamond’s other assets for $72.2 million. However, a few weeks later it was reported that AGD was working with the second place bidders, Universal Distribution, on a deal and circumventing AENT’s bid entirely.
AENT went on to file two lawsuits against AGD. The first accused AGD in acting in bad faith by ignoring AENT’s winning bid in favor of Universal, which was dropped after the bid was upheld in court. Following an increase in the bid cost and further negotiations, AENT dropped altogether and sued AGD a second time, claiming the company misrepresented its relationship with Wizards of the Coast, which ended at the end of last year when Wizards did not renew its distribution contract with AGD, in order to inflate AGD’s value. AENT also claims that AGD has not repaid its bid deposit of $8.5 million.
The new owners, Universal Distribution, completed the purchase of AGD following AENT dropping from the bidding process, and are poised to become the next powerhouse in North American gaming distribution.
Fortnite Darth Vader AI Chatbot Leads to SAG-AFTRA Lawsuit
One day, there’s going to be a headline about Fortnite that sounds normal. Today, though, our collective Fortnite fever dream continues, as SAG-AFTRA filed a lawsuit last week against Epic Games for the use of AI voiceover for Darth Vader.
Darth Vader is famously voiced by James Earl Jones, who passed away last year. Prior to his passing, Jones signed a deal for the rights of his vocal linkiness to be reproduced via AI. According to Jones’s estate, the family approved of his voice being used in a Fortnite Star Wars collaboration, where players can “talk” to Darth Vader and he will respond using a Google Gemini powered AI. It’s exactly as cursed as you think it is.
According to SAG-AFTRA, Epic Games and Fortnite’s signatory company, Llama Productions, did not inform the union of it’s intent to use Jones’s AI likeness, and by not engaging in any bargaining action with the union engaged in unfair and harmful action against voice actors, and filed an action against the companies with the National LAbor Relations Board (NLRB).
SAG-AFTRA writes in their official statement that “Fortnite’s signatory company, Llama Productions, chose to replace the work of human performers with A.I. technology, Unfortunately, they did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms. As such, we have filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB against Llama Productions”.
This is the latest chapter in an ongoing battle between voice actors and AI in the video games space, which led last year to an ongoing strike by SAG-AFTRA voice actors against several major games publishers. As of this writing, little progress has been made by SAG-AFTRA, who seek further protections for voice actors against AI.
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