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.
In addition to everything else going on last week, on Friday, Secretlab announced a collaboration with Games Workshop on the Official Secretlab Warhammer 40,000 Collection. We’ll be reviewing pieces from that collection provided by Secretlab on the site in the upcoming days, but until then, you can find the announcement here.
Skulls 2025 Showcases Next Wave of Warhammer Video Games
Games Workshop’s annual showcase of upcoming Warhammer Video Games, Skulls 2025, gave fans a glimpse of upcoming projects that include DLC, remasters, and new titles.
Over the course of the showcase, hosted by actor Rahul Kohli, viewers were able to see a swathe of upcoming DLC for nearly every current Warhammer game on the market. Highlights from this include the upcoming Siege Horde mode for Space Marine two, an Arbites expansion for both Darktide and Rogue Trader, and a trailer for the Tides of Torment DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3. It’s hard to overstate just how much new content for existing games was shown off here. They even remembered to show off content coming up for all three mobile Warhammer digital TCGs. Did you know there are three? There are three.
While the content for existing games took up the majority of the show, since clearly theres a whole lot of Warhammer video games, a few brand new titles were sprinkled in. The two biggest new games announced was Boltgun 2, with Kohli returning for the main role, and Dark Heresy, a new cRPG by Owlcat games focusing on a team of Inquisitorial henchmen. New content was also shown off in a brand new trailer for Mechanicus 2, as the quarreling Mechanicum and Necrons are joined by the Leagues of Votann.
The whole show ended with the announcement of two major remasters of beloved titles. Following the success of its sequel, the original Space Marine is getting a “Master Crafted” edition featuring updated visuals, performance, and control schemes. While this is neat, it’s overshadowed by the Dawn of War remaster, which not only updates the visuals and adds much-needed support for modern hardware for Warhammer 40,000’s most famous game and all its expansions, but also adds 64 bit compatibility for future mods while remaining backwards compatible with the array of mods already created by the game’s fervent community.
While some of these titles were available immediately during the showcase, like a typing-based Boltgun spinoff, the biggest announcements like Dark Heresy and the Dawn of War Remaster did not come with a release date.
New Starter Set for Barons’ War Temporarily Taken Off Sale Due to Demand
Wargames Atlantic’s newest edition of its medieval historical wargame, Barons’ War, is a massive success for the company. It’s so successful that Wargames Atlantic made the decision to temporarily take the new starter set for the game’s second edition off sale in order to meet the overwhelming demand.
“Due to the extraordinary demand, we’ve made the decision to temporarily take the starter set off sale so we can focus all our efforts on fulfilling existing orders as quickly and efficiently as possible.” The Wargames Atlantic Sales team writes in an announcement post on the company site. “We know many of you are eager to dive into the Barons’ War, and we want to make sure everyone who’s already placed an order gets their copy as soon as possible.”
The game takes place during the First Barons War, a civil war in England between a coalition of land-owning nobility and the King of England during the thirteenth century. Players take command of forces loyal either to the Crown or the Barons, and command groups of knights, squires, and peasantry to battlefield glory.
While Wargames Atlantic pauses sales on the starter set, it intends to create enough of product to least an estimated six months for the rest of the Barons’ War range to support the game when sales resume to avoid any further incidents. According to the page for the starter set on the Wargames Atlantic site, sales for the box are expected to resume sometime in June.
Take Two Removes All References About Diversity Initiatives in Annual Report
Now that we’ve had two nice stories, it’s time to return to the terrors.
Take Two, the massive publisher behind popular titles like Grand Theft Auto, Borderlands, and NBA 2K, removed any references to DEI initiatives in its most recent annual report, including awards the company won for LGBT+ support in the workplace.
The report, which is filed publicly, includes company financials and initiatives from the previous fiscal year, as well as plans and initiatives for the company. In previous years, the report included a section titled “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” and focused on Take Twos internal efforts to highlight and foster diversity in the workplace and accolades from organizations like the Gay Gaming Professionals, a nonprofit who worked with Take Two on a video series highlighting diversity and allyship in the company culture in 2022.
In the 2025 report, this section has been scrubbed completely, and replaced with a section titled “Community and Engagement.” Rather than stating how diversity is the key to the company’s success, the section meekly opens with how important the “diversity of thought” is to the company culture.
As noted by NPR, this practice is in line with other major corporations like Disney and Pepsi who are falling in line with the Trump administration’s hatred for DEI. These major corporations, as well as many others, have made efforts to scrub any mention of anything that even kinda looks like DEI from their company to appease the president.
At the time of writing, Take Two has not made any comment regarding the initial reporting done on this story by GameFile.
Gloomhaven Second Edition Finally Shipping to USA, But at Extra Cost
At this point, would it be a news roundup without a tariff update?
After being stuck in warehouse limbo due to the impossible 145% import tariff tax on Chinese goods implemented by the Trump admin, there’s a spark of hope for Gloomhaven players that comes with a big asterisk. The Gloomhaven team confirmed last week that the game is booked it’s travel space to be shipped to the United States, but increased shipping costs and a remaining tariff of 30% will mean US backers will need to pay extra for the game.
The update post on Backerkit confirms that as soon as tariffs lowered to 30%, Cephlofair Games booked shipping space on a cargo ship to the US on the first available spot, between the 21st-25th of May. At time of writing, the copies of the game produced for backers in the states are somewhere in the pacific ocean, bound for the west coast.
Eager backers aren’t out of the woods though. The update keenly points out that a 30% import tariff may seem breezy compared to 145%, but it still means Cephlofair has to spend an extra 30% on every copy of Gloomhaven shipped to the US, which is a massive hit to the company’s finances.
Cephlofair Games made the decision that in order to salvage what they can from those profits, they’ll be adding an additional cost for US backers under the shipping and taxes costs for the game. While Cephlofair stated firmly that these costs will be much less than 30%, it is still an additional cost that some backers did not want to or expect to pay. With this in mind, Cephlofair is honoring its refunding pledge for Gloomhaven 2nd edition, which is a full repayment on the returned product minus a 10% restocking fee.
While it’s a relief to see Cephlofair get the chance to ship Gloomhaven 2nd edition to the states instead of watching them rot away in a warehouse, the company expects to take a painful blow to their profits from the increased shipping costs and high tariffs.
COO of Cephalofair Games, Price Johnson, writes in the backerkit update that “Even with a U.S. tariff surcharge, the reality is Cephalofair is still anticipating subsidizing several price increases inflicted by tariffs (as well as operating on delayed/loss revenue due to the disruption). These include, but are not limited to: increased freight costs, port congestion fees/forced yard storage fees, broker fees, extended warehousing fees, etc.”
Cephalofair Games expects for US copies of Gloomhaven second edition to reach American ports late June 2025, and will have further details on pledge fulfillment following that.
eBay Accused of Union Busting by Relocating TCGplayer from Syracuse to Kentucky
TCGplayer’s parent company, eBay, was accused of blatant union busting activities by multiple sources last week when it announced that it would be closing TCGplayer’s office in Syracuse, New York, and relocating the company to eBay’s logistics center in Louisville, Kentucky.
This move comes after several years of failed negotiations between eBay and the TCGplayer workers union, TCGunion-CWA. EBay purchased TCGplayer, the largest card marketplace and authentication group online for popular TCGs like Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, in 2022. When TCG-CWA formed a few months later, it was the first workers union ever to form within eBay, and since then the TCG-CWA and eBay have been unable to come to come to an agreement at the negotiation table, with the union repeatedly citing that eBay did not attempt to bargain in good faith and engaging in union busting activities.
According to a report on the CWA website, the union representatives found out about the office closure only a handful of minutes before the rest of the company. As a part of the transition, which officially takes place on August 22nd, all non-remote roles at TCGplayer Syracuse are being eliminated in the coming months. Following the announcement on Thursday, all TCGplayer employees on-site were immediately escorted out by security and not allowed to return to their workplace until Saturday.
In response, the CWA has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), saying that the leadership at eBay is deliberately closing the Syracuse office in order to break up the union.
“Like other tech giants and oligarchs, eBay and TCGplayer think that they can disregard workers’ rights under the current administration by deploying illegal tactics to silence us and put an end to contract negotiations.” said TCG-CWA member Eric Tillotson in the CWA statement. “They should realize by now that we will never stop fighting.”
Chris Ryan, a state senator for New York and former prescient of the Syracuse 1123 chapter of the CWA, condemned eBay’s actions in a statement.
“TCGplayer has been a cornerstone of Syracuse’s tech industry, and its acquisition by eBay in 2022 was seen as a promising development. However, the subsequent actions ranging from reported anti-union tactics to this abrupt closure reflect a disregard for the workforce that contributed to TCGplayer’s success. It’s nothing more than a retaliatory move against the hardworking employees that contribute to the success and profit of eBay.”
In a statement to local press, eBay claimed that the decision “was a difficult one” and was not made with any union-busting intent, but was instead done in order to make sure TCGplayer “logistics infrastructure, location and expertise we need to sustainably serve and invest in the hobby community for years to come.”
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