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.
Yu-Gi-Oh Announces New Competitive Format
To start us off this week, I have journeyed deep into the forgotten depths of the Goonhammer offices to consult Rocco, noted Yu-Gi-Oh! dude, about the exciting brand new format for the game, Genesys.
Rocco: Hello, Readers! Long time no see! I come to you with an important Yu-Gi-Oh! update. Last week Konami announced a brand new format for the 25 year old card game. This is not something they are wont to do as Konami constantly tries to push the Advanced format (Standard for you MtG heads) to sell a product whose value only lies in high end rarities and a handful of strategies. This new format, named Genesys, seems like something of an appeasement to “yugi-boomers” (Swiftblade: Reading the term “yugi-boomers” has caused horrific, irreparable damage to my psyche), but looks fantastic nonetheless.
If you haven’t been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! For the past 10 years you would have missed the two most controversial mechanics introduced to the game, Pendulum Monsters and Link Monsters. Genesys format does away with those entirely! It also eschews the standard Forbidden and Limited list in favor of a points system. The way it works is that the tournament you’re rolling up to will have a set points value for your deck and you can include cards in your Main Deck, Side Deck, and Extra Deck up to that point limit. The majority of cards have a point value of 0, but as of writing the list of cards with points is at 506 cards. Many of these cards are currently meta defining in Advanced Format, but also include cards that have been banned for 20 years like Pot of Greed (we finally have the technology to figure out what it does).
This format has the community on fire. Everyone is excited about deck building potential and regular communication from Konami. The team in charge of Genesys already posted three blog posts discussing the format including ruling discussions for cards that haven’t seen play in decades due to being Forbidden in Advanced format, as well as a post discussing the design philosophy and reasoning for such an expedient change to the points list. This may feel like a low bar to clear, but Konami is openly communicating with players and that’s not something Yu-Gi-Oh! Players are used to. Konami already has major events scheduled to support this format as well, so players can expect the format to stick around for the long haul.
Magic: The Gathering and Star Trek Crossover Revealed for 2026
Wizards of the Coast unveiled its release schedule for mainline sets in 2026 at Magic Con Atlanta this past weekend, giving us a peak as to what to expect from next year’s releases as well as brand new reveals.
According to the roadmap, there are seven sets scheduled to be released in 2026, with three sets taking place within the Magic setting and four Universes Beyond releases, the first time in Magic’s history where the mainline releases have been outnumbered by UB releases in a given year.
Paving the way for the other releases in 2026 is Lorwyn Eclipsed, a mainline set taking place in a Celtic inspired plane which will release in January. The next mainline release is Secrets of Strixhaven in 2026, which returns Magic fans to the wizarding school setting of Strixhaven for the first time since it’s 2021 release. Finally, we have the last mainline set releasing in October, titled Reality Fracture, which promises big shakeups to the world of Magic.
Beyond the worlds of Magic, in Universes Beyond perhaps, the year kicks off with a yet unannounced crossover, with its release date currently unknown but presumably sometime in Spring of next year. The next two releases are already somewhat familiar to UB fans, taking us back to the familiar worlds of Marvel Comics with the Marvel Super Heroes set in June, and then the world of Tolkien with The Hobbit set in August.
Finally, Magic boldly goes where no card game has gone before in November 2026 with its Star Trek crossover. Revealed for the very first time in Atlanta, some of the key art shown off for the set include iconic characters such as Captain Kirk and Gowron, as well as the iconic USS Enterprise and USS Voyager.
Details as to any special mechanics these sets might have are currently unknown, but Wizards will likely share more details about each set closer to their scheduled release dates.
Investor Group with Saudi Backing to Buy EA for $55 Billion
What started as a wild rumor last week quickly metastasized into a full-on headline as the massive video game publisher, Electronic Arts (EA) confirmed that it is being bought for $55 billon by a conglomerate of investors that include the Saudi Arabian government and Jared Kushner.
Currently this transaction would be the largest all-cash sponsor take-private investment in history. The three groups who are acquiring EA in this deal are the state owned Saudi Arabian Private Investment Fund, the American private equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners.
Current EA CEO Andrew Wilson is expected to oversee the deal, which is set to finalize in Q1 2027 without any courtroom meddling. EA stockholders are currently expected to receive a payout of $210 per share.
“Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans, built some of the world’s most iconic IP, and created significant value for our business. This moment is a powerful recognition of their remarkable work,” Wilson said in an official press release. “Looking ahead, we will continue to push the boundaries of entertainment, sports, and technology, unlocking new opportunities. Together with our partners, we will create transformative experiences to inspire generations to come. I am more energized than ever about the future we are building.”
According to reporting from Reuters, industry analysts believe that acquiring EA is a part of Saudi Arabia’s plan to diversify the country’s economic reliance on oil and increase its international sphere of influence, particular in the sector of sports entertainment, with EA titles such as Madden and FIFA being some of the best selling and most recognizable gaming franchises in the world.
“For Saudi Arabia’s PIF, the deal would cement games as cultural infrastructure — assets as critical to global influence as sports or film,” Joost van Dreunen, games professor at NYU Stern School of Business, told Reuters.
Rumors of this acquisition were first broken by the Wall Street Journal last week, where it was speculated the deal would amount to roughly $50 billion. EA confirmed the deal officially on Monday.
Preeminent Western Localizer for Japanese Indie Games Passes Away
We’re joined by Marcy this week to talk about the passing of Andrew Dice, who went by the online handle SpaceDrake, who was a major player in the world of localization for Japanese indie hits.
Marcy: A passing of note this week was announced on X by the former lead translator of Carpe Fulgur Robin Light-Williams, who announced that the company would be ceasing operations after the death of business partner Andrew Dice (SpaceDrakeCF). Carpe Fulgur is likely most notable for the localization of indie dungeon delving and capitalism simulator Recettear in 2010, a then very niche yet surprisingly popular game that was one of the first Japanese indie games to make waves on Steam’s storefront.
Dice was also noted for his role in working on The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter, whose road to release in the West was documented in an article on Kotaku that noted that the stress of working on the game nearly brought Dice to commit suicide in 2014. His open honesty and Carpe Fulgur’s work on localization paved the way for a larger market and the ability to play more games outside of Japan than ever before, while also noting the labor costs (both personal and financial) of doing so.
It is hard to imagine what the Japanese indie game scene on Western Steam would look like without Recettear, and Andrew Dice’s contributions to that game and others has far reaching consequences that are initially hard to notice; publishers like XSeed would likely not exist were it not for the success of Carpe Fulgur and Recettear, and as a personal note, I probably wouldn’t even be writing for this website without Recettear; the game really did shape the landscape and industry in ways that are hard to notice initially.
Andrew Dice and Carpe Fulgur will be sorely missed; if you’ve never played Recettear, the game is available on Steam. Although not my usual slogan, in honor of the legacy of Andrew, one final “Capitalism, Ho!”
Warmachines Most Recent Roadmap Heralds Return of Old Factions
It’s a big week for upcoming releases in the roundup this time around, as Steamforged Games shared a new roadmap for Warmachine at Warfaire Weekend.
While there are several new armies with their tentative release dates all neatly laid out on the planned release schedule, Steamforged is also rereleasing old factions from the games previous edition back into regular circulation for the current edition of the game. The first of these is the Crucible Guard, a group of alchemy-loving freedom fighters who use their ingenuity and brews to dominate the battlefield. According to Steamforged, the Crucible Guard release (as well as other returning factions such as Infernals), will be available both on store shelves as well as on Warmachine 3D as STL files.
The Crucible Guard will make their return in October, with warcaster Captain Erira Mackay and the Railless Interceptor battle engine both coming to Warmachine 3D. In November, the Crucible Guard will receive their very own 30 point command starter, in line with other starter sets such as the Dusk Final Hunt or Orgoth Graveborn. The exact contents of this new command starter will be revealed at the Lock and Load 2025 Keynote.
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