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. This week, our gallant gal reporter Marcy is here to fill in for news boy Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson with all of the news you can use.
Haru Urara Passes Away at 29
Sadly we start this week by reporting the passing of beloved Japanese race horse Haru Urara, who passed on September 9th, 2025 at the age of 29. Haru Urara was a legendary presence in Japanese horse racing for a peculiar reason: In her career of 113 races, she never won a single race. While most horses became popular for their stellar wins and fierce rivalries, Haru earned her fame for becoming a beacon of never giving up, spawning numerous products emblazoned with her name and likeness, and with fans buying betting tickets for her that were used to ward off everything from failing exams to avoiding car crashes — explored further in the 2016 documentary, The Shining Star of Losers Everywhere (that’s her).
Haru’s popularity was so huge that she once drew 13,000 fans to the small Kochi Racetrack, even featuring generational superstar jockey Yutaka Take to ride her that day to a stunning 10th place finish out of 11 competitors. After retirement, Haru drifted before landing at Matha Farms, where she had lived since 2013. Her inclusion as an Umamusume in Umamusume: Pretty Derby introduced the lovable horse to a new community of fans, and recently helped make her popular across the globe with the global release of the game earlier this year, sparking fans to donate massive amounts of rye grass to her as a treat.
Haru Urara’s legacy touches on the ways in which competition mirrors the human experience, and how the idea of never giving up even in the face of failure or overwhelming odds transcends between horses and humans more than one might think. Our condolences to Matha Farms and we hope that Haru Urara’s legacy will continue to remind people to keep a cheery disposition even in the face of adversity, and that there’s value in never giving up, even if you aren’t first.
Amazon MGM Studios Announces Life Is Strange TV Series
Narrative focused game series Life Is Strange will be getting a TV adaptation from Amazon MGM Studios, written by Charlie Covell of “The End of the F***ing World” fame. Life Is Strange first released in 2015 from Square Enix as an episodic adventure game, part of the narrative gaming “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style boom of the time alongside games such as Telltale’s Walking Dead.
Earning a fairly decent following, the game spawned five sequels and a remaster in 2022; the original game followed Maxine “Max” Caulfield as she tried to use her ability to travel back in time in order to save her friend Chloe Price, and the consequences of changing history.
Life Is Strange as a series has always had a fairly big tie to the LGBTQ community and the issue of representation, with the studio’s mishandling of that identity always being somewhat at odds with the narrative of the series itself. How the TV show will handle that remains to be seen, but Covell is quoted as saying, “I am a massive fan of the game and … I can’t wait to share Max and Chloe’s story with fellow players and new audiences alike.”
Fighting Game Tournament EVO Bought by Saudi Arabia
Troubling news from the world of fighting games comes this week with the Saudi Arabian acquisition of the EVO fighting game tournament. EVO’s co-owner, RTS, had announced its takeover by the city of Qiddiya, leaving the fighting game community in the lurch as the hallmark tournament series is acquired by an entity that seems deeply opposed to the vibrant diversity of the FGC.
Although the promise of larger purses and bigger money will surely attract comfortable players, the larger question remains as to how the FGC will respond as a whole to the loss of EVO to an anti-queer, anti-woman body for the promise of bigger paychecks. This also leaves fighting game competitive play stuck between the encroachment of Saudi Arabian eSports takeovers and smaller, far less monied competitions such as Frosty Faustings, ComboBreaker, and CEO.
Apocalypse World 3rd Edition Announced
Vincent Baker announced that Apocalypse World’s 3rd Edition, “Apocalypse World: Burned Over”, will be coming to Kickstarter soon. Apocalypse World’s influence on the TTRPG space has been widespread, spawning a new wave of players less interested in the stats and maths based Dungeons and Dragons for simpler and more story focused gameplay. Aside from Apocalypse World itself, the game helped spawn other titles like Dungeon World and more, and became particularly popular following numerous Actual Play podcasts such as Friends a the Table use of the system in their campaigns.
Apocalypse World uses a 2d6 system rather than a variable system like D&D, and focuses less on “failure and success” but consequences; rolling high will allow players to make “moves”, while rolling “low” still allows those moves, but then also gives the DM the ability to “move” as well, creating more dynamic actions and less bad feelings of failure at the table.
There’s no date listed yet for the new campaign, but the landing page is currently active and interested parties can be notified through Kickstarter to know when it goes live.
Silksong Releases, Instantly Crashes Steam
After nearly a decade in development, Team Cherry’s sequel to Hollow Knight, Silksong, is finally real and can actually be played. The game racked up some impressive first day numbers in active players and sales, but most notably crashed Steam itself, preventing customers from actually checking out and purchasing the game due to overwhelming traffic and load on the service.
As expected, Silksong has released to nearly universal acclaim, succeeding at delivering on the promises of the long and nearly comedic development history of the game. Even Geoff Keighly began to get in on the fun of joking about the game never coming out earlier this year, posting a selfie of himself with a clown nose and the text “First time?” ahead of Gamescom in August.
Warmachine Physical Rulebook Announced
SFG announced on last week’s Warmachine Wednesday that a physical edition of the rules would be coming, much to the relief of fans of physical media and perhaps as a nod to the success of the new edition of the game under their leadership. Previously only available digitally, SFG announced that the new rulebook will be a single volume release, and also that the lore additions to the physical release will be made available to digital customers as well.
Printing a physical book is a great sign to Warmachine’s current growth under SFG, and hopefully signals that there will be a lot more coming down the pipeline for the game under SFG’s management soon.
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