Dungeons & Dragons and Gen Con, oh my!
Plus some bad news about Game Informer and Bungie
Gen Con took place this past weekend. The four-day tabletop festival had its biggest year, and helped Dungeons & Dragons celebrate their 50th anniversary. In less fun news, Destiny developer Bungie made some big cuts and Game Informer is just…gone! All that and more. Let’s go!
Hey, you got your D&D in my Gen Con!
The largest tabletop gaming festival in North America took place this past weekend in Indianapolis, and it was bigger than ever.
Gen Gon sold out before the show began for the first time in its history. The convention, which started in 1968 in Lake Geneva, focused on another Wisconsin export this year: Dungeons & Dragons. The most well known role-playing game is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024, and was one of the convention headliners.
“This year, we are not just celebrating games,” said Gen Con president David Hoppe, “we're honoring the legacy and the incredible community that has grown around these adventures.” The convention offered a number of D&D panels and also set up a museum dedicated to the game.
D&D developer Wizards of the Coast announced and launched a number of new projects at the event, including a new Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and a virtual tabletop called Project Sigil that will allow players to use Baldur's Gate 3 characters.
Here are some other headlines from Gen Con:
- Check out our 24 Most Anticipated Games of Gen Con 24. They will be coming soon to a gaming store near you.
- United Paizo Workers won the Diana Jones trophy for excellence in gaming.
- Shadowdark won the top honors at Gen Con’s Ennie Awards, a fan-based accolade for tabletop role-playing games.
Did you attend Gen Con 2024? Let us know your favorites in the comments.
Game Informer suddenly disappears
After 33 years of publication, Game Informer closed last week with no warning or explanation.
In a press release that sounds like it was written by AI, the Game Informer Twitter account posted, “After 33 thrilling years of bringing you the latest news, reviews, and insights from the ever-evolving world of gaming, it is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Game Informer.”
The magazine’s closure caught even the staff by surprise:
Game Informer has been closed down by GameStop and the entire, incredibly talented staff (including myself) have all been laid off. A frustrating turn of events (especially considering we were about 70% done with the next issue and it was going to have a GREAT cover).
— Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard) August 2, 2024
The magazine, which is owned by GameStop, started offering standalone subscriptions earlier this year. However, last year, GameStop CEO and chairman Ryan Cohen told staff in an internal email that “every expense at the company must be scrutinized under a microscope and all waste eliminated.”
The Game Informer website is already down, and many in the gaming industry are mourning the loss. Kotaku has a detailed look at the closure.
Bungie’s big cuts
In a press release last week, Bungie announced they planned to cut 17% of their workforce, or roughly 220 employees. In their press release, they explain their reasoning for the cuts:
[I]n 2023, our rapid expansion ran headlong into a broad economic slowdown, a sharp downturn in the games industry, our quality miss with Destiny 2: Lightfall, and the need to give both The Final Shape and Marathon the time needed to ensure both projects deliver at the quality our players expect and deserve. We were overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red.
After this new trajectory became clear, we knew we had to change our course and speed, and we did everything we could to avoid today’s outcome. Even with exhaustive efforts undertaken across our leadership and product teams to resolve our financial challenges, these steps were simply not enough.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier interviewed a number of individuals who lost their jobs. From his article:
Most of the people were critical of Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons, saying he had failed to take accountability for his own bad bets and that he’d been overly optimistic in his communication with the staff. Some said Parsons and other company leaders spoke of “Bungie magic” — a confident mantra, similar to ones preached by other elite video-game studios, that they can make anything work out.
When Bungie partnered with Sony in 2022, they assured employees that the merger would not result in layoffs or restructuring. However, after expansions like Destiny 2: Lightfall failed to meet expectations, the two companies decided changes needed to be made. The reductions also extended to a Destiny-based spin-off called Payback, which was cut in the restructuring.
Side Quests (more stories worth reading)
💵 Before his stint as Greece's finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis was Valve’s economist in residence. In an interview with Aftermath, Varoufakis says he believes that Steam could have produced “better macroeconomic forecasts” than Goldman Sachs.
📉 Meta’s virtual reality project lost $4.5 billion in the second quarter of 2024.
🗳️ The US Senate passed online child safety bills last week that could impact games platforms significantly.
📊 The Activision acquisition has helped Microsoft boost revenue, but Xbox console sales experienced a 42% revenue drop.
🏅 The Paris Olympics are the first in 30 years without a video game adaptation. Sorry, Mario and Sonic.
🤖 Electronic Arts used AI to make 11,000 player faces for College Football 25. It has worked for them, as over 5 million people played the game in its first week.
🏭 Microsoft and Activision have formed a new team within Blizzard to work on smaller 'AA' games based on existing IP.
🎮 The head of community for Palworld says people should stop caring about how many people are playing at the same time, and just focus on if they are having fun.
📅 Prison Architect 2 was delayed indefinitely just weeks before launch, while Avowed is delayed until February 2025.
🗳️ Could Europe pass a law preventing publishers from “killing games?”
⛔ ROMhacking.net is shutting down after nearly 20 years.
🖥️ NZXT is now renting gaming PCs. However, you are better off saving up the $169 a month it costs to build your own.
🎮 Sony announced a new Astro Bot limited edition DualSense controller, while Microsoft announced their blue Sky Cipher translucent controller.
🥷🏿 The Assassin’s Creed subreddit will ban anyone who continues to complain about Yasuke’s race and his “historical accuracy.“ See our story from last week on this topic.
🖱️ Logitech’s new CEO wants your next mouse to last forever.
🐲 Amazon’s Like a Dragon: Yakuza show gets its first trailer.
New Releases this week:
8/6: Eden Genesis (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
8/6: Volgarr the Viking II (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
8/8: Cat Quest 3 (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
8/8: SteamWorld Heist 2 (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
8/8: Deathbound (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
8/9: The Crush House (PC)
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