Games Industry News Roundup- December 16th, 2025

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.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sweeps the Game Awards

It’s that time of year again, folks. That fateful day every winter where gamers around the world let Geoff Keighley escape the containment of our phones in order to run the biggest awards show in gaming: The Game Awards.

Like previous years, this year’s awards show brought with it a litany of previews for upcoming games for viewers to get excited over. We already spoke here at Goonhammer about one of the most exciting reveals of the night, the announcement of Total War: Warhammer 40,000, but several other games made big splashes in the gaming landscape with their trailers. Some highlights of the night include Larian Studios showing off a grisly cinematic to announce their next game, Divinity, as well as the announcement of a new Star Wars game, Fate of the Old Republic, from Knights of the Old Republic veteran Casey Hudson. It seems like we could be a ways off before we see any real updates about Fate of the Old Republic, since the studio is essentially brand new and modern AAA games development is a monstrous undertaking, though Hudson has pushed back against those rumors in social media statements.

In a strange turn of events, the biggest talking point of the Game Awards this year was the awards themselves, specifically the awards for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The RPG, developed by French studio Sandfall games, won a record-breaking number of awards at the show, only losing out in 2 of the 11 categories it was nominated for. Expedition 33’s awards include Best Performance for Jennifer English, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, Best RPG, and Game of the Year.

The sweep has seen a massive uptick in concurrent players for the game on steam charts, and coincided with the launch of free DLC for the game intended as a “thank you” from Sandfall over Expedition 33’s overwhelming success.

Other major wins at the Game Awards includes Hades 2 taking home Best Action Game, Baldur’s Gate 3 winning Best Community Support, No Man’s Sky winning Best Ongoing Game, Umamusume Pretty Derby winning Best Mobile Game, and South of Midnight Winning the Games for Impact Award.

id Software Unionizes to Protect Against AI

Credit: id Software

id Software, the team behind the venerable Doom series, has joined the growing list of video game studios who are unionizing to protect themselves from the volatile video games industry, with a special concern for the rise of AI use in development.

"id Software is historically important – one of the more famous American studios that survived a length of time that few others have,” id Software producer Andrew Willis told Aftermath in a statement. “So it feels really awesome to get this done for something with such historical and cultural importance."

According to the id team, the sudden closure of several successful studios at Microsoft, particularly Tango Gameworks, as well as the unionization of several other teams at id’s parent company Bethesda, was the motivating factor for the team to reach out to the Communication Workers of America (CWA) to work on unionization efforts at id.

This sort of unionization is largely possible due to Microsoft’s neutrality policy towards unionization efforts, which was codified in 2022 as a part of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2022. While id has yet to meet with Microsoft executives at the bargaining table, employee benefits and AI protection are at the top of their minds.

"There's a lot of blind spots in our benefits, and a lot of us don't know what we have and what we don't and where things are lacking,” said Chris Hays, who works as lead services programmer at id. “When talking with a lot of people, some would say 'Oh, I think we're lacking this particular kind of benefit, or something around child care.' Personally, I'm really motivated to get protections around remote work and responsible use of AI.”

Microsoft has not released any statement regarding the unionization at ID at time of writing, nor has any announcement been made on when negotiations between the id workers union and Microsoft is set to begin.

CD Projekt RED Announces a Cyberpunk 2077 TCG

Credit: CD Projekt RED/Weird Co.

CD Projekt RED continues to push Cyberpunk 2077 out of the digital world and into the world of physical games with last week’s announcement of a new trading card game based on the IP.

Collaborating with Weird Co., a new TCG company with an emphasis on “human created games”, who’ve built a team of industry veterans, including designers from games such as Marvel Snap, Duel Masters, and Universus.

"WeirdCo was formed when Luohan (Weird Co. CEO) and I met each other through our mutual mentor, Bill Mooney: a true legend in the digital gaming space.” Elliot Cook, Weird Co.’s president, told IGN. “We immediately hit it off over our passion for building games that truly connect with their communities. Later, we formed WeirdCo to create games together — ones that authentically bring together and inspire people."

The Cyberpunk 2077 TCG brings in a litany of familiar faces from both the game and popular anime spinoff, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, as players complete gigs, gather gear, and earn street cred.

“I can’t wait for players to see how we’ve adapted the themes of Cyberpunk, like taking on gigs or building a crew, to a trading card game format,” Luohan Wei told IGN. “I think it is both true to Cyberpunk itself while being innovative to the TCG market as a whole; it’s a perfect combination in this way.”

For fans excited to bring the world of Cyberpunk to card games, the launch oracle page for the game offers a special promotional Lucy card with alternate full card art. The card game is set to come to Kickstarter in early 2026.

Mythic Games Officially Liquidates

Credit: Red Hook Studios/Mythic Games

Speaking of Kickstarter, one of the original big names in board game crowdfunding officially closed its doors last week, with Mythic Games officially liquidating all assets and ceasing to exist.

Mythic Games rose to prominence with the massive crowdfunding campaign for the Darkest Dungeon Board Game adaptation, which raised $5.6 million but struggled to get copies of the game in the hands of backers. Despite this, Mythic pressed forward with additional campaigns, which only caused those campaigns to experience the same fulfillment problems that plagued Darkest Dungeon. In the end, very few copies of any of the games that Mythic put up on Kickstarter ever reached the hands of those who paid money to get them.

As unfulfilled projects and rising costs loomed, the walls began to close in on Mythic. The company decided in January 2024 to raise capital by selling two of it’s unfulfilled projects, Hel: The Last Saga and Anastyr, to CMON, a company which has very publicly struggled with it’s own finances in 2025 and ended up selling both IPs again this year.

None of this was enough to even make a dent in any of Mythic’s problems, and the company even faced criminal prosecution for its failure to deliver on its campaigns. Though the company was cleared of wrongdoing in the investigation, it also seemed to be the final nail in Mythic’s coffin, and the company was condemned to compulsory liquidation in October of this year.

According to reporting from Boardgamewire, Mythic Games intended to provide backers for the long-struggling Darkest Dungeon Board Game with STL files for its detailed miniatures for both wave 1 and 2, but has since walked this claim back, saying it does not own the rights to any of the STL files for the game.

“For us, Mythic Games was far more than a company. It was a human adventure driven by a love of games shared by the entire team, and by the desire to create memorable experiences,” an anonymous ex-Mythic employee told Boardgamewire. “Knowing that we were not able to deliver to all our backers is a failure that will weigh heavily on us for a long time. We are deeply sorry for not having been able to honor all our commitments, and we sincerely thank all those who supported us throughout this journey.”

The Studio Behind Root Cancels Most Recent Kickstarter

Even more Kickstarter mess this week, but from a much more successful company.

Leder Games, the publisher behind the immensely popular Root and Arcs series of games, announced last week that it is cancelling its plans to launch a Kickstarter for its upcoming game, Take, following the departure of the game’s designer from the studio.

Take put players in the role of bank robbers performing a series of high stake heists, and need to work together to navigate their crimes successfully without getting caught.

The game was designed by Ted Caya, who worked at Leder Games for six years, including as the company's executive director of operations. Take was a passion project for Caya that he worked on independently during that time before taking it to his place of employment for wider publication.

“Take’s designer, Ted, has decided to move on from the studio and onto his next grand adventure. He will be bringing Take with him. Due to this, we are canceling this crowdfunding campaign,” Leder Games wrote in an official statement. “We wish him the very best!”

“As for the future of Take, that is squarely in the designer’s hands. We enjoyed our play tests in the studio, and will certainly celebrate if/when Ted takes that next step toward production. We are grateful for the enthusiasm you’ve all shown for Take.”

Caya and Leder Games have not made any additional statements regarding Caya’s departure or the future of Take, though Leder Games has posted a position for Executive Director of Operations to fill Caya’s now vacant role.

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