Games Industry News Roundup- February 24th, 2026

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.

Games Workshop Previews Overhaul to Black Library App Later This Spring

Credit: Warhammer Community

Something light and fun to kick us off this week with the announcement from Games Workshop that the company is overhauling its Black Library digital app with an increased focus on ease of use, and is including multiple Black Library titles for free with the update.

The update, which is scheduled to go live on March 18th, will include over two thousand titles from the Black Library catalogue, available in either eBook or MP3 audio form, as well as titles in multiple languages, such as French, German, and Spanish. The new app is intended to be a one-stop shop for all things Black Library related, so users can buy, download, and enjoy the stories from the Warhammer universes without navigating multiple apps or a confusing layout.

Alongside the new app, Games Workshop is releasing multiple titles for free to download for anyone who downloads and uses it within the first month of release. The list of stories included for free include a mix of audio dramas as well as ebooks from both the Warhammer 40,000 setting as well as Age of Sigmar and even The Old World. Notable titles include the Ciaphas Cain: The Anthology, Darkoath, Avenging Son, and The Return of Nagash.

Those with pre-existing Black Library accounts can already complete the new process of linking their current account to the new app to prevent any issues with their current selection of purchased titles not transferring over once the update goes live.

Phil Spencer Steps Down from Xbox, Replaced by Former Head of AI Department

Credit: Xbox Game Studios/Microsoft

Well, that was a fun little news story, wasn’t it? Time to chase it down with a nice gulp of caustic nightmare.

After 12 years as the head of Xbox at Microsoft, Phil Spencer is passing the torch, and he’s passing it quickly. Spencer’s final day at Microsoft is February 23rd (yesterday, at time of publishing), and Spencer is not alone on this exit. Sarah Bond, President of Xbox and Spencer’s heir apparent, announced the same day that she has resigned from her role and is leaving Microsoft completely.

Under Spencer, Xbox created Game Pass, a popular subscription service that game users access to a wide, rotating catalogue of games, including new releases and big budget blockbuster titles. Spencer also oversaw the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, alongside the infamous wave of layoffs that followed the buyout once the ink was dry. He’s spent 38 years in total at Microsoft, prior to his departure.

Bond, meanwhile, joined Microsoft in 2017 before rising to the role of Gaming President in 2022. At time of writing, there is no indication as to where Bond intends to go next, or why she has departed the company. She writes in her exit statement, “As I prepare to sign off, I’ve been reflecting on three simple questions I’ve tried to use to guide my days: Did I bring my best? Did I help someone else succeed? Did I do my best work? I hope the answer has been yes for many of you. It’s been a privilege to work alongside this team.”

Asha Sharma is stepping into Spencer’s shoes as the CEO of Gaming at Microsoft, moving over from her role as President of Microsoft’s CoreAI program. Sharma joined Microsoft after serving as the COO of Instacart in 2024, and also worked as a VP at Meta and a board member at Home Depot.

Sharma somewhat addresses the elephant in the room, that being her role working so closely with AI at Microsoft, as part of her company statement on taking the role, writing, “As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.”

Both Spencer and Bond will serve as advisors to Sharma during her transition into her role as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

Studio Behind Demon Souls and Shadow of the Colossus Remakes Shut Down by Sony

Credit: Bluepoint Studios/ Sony

More bad news in the video game industry, which at this point is no real surprise. Bluepoint Studios, the development team behind the PS5 remakes of both Demon Souls and Shadow of the Colossus, has been shut down by Sony.

According to a report from Bloomberg, all seventy of the employees at the studio will be affected by the shuttering, with Sony making the decision based on a “recent business review” of company financials.

“Bluepoint Games is an incredibly talented team and their technical expertise has delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community,” a spokesperson from Sony told Bloomberg. “We thank them for their passion, creativity and craftmanship."

Outside of developing remakes for modern machines, Bluepoint also assisted with the development of 2022’s God of War: Ragnarok, and was reportedly working on a live-service model game set in the God of War universe before the game was canned in January of last year. The studio then pitched several new projects to Sony, but none were greenlit, and eventually the decision was made by higher ups to shut down Bluepoint entirely.

Sony took a 72 hour hiatus from social media following the report about Bluepoint’s closure, following widespread criticism and outrage from users.

Asmodee Acquires Another CMON IP as Well as Second Netflix Deal

Credit: Asmodee

Big news for Asmodee, as the company is sprinting into 2026 and swinging for the fences. Last week, Asmodee made two big announcements: first, that the company had acquired the Sheriff of Nottingham IP from CMON. The second bit of big news for Asmodee is that the company has struck a second deal with Netflix, this time for another one of its most popular titles, Ticket to Ride.

CMON’s financial issues are no secret at this point, despite the promising share sale made by the company earlier this year. Even with that cash injection for the beleaguered company, CMON stated that selling additional IP’s for revenue was not off the table. Asmodee continues to be happy to make these deals, following deals on multiple CMON IPs last year, including Zombicide, one of the biggest brands to come out of CMON. Sheriff of Nottingham, a social deduction card game, was purchased at an undisclosed price, and will join Z-man studios at Asmodee, whose other titles include Love Letter and Pandemic.

On the Netflix side of things, the Ticket to Ride deal is similar to the sweeping Catan deal, which gave Netflix license to make multiple shows or films based on the IP, but we do have more concrete details as to what to expect initially. According to the announcement, Asmodee and Netflix are partnering for a deal that could include a multitude of titles, both scripted and unscripted, based off the iconic board game. The first of these will be a film, with Ben Mekler and Chris Amick attached to write the script. Mekler and Amick’s most notable writing credit is for the Kung-Fu Panda animated series, and previously pitched a movie based on the board game Root to Netflix Studio execs.

As of this writing, no premiere date has been set for the film.

AEG COO Fired After Pro-AI Rant on Social Media

Credit: AEG Alderac

We’re often told, “hey, be careful what you post online. People look at that, it could get you fired you know.” It’s advice that Ryan Dancey should’ve heeded, as the 30 year veteran of the tabletop industry was let go from his position at AEG, the company behind popular board game titles like Love Letter and Space Base, last week following a string of social media posts defending the use of AI in the development of tabletop games.

In his posts, Dancey is extremely vocal about his belief that AI could not only assist in the creation of tabletop titles, but even outright replace designers, making the human element of making games completely redundant.

“I have zero reason to believe that an AI couldn’t ‘come up with Tiny Towns or Flip Seven or Cubitos’. I can prompt any of several AIs RIGHT NOW [sic] and get ideas for games as good as those,” Dancey wrote on his LinkedIn page. The gaming industry doesn’t exist because humans create otherwise unobtainable ideas. It exists because many many previous games exist, fed into the minds of designers, who produce new variants on those themes. People then apply risk capital against those ideas to see if there’s a product market fit. Sometimes there is, and sometimes there is not. (In fact, much more often than not).”

Dancey doubles down on his take later in the post, writing “Extremely occasionally (twice in my lifetime: D&D and Magic: the Gathering) a human has produced an all new form of gaming entertainment. Those moments are so rare and incandescent that they echo across decades. Game publishing isn’t an industry of unique special ideas. It’s an industry about execution, marketing, and attention to detail. All things AIs are great at.”

The posts quickly gained momentum outside the LinkedIn bubble, and drew plenty of heat from tabletop fans who would very much prefer their games be created by real, breathing people rather than some strange version of ChatGPT.

Among the detractors was the CEO of AEG and Dancey’s boss, John Zinser, who defended the human element of game design, writing on his Bluesky account “There’s been conversation today about AI and game design. I want to be clear where I stand. For 30+ years, AEG has worked with human designers to bring games to life. That creative partnership, the collaboration, the shared spark, is what makes tabletop special. That is not changing.”

Dancey was let go from his position at AEG shortly after this post from Zinser. AEG has not announced a replacement at this time.

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