Games Industry News Roundup- January 13th, 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 Plans to Bring Warhammer World to the United States

Credit: Games Workshop

Warhammer World in Nottingham is more than just the Games Workshop office building; for decades it has been a place of pilgrimage for Warhammer fans across the world, hosting expansive dioramas, the famous Bugman’s Bar, and of course plenty of Warhammer models to play and tables to play on. Even as Warhammer has grown into massive worldwide success, Warhammer World has remained a singular institution for eager gamers to visit.

Now, the great temple for Warhammer is expanding, with Games Workshop announcing plans to open a new Warhammer World location within the United States.

Games Workshop is tight lipped about its precise plans for the United States branch of Warhammer World. Currently, the only thing that the company has shared is the planned location: near the Washington D.C area.

“The original Warhammer World in Nottingham, UK sets a very high bar.” the Warhammer Community Team writes. “We’re not going to replicate it brick-for-brick, but instead build something equally uncompromising on quality and experience, something worthy of Warhammer’s rich settings and of course the title ‘Warhammer World’. And of course, at the heart of all this is creating something extraordinary for all of you – the Warhammer fans!”

This announcement is exciting, but also comes with plenty of questions. Is Games Workshop expanding more corporate operations to the States as well? Will they move the Nashville warehouse to the new Warhammer World? Will there be Bugmans? It looks like we will be waiting a while for any of these answers, as Games Workshop doesn’t expect to open the new location until 2027.

Blades in the Dark Gets Groovy with 60’s Themed Expansion

Credit: Evil Hat

Blades in the Dark is expanding its brand of espionage past sulking in the dark alleyways of the late 19th century to the bright spy thrillers of the 1960s with its newly announced expansion, Blades ‘68.

The new supplement moves the timeline for the game’s setting forward 100 years, from 868 to 968, where new advances in technology have created an seemingly idyllic retro-modern world filled with intrigue, secrets, and action just below the surface. New playable character archetypes include familiar tropes, like Fixers and Veterans, alongside more unique ones such as the Hull, a robot powered by the soul of a convicted criminal.

The expansion promises to add several new systems to Blades in the Dark, alongside streamlining and updating mechanics from the core game, such as the Harm and Resistance mechanics, four “Cold Open” stories that can serve as either hooks for a new campaign or a tight one shot session, and five “ticking time bombs,” social issues that could threaten to derail the entire city of Doskvol should they reach an boiling point.

The Blades in the Dark ‘68 expansion is set to go live on Backerkit on February 9th, 2026, and requires the core Blades in the Dark rulebook to play.

Larian Walks Back AI Use for Concept Art, but Still Plans to Make Use of AI

Credit: Larian Studios

Following a PR disaster last month revolving around Larian’s use of generative AI during development, the veteran RPG developer took to reddit to host an AMA with fans regarding their development process for their upcoming game, Divinity. During the AMA, Larian shared some important bits of information, including the fact that the company decided to walk back their use of AI during the creation of concept art, but still plan to have AI assist in development.

"I know there’s been a lot of discussion about us using AI tools as part of concept art exploration. We already said this doesn’t mean the actual concept art is generated by AI but we understand it created confusion,” wrote Swen Vinke, CEO of Larian. “So, to ensure there is no room for doubt, we’ve decided to refrain from using generative AI tools during concept art development. That way, there can be no discussion about the origin of the art."

While it appears that Larian is responding to public pressure and stepping back from AI use, Vinke clarifies that Larian still plans to use the tech during the development of Divinity, stating that Larian wants to take advantage of AI to speed up development and foster creativity within the company. Vinke gives little in the way of concrete details for how AI will be used, but one example given during the thread is to utilize AI to fill in frames from motion capture data.

Larian did state that for any generative uses for AI during development, the company is only using models trained off of data from Larian.

"The important bit to note is that we will not generate 'creative assets' that end up in a game without being 100% sure about the origins of the training data and the consent of those who created the data," wrote Vinke. "If we use a generative AI model to create in-game assets, then it’ll be trained on data we own."

Vinke did not provide any examples for what these creative assets might be during the AMA.

Dave Filoni Rumored to Step into Co-President Role at Lucasfilm

Credit: Lucasfilm

Kathleen Kennedy, the longtime top executive at Lucasfilm in the Disney era, is reportedly stepping down from her position as Lucasfilm president in 2026, with her role being split between two people. According to the rumor, Lynwen Brennan, the president of Lucasfilm Business, will take over the executive functions of running Lucasfilm, while Chief Creative Officer for Star Wars Dave Filoni, creator and showrunner of some of Star War’s most popular shows, will run the creative side.

According to Puck News, who initially reported on the rumor, there is not a known specific date for when an announcement will be made regarding Kennedy stepping down from her role, or how long the transition period between executive leaders might be.

Brennan is the lesser known of the pair of potential Lucasfilm presidents, initially starting at Lucasfilm in 1999 with a leadership role in the Computer Effects team of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Brennan became the president of ILM in 2009 and greatly expanded the company before taking on her current role in Lucasfilm Business in 2015.

Filoni on the other hand is very well known for the Star Wars faithful, having created some of the franchises most popular shows, such as Clone Wars and Rebels. Filoni started with Lucasfilm in 2005, building up the animation division at Lucasfilm from scratch to create and run Clone Wars, which received both critical and fan praise over its seven season run. Filoni was promoted to his role as chief creative office at Lucasfilm in 2023.

Phasmophobia Developer Launches New Indie-Focused Publisher Label

Credit: Kinetic Games

Phasmophobia, the indie game that tasks a team of players to go on a ghost hunting adventure and survive the perils of the paranormal, launched its solo developer, Daniel Knight, into a level of success beyond their wildest dreams. Rather than rest on his laurels, Knight is looking to help other small indie games find success like him by launching his own publishing label, Kinetic Publishing.

Knight is joined on this endeavor by Asim Tanvir, an industry veteran at studios such as 2K, Konami, and Zynga. Knight brought Tanvir on to serve as Kinetic’s director of marketing and partnerships, leaning on Tanvir’s 15 years experience of building relationships, running social media accounts, and finding projects to bring to the publishing team.

"It was always something I wanted to do," Knight told Gamesindustry.biz "It's always been the ultimate goal, ever since I started hiring people, even when I was on my own. It was always in the back of my mind. We've been growing quite a lot recently, and now we're up to 40 people. We're going to be growing over the next year as well. That's why now is the perfect time."

Knight and Tanvir plan for Kinetic Publishing to be a safe haven for indie games trying to make a bigger impact on the market, while maintaining their own independence without frequent publisher interference.

Tanvir stated in an interview regarding Kinetic Publishing "To this day, we don't have any investors, financial backers, shareholders, or anything like that. It's just us. We decide what we do, and we want to support teams like that. We don't want to change their vision.”

As of this writing, Kinetic does not have any games signed under its label yet, but is actively searching for projects to bring on. Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.