Games Industry News Roundup- March 25th, 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.

Epic Lays Off Around 1,000 Employees

Credit: Epic Games

This slot was originally going to be a light and breezy bit about how the new Greyhawk Setting cover is based on a painting Vince Vaughn bought at an auction a few years ago. Fun, feel good stuff. But thanks to Epic, we can’t have nice things, can we?

Epic Games announced on Tuesday in a memo to employees that it was laying off over 1,000 employees from its development teams, blaming declining player numbers in Fortnite for the decision.

“Today we’re laying off over 1000 Epic employees.” Epic CEO Tim Sweeny wrote. “I'm sorry we're here again. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles puts us in a more stable place.”

Sweeny also references the costly legal battles with other giant corporations, such as Google and Apple, as a reason for Epic’s money troubles, writing “we're only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world's billions of smartphones; and in being the industry's vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.” Sweeny has previously blown off the costs incurred from these legal battles, writing that Epic simply makes a whole bunch of money and can afford to take these lawsuits head-on indefinitely.

What is absolutely not to blame, according to Sweeny, is AI, noting “Since it's a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren't related to AI. To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.”

Epic promises those employees affected by the layoffs a severance package that includes four months pay, six months of health coverage in the United States, and access to Epic stock options until January 2027. Sweeny tells employees at the end of the memo that more regarding these layoffs will be discussed in a Thursday company meeting, saying there will be a roadmap with more details.

This is the second time Epic has laid off a staggering number of employees due to a drop in Fortnite engagement, laying off 900 employees in 2023, which represented 16% of Epic’s workforce at the time.

GAMA Apologizes for Behavior During AGM Meeting

Credit: GAMA

GAMA is coming off a big high following its most recent GAMA Expo, which broke attendance records for the trade show by 12% over its previous 2025 peak of 3,425. During the trade show, however, the GAMA board caught heat from other members of the organization due to the remarks made during the Annual General Meeting (AGM), which the GAMA board publicly addressed last week.

According to reporting from Boardgamewire, some members of the GAMA board of directors became hostile during a heated conversation about lowering the quorum requirement to hold the meetings from 25% of membership to 10%, as well as making a change to allow for bylaw amendments to pass with just a simple vote majority of those present. Both of these changes were met with general skepticism among those present, who claimed that they would prefer more streamlined and consistent communication from the Board rather than the changes proposed.

It was during this discourse that GAMA Board members accused attendees for only attending the AGM for the free food, and continuing to dismiss and talk over the dissenting opinions.

“This was out of order, unacceptable, and should have been shut down immediately,” the GAMA board wrote in a statement. “We, the members of your board of directors, apologize to all our members. We pride ourselves in serving GAMA’s members and advocating for our industry. Unfortunately, on Monday [March 2] that passion manifested in a way that was unbecoming of a board.”

“We believe GAMA, as a whole, should also be the best possible industry association it can be. We take your feedback seriously and will work to address our shortcomings as a board in order to ensure you, as members, get what you need out of GAMA. We look forward to working with you on that.”

The statement does not cite any specific actions being taken against the board members who acted inappropriately during the meeting. Matt Loter, one of the board members, has publicly stated that he was responsible for the free food remarks, and apologized for his behavior.

NVIDIA Announces DLSS 5, Sparking Immediate Controversy

Credit: NVIDIA

Tech giant NVIDIA announced a new version of its upscaling program last week, DLSS 5, showing off the new technology in a trailer. The new tech immediately became the subject of fiery derision from game fans and developers alike, as the AI systems in DLSS 5 appear to drastically alter the games visuals when used.

According to NVIDIA, “DLSS 5 introduces a real-time neural rendering model that infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials. Bridging the divide between rendering and reality, DLSS 5 empowers game developers to deliver a new level of photoreal computer graphics previously only achieved in Hollywood visual effects.” In the announcement trailer, multiple games are shown off with a side by side comparison with DLSS 5 on and off, including very recent games such as Resident Evil: Requiem. In each example, DLSS 5 dramatically changes the game’s visuals.

“Twenty-five years after NVIDIA invented the programmable shader, we are reinventing computer graphics once again,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, wrote on the DLSS 5 page on the company’s website. “DLSS 5 is the GPT moment for graphics — blending hand-crafted rendering with generative AI to deliver a dramatic leap in visual realism while preserving the control artists need for creative expression.”

These changes have not been met kindly by much of the wider video games community. While some voices have come to the new technology’s defense, such as the director behind last year’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, most fans and developers alike point out how the program’s changes to how a game looks can wildly alter the creative vision of its creators, and potentially undermines years of hard work to create a very specific look. Many have taken to social media to mock these changes with memes, saying that DLSS 5 “yassifies” the games it’s used on.

Rob Fahey of Gamesindustry.biz succinctly sums up the issue with DLSS 5 in an opinion piece about the subject, writing “For all the advances being made with the silicon, Nvidia's insistence that turning that power over to generative AI technologies is the best path forward for game visuals is an idea that feels born out of the company's strategic priorities rather than out of actual consultation with developers.”

Trench Crusade Plastic Starter Box Coming this Summer

Leaving the nightmare of the video game world to take a pitstop in tabletop games, Factory Fortress Inc is blazing forward with Trench Crusade, announcing that the wildly successful game is getting a new 2 player starter box in hard plastic later this summer.

The box, The Carcass Front, is slated to release later this July, was initially announced as the final stretch goal of the crowdfunding campaign, though at the time it was only going to be a narrative campaign supplement for Trench Crusade. The supplement would take players to the Carcass Front, a region north of New Antioch, and feature rules for running map based campaigns, different weather conditions during games, and multiple new scenarios for Trench crusade games to use.

“What started as a Stretch Goal for our Kickstarter campaign has transformed into an incredibly ambitious project that we’ve been working on for the best part of a year with some of wargaming’s most illustrious veterans,” Factory Fortress Inc writes, “including (but not limited to!) Tuomas Pirinen, Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson on design, Mike Franchina, Pedro Nunez, Artem Demura and Thomas Elliott on art, and lore by Tuomas Pirinen and Graham McNeill.”

With the massive continued success of Trench Crusade, The Carcass Front has expanded beyond just the narrative supplement book into a full blown 2 player starter box. Alongside the narrative supplement originally planned for in the crowdfunding campaign, the box includes two new warbands for players to use: the heretical Naval Raiders, and the blighted faithful of The Procession of the Sacred Affliction. These models are in hard plastic, will include multiple assembly options, and give players a ready-to-go 700 Ducat warband.

Mentioned briefly in the announcement comes some excellent news for Trench crusade fans outside the U.K, as Factory Fortress Inc has made arrangements for local logistics hubs for Trench Crusade so that The Carcass Front will not be affected by tariff costs.

The Carcass Front is currently available for preorder online.

Video Game Studio Behind Blood Bowl Adaptations Shuts Down

Credit: Cyanide Studios/Games Workshop

Back to video games, which means back to bad news.

Cyanide studios, who have been responsible for the recent video game adaptations of Games Workshop’s Blood Bowl, has filed for insolvency with the French government, alongside several other studios owned by parent company Nacon, who itself filed for bankruptcy in February.

“The aim of this procedure is to assess all possible solutions to ensure the sustainability of the Company's activity under the best possible conditions, protect employees, and preserve jobs, while renegotiating with its creditors in a calm and constructive framework," Nacon wrote to investors in February. At the time, Nacon made no mention of how its subsidiary companies would be affected by the decision.

Now, however, it looks like reorganization efforts have forced multiple studios to file for insolvency alongside Nacon. Affected studios include Spiders, responsible for the Greedfall franchise, and Kylotonn, responsible for the World Rally Championship series.

Prior to this announcement, Nacon had ownership over 25 subsidiaries, including 16 development studios, and employed around 1,000 people. The number of those directly affected by these insolvencies is currently unknown. Games Workshop also has made no statement at this time regarding the future of the Blood Bowl video games with the closure of Cyanide studios.

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.

Tags: Blood Bowl | video games | Industry News | gama | trench crusade