Welcome home.
It’s October 18th, and the episode title is “$55 billion”.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #305]
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Dark Wizard Games won the RPG Publisher Spotlight. The interview with Mark is live, and the first question is about the name Dark Wizard Games. The company wasn’t always called that. It began life as Freakshow Games, and for the first and incorrectly assumed to be the last game. Mark was asked by fans to keep writing, so he did. The company then became Maximum Mayhem Dungeons, but it sounded more like a product line. As a result, the company changed names for a third time to Dark Wizard Games.
Mark’s raised one quarter of a million dollars on Kickstarter, and that’s very impressive. There can be big money in gaming. Remember that $2 billion deal between the Embracer group, the company which owns Amosdee, and a Saudi company. That fell through and forced Embracer into a series of painful cost-cutting exercises.
The EA deal is 27 times larger as the American computer games company is on the verge of selling itself for $55bn to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. However, there’s significant backlash in the States. On the right, politicians don’t like losing an American cultural asset to foreigners, and on the left, there are concerns about the human rights record of the Saudis. Gamers might be worried about what a Public Investment Fund knows about gaming.
Also from America, there’s news, hopefully, of progress against the remains of Diamond Comics, which kept the goods hostage in their warehouses. Green Ronin has said that the group of gaming companies affected has received an offer of mediation talks from the remains of Diamond that they think is significant enough to take seriously.
Ultimately, I’m not sure there’s going to be any winner here. A critical company has failed, but we can try and hope that the impact on those affected is reduced as much as possible due to people doing the right thing.
A gaming deal to keep our eyes on takes us back to the Embracer group. Asmodee, one of their companies, has taken full control of all Middle-earth tabletop games.
In the short term we do know what this means for The One Ring RPG, which is made by Free League and not Asmodee, because the press release clearly says that nothing will change.
However, we can speculate that it will be Asmodee who decides whether Free League keeps the license when renewal comes around.
In 2022, when Embracer first muscled into the Lord of the Rings license, I talked to Free League boss Thomas Harenstam and asked about this risk. Back then, Thomas wasn’t sure, but at least Embracer HQ was also based in Sweden. Let’s see what happens next.
It’s not all been corporate wheeling and dealing this week. We’ve had some community successes, too. In fact, we’ve seen community push back against companies.
Siege Studios has dropped its attempts to trademark Warboot. Why? Well, here in the UK, ‘warboot’ has been used for years to apply to a carboot-style wargaming sale or any sort of swap meet. It was a phrase coined and made popular by fans.
Now, in an honest Instagram video, Siege Studios boss James Otero has apologised for the mistake, explaining that they had wanted to make a network of Warboot events but had gone about it without sufficient thought.
The stories get even stranger, though, and I think the news from Wargames Atlantic takes the biscuit.
Firstly, Wargames Atlantic will repay 12 year debt from a Kickstarter from a company called Defiance Games.
Secondly, the boss of Wargames Atlantic, Hudson Adams, announced his name isn’t really Hudson Adams.
What’s going on? Hudson is actually Tony Reidy, and Tony Reidy was the boss at Defiance Games. You see, Tony tried again and in secret after Defiance Games failed, he learned his lessons and now, a decade later, is in the position to repay those old debts.
Geek Native has been contacted by people who have received and already spent their returned money. I’m not sure I approve of Tony operating on the sly, but at least the karmic balance is beginning to be addressed now.
While Defiance Games has managed to phoenix into a new company as Wargames Atlantic, the same is not going to be true for the comic book publisher Humanoids in the States.
Sadly, the new name for the company there is “HC Wind Down Corporation”. Yeah, Humanoids, the publisher of Metal Hurlant, is being closed down in the States. It’s a frighteningly tough market out there.
In other comic book news, you can now get Judge Dredd guitar pedals. Yes, now your axe can dispense justice.
The deal is with the music company ThorpyFx and, yes, it’s a first because 2000 AD hasn’t previously had a musical collab like this! I don’t think it’s much of a risk.
Perhaps the biggest risk I took this week was going to see Tron: Ares. You see, I didn’t like the trailer, didn’t mind the previous sequels and loved the original.
I thought the Jared Leto film might be a total disaster, but emboldened with a use-or-lose free cinema ticket, I took myself to the big screen to watch it. Thankfully, I don’t think it was a disaster. I don’t think it’s a classic, but it was certainly entertaining, avoiding being boring in well-versed debates around AI.
The movie I’m looking forward to is Predator: Badlands. We follow a young Predator on a quest to redeem himself.
It’s not as odd as you think but British craft beer company Siren has teamed up to do an exclusive beer for the movie. The beer will be called Soundwave: First Hunt IPA, and there’s already a waiting list for it. Yes, I’m on it.
It’s not such an odd deal because Siren had previously done a collab with Fox and Disney on an Alien: Romulus beer. I ordered a crate of that with the intent of sampling maturely and writing a review. I failed and drank the lot in a night. Let’s see if I do better with the Predator beer.
Bronwen blogged about a different collab between companies. Did you know you can get official Wednesday Doc Martens? We’re talking Addams Family big stompy boots.
There’s a bag and several boots, each with a spiderweb theme.
Bronwen also reviewed the Pad Creator this week. That’s a piece of tech intended to nurture art and science skills in your kids. You use it to take photos, draw on like a tablet and then print out the resulting art.
In Bronwen’s review, the early star is her pet lizard, Darwin, who seems comfortable in front of the camera.
I’ve two bundles to tell you about. The first is on Fanatical and from Goodman Games. It’s the Tabletop Horror Collection of DCC titles.
The second is on Humble and from Magpie Games. If you’ve been tempted by games like Root the RPG, the Masks superhero game or the Avatar Legends RPG, this is the bundle for you.
Thanks for listening. What would you do with $55bns? Let me know on the blog or Discord, and tune in next week.
