Happy New Year 2024!
Goodbye 2023, and let’s ring in the new year! I think we have all been looking forward to this New Year!
Warhammer in 2023
Games Workshop had quite the year in 2023. They started off strong with the wrap-up of 9th edition and the release of not one, but TWO Primarchs for 40k. Then in the middle of the year we had the massive launch of 10th Edition Warhammer: 40,000 with all the Leviathan boxed sets and campaign. I’m still trying to figure out how the Tyranids won that campaign (but I’m not mad about it). Afterwards, on the 40k side of things, GW seemed to slow and coast towards the end of the year — at least in terms of army releases. There were still other splash releases for Kill Team and other 40k updates but things seemed to making space for other games.
One of the other games that was a big deal this year was the launch of Legions Imperialis. Epic is BACK in 2023 and looks to continue to expand. We’ll have to wait and see if the support for the game continues past the initial fervor from the fans. And speaking of the Horus Heresy Era and releases, we also got the release of a Daemon Prince Primarch Fulgrim! What a tease by GW on that one.
On the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar side of things we’ve had a relatively stable year with a steady stream of battletomes and army updates. GW updated the Cities of Sigmar with a new range of miniatures and essentially created a “new” version of them. We’ve also seen GW slow things down with the General’s Handbook releases. We’re currently six months in and have another six months to go with this year-long experiment. Additionally, GW also has the Dawnbringers event currently running that seems to be updating all the armies with new toys to tide us all over. I’m expecting big things for AoS in 2024!
Dungeons & Dragons in 2023
More like what didn’t happen in 2023, am I right? But seriously, this was such a weird year. By all rights, 2023 should have been D&D’s biggest and best year ever. They had the launch of a beloved campaign setting planned, with Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, and the already popular in early access Baldur’s Gate 3 was on track to be one of the best cRPGs of all time.
But instead they started the year by trying to sneakily deauthorize the OGL, offering select partners a “sweetheart deal” in closed-door meetings to give them favorable royalty rates for any 3rd party content. That went over worse than the proverbial lead balloon, and the community banded against WotC, whose whole publishing schedule was disrupted to try and put distance between the OGL debacle and now.
In the wake of that industry shakeup, D&D’s reputation suffered and several competing RPGs gained steam that they may not otherwise have found. Kobold Press had Tales of the Valiant, MCDM launched an as-yet-untitled fantasy RPG, and Pathfinder got more players than ever, selling out an entire year’s worth of a print run in the span of a couple of weeks. As we head into 2024, with Hasbro having laid off a ton of people who worked hard in spite of their leadership to make what could have been an all-time good year for D&D, more people than ever are looking beyond it’s d20’d shores.
Magic: The Gathering in 2023
This was a banner year for Magic: the Gathering, and fans, new and old, were treated to a feast of incredible products. From the return of fan-favorite planes like Kamigawa, Eldraine, and Ixalan to the culmination of the decades-long Phyrexian saga, the world of Magic has never been better. We even got to visit some fascinating Universes Beyond, with adventurers finding themselves in Middle-earth and traveling the cosmos with a madman in a blue box. The Commander community continued to grow stronger, while Modern and the other competitive formats maintained their niche. We even got a glimpse into the future of Draft with the upcoming Play Boosters, premiering early next year.
2024 is going to be even better if the previews can be believed. The Fallout Universes Beyond set looks incredible, and the return to Ravnica as a murder mystery is a fun twist. With several more sets on the way, more favorites returning, and a bunch of new stuff on the horizon, it’s only up from here. My only question is…with the Phyrexians gone, who is going to be the new biggest bad?
Pop Culture in 2023
2023 was another turbulent year for Hollywood; despite that, we got some fantastic movies and shows. Action and stunt work hit (literal) new heights in John Wick 4, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, and Extraction 2. Two movies – Barbie and Oppenheimer – became a full-blown cultural phenomenon thanks to sharing a release date. Horror had another great year with a mix of originals and franchise movies, with the controversial Skinamarink topping many lists. We also got some amazing dramas that made us feel all of the emotions.
2024 is shaping up to be an amazing year already – Dune Part 2, The Penguin, Fallout, Furiosa, Masters of the Air, Ballerina, Deadpool 3, and more are already on the calendar. The new year also brings a new era of creation with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA contracts. Data transparency is going to be a game-changer for streaming. We’ll see how it all shakes out in the coming months – I’m hoping for good things.
And that is something to celebrate!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
