Link Round-up: Anti-Union Sentiment, Award Winners, and Table Riding

Here's a round-up of game-related news and articles I've seen elsewhere:

▪️ To follow up on my 25 October 2026 post, in response to two teams of employees within Wizards of the Coast attempting to form unions, Hasbro has once again hired the "union avoidance" law firm Fisher Phillips, which it had previously hired to try to keep members of the MTG Arena team from voting to form a union. That previous effort failed, with United Wizards of the Coast forming in June 2026.

Additionally, on Vertical Slice, Chris Kerr transcribed part of an interview between Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks and WBUR "Morning Edition" host Tiziana Dearing in which Cocks responded to questions about impending unions. Here's part of Kerr's article with Cocks's disingenuous response:

When asked specifically about the need for assurances around job security, Cocks said "the greatest form of job protection any team can have is to expand the business they're working on." He also suggested that a unionised team will be one that suddenly becomes slower or less innovative overnight. 

"I love that team. I respect that team. I just want to make sure we can innovate and deliver for our consumers as best as possible. That's going to be the best way we can not just protect the people who are on the team, but grow the number of people who are on that team. Promote that team as rapidly as possible," he added.

"If I have any kind of concerns about a union, it's about changing the dynamic of one of the most successful sets of teams in the industry [in a way] that would slow us down and prevent us from being able to achieve all that I think we're potentially able to achieve."

Evidence shows that expanding the business you're working on is not always a form of job protection.

▪️ Michael Mathieu is a portrait photographer with an interest in gaming, so he wrote to Cephalofair and pitched them on the idea of hiring him to take pics at SPIEL Essen 26. The publisher agreed, and he wrote about the experience on his blog. The main takeaway: Learn how to use a polarizer filter to remove glare.

▪️ In early October 2026, the French version of Marie Claire — which translates as "Marie Claire" — featured publisher Bombyx in a section titled "Nos coups de cœur du mois" ("Our top picks of the month"), which seems like an odd place for a publisher of quirky games to be featured, but I'll note that section is labeled "En partenariat avec Médias France" ("In partnership with Médias France"), with Médias France being a promotional agency that appears to create and place content for its clients.

Even so, interesting to think that Bombyx thought it worthwhile to be featured in front of Marie Claire's audience...

▪️ French journal publisher Les Mille Liens is trying to crowdfund a new edition of the French game journal Jeux et Stratégie, which ran from 1980 to 1990, with the first issue scheduled to be 116 pages and with the contents "entièrement créés par des humains, avec leurs qualités et leurs imperfections" ("entirely created by humans, with their qualities and imperfections"). Unfortunately, that project has reached only one-quarter of its goal.

▪️ Let's summarize a few more game awards that have popped off in the past few months:

• The 2026 Jogo do Ano — Portugal's game of the year award — has gone to Renato Ciervo and Andrea Robbiani's Ants from Cranio Creations. (For a game overview, check out my review from September 2025.)
• Hisashi Hayashi's Railway Boom from Arclight Games won the 2026 International Gamers Award in the multiplayer category. (Simone Luciani developed both Ants and this edition of Railway Boom, which differs from the one Hayashi self-published in 2022.) Faouzi Boughida and Mathieu Rivero's Duel for Cardia from Hans im Glück won in the two-player category, and Matt Leacock's The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship from Z-Man Games won in the solo category.
• The jury with Lucca Crea, which runs the Lucca Comics & Games festival, chose Reiner Knizia's Rebirth from Mighty Boards as its 2026 Gioco dell'Anno (game of the year), with the other finalists being Art Society, Bomb Busters, Echoes of Time, and Thunder Road: Vendetta.

▪️ If anyone is looking for a new gaming event to hold at conventions, consider this table race format originally posted on Nitter and reposted on Bluesky.

▪️ Not game related, but I wanted to post this anyway: LEGO and Daft Punk have signed a brand partnership that will include licensed products, digital content and brand experiences. The LEGO website features a teaser video, and here's an excerpt from a press release announcing this deal:

The origins of this iconic partnership can be traced back to the LEGO Ideas community, where a Luxembourgish father-and-son passion project captured the attention of thousands of fellow Daft Punk and LEGO fans.

First crowned Grand Prize Winner of the LEGO Ideas Music to Our Ears challenge in 2020 before later reaching 10,000 supporters on the LEGO Ideas platform, this fan idea will now advance into the next stage to officially become a LEGO set that fans around the world can build and enjoy across generations. Designed as the famous pyramid stage from Daft Punk's 2007 ALIVE tour, this product launch will represent the ultimate symbol of shared fandom and the creative foundation of this partnership.