Apparently GW’s Specialist Games may be returning from a new GW Specialist Games Studio. That sounds both unexpected and intriguing. Bearing in mind they apparently aren’t a games company any more…
I have lingering doubts about this really happening, though TTG’s website reports it as fact, and they’re normally fairly good at checking stuff.
It will make a lot of people happy if it’s true though.
Quirkworthy 
It’s been announced by GW on their “Warhammer” app.
Thanks Matt.
This is ridiculously exciting. Even though I will rush out to buy Epic and BFG instantly, I’m not sure I’ll ever play them (this is true for many games I now have… Too many games!)
I’m really looking forward to learning more about this!
What are the price points going to be though. The epic and blood bowl stuff got pretty crazy at the end with what used to be like 7 dollars being like 20 for 4 tiny tanks.
All this new stuff is likely to be plastic, which should help keep them in the more affordable end. Though it is GW…
I do not think I trust gw with the rules anymore and given the prices if their single pose plastics it is not a good sign.
A lot of ppl love the early stuff better for Space Hulk, and Blood Bowl from what I heard, though I got into it 2nd Ed and that worked fine for me. Seems to be this need to keep fixing stuff that isn’t necessarily broke, dumb it down, or just redo it stupidly. Space hulk recent edition looks sweet for it’s boards and minis, and addition of the Guard action, but goddamn why did they make Psychic powers lamer and overwatch cap so much harder? Bleh! Will they screw over other fave games GW game fans liked too?
They do it for the same reason WH40K is endlessly revised: novelty value. A lot of people do seem to like that (hence the eternal whining about the need for ongoing “support” for games), and it helps to resell more or less the same game to people who already bought it.
Almost without a doubt, they’ll be very overproduced games selling for >$100. Aren’t the last two of their games (Space Hulk and Betrayal at Wherever) selling for about $150? That doesn’t bode well for those of us on a budget…
Possibly more concerning for those who have a nostalgic yen for more of how things used to be, is that all the non-core stuff they’ve done of late has been stand alone rather than open-ended. Not sure this will scratch the same itch.
But this is all idle speculation….
What are they supposed to do? They sold the Space Marine vs Orks box set for $60, and resellers bought 80 copies then sold them piecemeal for $150 on eBay.
Other people are buying the box set for one half the set, and selling the other faction for $75 on eBay and after ebays cut breaking even.
Now folks are sending hate mail about how they are paying more for half the box cause they can’t find any and want GW to do something about.
GW can’t afford to have their boxes that are marked down to bring in new players only act as discounted grab bags for vets that then forgo buying their money makers like individual Dreadnaughts. So their solution has been to charge another $40 (more for limited edition sets) so cheapskate milkers and ebay price gougers aren’t doing as much damage on both fronts.
You can’t fault a business for trying to stay in business. Some moves are silly and on them. But with the state of resellers and ever rising costs in all areas, the box set strategy has been far from unreasonable, and quite frankly has made nothing but fair moves to protect their business from eating itself.
Box sets forever will be a tricky dicky of getting it right with promoting sales, getting new players in and holding enough value and content to allow players to participate in full games out of the box (which was the problem with all the older boxes of never being nearly enough to actually play a true game). Very rarely do established games get it completely right for everyone’s needs.
Yeah, GW charge £95 for BaC because it helps new players get into the game and not because they think it’s a price people will pay…..
If they were legitimately concerned about that they wouldn’t raise the price, they make more supply to meet the demand.
Supply and demand works both ways. It’s not profitable for them to sell that many figures at that low without a promise of future sales at a higher price point. Their not willing to supply that many units at that low of price because it just takes money away from them. At some point you have to make money back on the molds.
I gave the perfect box set example of when and why it changed. If you don’t get why prices went up, then I’ll assume you don’t understand business and are strictly concerned on your end regardless of how negative it might impact things. Bottom line, SM v Orks box set proved that GW is unable to provide a loaded starter kit at a rock bottom price point and expect to keep profitable product lines for those factions. They either have to strip the box, or increase the price.
I don’t buy any of these boxes and don’t play 40K so my interest in this is purely from a business point of view. I have nothing to lose or gain by the prices. Nor do I have anything against GW as a company.
GW did not charge £95 for BaC because resellers took advantage of the limited availability of the SM/Orks box set to buy it and sell on at a profit. GW have for many years made loss leader intro sets like Dark Vengeance without limiting availability and without charging £95. Those sets get broken up because there is a demand for part-sets, rather than the set no longer being available at retail. And it was not the £75 price tag that caused last year’s Space Hulk release to go for above RRP on the secondary market the day of release, but its widely advertised and somewhat misleading limited availability and sold out status. They could have sold it for £95 and it would still have ‘sold out’ on day one and still have been going for above rrp. Resellers exploit supply where supply outstrips demand (and get burned with it does not, see Dreadfleet). They do not exploit low rrp.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
But, new CEO, trying new thing.
And I may buy some.
The store manager in Australia who kicked all this off with a graphic he knocked together placed a heavy emphasis on the return on the specialist games. The GW announcement via the app relegates them behind the announcement of new boxed games, so it’s probably not just a resurrection of the old specialist games but a decision to release big box games more regularly, and reboot some of the old titles in the new format. I’ve been told that these won’t have store distribution unless a given titles sells well enough to warrant it, and they’ll be branded as Forge World.
Just so long as Blood Bowl doesn’t become Blood Bowl 40K, in an effort to increase sales by making a Space Marine team… Ugh!
Wouldn’t be weirder than Mega-City 1 fatties, which I fielded against a friend’s Troglodyte team back in 1st ed Blood Bowl.
Lots of potential there if true, both for old fans and for games that could become hobby gateway products for an entirely new generation. Time will tell, though I’m certain it would at the very least lead to some interesting models.
Though a part of me can’t help but look at the last couple of board/bundled games GW has produced and become somewhat concerned about the quality and balance of the rulesets, purchasing cost of the product (especially if intended as hobby of franchise gateway products) and availability. GW really seems to be riding the limited printrun / collector’s edition hard these days, while 40K has turned into a glorified DLC scheme.
And lets not even get into long term support or faq’ing broken stuff, heck from what I understand the latest batch of books and even Calth no longer credit authors………
I can only imagine the nerdrage when Mordheim returns as an expensive one-off boxed game with rules based on AOS. Or a Battlefleet Gothic given the Dreadfleet make over 🙂
Dreadfleet had nice miniatures though. I still wish i had bought it when it came out.
You mean bought it when retailers were clearing out stock they could not sell at a steep discount.
I managed to miss even that opportunity 🙂
having read the official statement, it is far milder than the original one.
the way i read it :
– more boxed games standalone
– some revival of old games. probably in the same vein as sh
– that’s it…
so nothing regarding any ongoing support for those games… which i think pretty much defines those so-called “specialist” games. what made them interesting was the continuous creation of addons, minis, special setups and campaigns or scenarios in wd, new rules, equipments, races and so on !
Amazingly excited by this , although concerned these will be costly games, if they hit the extraordinary quality of space hulk and translate that to games like necromunda or battlefleet gothic ..
I’d like it if they just bring back the old Necromunda terrain… really nostalgic for that stuff 🙂
I think people are reading far more into these announcements than is actually there. While I fully admit that a well-supported relaunch of a game in the Epic scale with lots of affordable plastic models for lots of different forces would suck me in like a ship trying to make the Kessel Run in 11 parsecs, I don’t expect anything like that anytime soon. And even when Epic does eventually get some face time with the design team, I’d not be surprised to find it has space marines of some flavor on all sides of the battlefield.
Absolutely. Space Marines for everyone!
That is just going back to the roots. My epic collection started with space marines vs space marines. Same models same rules just different colors.
Would I play (say) Necromunda, if they re-released it as was? No, other games since then have greatly surpassed it.
Do I trust GW to put out a brand new edition of (say) Necromunda, re-written from the ground up, and make it as good as it would deserve to be, and surpass those other games that have surpassed GW’s old games? No, I don’t believe GW’s games designers are capable of doing that any more.
If they DID manage to put out a new edition of (say) Necromunda, that is better than the competition and set in GW’s universe, would I play it? HELL YES!
So I’m intrigued, but outright excitement is on hold for the moment.