Games Workshop as a company has been around for over forty years (holy shit) and it shows in alot of their business philosophy. While they're very innovative in some areas(such as their book kindle releases and obscene number of audiobooks), they're positively primordial in others.
They want total and absolute control over thier IP, all thier products are obscenely over-priced(models AND books), and they refuse to innovate or adapt to the times in any way that forces them to not have dictorial powers over thier brands.
In many ways, they are schizo - they simultaneously act like a company that's making a very niche product that sells only to people with high levels of cash to spend, while turning around and trying to 'broaden thier market share'. They dip thier toes into putting out animated shorts of various types, then immeadiately gate-keep the fucking things behind a goddamn streaming paywall. Tried to make a kid-friendly series of Warhammer 40K books(wtf?). Fan-created series that made more people interested in Warhammer and it's associated brands than Games Workshop EVER has in any way shape or form gets crushed, ruthlessly, and tossed to the winds because GW can't have anything they're not in control of.
Asartes was a work of fucking art, had professional film makers gushing over how increadiable it was in terms of design on multiple levels, was actually creative and making up new stuff and new mysteries that has people still talking about it, had people who had NEVER heard of Warhammer before going 'Holy shit, this is AWESOME, I want MORE' -
and they basically just snatched the guy up and brutally murdered any future Asartes-like series in the fucking cradle.
Yeah. I fucking hate GW. Every time I have a small inkling of potentially getting into wargaming as a hobby, I just remind myself how horribly they are.
Asartes was a work of fucking art ... was actually creative ... and they basically just snatched the guy up and brutally murdered any future Asartes-like series in the fucking cradle.
Not only did they snatch him up about a week or so before he was going to start releasing Astartes 2, they then put the original up on GW+... but reedited with the graphics muddled and the sounds edited to be worse.
Fan-created series that made more people interested in Warhammer and it's associated brands than Games Workshop EVER has in any way shape or form gets crushed, ruthlessly, and tossed to the winds because GW can't have anything they're not in control of.
Case in point, Janovich, he of the dancing Death Korps. After GW took down Astartes, he boxed up all of his purchases that were still in the refund window and got a refund. He still does GW content, and he's dared them to come after him for doing so. Also, his GW corporate videos are on the nose.
Meanwhile, for as massive of a misstep that they made by firing Blain Pardoe, Catalyst Games Lab has been handling the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise surprisingly well. Because at the same time GW was squashing their fan animations, CGL took the creator of a popular fan series and had him help with their newest game, or at least on the trailer. As well as canonizing the character and micronation of one of their most popular community members ("Tex" of the Black Pants Legion, with his character Randolph P. Checkers of Van Zandt).
Tried to make a kid-friendly series of Warhammer 40K books(wtf?).
The problem isn't doing this, it's how. There is room for kid-friendly stories in 40k - one of my favourites is about a juve going through a coming of age trial as he is given his first pistol and sent to kill a feral rat. But that's taking advantage of the scope of the 40k universe to find a segment that is appropriate to that kind of story, instead of just giving the kids a neutered version of the main show.
Games Workshop as a company has been around for over forty years (holy shit) and it shows in alot of their business philosophy. While they're very innovative in some areas(such as their book kindle releases and obscene number of audiobooks), they're positively primordial in others.
They want total and absolute control over thier IP, all thier products are obscenely over-priced(models AND books), and they refuse to innovate or adapt to the times in any way that forces them to not have dictorial powers over thier brands.
In many ways, they are schizo - they simultaneously act like a company that's making a very niche product that sells only to people with high levels of cash to spend, while turning around and trying to 'broaden thier market share'. They dip thier toes into putting out animated shorts of various types, then immeadiately gate-keep the fucking things behind a goddamn streaming paywall. Tried to make a kid-friendly series of Warhammer 40K books(wtf?). Fan-created series that made more people interested in Warhammer and it's associated brands than Games Workshop EVER has in any way shape or form gets crushed, ruthlessly, and tossed to the winds because GW can't have anything they're not in control of.
Asartes was a work of fucking art, had professional film makers gushing over how increadiable it was in terms of design on multiple levels, was actually creative and making up new stuff and new mysteries that has people still talking about it, had people who had NEVER heard of Warhammer before going 'Holy shit, this is AWESOME, I want MORE' -
Yeah. I fucking hate GW. Every time I have a small inkling of potentially getting into wargaming as a hobby, I just remind myself how horribly they are.
Not only did they snatch him up about a week or so before he was going to start releasing Astartes 2, they then put the original up on GW+... but reedited with the graphics muddled and the sounds edited to be worse.
Case in point, Janovich, he of the dancing Death Korps. After GW took down Astartes, he boxed up all of his purchases that were still in the refund window and got a refund. He still does GW content, and he's dared them to come after him for doing so. Also, his GW corporate videos are on the nose.
Meanwhile, for as massive of a misstep that they made by firing Blain Pardoe, Catalyst Games Lab has been handling the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise surprisingly well. Because at the same time GW was squashing their fan animations, CGL took the creator of a popular fan series and had him help with their newest game, or at least on the trailer. As well as canonizing the character and micronation of one of their most popular community members ("Tex" of the Black Pants Legion, with his character Randolph P. Checkers of Van Zandt).
The problem isn't doing this, it's how. There is room for kid-friendly stories in 40k - one of my favourites is about a juve going through a coming of age trial as he is given his first pistol and sent to kill a feral rat. But that's taking advantage of the scope of the 40k universe to find a segment that is appropriate to that kind of story, instead of just giving the kids a neutered version of the main show.