It’s been a busy year for Games Workshop. They have released a lot of products for Warhammer. Some might say that Games Workshop is releasing too much stuff.
Is it me or does it feel like Warhammer miniatures are released at a neck breaking pace all the time? Beware, this one is a ranty one.
Warhammer weekly releases
First off we need to talk about the weekly Warhammer releases. There is a lot that comes out every single week and you get pre-orders every single Saturday. My question would be “Who has the time and money to buy and paint all this stuff?”
I’m not going to lie, I’ve pre-ordered some stuff myself in the past. But the reality is that the miniatures that I buy are few and far in between. The main reason is that I don’t really have the time to build and paint Warhammer during the week. With a full-time job and a baby, my hobby time is essentially non-existent at the moment. It’s hard to reconcile weekly releases with my life schedule and commitments.
On the plus side, the Warhammer releases are generally varied and span different games. One week releases for Warhammer 40,000, then another week for Age of Sigmar, then Blood Bowl, Necromunda etc etc. So the reality is that you’re probably not going to buy much plastic every single week.
The Warhammer 3-year cycle
Games Workshop essentially releases a new edition of their main games every 3 years. This means that every 3 years the game’s rules get rewritten. Your faction rules will change, the balance within your faction will change and the game style may be affected too. This will force you most likely to at least buy more books and data cards. And then buy more miniatures since the meta will change of course.
Obviously this is by design. Warhammer is a lucrative IP and Games Workshop knows it. It needs to sell in order to bring profits to the shareholders. It’s their business practise and if they want to run it that way that’s fine. This said, the way they update their games is not very consumer friendly because every time new rules are released you have to buy more rulebooks.
The reality is: how many games of Warhammer do you actually play a year? There’s going to be a very small minority that plays every week, but the vast majority of people are not going to be playing that much. I am lucky if I get to play once a month. It’s simply really hard for casual gamers like myself to keep up.
Too! much! Warhammer!
And it’s not just the 3-year cycle. In 2024 alone, we’ve had three major editions launching. Warhammer Age of Sigmar entered its fourth edition this summer (which is great by the way) followed by a brand new edition of Kill Team shortly after, and now Warhammer Underworlds is getting a revamp.
That’s three new editions for three different games. All released within a few months from each other. Isn’t it a bit much?
Obviously, with so many games, the overlap is bound to happen, but this is at the detriment of the games they want to hype up. A new edition doesn’t feel special anymore. It’s just a tick box exercise that has to happen because money.
There is no breathing room between releases, everything is so fast that you do not have time to even open the box to start gluing pieces that the next big box is already out.
They teased AoS 4th Edition for months on end, and then they moved on from it so quickly it was unreal. A few weeks later they were hyping up Kill Team! So Age of Sigmar wasn’t so special after all?
Games Workshop wants you to get in on the hype cycle, and I’m not going to get into it now, but the new edition means new shiny toys, new hype, new sales. Simples. Consumers like me need to be mindful of the hype and try not to get caught into it. But this will be a topic I want to focus on in the future and I’ll stop here for now.
But what do you think of Games Workshop release cycle? Do you think it’s too much or is 3 years a good time frame between? I’ll be interested to know your thoughts. Let me know in the comments!