There might be a couple of reasons why they donât want to do that. First is the worry that theyâd eat into their own market - why do I need to spend ÂŁmegabucks on this Hippogryph model if I can just use it in the digital version? Second is that maybe the ruleset doesnât hold up well enough?
What I mean by the âhobbyistâ comment above is that they seem to be really embracing the side of the hobby thatâs about collecting and painting cool models and getting into the lore and stuff. There are other modern miniatures games now that have more polished/competitive rules, but they canât possibly compete with the goodwill associated with the Warhammer universe(s).
FFG have got a game thatâs basically â40k, but Star Warsâ which might have been a worry for GW were it not for FFG being completely unable to support games properly. Their X-Wing miniatures game is pretty popular almost in spite of how they handle it.
Iâm neither a business or a Games Workshop expert - but they obviously felt that drip-feeding licenses, while producing good games with high production values, either wasnât working or wasnât earning them enough cash.
On your other point, I suppose turning the table-top game into a digital format would put people off buying the miniatures? They probably want the video games to drive people to the core product, not be an alternative.
Players collect forces of miniature plastic models, all with different stats and abilities, and use them to play out clashes on a tabletop battlefield. âItâs very strategic,â says Dimitri of Warhammer â10Kâ, which is his game of choice. âItâs 10-fold more complicated than chess.â
Is 10K actually a thing or do they mean 40K?
On the other hand the two Blood Bowl games have been pretty faithful reproductions of the tabletop rules and sits pretty happily alongside the cardboard reboot of that, so maybe Iâm talking shite.
Well, you charge for the digital version as an in-game purchase. You get standard units, like you do in the starter-box, but then need to buy your army, like you do in the tabletop. Or you get a digital version free if you buy the model. The army points-limit system should stop it being pay-to-win. I donât know, Iâm not a businessperson!
The hobby angle is a good focus for them. I liked assembling and painting the models (not squads though, fuck painting squads). I used to dream of having a massive tabletop with a bunch of different terrain tiles I could place on it, then spending all day engaged in a 5,000pt battle. And winning.
Itâs definitely this. Going back further than DoW, they used to almost never give their license to any video game (there was a Space Hulk game that was pretty ok, I think?) and I always assumed it was because they wanted to keep a firm grip on their ability to sell ludicrously overpriced miniatures to spotty, gullible children in order to play a game that you could only learn was poorly balanced after dropping about a hundred quid on it.
Now I guess theyâve learned their monopoly is going to be fine as long as no game actually recreates any of their board games, and theyâre happy to chuck the license and just about anyone. I canât remember the last 40K game that didnât look like a quick cash-in, although the fantasy Warhammer one thatâs still seeing expansions now seems to reasonably popular.
Fucking Tyrannids.
My angle for this is (obviously) from a card game perspective and seeing how those deal with this. The market seems to have settled on completely separate physical and digital products⌠which then pushes people into playing free fan-made digital versions instead.
can you play bloodbowl with little cardboard men instead of miniatures again?
I have happy memories of playing that in lunchtimes at school - when they brought out the version where you needed to paint your own pitch and men I made a right mess of it.,
Itâs all plastic these days, but itâs a printed board now.
I thought about getting into it, but Iâve got about seven other games I donât go to regular events for as it is.
BRING IT.
Iâm dusting off my best die for this!
Just couldnât get into TW at all. Felt like I was building a base for hours, then the battles felt like some shit add-on. Then I needed a hero or something and there was a mission to do. Meanwhile, my tavern didnât have enough people to run it.
Had this on my 3D0 and it was mint. FPS strategy with fully rendered close combat! Amazing for the time.
My standard-bearer canât do Friday, howâs Sunday?
That x wing tabletop game (from what Iâve seen of it) looks a lot like a 40k spin off game that I canât remember the name of now? Where youâd get the different kinds of ships and build a fleet rather than an army effectively. Racking my brains, canât think
Part of me keeps thinking Wizards of the Coast could make a fortune with a free to play MtG, just charging for card packs.
(There was a second part to this thought, but I canât remember what it was)
MANOWAR?
I donât know what to say to that.
Battlefleet Gothic, I think?
There are actually two (!) Star Wars spaceship miniatures games - X Wing and Armada. Armada is more like the old GW one (capital ship scale), X Wing is small ships (mostly) and plays quicker and is generally more accessible. Itâs pretty popular too - there have been 500+ player tournaments going on at penoid things I attend.