Recently, the same guy who correctly predicted Age of Sigmar and the recently leaked plastic Horus Heresy style kit came out and said that he happens to know that Codexes are going away within the next two years.
Now, at first glance, I see this as a good thing. The Codex format is fairly out of date in the current era compared to a few modern alternatives.
There are a lot of positives to the rules not being in a Codex, but instead being available online, or in PDF or Epub formats - These documents can be updated on the fly, for one thing.
Oh, there was a typo on a unit entry? Well, we can fix that.
Wording a bit ambiguous on this one rule? We can fix that.
The profile for this weapon is different in two different places? We can fix that.
We can also buff or nerf units in the middle of an edition and add in new units or formations to armies that have already seen their updates.
No longer would you be in the situation of thinking, "My Codex has already come out this edition, so I'll need to wait for either a supplement featuring some new content, or I'll need to wait a number of years for the next edition to hope my faction gets an update."
Without the limitation of a physically bound book and a singular primary release in an edition, they actually have more opportunity to focus on balancing units or introducing new ideas.
No one takes Kommandos? Why? What can we do to make them better?
There's no wargear that serves this purpose? Well, let's make an upgrade sprue like the Space Marine ones with a new item on and patch it in today.
Bonus points and kudos to them if they make some sort of app that tracks the factions you're interested in and either notifies you or automatically ques the updates for download, too, because why not use technology if you can?
Also bonus points if the rules are available for free. More and more companies in this industry are doing that these days.
About the only negative I can see to them putting rules online is that I struggle to properly read a current format Codex in digital form and much prefer flipping through the pages of a dead tree version when planning things out. And if the format they end up using is printable, it's pretty moot, really.
There is however... other news that goes with this news.
The latest Games Workship financial report included the following words:
"Secondly, I will review our product range. We believe this is long
overdue: it is time for a resetting of the ranges. Not tweaking here and
there but a top down reassessment. I expect to update you further at
the half year. We will aim to continue to deliver outstanding product
and customer service, maintain our Group gross margin and continue to
improve our Group stock turn. To be absolutely clear I will not be
reducing the RRP of our products: they are premium priced for their
premium quality. I will, however, be looking to offer a broader range of
price points. This is exciting and is for the long term, so I'm not
promising when you will see a change. We have already started the
brainstorming in our monthly strategic product meetings. It is early
days, but I can already foresee some busy times ahead."
Review our product range. Resetting of the ranges. Top down reassessment.
Okay, sure, some kits don't sell, there's a lot of models out there, streamlining it and removing unpopular units makes financial sense, and it wouldn't be the first time a unit or two vanishes from the game - The entire Squat race, Ork Madboyz and Boarboyz, we've precedent for units going away.
It's probably going to be seldom-used units that vanish anyway: The ones it wouldn't be financially savvy to convert from Finecast to plastic - things like Kommandos and Tankbustas. Sure, it'll be a loss, but if hardly anyone uses them, how large a loss is it really?
However, I feel a little uneasy about this: They're likely going to simplify Warhammer 40,000 when they streamline this range.
This in itself wouldn't neccessarily be a bad thing. The game is complex, I understand it can be extremely confusing and even alienating to new gamers...
However, they recently simplified Warhammer Fantasy with the release of Age of Sigmar, and I know that I'm not alone in not liking the system they came up with and feeling it was perhaps a little too over-simplified beyond what they needed to do to it.
I'm worried that if they simplify Warhammer 40,000, that the result could end up being much the same - that I personally wouldn't enjoy their new game system and as such would lose the very last link I have to the company responsible for me being into tabletop wargames in the first place.
Now, it's their intellectual property, they can do as they wish with it, I'm likely not their target audience, I can always play the older edition - All of this is true.
Yes, it is their IP. They can do as they wish with it. However, as a player, I don't have to like what they do, even though I have to accept what they do. If I decide that I dislike what they've put out, and am upset by the changes to the story, I do have a right to be upset by that, and then eventually move on.
No, I'm not their target audience. I spend less than £300 a year on Games Workshop products these days and that's not even a blip on the radar for them. They won't miss me if they change the game to drive me away. I'm aware of that.
And yes, I can and will play older editions. I already maintain that I will continue to play Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition.
The issue comes with continuing to play an old game in the future. New players will be playing new and current games - why would they want to play an older version with defunct models they'd have to locate online or convert?
Eventually, new and different games also claim the players adamant on staying with the older editions. Without updates and some sense of being current, a game does eventually fizzle out into a small handful of players scattered throughout your country.
I'd continue playing Warhammer 40,000, but eventually I would have to hang it up and simply accept it is a memory of another era.
And that's why I hope that their simplification of Warhammer 40,000 isn't similar to Age of Sigmar. I want to love these games. I want to keep on playing the games and reading the stories put out by the company that made me a wargamer through and through.
I don't want to have to replace the games I love with other games, other universes, other stories...
I will, if it comes to it, but I think it's sort of like dating someone. It's hard at first. You keep remembering these little things of the past and it's difficult to come to terms with the fact it's not like that anymore.
Eventually, you can move on and date someone else. There may even be similarities to the way things used to be. But it'll still be destinctly different. There's still a period of adjustment from the one to the other.
...As a side note, do rebound wargames exist? People turn away from one company for a reason, or a number of reasons, go to another wargame, but realise that it honestly wasn't going to last and they were just... grabbing onto anything... but it's not right for them.
Is that a thing?
I just hope that if I do have to break up with GW, they don't make it too uncomfortable.
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