"Specialist Design Studio"

[Brother Tyler]

Something interesting that I noticed when opening my newly-arrived copy of Malevolence the other day was that the credits page said something completely different from previous books in the Age of Darkness/Horus Heresy and Imperial Armour series.

 

Previous books had something to the effect of:

PRODUCED BY THE FORGE WORLD STUDIO

(Age of Darkness books)

 

OR

 

PRODUCED BY FORGE WORLD FOR GAMES WORKSHOP

(Imperial Armour books)

Malevolence, however, had:

PRODUCED BY THE GAMES WORKSHOP SPECIALIST DESIGN STUDIO

Now this isn't necessarily "new" so much as official confirmation [in publication] of a shift that has been commented upon previously. It will be interesting to see the full ramifications of this change.

[Panzer]

Yeah a friend of mine already mentioned a while ago that Forgeworld isn't really its own thing anymore and is now just the specialist design studio part of GW.

[Rik Lightstar]

I think once the extended factory is fully open, Forgeworld will disappear, any CAD stuff will move to plastic as they've clearly got their costs more manageable for plastics now (even niche special characters like Eldrad and the like).

 

Some hand sculpted resin kits MIGHT go to Finecast,and then the Forgeworld brand will go and a new "Specialist Games Warhammer: 30,000" will be born with a Heresy "Starter Box" like Calth and Prospero.

 

Rik

[MARK0SIAN]

It’s probably part of a longer term strategy but after the last few years Forgeworld has been a bit of a shambles in terms of organisation. You can’t blame GW for feeling the need to take more direct control.

 

There was also that rumour that they wanted to cease resin production by 2022 so maybe that’s turning out to have some basis in reality.

[Robbienw]

Wasn’t the resin production rumour only about normal GW resin minis and not forgeworld stuff? As in stuff that went from metal to resin in the finecast days, and the odd new resin mini they do like Eisenhorn and sly marbo.

 

The specialist games studio under forgeworld leadership has been a thing for a few years now, its not new.

[Guest]

I've heard rumors of them shutting down resin productions for many reason. These range from cheaper to produce plastic to environmental taxes of resin use. However I am pretty sure that HH would be more popular if it moved to plastic.

[Panzer]

Wasn’t the resin production rumour only about normal GW resin minis and not forgeworld stuff? As in stuff that went from metal to resin in the finecast days, and the odd new resin mini they do like Eisenhorn and sly marbo.

 

The specialist games studio under forgeworld leadership has been a thing for a few years now, its not new.

 

To be fair if FW only really exists by name now and is actually GW but with a different team working for the stuff it won't make much of a difference. GW moves away from resin so "FW" will too.

However I don't think we will see resin gone completely. They still make new stuff out of resin even from GW directly. Mostly special miniatures but still.

[Guest]

 

Wasn’t the resin production rumour only about normal GW resin minis and not forgeworld stuff? As in stuff that went from metal to resin in the finecast days, and the odd new resin mini they do like Eisenhorn and sly marbo.

The specialist games studio under forgeworld leadership has been a thing for a few years now, its not new.

 

 

To be fair if FW only really exists by name now and is actually GW but with a different team working for the stuff it won't make much of a difference. GW moves away from resin so "FW" will too.

However I don't think we will see resin gone completely. They still make new stuff out of resin even from GW directly. Mostly special miniatures but still.

Agreed, there is some things I feel that plastic can not replace. However plastic is getting very good. People said that they couldn't make Primarch out of plastic but look at Magnus, Morty, Abby and guilliman. All of them larger than their predecessors and extremely detailed.

[Robbienw]

 

Wasn’t the resin production rumour only about normal GW resin minis and not forgeworld stuff? As in stuff that went from metal to resin in the finecast days, and the odd new resin mini they do like Eisenhorn and sly marbo.

 

The specialist games studio under forgeworld leadership has been a thing for a few years now, its not new.

 

To be fair if FW only really exists by name now and is actually GW but with a different team working for the stuff it won't make much of a difference. GW moves away from resin so "FW" will too.

However I don't think we will see resin gone completely. They still make new stuff out of resin even from GW directly. Mostly special miniatures but still.

 

 

Its always been GW but with a different team, ever since it was incepted.  That is common knowledge.

 

Forgeworld was expanded with the specialist games team who produced the Calth box and Necromunda, AT, etc, and now it seems the whole team is being referred to as the Specialist Design Studio.  But you still will have Forgeworld as a seperate brand entity with its own website, and the plastic specialist stuff being released through the main GW site.  Nothing has really changed except for nomenclature.

 

I'm still thinking that the end of resin production by 2022 rumour only refers to GW resin 40k minis (ex finecast and special stuff like marbo).  There is no way FW will stop making the big stuff in resin, and that small a time frame doesn't give them enough time to transfer much of their heresy range to plastic.

[Ishagu]

GW are now writing the rules for FW models in 40k also.

[Marshal Reinhard]

I'd say the effects of the switch have been felt for a fairly long time. The FW release schedule has all but ground to a halt for how long now? Yeah its not completely dead, but move back a few years and the difference is night and day.

 

I don't think they'll completely move away from resin, unless they intend to completely abandon their largest models like 40k scale titans etc.

[Lord Marshal]

I could definitely see Forge World being re-branded to bring the name in line with "Games Workshop." I know we all know what Forge World is, but every newcomer has to go through the, "so... it's part of Games Workshop right?" question when they're introduced.

 

It'll be like how they finally threw their hands in the air and re-branded their shops to Warhammer, because everybody who wasn't big into the hobby called them that anyway.

[Marshal Rohr]

I think resin infantry kits will go away and be replaced with plastic. Vehicles and Titans will have to stay resin, and they wouldn’t have released the warlord and nemesis and entirely redone the reavers if they were going away by 2022. I expect all generic heresy kits will become plastic, with legion specific dreads, units, and character staying in their current form.

[Robbienw]

I would have thought it is pretty obvious to newcomers that forgeworld is part of GW.  Black Library too.

[Robbienw]

I think resin infantry kits will go away and be replaced with plastic. Vehicles and Titans will have to stay resin, and they wouldn’t have released the warlord and nemesis and entirely redone the reavers if they were going away by 2022. I expect all generic heresy kits will become plastic, with legion specific dreads, units, and character staying in their current form.

 

That would be really brilliant if it does happen, imagine stuff like Leviathans and Sicarans and Spartans in plastic  

 

Hopefully they would do the Contemptor in plastic again though, and not leave us with the BaC one!

[Rik Lightstar]

I think as far as the REALLY big kits go, so the Warhound upwards, I'm expecting us to see a plastic Warhound and that will be the test. I think for Titans plastic is probably the better material anyway, and if you look at the size of some scale model kits out there then most of them should be viable.

 

Rik

[Brother Tyler]

I guess it's not surprising that the discussion has focused on the resin/plastic models so far.

 

For me, the more pressing issue is whether or not we'll continue to see Imperial Armour campaign books. Forge World's method, after all, was to align model releases with campaigns - giving us models for units that appear in the campaigns. This wasn't universal, but it covered the majority of their releases. When the Age of Darkness series became so popular, a lot of Forge World's resources were aligned with supporting the Horus Heresy units and the other "modern" campaign books slowed down considerably. These campaign books also allowed Forge World to present us with new sub-factions (e.g., Red Scorpions, Ellysian Drop Troops, Eldar Corsairs). Presently, Forge World's primary support is for the Age of Darkness, the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, and the Specialist games (Necromunda: Underhive and Adeptus Titanicus: The Horus Heresy). When the Age of Darkness ends (Black Library novels coming to a climax soon, FW game likely ending soon, too), what happens then? Will we see campaign books? Will Forge World continue to give us new sub-factions? Will we see the specialist games range expand? Two fondly-remembered games from the old Specialist Games range were Epic: Armageddon and Battlefleet Gothic. The old Aeronautica Imperialis models were Epic scale models, and that game was a bridge between BFG (space naval combat) and Epic (surface combat).

[Marshal Reinhard]

I guess it's not surprising that the discussion has focused on the resin/plastic models so far.

 

For me, the more pressing issue is whether or not we'll continue to see Imperial Armour campaign books. Forge World's method, after all, was to align model releases with campaigns - giving us models for units that appear in the campaigns. This wasn't universal, but it covered the majority of their releases. When the Age of Darkness series became so popular, a lot of Forge World's resources were aligned with supporting the Horus Heresy units and the other "modern" campaign books slowed down considerably. These campaign books also allowed Forge World to present us with new sub-factions (e.g., Red Scorpions, Ellysian Drop Troops, Eldar Corsairs). Presently, Forge World's primary support is for the Age of Darkness, the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, and the Specialist games (Necromunda: Underhive and Adeptus Titanicus: The Horus Heresy). When the Age of Darkness ends (Black Library novels coming to a climax soon, FW game likely ending soon, too), what happens then? Will we see campaign books? Will Forge World continue to give us new sub-factions? Will we see the specialist games range expand? Two fondly-remembered games from the old Specialist Games range were Epic: Armageddon and Battlefleet Gothic. The old Aeronautica Imperialis models were Epic scale models, and that game was a bridge between BFG (space naval combat) and Epic (surface combat).

 

I mean. They're doing heresy. They're doing specialist games. The release schedule for the heresy books hasn't exactly been stellar lately. I don't think they're gonna push their luck and insert things like a new vraks or badab in the middle of that. The next book would have to come out when, the next decade?

 

Even when Forgeworld was churning out stuff like crazy for the heresy, new stuff like every other week, it started to become pretty apparent that they didn't have enough time to focus on things they had been doing in the past. Things like new stuff for non legion space marines (most of their 30k heresy that can be used in 'modern' 40k aside) all but vanished under weight of legion specific contemptors (and now leviathans!)and shoulder pads and torsos.

 

I struggle to recall anything for 40k they've done recently beyond making their pet chapter the redscorpions chapter master into a leviathan and a command set for them, along with what, a Gabriel Angelos model that coincided with the flopped release of DoW3.

 

Forgeworld is not what it once was. Maybe if they conclude the Heresy they COULD go back to doing a new badab or similiar, but I'd expect that to come out from GW proper like a new Vigilus instead.

 

EDIT: Even if they might get done with the Heresy, they (presumably) won't get done with specialist games. It seems fairly clear to me they don't have the same amount of resources/lack of other obligations to take much of anything else on atm. I think we would've had seen all legions out for the heresy by now if they did, at the very least.

[Halandaar]

I don't think this change really signifies anything we didn't already know; Necromunda, Adeptus Titanicus, Blood Bowl and the Heresy-related plastic-filled games have all been from "Specialist Games", which we knew was headed up by the designers in Forgeworld.

 

I think our only hope for the resumption of 40k Campaign books (and all the awesome subfactions they brought with them) is the completion of the Heresy arc of Black Books.

[Jackalwolf]

As per the lead of FW HH, the black books are less than half way through, so if new Imperial Armour books are expected it will have to come from increased resourcing.

[Xwingt65]

I think as far as the REALLY big kits go, so the Warhound upwards, I'm expecting us to see a plastic Warhound and that will be the test. I think for Titans plastic is probably the better material anyway, and if you look at the size of some scale model kits out there then most of them should be viable.

 

Rik

Bandai makes several kits that are absolutely enormous, so it is definitely technically viable. Actually making them take up a lot of machining time, so they don’t make them often. But make a made to order run, once or twice a year would be a way to do it.

[Captain_Krash]

I don't see GW squatting Forgeworld at all...from a business and marketing standpoint the brand is worth too much to just drop. Forgeworld were more heresy focused due to not having specialist games on their chopping block. With specialist games being a thing again which is great, and a IMO far too much Lord of the Rings support (ie.  can't believe they are still using the license...? Like seriously) For such a small studio they just can't keep up with everything. Forgeworld at their best was when they could all focus as a coherent team on one new "thing" and produce amazing content. 

 

Just my opinion

 

Krash

[Noserenda]

Yeah Forgeworld has been a bit of a shambles the last couple of years, between losing a lot of talent to specialist games and Alan Blighs unfortunate passing it seems theyve been completely swamped and incapable of doing much more than treading water, tbh i think it might be better for them to just incorporate/replace their rules writers into the main studio entirely and maybe do some kind of crossover books with the FW production team making IA/HH books fluff and the main studio the rules parts, stick to what each team is actually good at.

Probably look at re-branding Heresy and Lotr as full specialist games too given i suspect they might actually be similarly niche these days.

[Marshal Rohr]

They did that. All Rules are done the design studio now. Only the rules for each game plus Heresy are done by FW. 

[Lexington]

It's really seemed like ForgeWorld was wrapping things up for the past few years, and this looks like more confirmation. It's sad, and I wonder how much the seemingly ubiquitous recast market has been responsible for this. It's hard to offer a "premium" line when five people in a Ukranian warehouse space can offer near pristine clones of your wares at half the price. That's not a knock on FW, who have the responsibility to actually develop these things, pay first world nation wages and to cast in a material that's less likely to cause blood to flow from every human orifice. It's just the weird world we live in now.

 

It's really too bad, because ForgeWorld really felt like the last bastion for an older style of 40K, one with more military history and other real-world experiences in the mix. The design, the writing, it all took the crazy idea that maybe 40K existed in a world with more than swords and guns and great Oaths of Whatever. I miss that.