Is GW cutting down on events? Seems quiet this year

[Taliesin]

What I'm referring to is , last few years we always had FW Open Day in July or August, it was an annual event.

It's clearly not happening, but also there has been no word on it. Just seems to have been killed quietly.

 

Also, last year there was Warhammerfest Europe. I was there, seemed like a success to me.

Kept waiting for an announcement this year... but nothing here either. 

 

This is remarkable to me, two of last year's most interesting events to get some news and talk to teams, cancelled.

 

Makes me wonder if we will even get our BL Weekender later this year. 

[Rik Lightstar]

Don't expect Forgeworld events if I was you, Forgeworld is in "wind down" to become "Specialist Games" as one division of GW and "Large Kits" (name to be confirmed) as another.

 

As soon as GW have their new factory facility open and running there wont be any reason to produce anything smaller than a Warhound in Resin.

 

There is the 40k "Biggest Battle" event though, and some tournament stuffs.

 

Rik

[Panzer]

Basically what Rik said.

 

As for the Warhammer Fest in germany. Last year was the first and kind of a test whether it would work out or not. I half expected to not see one this year regardless of the outcome.

[Rik Lightstar]

I appreciate that Real-World-Politics is a no-go, but it can't be ignored in this instance, Games Workshop PLC is a UK based business and was probably not in a realistic position to confidently plan an event in Mainland Europe for 2019, these events are typically planned 12-18 months in advance at a minimum and nobody knew or even knows now, if or when Brexit might or might not happen.

 

As soon as it has happened or has been written off as a bad idea (I'm not expressing a preference and nobody else should here), then GW will again be able to look at the planning of events within Europe.

 

Rik

[Panzer]

Brexit should have no influence on planned events in europe at all.

[sairence]

Brexit should have no influence on planned events in europe at all.

There is a lot of logistics, both with people and stuff, that would be affected.

[Redcomet]

Don't expect Forgeworld events if I was you, Forgeworld is in "wind down" to become "Specialist Games" as one division of GW and "Large Kits" (name to be confirmed) as another.

As soon as GW have their new factory facility open and running there wont be any reason to produce anything smaller than a Warhound in Resin.

There is the 40k "Biggest Battle" event though, and some tournament stuffs.

Rik

Basically this. There is a lot of restructuring going on behind the scenes atm.

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

What I'm referring to is , last few years we always had FW Open Day in July or August, it was an annual event.

It's clearly not happening, but also there has been no word on it. Just seems to have been killed quietly.

 

Also, last year there was Warhammerfest Europe. I was there, seemed like a success to me.

Kept waiting for an announcement this year... but nothing here either. 

 

This is remarkable to me, two of last year's most interesting events to get some news and talk to teams, cancelled.

 

Makes me wonder if we will even get our BL Weekender later this year. 

 

You could always send a email to the Warhammer World event team, if it for events down in Nottingham & UK Warhammer Fest.  While they can not give specificity dates for any unannounced events, I'm sure they will be more than happy help answer any question over events & worry over them?

[mughi3]

Not a surprise really, I remember when they quietly phased out the sponsored quarterly rogue trader and yearly grand tournaments.

 

The real world concerns above are all part of the larger picture that GW is a publicly traded company beholden to shareholders as such there is a constant balancing act between income from sales and business cost from overhead and other operational costs.  they need to keep a certain level of profit while maintaining sales. which is why lines that were not constant income generators such as specialist games stopped being supported.

[Marshal Rohr]

The [Redacted] event going on today has been really weak. No new races or armies just cleanups on existing factions with army book releases. Maybe this afternoon will see the preview of. =][=Eldar adjacent conversion materials =][=but if it doesn’t I think it’s largely a pretty big miss and would kind of confirm my feeling GW won’t be able to do much beyond boxed games and sporadic releases until the new factory/warehouse is complete.

[Sete]

Im grow tired of GW empty hype. Marshal gave a good example.

[Guest]

Im grow tired of GW empty hype. Marshal gave a good example.

 

Going to be blunt and abrasive, 8th started off on a bad foot for me for this same reason. Space Wolf Codex was months after all the other SM codex's and GW kept saying "just wait, we have something special exclusively for SW's!". This kinda hinted toward Russ, or unique primaris units, or the 13th company coming back as was told in Ashes of Prospero book. Waited all that time just to see that we had a unique Primaris Lieutenant, which BA's and DA's also go with their codex. So what was all the hype about? why hype it up why not just say "codex will be released when codex is finished".

 

I feel as though GW is being too cautious between their big stock jumpy, the new factory coming, and the good or bad greetings primaris had. Unless a higher up from GW speaks to us I don't think we will ever know what is going on. It just aggravates me waiting for certain  troops/vehicles/rules or Primarchs to come.

[Halandaar]

Space Wolf Codex was months after all the other SM codex's and GW kept saying "just wait, we have something special exclusively for SW's!". This kinda hinted toward Russ, or unique primaris units, or the 13th company coming back

I'm pretty sure they never said anything of the kind and as usual the community filled in the gaps with their own wishlisting on the basis of "if it's taking so long there must be something special".

[RikuEru]

 

Space Wolf Codex was months after all the other SM codex's and GW kept saying "just wait, we have something special exclusively for SW's!". This kinda hinted toward Russ, or unique primaris units, or the 13th company coming back

I'm pretty sure they never said anything of the kind and as usual the community filled in the gaps with their own wishlisting on the basis of "if it's taking so long there must be something special".

But they did. They said it would definitely be worth the wait, etc.

Of course they never teasered Russ or the like.

But getting a belated and very badly balanced, almost 'weak' codex (in some regards atleast and this was not my judgement!) was a bit disappointing.

[NTaW]

While I get that "empty hype" is disappointing please keep the focus on events and not the contents of releases.

[Panzer]

The event today might not have been great for 40k fans but it was great for AoS fans. Two new battletomes revealed and another teased. Since GW has multiple systems they have to balance everything between those.

[MARK0SIAN]

The event today might not have been great for 40k fans but it was great for AoS fans. Two new battletomes revealed and another teased. Since GW has multiple systems they have to balance everything between those.

This is true but it’s starting to feel like they’re spreading themselves a bit thin over all the systems, particularly with so many new ones. It might be why there have been less events as they just haven’t got the manpower necessary for it and why the release schedule for stuff seems unnecessarily long.

[Sete]

The event today might not have been great for 40k fans but it was great for AoS fans. Two new battletomes revealed and another teased. Since GW has multiple systems they have to balance everything between those.

Speanking as an AoS fan, i disagree. But this is not the place for it ;)

 

If they are doing an event, whatever sistem, show some stuff. Dont drop cryptic teasers, show some covers and 1 miniature. Its infuriating.

 

For me its so annoying as a costumer, that i decided not to buy anything this month out of sheer fustration.

[Panzer]

I guess it depends on what you expect. I don't really go to events for some big reveals because I get those almost immediately on their website already as well. So if I'm on an event and there's actually a reveal or so then it's a very welcomed surprise in my book. ^^

[MARK0SIAN]

It could be they’re struggling to decide what their events should be like. A lot of people want reveals but as has been pointed out, those are shared on the website often before the attendees see them. They’ve had a lot of complaints about that.

 

So they’re perhaps taking some time to think about what added value they can give to attendees at events that they can’t get from the website. Seminars are a good start but seminars where they don’t actually tell you anything or answer questions are not popular.

 

I know that I’ve personally been to a few where I’ve felt “what was the point in coming here? What did I get that couldn’t have been gotten online?”.

 

Could be they’re cutting back because they haven’t been able to decide what to offer or that they need more staff available for events to run seminars etc.

[Taliesin]

 

 

 

You could always send a email to the Warhammer World event team, if it for events down in Nottingham & UK Warhammer Fest.  While they can not give specificity dates for any unannounced events, I'm sure they will be more than happy help answer any question over events & worry over them?

 

 

I could, but I have found m like most others have, that e-mailing or facebooking Forgeworld/GW about stuff generally leads to vague, useless answers.

They just don't give out much info. If I were to ask them, why suddenly no FW open Day anymore, or what about Warhammer Fest, they're very likely to not give the actual reason and just refer you to the Warcom site for updates on other new events.

 

I'll add that I agree with the criticism on actual content of releases and how thin it seems they have been spread.

The advancing of 8th ediion "Dark Imperium" plotline is turning out to feel like yet another emtpy shell. Same as what is happening with Age of Sigmar, loads of new battletomes but story progression and things of interest happenig? Nope.