Review of WH+ It's current state and it's potential

[Redcomet]

Im certainly not happy with the release schedule at the mo, though i think thats largely their own fault when announcing so many shows, i didnt realise that was the next decade of content ;)

Since they didn’t put dates on any of those shows, it is entirely on you for expecting them all within a month.

[Shovellovin]

I subscribed and while I'm not upset, I am disappointed by the amount of animation that has been released. I've really enjoyed Angels of Death; but I don't understand why it's taking a mid-season break. GW needs to increase the frequency of animation releases if they want to retain subscribers.

 

Also, I find it curious that GW bought Astartes but hasn't put it on Warhammer+. Why not have it on both Warhammer-Community and Warhammer+?

[Taliesin]

It might be taking a mid season break because the second half of the first season isnt ready yet, still being worked on.

Alternative reason might be that it is ready but they want to string along subscribers with the idea that not just will there be more new shows soon, there's also more Angels of Death coming "soon".

[Noserenda]

 

Im certainly not happy with the release schedule at the mo, though i think thats largely their own fault when announcing so many shows, i didnt realise that was the next decade of content

Since they didn’t put dates on any of those shows, it is entirely on you for expecting them all within a month.

 

Kinda missed the point in your eagerness to get back to the boot there eh? ;) 

 

Nobody but you mentioned "within the month" but the marketing promised a dozen shows being worked on by various teams, (So not one after the other) any reasonable viewer would expect to see most, if not all of them within a year of release at the very outside but at this rate  of releases we are looking at two or more years just to clear that slate and thats assuming no season 2 for any of them.

 

Its a trickle of releases by any measure and i think its reasonable to be upset by that given their big promises.

[ThePenitentOne]

I had expected a new H&B every week.

 

I access the content from a computer, and I've only had to log in once; I can link to anything from the launchpad except the gaming apps, which I still haven't bothered to check out.

 

It's been a while since I logged in, so I should check again soon and see what's there.

[Matcap86]

Yeah I put in for a year to give it a shot, but if this is what's coming for the foreseeable future I won't be resubbing.

[StraightSilver]

I must admit, I'm a fervent, vocal supporter of Warhammer+ but even I'm a bit disappointed by the amount of content.

 

I don't regret subscribing in the least, but I wouldn't mind a bit more.

[The Neverborn]

I'm not a subscriber.

 

I have a resistance to "as-a-service" propositions. Not a complete resistance mind you, I have a WoW account, which will probably go soon. And a Spotify account, but mostly as initially at least it was a minor add-on to my phone contract.

 

The voucher to me is meaningless as I can already make greater savings for 3rd part re-sellers - I recently bought 3 Greater Daemons for £189 inc delivery, From GW's store that would cost £255. 

 

The models are unless as I don't have any armies that can field either of them. - Sold/Selling all my Marines (that's another story)

 

I find it it extremely hard to see eye-to-eye with those seeing it as a good value proposition. Honestly, call this tin-foil-hat territory. But I wouldn't be totally surprised if those claiming so are part of GW's marketing/promotion team  .  I suppose if you really want one of those models.

 

 

I saw Norn Queen's Alexis review of  "bound for greatness".

 

It was good. But I won't be subscribing for some time myself.

 

For battle reports there's already so much online that I can find a style that suites me

 

For panting masterclasses. I just can't see a way that GW would ever use any non-GW products. Even the most ardent GW supporter would probably acknowledge that GW don't and never will make the best paint/brush/tool for every out come. And that's without weighing up the entire knowledge of every painter on youtube vs the person they have.

 

Possibly at some point if there's 1,000s of hours of animation content I would subscribe then. - Though i think this will either be dead or we'll be coerced into it long before then! 

 

Or if the black library content was included - books/audio books.

 

Or more likely whoever the new GW brass from Hasbro was decides I need to be a subscriber to have access to a codex.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Battle Brother Abderus

[Orange Knight]

You don't think it's worth it? It's in part subjective, and in part it's perspective.

 

You can go out to a restaurant and spent more money on a single steak dinner than the cost of an annual membership.

[Mandragola]

I can say that it's worth the money for me. That ultimately comes down to how much money you have though.

 

It's not actually the service I personally want to be honest. I want to be able to subscribe for access to rules without having to buy codexes. I actually feel like GW has taken a step backwards with the 9e books in that now I have to buy physical copies to unlock digital content. I don't want all these books cluttering up my house and I hate having to carry them around. It was far better when I just had to take an ipod with me to events.

 

What I really want is an app that works like the old enhanced edition codexes (probably without all the photos to save space). Somehow when they made the 40k app they made it much worse than these and it still hasn't improved to that level yet, which is frustrating.

[The Neverborn]

You don't think it's worth it? It's in part subjective, and in part it's perspective.

 

You can go out to a restaurant and spent more money on a single steak dinner than the cost of an annual membership.

 

I'd say the voucher isn't subjective by any means. For the reason I've given.  £255 - £10 is still more than £189. That's just math. I suppose if you only wanted something that costs exactly £10?

 

The Miniature is a little subjective. Those of us long-in-the-tooth remember "Build, Paint, Play". If i don't have AoS Orcs or 40k Imperium I can't use the model. So it's objective in this case that I'm missing a part of that offering. As already discussed if for what-ever reason someone really wanted that model. I'm forced however to agree with you that not everyone wants to "play" so that is subjective.

 

It's objective that it's not reasonable to match 1 persons knowledge of painting vs the dozens if not hundreds of individuals on youtube - That's without even going into the products being used. I suppose she may have other people behind the scenes. But she's still the presenter, and overall there's more knowledge on YouTube.  

 

It's objective that the dozens and dozens of Battle reports is more likely to suite whatever style most palatable for that individual. - Maybe i want super competitive, maybe narrative, maybe beer and pretzels, maybe some guys random journey. 

 

£50 will of course buy me a steak dinner, it will also buy me a lot of things. I'm not going to buy all of them as i don't have infinite money.  

 

The best (if not only) reason for WH+ is for the animations. That's the main thing, and most talked about. 

 

Would I pay for them? Yeah probably . But like i said they'd need 1000s of hours before i'd justify that. Similar to what's on Netflix and D+. 

 

The problem here is D+ and NetFlix already had that to hand. GW just don't. I think there's a lack of patience here. I've seen my share of directors screaming "But I want it now". And I imagine that's what gone in the the boardroom.

 

The sad thing is i think they could have had something, if they'd instead opened a animation studio and sold them. Then 5 years from now once the had hundred or thousands of hours done their own platfrom. But someone wants it now

Edited September 29, 2021 by Battle Brother Abderus

[phandaal]

£50 will of course buy me a steak dinner, it will also buy me a lot of things. I'm not going to buy all of them as i don't have infinite money.

And that steak dinner may provide significantly more satisfaction than ten months of Warhammer+. It's all subjective.

[Orange Knight]

 

£50 will of course buy me a steak dinner, it will also buy me a lot of things. I'm not going to buy all of them as i don't have infinite money.

And that steak dinner may provide significantly more satisfaction than ten months of Warhammer+. It's all subjective.

Haha, yes absolutely. I'll be taking my wife out to a local, reputable steak restaurant this weekend and I think I'm looking forward to this more than anything Games Workshop related over the past month or so.

[Cactus]

I was initially excited by today's Warhammer TV update, then crushingly disappointed.

 

What I thought was the next episode of Angels of Death is a 30 minute discussion. Eh, ok, I'll watch it later. When's the next episode? No clue.  

 

Three new episodes of Hammer & Bolter turned out to be just a trailer. No date given, obviously.

 

I'm still interested in the Kill Team battle report but the above has really drained my enthusiasm.

 

I paid as much as the Warhammer+ annual sub for a beef burger and some daiquiris last week. Warhammer+ will give me more value in the long run but I might stop caring. GW are killing their own hype.

[Kastor Krieg]

Yeah, they're streatching this really thin. It's disappointing.

[Noserenda]

I actually really enjoyed the review thing, well at least when they were letting the excellent presenters be authentically enthusiastic, there was some reeeeally awkward moments in there too!

 

Obviously some animation would be better, more than one a week in fact, but yeah creditwhere it's due.

 

Really want to know when angels is back though, a hiatus of the flagship show is really not what they need right now

[Helias_Tancred]

I upgraded to Warhammer+ because of several things.

 

1. Angels of Death- My Ride or Die faction is Blood Angels. I own 14k of them. My first army in the hobby years ago, and all of my hobby paths always return to Baal. Huge fanboy is an understatement. 

 

2. I was already paying for the app and using it regularly in place of BattleScribe.

 

3. I sub to Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Discovery+, Disney, ... at the price it was a steal.

 

 

That being said they definitely need more content. It still feels very very shallow. It will continue to add content as time goes on. It will continue to get better. Personally I wished they had started it with at least three times the content they did, but again at the sub price I'll take it. My concern going forward is they don't try to raise the sub price before the amount of content is there.

 

 

 

 

[Subtleknife]

I was happy until this week. The lack of content this week is disappointing.

[The Neverborn]

I upgraded to Warhammer+ because of several things.

 

3. I sub to Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Discovery+, Disney, ... at the price it was a steal.

 

 

 

It's slightly off topic, but this is my opposition of as-a-service offerings . (bear with me i'll bring it back round to be relevant) 

 

It there's an ever escalating number of fiefdoms trying to create their own little subscription/re-occurring user spending model. 

 

It seems reasonable that most people will have a limit to the number of subscriptions they're willing to subscribe to. There's time, money and practicality implications . There's 6 here for example, I don't know if there's others not mentioned. I don't know what this persons limit would be. Maybe 12, 18, 40, 50? Who knows !?

 

WH+ seems to me like a rather cynical attempt to capitalise on this trend. Personally I hope it passes soon.  Unfortunately from the first few months, I don't get the feeling it was made with a "I think it would be really cool if we made animations/stories" but more of a. "Let's jump on the as-a-service-bandwagon" to increase the share price. 

 

There's no problem with trying to increase your share price/make money. But there's just a typical problem that occurs when you try and combine that with art. Which is what Warhammer is. I'm not surprised so many subscribers are disappointed.

 

I can see WH+ going 4 ways

 

1)Shutting Down after the acceptable loss period has been exceeded (whatever that is) 

2)Making/selling the content with/to Neflix, D+, A-Prime 

3)Coercing the hobbyist into subscribing, by gating a codex or similar behind it.

 

Of all these I think 2 would be my preference.  

 

The 4th option which I've excluded is it's roaring success, but people are accustomed to  the level of content that's on the stream platforms mentioned. People binge watch, look for a variety of narratives. Films, Series, Documentaries. WH+ just feels like square peg round hole. 

Edited September 30, 2021 by Battle Brother Abderus

[RWJP]

I find it it extremely hard to see eye-to-eye with those seeing it as a good value proposition. Honestly, call this tin-foil-hat territory. But I wouldn't be totally surprised if those claiming so are part of GW's marketing/promotion team  .  I suppose if you really want one of those models.

I know I shouldn't react to this, but I have to.

 

This kind of accusatory "Oh you must be a shill or paid by GW if you like this thing" rubbish absolutely needs to stop. It's toxic and damaging to the community as a whole. It's just an extended part of the nasty "Us or them" tribalism that's cropping up in the community and in many other things in society.

 

You may be shocked to know that people's judgement of value and worth is entirely subjective and just because you don't think something is worth the money, doesn't mean other people will. For example, I don't think Audi's are worth the money, but other people do. I don't accuse those people of being part of Audi's marketing team.

 

Perhaps running you through the logic of why someone else might consider it to be good value will help open your eyes to the possibility of differing opinions (shock horror).

 

Here's how I determined that Warhammer+ is a good value proposition for me:

 

Annual Cost: £49.99

Miniature: £25 (I absolutely wanted the Vindicare mini as soon as I saw it so to me this is a no-brainer)

Voucher: £10 (I'm planning to buy 3 Manticores for my Guard soon. As they're Direct Only, buying them with this voucher will actually make them cheaper direct from GW at £87.50 than Dark Sphere at £91.55 or Element Games at £97.50)

 

Minus the mini and the voucher, the cost to me for the rest of the subscription is £14.99, or about £1.25 per month or £0.31 per week. 

 

Taking a look at this week (which is pretty light on content): I effectively spent £0.31 and got access to a fun battle report, 4 copies of White Dwarf that I hadn't read and a lore book that I hadn't read either.

 

You may disagree, but to me £0.31 for that much content is a good value proposition to me and I haven't even taken into account Loremasters or the painting tutorial.

 

Now, could Warhammer+ be better? Absolutely... There's so much room for expansion and so many things that GW have missed. I've already submitted loads of feedback to GW about how lacking the features of the Vault are (double page view, bookmarks etc). 

Edited September 30, 2021 by RWJP

[Marshal Reinhard]

I subscribed for the whole year fully expecting to cancel after i get my vindicare. I would expect GW by then to have tried to entice me to stay another one by having a unique year two subscription miniature shown off.

[phandaal]

 

 

 

 

It's slightly off topic, but this is my opposition of as-a-service offerings . (bear with me i'll bring it back round to be relevant) 

 

It there's an ever escalating number of fiefdoms trying to create their own little subscription/re-occurring user spending model. 

 

It seems reasonable that most people will have a limit to the number of subscriptions they're willing to subscribe to. There's time, money and practicality implications . There's 6 here for example, I don't know if there's others not mentioned. I don't know what this persons limit would be. Maybe 12, 18, 40, 50? Who knows !?

 

 

It is basically a return to Cable TV from 20 years ago.

 

Each "streaming service" is its own channel and adding up the cost of these various services gets you right back to what we used to pay for cable each month.

 

There is also the well-known fact that having too many choices actually results in lower sales. That is where we are headed with all of these streaming services.

[Domhnall]

I subscribed for the whole year fully expecting to cancel after i get my vindicare. I would expect GW by then to have tried to entice me to stay another one by having a unique year two subscription miniature shown off.

 

I'm sure* they did say that there will be a unique model(s) every year. 

 

 

* - I'm sure. 

[Grotsmasha]

I subscribed for the whole year fully expecting to cancel after i get my vindicare. I would expect GW by then to have tried to entice me to stay another one by having a unique year two subscription miniature shown off.

 

I'd expect the next model/s to show up around the 10 month mark, so June / July next year.

[The Neverborn]

 

I find it it extremely hard to see eye-to-eye with those seeing it as a good value proposition. Honestly, call this tin-foil-hat territory. But I wouldn't be totally surprised if those claiming so are part of GW's marketing/promotion team  .  I suppose if you really want one of those models.

I know I shouldn't react to this, but I have to.

 

This kind of accusatory "Oh you must be a shill or paid by GW if you like this thing" rubbish absolutely needs to stop. It's toxic and damaging to the community as a whole. It's just an extended part of the nasty "Us or them" tribalism that's cropping up in the community and in many other things in society.

 

 

 

The idea was that prefixing the comment with "tin-foil hat", caveating it with "I wouldn't be totally surprised" and ending the comment with a ninja emoji was enough to demonstrate that I didn't intend anyone to take the comment totally literally. Clearly that didn't come across.

 

I do feel that this is a forum and we are in the process of discussing the value of the a service. And excluding extreme exception contributors should be able to express their feelings on said product as candidly and freely as reasonably possible. I could have chosen to give it a score in terms my sense of the value proportion. In which case it would have said 2/10 I choose to instead express this in more verbose manner.     

 

That said as the hyperbole did not come across I owe you a sincere apology.

 

 

In terms of the mini. I did caveat that if you really wanted that mini which you did. And well that's the only way of obtaining it. 

 

The battle reports and painting tutorials I've gone into as much details and been as objective as I can. If we're still disagreeing on this. Then I'm back to finding it hard to see eye-to-eye at an objective level. If my logic damns me, then I'm thrice damned; Nurgle would be pleased. (joke)

 

It looks like you do have me on the manticore, The cheapest I could find it was for 30.88 so, assuming you're making a saving on this model and I imagine some others. Unless you were planning on buying them in very large quantities 

Edited September 30, 2021 by Battle Brother Abderus