No pre-orders next week

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/gwl2zlob/sunday-preview-gods-and-godbeasts-on-warhammer-tv/

 

A bit curious starting a month with no pre-orders, isn't it?

Or is it?

Anyway,next week will be a bit more quiet than usual.

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf

[Mr Farson]

Very odd

 

Even weeks which don't have miniatures usually have a number of books or hobby products.

 

It's quite rare for their to be a completely empty week.

 

There's a hell of a lot that's been shown which hasn't come out yet and the high elves are still due a third wave of miniatures.

 

It's also payday week which nearly always has a "big release" I bet something has been pulled at short notice 

[Redcomet]

Very odd.

 

Most likely some release has gotten delayed or some production issues have cropped up

[Joe]

We've had "no release weeks" in the past - often around April / May. I believe @N1SB mentioned last year it may be related to stock taking?

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

Just now, Joe said:

We've had "no release weeks" in the past - often around April / May. I believe @N1SB mentioned last year it may be related to stock taking?

I thought that was more in the end of May than in the end of April-beginning of May. You know,for the change of business year in course,closing one and opening other.

 

[Matcap86]

Weren't those pauses almost always ahead of big launches? Last edition of AOS, Killteam relaunch, etc, etc.

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

55 minutes ago, Matcap86 said:

Weren't those pauses almost always ahead of big launches? Last edition of AOS, Killteam relaunch, etc, etc.

Probably. Maybe Horus Heresy 3.0 is close. Or maybe the actual worldwide economic situation forced them to stop a little and see what happens next.

But, as I said, I think it's a bit curious this halt now. Whatever the reason.

[Marshal Rohr]

Clearly Games Workshop is going out business, as several Twitter and YouTube accounts have suggested. 

[Nephaston]

34 minutes ago, Marshal Rohr said:

Clearly Games Workshop is going out business, as several Twitter and YouTube accounts have suggested. 

"Finally. And from the ashes MY favourite game system will rise to claim the tabletop hobby throne" -terminally online "hobbyists"

[Matrindur]

Quote

Does anyone hear howls upon the icy winds?

Seems like we at least get some more Space Wolves reveals

[TheMawr]

Dont know if there is any logic to this, but one little theory ;

At one point they switched to the 2 week preorder window out of necessity.. if they wanted to switch back to the, for a much longer time more usual, 1 week preorder.. would it make sense they require an empty week ? ( as otherwise 2 preorders would fall on the same date.)

Its one of the simpler answers I can think of.

 

 

more "conspiracious" theory (but imho still more likely than other world situations or something got delayed.):

it was going to be Kill team week. however, that would put the frateris militia seperate release a little bit too close to yesterday, with too little time to substitute anything.

 

 

[TheMawr]

But yes, there have been more weeks like this ( usually not even including a next week preorder preview though, so its easier to forget and harder to find.)
Last findable completely empty one is : https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/2tNo7YL7/sunday-preview-things-to-do-while-waiting-for-warhammer-40000-leviathan/

 

[Flaherty]

I'd be surprised if the US tariff issues weren't impacting their supply chain in some capacity. The situation is forcing a lot of smaller game companies to have layoffs. They're somewhat insulated in that GW is only directly hit with the 10% US tariffs, unlike US-domiciled companies, which have 150% surcharges. That said, everything I'm hearing from people in manufacturing is that it's a goat rodeo of epic proportions, made worse by unclear and ever-shifting information.

[Schrödingers Primarch]

I believe a majority of GW's printed items (books, instruction manuals) are still printed in China, beyond that they may be fairly insulated. Even if US tariffs were removed today, the ripples of shipping delays & issues will be felt for a while. Companies with inventory in other countries have been holding off on shipping until a deal is reached. 

[darkhorse0607]

7 hours ago, Mr Farson said:

There's a hell of a lot that's been shown which hasn't come out yet and the high elves are still due a third wave of miniatures.

 

Not 100% about that one. High Elves are due, and then the Kill Team box (although those have had pretty lengthy lead times between preview and release lately)

 

Valrak mentioned that he had heard Cathay (which would be the other hefty release) wasn't actually supposed to be revealed at Adepticon, it was supposed to be something else (iirc he said the new paint range but dunno if that was speculation or not)

 

He had also mentioned that he didn't think the Space Wolf box would be out immediately because that'll have the codex in it, and it's not very GW to put a codex out with units they haven't revealed yet, thus the reveals this week probably in preparation for the box

 

AoS has had some stuff previewed but their releases are all over the place in terms of timing

 

The Heresy hasn't really had much of anything that hasn't been released other than the Titanicus stuff, and Angron/Lotarra that we are still waiting on, but I'm wondering if they're holding more of that until 3rd(rumored) launches in the same way they did the kill teams before that new edition so they don't put rules out/boxes out that don't mesh with the new edition

 

Middle Earth they normally do in big waves, I don't keep up with that much but I remember they had a nice tree previewed

 

As for Black Library, there really hasn't been anything there either. Who knows what is going on with Era of Ruin, and the other releases (i.e. Void Exile) that were shown back in February. As we have been discussing over on the BL forum, it's been crickets really for anything BL for a while now except a week here or there

 

We know that the next preview show won't be until the end of May, so really, if we are looking at AoS (which I would assume they'd want to clear out before the big summer release, so probably May sometime) and Kill Team, that's enough for a week or two's preorders if they seperate them, less if they do a big week. After that and a Middle Earth/Old World wave, they're out of big stuff they haven't shown. Plus there's going to be a month or so gap between the reveal show and when they normally launch the big summer thing, so unless they also throw four weeks worth of pre-orders in the same show, in addition to the big release, then they're going to be tight for stuff to fill the gap. So all in all, two months worth of stuff between now and the next big shiny thing

 

And then yeah, I'd assume the tariffs/shipping situation is hampering things a bit, plus this would be around the same time as their yearly price increase so I'm sure there's a lot of background stuff going with that side as well

[skylerboodie]

As well as Heresy's Angron & Lotara, and Kill Team's Typhon boxset, they've also got Thousand Sons and Grey Knights (both with Codex, Battleforce, Combat Patrol, Dice, Cards), AoS' Soulblight Gravelords post-armyset fuill release, 4x Spearheads (aka Combat Patrol equivalents) announced plus a couple of gaming books revealed alongside at Adepticon, new Underworlds releases x2 recently revealed, full Old World armies for Beastment & Wood Elves (then Cathay too), 12x announced LotR kits coming, and Space Wolves once the rest of its new range is revealed (this week?), so I don't think they're short on stuff.

 

I think pre-Heresy 3.0 prep or delays due to supply chain issues or tariffs debacle is more likely, personally.

Edited 8 hours ago by skylerboodie
chian? chain.

[Mogger351]

10 hours ago, Nephaston said:

"Finally. And from the ashes MY favourite game system will rise to claim the tabletop hobby throne" -terminally online "hobbyists"

Usually 40k is their favourite game system, or a 3d printer.

[Lord Marshal]

12 hours ago, Marshal Rohr said:

Clearly Games Workshop is going out business, as several Twitter and YouTube accounts have suggested. 

 

"Games Workshop CRASHES, completely DESTROYED by TRENCH CRUSADE!"

[TheMawr]

2 hours ago, skylerboodie said:

As well as Heresy's Angron & Lotara, and Kill Team's Typhon boxset, they've also got Thousand Sons and Grey Knights (both with Codex, Battleforce, Combat Patrol, Dice, Cards), AoS' Soulblight Gravelords post-armyset fuill release, 4x Spearheads (aka Combat Patrol equivalents) announced plus a couple of gaming books revealed alongside at Adepticon, new Underworlds releases x2 recently revealed, full Old World armies for Beastment & Wood Elves (then Cathay too), 12x announced LotR kits coming, and Space Wolves once the rest of its new range is revealed (this week?), so I don't think they're short on stuff.

 

I think pre-Heresy 3.0 prep or delays due to supply chain issues or tariffs debacle is more likely, personally.

 

Alot of the releases are 40k though, and there is one weird consistent thing for GW and that is they do not have AoS and 40k headline releases 2 weeks in a row, I obviously dont think its some sort of OCD on their side, I think it might be an unchangable part of their miniature or boxing production processess ( going beyond just the releases ) though Im at a blank for having theories how that might work. But assuming there is something there the options for this weekend became a lot smaller.

 

Seeing peoples reactions of usually there is something there in a filler week, made me also realise that yes, its true, but its also a very consumer pov.

When we see it not as a "no releases week" but rather as a "no new plastic kits" week, wich from a company pov is what this mostly represents, then we have had many of those before, maybe even at comparable intervals ( not time to really research that now.)

 

What I mean is a NW preorder showing no releases ( like this weekend.) is the same, from GWs "factory" pov, as a NW preorder article showing Tomy cuddlies, toy company merch, those B&N boxed games, BL books and translations and very importantly Metal and Resin MTO waves. ( in fact, I think any mto week works different from a usual preorder week.)

 

I say very importantly with the latter, because this used to be an ideal vehicle for "hiding" empty weeks. People would order the MTO stuff but it has a much longer timeline for production and release. ( not to mention, it usually doesnt use the plastic factory either.) but it has been quite a while for them to have those, and obviously its not really needed for range rotation anymore because they removed almost all range rotation miniatures from codexes.

 

Lots of words with wich to say,

Im less and less convinced there is anything going on with this, and its more business than usual than we realise.

[Halandaar]

13 hours ago, TheMawr said:

But yes, there have been more weeks like this ( usually not even including a next week preorder preview though, so its easier to forget and harder to find.)
Last findable completely empty one is : https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/2tNo7YL7/sunday-preview-things-to-do-while-waiting-for-warhammer-40000-leviathan/

 

I know they aren't *completely* empty, but there were three more recently than this which had no miniatures/rules products - 09 November 2024 which was a single BL book, 22 June 2024 which was just a couple of licensed merch items, and 09 December 2023 which was also just licensed merch. I know you subsequently mentioned these so yeah, weeks with nothing material in the preorders happen quite frequently, but a lot of the time they're covered up with Made To Order runs or stuff like licensed merch, BL books and the like.

 

Basically, nothing to see here (as opposed to the hysterical clickbait headline "GW Suspends 40K Preorders" which the ever-derisible Spiky Bits went for)

Edited 4 hours ago by Halandaar

[Mogger351]

Maybe it was supposed to have the wolves in and they forgot they hadn't previewed them all?