Upcoming BL Stuff 2026

[grailkeeper]

7 hours ago, darkhorse0607 said:

 

That was before GW execs discovered the magic moving picture boxes. Now they only give BL electricity to use the lights once a fiscal quarter

Is the TV stuff successful? I don't really see people talk about it.

[wecanhaveallthree]

It crops up from time to time on 40klore that I've seen. I imagine it'll be much more of a buzz when the Amazon show drops.

 

We all know that BL just waste that fiscal quarters on reprints of Xenos and figuring out how to sneak I Am Slaughter into another anthology (why does this keep happening?!!!)

[darkhorse0607]

6 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Is the TV stuff successful? I don't really see people talk about it.

 

Without knowing how much they're spending behind the scenes it's hard to say for sure, we know their subscribers for WH+ are around 248,000 from the 25-26 Half Year financial report, up from 105,000 a few years ago. I would assume it's fairly profitable for them considering that most of their shows are in-house "let's play a game together" or whatever style of shows. The animations would cost more to produce, but then again they don't do a ton of them, and then it's not like they're breaking ground in the CGI department with the constant dark, shaky cam style of animation. 

 

SM2 I am sure earned them a bit, but that's almost all dried up with how that game has gone over the last year. Yes, it's probably still earning something but it's not near what it was, you can only bring in so much with cosmetic packs for a relatively small player base now. They tried to do the paid voice pack, but that caused so much controversy they ended up refunding everyone. Total War and Dawn of War will give them another big boost, but TW isn't until next year (I'd assume summer/fall but who knows), and I would be super surprised if Dawn of War launched before winter of this year, honestly, given that we are in April, they're still doing small Alphas and their marketing has essentially stopped from where it was, I wouldn't be surprised if that was bumped until next year. They did Secret Level a year and a half ago which was the highest rated episode in the series, and they have an AoS one that's done (again, according to the same financial report), but that's on Amazon's timeline. 

 

And then the Amazon show, whenever that is.

 

All that said, I just don't think it's a surprise (but I will continue to complain about it) really that Black Library started drying up around the same time that GW started pushing into animations/shows and had more successful games. Without knowing what their agreements are with the companies for licensing, and what the print runs/recordings are with the costs it's hard to say how profitable everything is, but it feels as though they saw the much bigger numbers coming from other media sources and that shifted their focus, especially since their big money maker, the Heresy, is over and they've failed to replicate that success with things like Dawn of Fire, which is probably one of the reasons why they keep reprinting the hits from the last few decades. They know it'll sell, and they don't have to pay an author to write something new.

Edited April 15 by darkhorse0607

[skylerboodie]

15 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Is the TV stuff successful? I don't really see people talk about it.

i finished watching the Pentitence three-part series on Warhammer+ this week and thought it was really good; came onto B&C to see what others felt about it but couldn't find any forums / threads about it / Warhammer+ discussions 

[Fedor]

That Amazon series is going to tank hilariously. Just so many potential missteps and pitfalls to doing live action 40k.

[Casual Heresy]

For anyone who was planning on the pre-order dash, the Hive box set is now delayed so will go up at a later date. 
 

The Sunday preview article has been updated accordingly: https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/cqdcnxdx/sunday-preview-chaos-and-order-battle-in-the-city-of-ash/

[DarkChaplain]

Imagine having the sort of announcement->preview->preorder->release pattern GW does and then only noticing that you need to delay a product two days before it's supposed to go up for preorder, afte you have already announced it as coming that day.

 

If they had to delay it due to logistics, like because a shipment is delayed, they could've just said so and set the preorder window longer than two weeks. That they're not doing so would indicate a longer delay, which bodes ill. Might be a full-blown production issue that they only just caught - which would speak volumes about their quality control. But who am I kidding, they even manage to get the title or author wrong on covers and spines of limited edition books.

[Taliesin]

Bit of a bummer, was going to order it tomorrow if the price was not too insane.

[Krelious]

I'm wondering I ordered a special edition of Era of Ruin and havent gotten any word of that yet, has anyone gotten their copy?

[darkhorse0607]

Ghost Legion is now on audible 

 

Thanks for announcing it GW, add it to your list of failures

[Felix Antipodes]

9 hours ago, Krelious said:

I'm wondering I ordered a special edition of Era of Ruin and havent gotten any word of that yet, has anyone gotten their copy?

I received a ‘on its way’ notice last week…forgot I had ordered it…

[Lord Marshal]

Bunch of pre-orders next week. Da Freebooterz Code (hardback and special edition), Death World reprint, Worlds Ablaze, Legends of the Waaagh!, Yarrick omnibus and what I think is a new reveal in the form of Veterans of the Fall?

 

 

Quote

They were the best of the best. Now they are all that is left.  When Cadia fell, a handful of traumatised survivors found themselves stranded on a ruined redoubt world carved apart by rival cults. Since then, the Kasrkin veterans known as the Tattershields have anchored the crumbling Imperial defence, holding back the overwhelming might of the Archenemy with sabotage, assassinations and unbreakable discipline. Their commander, Sergeant Kostantin Taikon, is an inspiration to the beleaguered defenders. But he is haunted by guilt and consumed by fatalism, numbly fighting on with no hope of victory or atonement. 

 

The Imperials’ grip on the planet is slipping. Infiltrators sow discord in their ranks, and a sadistic new enemy is bearing down upon them. But when all hope is dead, only defiance remains, and Taikon will lead his indomitable Kasrkin to the bitter end.

Quote

Veterans of the Fall by William Crowe contains the new novella Veterans of the Fall, the complete serial Tatters of Hope that was first published in White Dwarf magazine, and the short story Tattershield.

 

Edited April 19 by Lord Marshal

[LemartesTheLost]

Don't know if this is a one-off thing, but I'm pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of both the WD serial and the short story in the standard paperback of Veterans of the Fall. Hopefully it is sign of things to come.

[Casual Heresy]

Noticed that WarCom is now explicitly stating when BL books are limited stock. Both World Ablaze, Legends of the Waaagh, and the Yarrick omnibus are while stocks last. Not suprising for World Ablaze as it's a hardback, but I thought a paperback omnibus would stick around a little longer.

Edited April 20 by Casual Heresy

[DarkChaplain]

Every single sodding Omnibus should be a range item that sticks around and gets reprints as required. They used to be like that, too.

 

Omnibuses are the END STATE of the novels. You can milk them through hardback, paperback, ebooks and audiobooks for *years* before an omnibus arrives. There should be no artificial scarcity with omnibuses from GW/BL. That they've actively chosen to introduce it for omnibuses is a sign of corporate disease, not a healthy company that gives a damn about what it puts out.

 

And yeah, I'm also still miffed about Saturday's City of Ash disaster. Thankfully I should be good according to my prefered retailer, who I preordered with, but god damn they can't even make a freakin' STARTER SET that's obviously aimed at entirely new customers with one of the included booklets a new range item instead of a surprise limited edition which you only get confirmation on the moment the store page is up, with an order window of 4 minutes before it's sold out. 

 

Frankly, GW is driving the intentional supply issues up the roof and I can't wait for the moment it backfires on them. Hope they produced enough boxes of Armageddon, I suppose.

[darkhorse0607]

DarkChaplain is truly in his salt era. 

 

Scribe would be proud

 

I dunno. To be honest, I'm kind of checking out on caring about Black Library (he says as he types on a BL forum). Sure, I'll get new releases and stuff eventually, but it's just been mostly letdowns for how long now? How long have people been begging for the end of different series, or any kind of updates on specific entries? GW isn't blind, they know people want this stuff, they just don't care enough to even say what's going on (which isn't just a BL issue, it just feels worse here because they can't cover for a lack of releases in something like the Heresy with other systems). I'm just kind of over being bummed about it, and with that comes pulling back a bit on BL. 

 

*edit, I want to be clear because I know there are some authors on here, I'm not trying to talk badly about everything BL puts out, Denny's recent book for example was great, I'm more speaking to the big ticket things like Watchers of the Throne, Black Legion, any number of big name characters (COUGH COUGH SEVETAR COUGH) that are still floating around, etc. 

Edited April 20 by darkhorse0607

[Felix Antipodes]

No one is blaming the authors for the issues with BL and their schedules.  They are caught up in a form of Stockholm syndrome with the publisher, as are all freelancers.  All BL issues are self-inflicted at the management level.  If we didn’t care about the product we wouldn’t be bitching so much.

Edited April 21 by Felix Antipodes

[Nagashsnee]

15 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

 

 

Omnibuses are the END STATE of the novels. You can milk them through hardback, paperback, ebooks and audiobooks for *years* before an omnibus arrives. There should be  artificial scarcity with omnibuses from GW/BL. That they've actively chosen to introduce it for omnibuses is a sign of  a healthy company that gives a damn .

 

 

 

From the stockholder report to your lips. Praise be upon BL! 

 

People telling me about stocks HA!. BL books give a better return then 90% of stocks. Buy that old world book for 20, 5 years latter sell for 120. HH LE? They aint printing books they are printing money.

 

You all think BL is in the book printing bussiness??? Its just GW version of a stock market. Place your bets and be ready to sell before a re print is talked about. 

[DarkChaplain]

Aaaaaand nothing announced this week. Obviously, since they decided to flood a few releases alongside major releases again.

[Taliesin]

If they wait much longer with that limited edition of Hive,it may not be worth getting if the regular hardcover follows in the next few months already.

[darkhorse0607]

I love that like one or two new books and reprints now counts as a flood of releases from BL

 

Oh well

 

Have a very Black Library week everyone!

[Felix Antipodes]

Hive has been added to the next week preview on WarCom, so there will be a BL release next week after all.  No indication if it’s the LE or standard HB version.

 

Thanks to frater @son of the forest for the heads up in News & Rumours.

[darkhorse0607]

Interesting that they have shifted their verbiage from "x,y, and z will be available as an audiobook," to "x,y, and z will be available as an audiobook on the Black Library app" within the last few weeks  

 

Probably reading too much into it, but it made me raise an eyebrow. 

[Tolmeus]

3 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

Hive has been added to the next week preview on WarCom, so there will be a BL release next week after all.  No indication if it’s the LE or standard HB version.

"This hardback set, which includes both volumes, will be available for pre-order next week. It will also be available on Saturday 16th May in eBook and audiobook format on the Black Library App."

In the article it is at least said that it's going to be the hardback set. I doubt that they will release the LE without any mention. Although we talk of Warhammer here, so nothing would really surprise me anymore.

Also, no fan of them adding stuff afterwards without any mention of that on their website. Can be easily overlooked.

[Felix Antipodes]

This is the second time in recent months this has been done (can’t remember when off hand but know it happened).  Also not a fan of this and hope it doesn’t become a regular thing.  Just a bad look for the company, and will eventually cause ill will with their customer base.  Especially if something big goes unnoticed (like an Abnett book).