Fantasy Not Dead? – What’s Going On at Black Library
Something strange is happening over on Black Library, where the Old World still looks to be living on. Come see the necromancy of Fantasy 8th Edition.
Evan from Sepulchre of Heroes noticed that there are “new” Fantasy book rule book offerings over on the Black Library.
Sure enough the main Fantasy rulebook, and all of the End Times books are over on Black Library right now for sale!
In what appears to be a strange turn of events that may even indicate something bigger going on inside Games Workshop, it looks like they put the Fantasy 8th edition rule book back on sale in digital form, on purpose.
Perhaps even more puzzling is the caveat they put inside the description:
Via Black Library
Warhammer: Rulebook is designed for use with Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles. That game system is no longer supported, but this title remains available for those who want to recreate the epic battles of the lost world. To continue the war against Chaos in the Mortal Realms, check out Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
So really that’s like a car company putting a model back on the market that was discontinued and has no warranty, but hey it’s there just in case you really, really liked that particular model and just happen to want one. But what you really want is to buy the new model (Age of Sigmar) that replaced it.
Don’t get me wrong I love Fantasy and I would LOVE to see it come back, BUT what’s really going on here? Is there a division forming inside Games Workshop over Fantasy VS. Age of Sigmar and one side thought maybe offering this book would be a good idea for the company? In the business world offering a discontinued product devalues the current product that replaced it (especially when its the manufacturer that’s doing it).
Heck don’t even get me started on how bad Fantasy video game offerings look from a business perspective, or the potential legal entanglements studios could have with GW over the perceived devaluing of the Fantasy brand they paid for via licensing.
Sure it may seem like a good idea to maybe get a indication of interest in Fantasy still perhaps I guess, but at the end of the day if you’re all in on Age of Sigmar, work on fixing that product line and making that work. Diverting resources and time to make e-versions of a six year old discontinued product, and it’s End Times expansions that left such a bad taste in every Fantasy player’s mouth, seems like a waste of time to be honest from an outside perspective.
If I was GW I’d be spending more time listening to gamers about what they want from Age of Sigmar, and not push them away to competing game system and sending mixed signals with e-book offerings.
What’s the point even of all this? If I was a stock holder (which I am not) I would be worried about the potential of either divisions forming internally at GW, that would show destabilization over company direction or vision, and the potential loss of future licensing revenue from video game studios. Oh and of course the performance of the AoS brand overall.
If I was a betting man, I would look for Game Workshop to make some major moves with Age of Sigmar come Q1 2016 once they get their revenue streams right again with Horus Heresy plastics.
So what is your take on offering WFB products in digital format? Covering your bases, or brand-confusion?
