Age of Sigmar: Hey, Where’s That New App At?
Games Workshop has subtlety shifted the release of the upcoming Warhammer: Age of Sigmar App. So what’s going on with it?
When GW first announced the new edition of Age of Sigmar they also announced a new App would be on the way. We got more and more info about the App and learned that it would also be rolled into their new Warhammer+ offering.
We’re quickly approaching the release date Warhammer+ (can you believe it’s August already?) and we haven’t heard much of anything about the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar App. So we went back to do some digging and found out that GW has made some amendments to their previous statements about the App.
The first thing I did was pull up the previous article about the App on Warhammer Community. Now let’s take a closer look at the date. Normally, I’d use a quote here to denote that we’re referring to their words specifically…but we’re going to take a screenshot this time for reasons that should become clear.
Screenshot from August 6, 2021 – Article’s original publish date: June 24, 2021
Hmm…Okay. Something seems different, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Luckily, we covered this announcement. Now, let’s take a look at a screen shot from our coverage that used a quote directly from that same article on the day it was posted:
Notice anything different? Re-read the first sentence from the quote again…
Original Quote: “The new and improved app will be available to download in beta version shortly after the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is launched on the 3rd of July 2021.”
New Quote: “The new and improved app will be available to download in a beta version later this year, sometime before the first Battletomes for the new edition.”
Delayed? Sort of…
Games Workshop did go back and tweak the wording on their old article referring to the timeline of when the App would be available. They have “updated” it to push the date out to a more ambiguous timeline. Now, to be fair, software development is complicated. I’m not going to pretend it’s some easy thing and software developers are hitting all their deadlines is a 100% guaranteed thing. I’ve watched too many video game release dates to get pushed back to believe that anymore. But at least we get a courtesy heads-up vs a retcon of an article with no notice.
We’re now a month out from the launch of AoS 3.0. We’re less than a month away from the release of Warhammer+. I’m still hoping to get a crack at the Warhammer AoS app relatively quickly. There is supposed to be a beta test to before the launch still, right? I’m okay with Apps needing more time to work on before they get released. And I’m okay with the developers pushing back release dates. What I’m not cool with is those same developers not telling folks about an update to the timeline. And it’s really not cool for them to be sneaky about it.
Is this being sneaky? It seems a little sneaky. It’s subtle and it’s not an obvious change unless you’ve got screenshots to compare. Which we do. All GW needs to do is to slap an “Update” in bold with a date the text was changed. Like this:
“Update XX-XX-2021: The new and improved app will be available to download in a beta version later this year, sometime before the first Battletomes for the new edition.”
Boom. Now it’s not sneaky, subtle, or obfuscated in anyway. Some would say it’s even a bit transparent. That’s really all we’re looking for here. Folks are excited about the App and want to use it. If you need more time, say so – but don’t change your previous statements without acknowledging they’ve been updated to reflect the new timeline. No one likes a “gotcha” moment on the tabletop. The same is true about a product people are waiting to be released. Do better GW, I know you can.
At least we have a update on the release date…”sometime before the first Battletomes for the new edition.”
