next week time war hammer fans have been waiting for arrives: the new edition of warhammer 40k officially begins with pre-orders for your stylish new starter set, Leviathan. But there is a big question on the back of the players. minds, and it’s not about rule changes or new miniatures. YoIt’s whether or not they’ll actually be able to buy the damn thing.
Games Workshop largely managed to avoid stock-outs and pre-order issues related to speculative scalping that other board game fandoms (such as Pokemon) faced at the height of covid-19 pandemic, even when war hammer went through something of a renaissance during the mandatory lockdowns, when people had time to build and paint legions of aliens and fantastic warriors. But In recent months, the company has had to deal with a growing level of discontent among fans that it simply isn’t doing enough with its weekly pre-orders to combat broken websites and rapid sales of everything from new model launches to special edition fiction books.
games workshop’The release system is a relatively simple process: every Sunday you post a list of products that will go up for pre-order; those products go live for pre-orders at Games Workshop and other third-party retailers at 10:00 am local time next Saturday; and then they’re usually officially released in stores and online the following Saturday. (some major releases, like the next Leviathan, they have two-week pre-order windows). When it works, it’s fine, but more and more recently it hasn’t, much to the ire of gamers. As war hammer As it has grown more popular in recent years and major releases have become more regular, Games Workshop has found itself struggling to keep up with the demands, not only from a voraciously engaged player base, but from resellers as well.
Everything from generally benign standard releases, such as the omen arks books-to Series of supplementary rules and narrative appendices that the stories of the last conflicts of 40Kthe current history of: to expected releases, as the long-awaited model upgrade for the beloved Dark Angels Space Marine Primarch, Leon El’Jonson, I’ve seen the Games Workshop store double immediately on demand. when the site goes down just minutes after new pre-orders go live, let many players in the lurch as the products they wanted go up on eBay several times above the already high prices that GW asks for their miniatures and boxes. The company, at best, ignored these frustrations and continued with high-profile product launches in recent months regardless, but with the arrival of Leviathan and the 10th edition next week, the desktop developer is now emphasizing to his audience that there are plans afoot that hopefully everyone who wants to participate warhammer 40kThe new release of will be able to get the new box.
The first change is part of the increased accessibility to the 10th edition itself. Instead of waiting for players to run and buy a new core rulebook or the Leviathan Starter Box (which includes a version of the core book with additional material) to be able to play with your current armies from day one, last week, Games Workshop published the core rules for the tenth edition. digitally free in multiple languages. It is also starting to roll craft the new rulesheets for every faction in the game in a similar fashion, creating less of a need for players who just want to see how their current armies perform to go out and order Leviathan. There is also a change in the pre-order system itself: in announcing Leviathanimminent release yesterday, Games Workshop confirmed that the company’s official web store will enable a queuing system when pre-orders open on June 10, and that it will also restrict quantities per order in an attempt to further deter resellers, while noting that there will be a significant amount of Leviathan available for pre-orders. The company has also encouraged buyers to look elsewhere for their box copy to ease demand on its own site, offering pre-order bonuses if players purchase. Leviathan either from licensed third-party retailers or direct from your local war hammer store.
The company has implemented a queue system before, but after a series of high-profile sell-offs involving it was not one, says Games Workshop will bring it back while trying to assuage player concerns that there are enough miniatures to go around. The central point of the new edition of 40K is to do the more accessible game than it ever has been for players new and old, but Games Workshop can’t do that if you’re fighting to get the game into the hands of gamers rather than people looking to make money on eBay.
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