2012 40K Release Schedule

[gcsmith]

Can't be excited for the hobbit, last time I cared about LOTR was when war of the ring came out, then they turned into a specialist game causing most managers to ban it.

FFS they finally make LOTR playable and fun and then ban if from stores after making people spend loads of money on trays and a book.

[Bigred]

Also, I'm not saying they can't find a way to shoehorn WFB Warriors of Chaos in there.

But it sure looks like the powers that be are deciding to go full throttle on 6th to keep the momentum up. Maybe they learned from the WFB 8th debacle, that one shouldn't release a new edition then put out the first new army book for it 6 months later.

Word on the street is GW is very displeased with their distribution for the 6th hardbacks and there were lots of issues with getting the books out to many regions of the globe - lots of retailers were left wanting. They could be trying to play catchup by dumping lots of product in a short period to cause a splash of sales.

[Kawauso]

Evidently there is no new codex next month, just a leaflet in WD with some small updates for Daemons in WFB and 40k.

Sauce:
[url]http://natfka.blogspot.ca/2012/07/csms-not-in-new-white-dwarf.html[/url]

Sadface if true.

[Learn2Eel]

Seems a bit strange that almost everyone is pointing to an August release, now a few people are saying October at the earliest?
Hopefully it is bollocks. Also, the same rumours suggest some very implausible events; i.e. Soul Grinders appearing in Fantasy for Daemons.
I guess we will know in a few days for certain - I wouldn't mind a Daemons (re)release but GW should have realized by now how astounding the level of anticipation is for the new Chaos Space Marines....

Also there was that store that put up a "Codex Release" party for August 4th, then took it down hours later.

[Uncle Nutsy]

My thoughts on the GW release schedule is this; and should be taken as an observation and in no way as an interjection of any sort.

What bewilders me is how GW has been so haphazard about their release schedule with models, codexes and core books. There is no set schedule, no real order that i've seen, nothing that makes even a lick of sense outside of the 4 year cycle of core books.

the biggest headscratcher I have is centered around the codex/models release schedule. There are books out there that only has a portion of their models available, some more than others.

I would hope they've learned a little something when they released the necrons codex, then released the entire model range. It's better than before, but even then it was piecemeal.

What makes even less sense is the fact they've released the entire model range for Tau empire, but I don't know how long that took to complete.

So with that in mind.. why are they still dragging their collective butts when it comes to releasing the entire range for the rest of the codexes? It makes about as much sense as Russian Soldiers playing guitar while kicking a soccer ball.

[eldargal]

A daemon wave has been rumoured for some time now. All that has occured is one set of rumours (CSM in August) seems to have been wrong, and another (daemon wave soon) was right.

[Dalleron]

Why is GW dragging it's butt on models for the codex's?

Why is GW dragging it's butt on some codex themselves for both major systems. Templars are 4th ed, DA late 4th, early 5th?

It's worse in fantasy. Brettonia is from 5th I believe, but I could be wrong on that. But that is 3 editions with the same codex. Dwarfs are late 6th, so they're 2 eds behind. How do they let that happen? It only furthers the "not popular enough to warrant a new codex, so they don't get a new codex" cycle.

It's been said that there is no rhyme/reason for GW's release cycle. Book writers pick what they want to write on, regardless of age of codex out there. How else do VC, O&G and Empire get new codex before the Brettonians, and Woodies. But by all accounts, no one seems to have a way to make Wood Elves work in the current fantasy edition.

[eldargal]

Dalleron is correct, from what we know (some questions in this vein were asked at last years GD OZ*) a list is put up and designers pick a project they are enthusiastic about. There will be some marketing considerations too, high-selling armies will get preferential treatment to some extent**. Some projects are much more intensive and take a long time (Dark Eldar took around six years to be revamped from start to release apparently).

The general idea behind the schedule is to give as many armies some kind of attention in the short term, hence waves. Releaseing everything at once didn't seem to work out well for GW and it led to people having nothing to look forward to for years until their codex was re-released. It actually makes a lot of sense, hobbyists whining notwithstanding.

The key to remember is that GW are a company and they have access to the full picture of sales, feedback both in-store and online etc. A hobbyists with an agenda (such as the desire for their favourite army to get a new codex/wave) is not an impartial source nor are they operating from a position of knowledge of the many facotrs which may contribute to a book being releases sooner or later.


*Apparently only Australians thought to ask sensible questions, everyone else just whined about Finecast and asked about future releases despite being told such questions wouldn't be answered.

**Codex: Space Marines is apparently not getting the first 6th ed codex despite claims that this would 'always' be the case. Tomb Kings and Ogre Kingdoms received early 8th edition book despite not being great sellers either.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

And now we find out this week how the hammer falls, keep your eyes to the skies.

[Learn2Eel]

With the new teaser trailer, it looks like the Daemon wave.

But I can't believe all of those rumours, i.e. the Soul Grinders in Fantasy.