Next week , the moment Warhammer fans have been look for arrives : thebrand new editionof Warhammer 40 K formally kicks off with pre - orders for itsfancy novel starter exercise set , Leviathan . But there ’s one big question at the back of players ’ minds , and it ’s not about linguistic rule changes or new miniatures . It ’s whether or not they ’ll in reality be able to purchase the damn thing .
Games Workshop for the most part managed to deflect the sell - outs and pre - order troubles link to speculative scalp that other tabletop biz fandoms ( likePokémon ) faced at the tallness of the covid-19 pandemic — even as Warhammer went through something of a Renascence during mandated lockdown , when people had the time to work up and paint legions of aliens and fantastical warriors . But in recent months , the company has had to deal with a growing grade of discontentedness among lover that it ’s simply not doing enough with its weekly pre - order free fall to combat broken internet site and rapid sellouts of everything fromnew manakin releasesto special version fiction record .
Games Workshop ’s outlet scheme is a relatively simple process : every Sunday it let go a list of merchandise that will go up for pre - order ; those product go live for pre - order at Games Workshop and other third party retailers at 10:00 am local time the next Saturday ; and then they ’re typically formally released in store and on-line the Saturday after ( some major waiver , like the coming Leviathan , have two week pre - order windows ) . When it works , it ’s fine , but more and more recently it has n’t , much to the anger of player . As Warhammer has become more popular in late long time and major releases have become more veritable , Games Workshop has discover itself scramble to keep up with demands , not just from a voraciously employ playerbase but also from scalpers .
Image: Games Workshop
Everything from normally benign stock releases , such as the Arks of Omen ledger — a series of supplementary and narrative rule addendums that tell the tales of the last conflicts of 40 K ’s current fib — to expectedly hype expiration , such as the long - wait model update for dear Dark Angels Space Marine primarch , Lion El’Jonson , have seen Games Workshop ’s computer memory immediately buckle under need . When the site go down just minutes after new pre - orders are live , it leaves many players in the stumble while the product they wanted go up on eBay for several times over the already gamy price GW asks for its toy and box readiness . The company has , at best , ignored these defeat and carried on with high-pitched - profile Cartesian product releases over late calendar month regardless , but with the arrival of Leviathan and tenth variation next hebdomad , the tabletop developer is now accentuate to its audience that there are plans in home that — hopefully — everyone who want in on Warhammer 40 K ’s new launching will be able to get the unexampled boxful .
The first change is part of the increased accessibility to the10th edition itself . Instead of expecting players to bucket along out and purchase a new marrow rulebook or the Leviathan starter boxwood ( which includes a version of the gist book with extra textile ) to be able to play with their current armies day one , last week Games Workshop release the effect prescript for 10th editiondigitally for freein multiple languages . It ’s also set forth to roll out the new rule sheets for every camarilla in the secret plan in a similar manner , creating less want for players who just want to see how their current regular army work to go out and rate Leviathan . There ’s also a change to the pre - ordination system itself : inannouncing Leviathan ’s impending releaseyesterday , Games Workshop corroborate that the troupe ’s prescribed web store will enable a queuing system of rules when preorders open on June 10 , and that it will also curb quantity per order in an attempt to further dissuade scalper , while also stress that there will be a substantial amount of Leviathan on hand for pre - orders . The fellowship has also encouraged buyer to perhaps look elsewhere for their transcript of the loge too to alleviate need on their own site — offer pre - order incentive if players purchase Leviathan from either license third - party retail merchant or directly from their local Warhammer store .
A queue scheme has been enforce before by the society , but after a string of high - visibility sellouts where there was n’t one , it ’s telling that Games Workshop is bringing it back while trying to assuage concerns of participant that there ’s enough illumination to go around . The whole pointedness of the new edition of 40 K is to make thegame more accessiblethan it ever has been to gamers sometime and Modern — but Games Workshop ca n’t do that if it ’s scramble to get the game into the hands of instrumentalist rather than people look to turn a sawbuck on eBay .
The retail price of this set released a couple of months ago—and unavailable from Games Workshop directly since it sold out on launch— is $130.Screenshot: eBay/Gizmodo
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