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This just appeared on Dan Abnett's blog:

"As far as I know, all Black Industries stuff has been canned. That’s the way it goes. If it didn’t sell, it wasn’t worth doing. You can’t argue with that. GW is making cuts across the board, and I am especially pained to see the loss of my good friend and BL publisher Marc Gascoigne. I will miss him, enormously."

So GW's in 'restructuring' mode, where they sack a bunch of people.

BYE

Marc Gascoigne has been involved with GW/Citidel since the early 80s I think. Early White Dwarf stuff.

I had a couple novels he wrote when I was a kid.

'oh well', I guess. That guy at least can probably find work somewhere else in the industry.

This is troubling!

Just about the only thing keeping me in the "GW Hobby" at this point is the background/fluff/BL/BI stuff.

I can't argue with the "if it doesn't sell oh well" line, but, as far as I could tell, BL stuff was selling and the kids sure did seem to like the 40K RPG too...

I believe he is just talking about BI, not BL. If anything the Black Library is going to be bigger than ever with the new support it is going to get. Riight...

But yeah, BI is done.

Oh yeah, even after the cancellation, Dark Heresy sold out at my LGS. What a waste.

engine

OK so BL survives, BI (Talisman, 40k RPG) goes away. Shame about Marc, I met him at Games Day Baltimore eons ago and he was a great guy.

I guess we'll never get the last Jack Yeovil Dark Future novel now...

H.B.M.C. wrote:This just appeared on Dan Abnett's blog:

"As far as I know, all Black Industries stuff has been canned. That’s the way it goes. If it didn’t sell, it wasn’t worth doing. You can’t argue with that. GW is making cuts across the board, and I am especially pained to see the loss of my good friend and BL publisher Marc Gascoigne. I will miss him, enormously."

So GW's in 'restructuring' mode, where they sack a bunch of people.

BYE

Thats stupid considering they sold all the LE in 6 minutes and all the books they had in a week.

They canceled the line 3 DAYS after release. How the hell do they know it wasnt going to sell or make money?

Where's Osbad when you need him?

It seems that GW's in a "cut all the costs it can" mode, much like an airline sloughing off low-volume routes and extra flight staff. I wouldn't be surprised to see other things take a dive too; even money says that Warhammer Online won't make it past a year or so.

Iorek wrote:Where's Osbad when you need him?

It seems that GW's in a "cut all the costs it can" mode, much like an airline sloughing off low-volume routes and extra flight staff. I wouldn't be surprised to see other things take a dive too; even money says that Warhammer Online won't make it past a year or so.

That would be very good for my wallet as I'd need an upgraded computer to run
that game.

I will not be playing WO for this reason. Why get in to something just to have it shut down? Sorry GW, but I can't help but feel robbed at pre-ordering this book.

engine

Nah. I think it's worth it to try to play the game. It looks
good. But if they cancel before release I'm saved the
trouble of buying a computer. If I do end up buying a
computer and the game tanks, well go me! I have a new
computer! Might as well play all these awesome games I've
heard so much about...

I saw a copy of Dark Heresy at a local Border's book store today and thought, "How sad that this is over before it started!" I haven't played a Rpg in years, but this one I was looking forward to, but not so much anymore.

It just seems like everytime I turn around GW is there slamming a door in my face. With the 5th edition of 40k, my nid zilla's are getting the shaft. BI is shut down, despite having a surefire winner of a RPG on their hands.

I guess that's why I have just about fully jumped ship and have gone with PP and now Anima Tactics.

Thanks,
Chappy P!

PS: I should start a painting blog on my new Khadoran army! The Butcher and his merry band of Man O Wars!

malfred wrote:Might as well play all these awesome games I've
heard so much about...

Computer games are bad for your painting time. And wife time. Order of importance as noted

AgeOfEgos

Computer games are bad for your painting time. And wife time. Order of importance as noted

*Sigh* too true-Damn you WOW!!-funny thing is, my GF bought it for me for Christmas, lol

As for the OP- Great Idea GW! As always, robbing Peter to BEAT PAUL TO DEATH WITH AN ACCOUNTING BOOK.

I bought Dark Heresy the other day, and it's interesting, too bad there won't be any more books for it.

In GW's defense, there are valid reasons to do what they're doing. People are saying that DH sold out quickly, which is great, but it's just one product, and it doesn't prove anything about the bottom line. And how big was the run?

One thing that can kill a business is lack of focus. You have to figure out what you're going to do, and then go do it. Don't get sidetracked with "cool" stuff that's similar to what you're doing but not actually what you're doing.

Publishing novels is probably a much better bet for them. They have a broader appeal (I could see my friends enjoying the Eisenhorn books, but they pretty much won't get into 40K), and they require less staff. You need writer, an editor, and that's about it. With an RPG book, you need writers, editors, artists, layout people, playtesters, etc. etc. It's a much more involved product with a much smaller potential audience.

The bottom line is that the company isn't profitable, and it has to cut something somewhere. It's foolish to just say "get bettar" even if we really think they should. They're doing the best they can, whether we think it's good enough or not.

An alternative view is that GW have basically only two intellectual properties -- 40K and WHFB -- so they need to extend these properties into as many areas of business as possible. They also have a large overhead in terms of offices, design staff, distribution and retail outlets.

You can run an RPG with 2-3 people in a small office and use freelancers for a lot of the work.

I don't think what happened to DH translates to Warhammer Online. Mythic isn't a branch of GW like BL and BI but a separate company entirely.

I for one will be Orking it up come release.

as I head it just is more expensive to keep a RPG working. you need testing, lot's of artwork, all that stuff. novels usually require like, one guy. ergo, less spending with equal amount of saving for GW.

Kilkrazy wrote:An alternative view is that GW have basically only two intellectual properties -- 40K and WHFB -- so they need to extend these properties into as many areas of business as possible. They also have a large overhead in terms of offices, design staff, distribution and retail outlets.

You can run an RPG with 2-3 people in a small office and use freelancers for a lot of the work.

Did you see the Dark Heresy book?

That thing did not look shoestring at all.

I did not see the book. I did not mean it was done on a shoestring. GW always have high production values.

What I meant was that an RPG publishing business can be done by small number of core staff, basically an editor and a couple of rules writers. All the artwork, expansion modules, book design and production scheduling can be commissioned out to freelancers or (in GW's case) done by the substantial in-house resources they have to maintain for the rest of their business. GW also provide a lot of the input in terms of background fluff for Dark Heresy off the back of 40K and the novel publishing.

All in all it is difficult to see why they canned the game.

Phryxis wrote:One thing that can kill a business is lack of focus. You have to figure out what you're going to do, and then go do it. Don't get sidetracked with "cool" stuff that's similar to what you're doing but not actually what you're doing.

Dude. I wish GW was as smart as you. They haven't had focus in years.

Ahtman wrote:I don't think what happened to DH translates to Warhammer Online. Mythic isn't a branch of GW like BL and BI but a separate company entirely.

I for one will be Orking it up come release.

I can guarantee you that no matter what issues GW is having it will not affect the release of Warhammer Online. The game is being developed by Mythic which is now owned by EA. EA could give a rats about what kind of financial issues GW is having. The only bearing GW has on this game is the occasional guy they send to Mythic studios to say "Oh, well uh, it looks great guys. Keep up the good work so you can bail our sorry out of this."

I'll be Orking it up right with you Ahtman. Black Orc FTW!

Iorek wrote:

even money says that Warhammer Online won't make it past a year or so.

See that isnt even remotely close to coming true. For one, GW isnt the financial backer of the game, Electronic arts is, 2nd biggest video game company right now. GW will probably only see a small IP fee for the game, like mabye 15 precent. So right there its free money. 2nd, this game is going to do something well that the big MMO out there does horribly, and that is player vs player realm vs realm combat. People have been starving for good pvp, and world of warcraft does not deliver it. Third world of warcraft at its height had 480,000 people sign up to test its beta, warhammer online recently reached 560,000.

So I would take that bet, because if there is one product GW is a part of coming out soon that is a guaranteed cash cow, this would be it. Negotiations are finished as well for a 40k mmo, and plans are being drawn up. At 15$ a month, even if GW only sees one of those dollars per player, and even if it only does half as well as world of warcraft (currently 10 million subscribers) that is still 5 million dollars in money for GW just for having their name on something, and making calls for the developers like no archaron isnt an orc, he is a chaos leader, or other things they have to preserve.

So you're saying that if anyone axes WAR, then it'll be
EA. Yay!

malfred wrote:So you're saying that if anyone axes WAR, then it'll be
EA. Yay!

You better knock on wood Malf, EA is known for being a soulless money devouring machine. If this game doesn't perform magnificently and put a serious dent in WoW I would not be surprised if EA puts a bullet in Mythics head.

Brutal!

(Probably true, but still, brutal!)

Anyone know what was up with MG's firing?

He seemed to be rather successful in steering BL to where it is today.

I would actually play a 40K MMORPG, executed properly.
This from the man who finds WoW tedious as hell.

Da Boss wrote:I would actually play a 40K MMORPG, executed properly.
This from the man who finds WoW tedious as hell.

Get ready for it. THQ picked up the license to make it and it's scheduled for release in 2010.

Alpharius wrote:Brutal!

(Probably true, but still, brutal!)

Anyone know what was up with MG's firing?

He seemed to be rather successful in steering BL to where it is today.

Wrong place at the wrong time it looks like. He was part of the division when it got axed. This is typically of how a lot of companies lose their best managers. They put them in a struggling division to turn it around, and then axe the division anyway including its personnel. If I had GW stock, I wouldn't be very confident in them contributing to my retirement.

Stormtrooper X wrote:
You better knock on wood Malf,

All the time. Like, six times a DAY, sometimes.

Iorek wrote:It seems that GW's in a "cut all the costs it can" mode, much like an airline sloughing off low-volume routes and extra flight staff. I wouldn't be surprised to see other things take a dive too; even money says that Warhammer Online won't make it past a year or so.

Well how else are they supposed to pay for Kirby's 800K reassignment package?