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Do you think another company would buy the rights and shops, or all our £/$1000 armies just be worthless after?

Well, firstly, the currently printed rules would still be available, so it doesn't all suddenly die.

There would probably be fan updates too, and some site's fan updates would come out as "the 'official' source" by being the most used.

That said, it would be impossible to get new people into an already niche hobby, so it would eventually die out.

People would use their models in other board games, and we would all move on and live on.

Maybe there would even be some shrewd company that went out and said that the models of the old bankrupt GW company will be considered legitimate models in their tournaments, thus swiping up a large new player base in one fell sweep.

Well it's obvious that either GW would come to your house and seize everything you bought from them (something about 'rental' in fine print on each box, blister, and book), or your whole collection would go 'poof' and disappear in a cloud that smells faintly of unicorn farts and new plastic.

Or, third option, you could use some other ruleset. Its not you're lacking for sci-fi rules for 28mm miniatures. Heck, you'd probably see some organization take over the rules and keep using them. Epic Armageddon still exists as a game (well, as a ruleset, now) thanks to its community.

I think someone would jump at the idea of acquiring the rights to Warhammer 40k.

And even if GW does close, thats not going to keep people from play the game, From Fandom from producing their own updated rule sets.

I'm actually surprised, there isn't already a "Kings of War" style game, that is its own ruleset, but is compatible with the 40K minis, the way Kings of War is compatible with the Warhammer Fantasy minis.

Well ii they went out of business (which they won't) they would might have a huge sale of all their remaining stock. If a company that is worth something like $45 million dollars US (quick search tells me that so Idk how accurate that is) goes under I am not sure who would have the capital to purchase that, since most miniature companies are much smaller.

If they did close for good and they had a big closing sale I would buy enough to buy like ALL the armies and codex's so that I could still play, there would be a big market for OOP stuff if they closed probably. Okay I would probably buy enough to get my armies I have now to 3000ish points and enough for another 3ish armies to that many....actually you know what....I probably wouldn't want to spend my money like that all at once

A number of things.

Continue to purchase 40k-esque models from other sources (yay Vic minis!) and partake in hobbying/fluff aspects of the 40k universe.

Play whatever edition of 40k people around me want to, or a combination, or make some sort of patched version.

Use my models in other 28mm sci-fi games.

Invest even more money in other systems (yay Firestorm Armada and Spartan games!) and be happy I don't have to shell out 60$ for a single tank.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I'd like this to happen.

Yeah, not that i'm saying they will, just a "what if?" i could see a company buying them out because they are so well expanded you could make the model (get it?) work, i remember a few years back they were in trouble but now the shops are expanding still, just the constant talk on the forum makes them sound dire.

 tau tse tung wrote:
Yeah, not that i'm saying they will, just a "what if?" i could see a company buying them out because they are so well expanded you could make the model (get it?) work, i remember a few years back they were in trouble but now the shops are expanding still, just the constant talk on the forum makes them sound dire.

Personally I don't think there is a miniature company that ha the capital to buy them out, GW is the juggernaut in the miniature market right now. They would have to be doing REALLLLLLLLLY poorly business wise to have to close, if they were in that situation (or nearing it) they would probably lower the cost of the miniatures before they considered selling.

If that happened then every model I own would suddenly become a "pro-painted out of print collectable" and I'd sell them on ebay for 3 times what I bought them for

I suspect recasters would become very popular if that happened...

Keep playing with 6th edition rules. I have what I need to play.

There would probably be another company that would pick up the 40k license.
But GW is doing pretty well, especially compared to other miniature companies, so I don't see them closing in the forseeable future.

If GW elected to shut down business, there would be several suitors willing to take on their lines and the shareholders would certainly make a deal with someone; even if it was pennies on the dollar.

This new company would likely try to "fix" the things they think is wrong which would lead to a lot of defectors. For example, they might move the storyline forward a few thousand years or they might get rid of allies... This has happened before when other game systems changed hands.

Even if, somehow, the entire line was thrown out the window, it would take a few years for everyone to completely abandon it. By way of example, look at BFG. That game system was essentially unsupported for well over 5 years, officially shut down last year - and you can still locate other players to game with. Note that pretty much the only way for the entire line to go away without a suitor would be if it was locked up in IP infringement lawsuits. Similar to what happened with battletech, it took several years for most of those lawsuits to unwind.

So, those $1000s wouldn't just disappear. The resale value of certain models would immediately go up... namely those that actually look good and have good in game stats. However, the value would start dropping depending upon how many of those models can be found on ebay.

Recasters would also step up to help with demand, but even that would go away after a year or two.

The point is, a game system doesn't disappear overnight. It takes a while, and 40k, being as popular as it is, would take far longer.

I would just use the models to play other games likes DUST Warfare, Warpath, and I am willing to bet that a community version of a new edition, and community developed codexes with tons of units that don't even have to have models would be even more fun and more balanced than the current state of the game. Actually, I kind of GW to go under just for that reason. It's not like people would just stop playing alltogether, the game would just be more underground in feel as opposed to something corporate or mainstream.

I imagine some other company would steal the 40k IP since the defending company is dead.

People still play AD&D. People would still play 40K even if the parent company went out of business. This isn't an MMO, where if the servers are shut down you lose all of your stuff.

GW would get bought out, which would be the best thing to happen to this hobby.

The IP is too valuable to just disappear. Games Workshop will die long before Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k dies out.

Problem is whoever has the money to buy it out would probably be even more corporate than GW currently is so a lot of the issues with the game aspect aren't likely to go away. If anything, ways to milk more money out of us dumb suckers who keep playing this silly game would come to bear.

In 10/20 years time, when most houses have a 3D printer, GW will go they way of Virgin Megastores and HMV. Even though it was illegal people realised that 20p for a cd was a lot cheaper than £10/£15... The templates for the models will be all over the net.
Just to be clear, im not advocating this so please don't send a Vindicare my way GW.


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In fact... I think I'll make a thread on this...

Gw could close its doors and another company would buy the IP within seconds. Warhammer is not going anywhere

The likely scenario would be that your thing would start to spend more and more time on the shelf as you find fewer and fewer people to play with. The assumption would be that GW is shutting down because the game/models are no longer valuable in the market place. If this happened it would be very un-likely for another company to think they could make a legitimate go of it. I realize it is not totally unheard of for something like that to happen but it is pretty rare.

I can see how from a players perspective this might appear different, but to the business ( especially ones who work for public ally traded companies ) people they only have one horse in the race and that is $$$. Every decision that is made boils down to this usually.

We'd still play because our models don't turn to dust the second GW stops updating the rules. Someone else would pick it up.

You could always just play your favorite edition with the armies you have for them?

Well GW is super rich right now so that's not happening in the foreseeable future. BUT IF it did happen I imagine that another company would snatch the rights to Warhammer right up even if 2 seperate companies bought Warhammer 40k and Warhammer fantasy, they would still be produced. Warhammer isn't going anywhere until the children of to day have children. That is my prediction.

The only way I see them going out of business is when 3D printing damages their business model to the point where they start taking worldwide losses.

What would happen if they went out of business? A ton of smaller, cooler companies would jump in and take their place.

I will still play, using whatever edition / codex / house rule I get.

I think a company eventually will get the IP and start the game anew. I think we will see a big improvement.

3D printers will probably be the killers. They are expensive right now, but technology gets cheaper, while GW gets more expensive.

Someone would buy it out. But since theyve been doubling yearly profits im pretty sure they wont go under.

zteknon wrote:
Someone would buy it out. But since theyve been doubling yearly profits im pretty sure they wont go under.

Doubling yearly profits? I don't know what financial reports you've been reading...

All my models would immediately become RARE OOP, according to ebay.

All kidding aside, i'd just keep playing.

Gw would send out Abbadon the despoiler to launch another black crusade to take back all the Gw models that were sold and burn down the houses of those that bought them....

Or someone else would but rights.