Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Where do you see 40k in 10 years?

How many new factions, if any, will be released?

Will any factions get retconned?

What edition of rule book do you think we'll be in?

Will 40k get AoS'd? Will it be WH50K?

Just curious as to what you all think will become of 40k in the next 10 years

We can barely predict what 40k will look like a week in advance and you're thinking about 10 years from now? ^_-

I want to see what people predict, not planning anything on it

Well ten years is a really long time. I doubt there will be any 40k as we know it now. I'd could imagine mixing in some kind of digital component into the games. Perhaps even some virtual overlay seeing as there are kickstarters already for that kind of thing. But yea, I Imagine there will be some kind of reboot. Like not adopting the AoS system but perhaps something similar and modular.

There will be an entire rainbow of new Space Marine codexes; at least 20 of them. Each with 5 mini-"dexes".

Oh, and I am sure there will be some other lesser armies too...

Dead.
"40k is a system with no future"- Rick Priestley.

Either GW goes out of business and 40k simply becomes just another dead system with people continuing to play and making their own versions like 9th age.

OR

It lives on when another company picks up the IP.

The game the way it is is completely untenable and unsustainable. Eventually something will happen so drastically to 40k and this golden goose will start laying eggs made of pyrite.

That day is closer than you think. That day has already happened for a lot of people, and when that day comes for more and more people; that is when GW need to take a long look at their games and why people are no longer playing them or buying models.

It'll become more arcane and inwardly looking self serving than it is now and become less and less accessible to outsiders. Space marines will still inspire duvet covers everywhere

GW and 40k have existed for a long time, far longer than all other major miniature games. Even with more competitors springing up, 40k still is by far the most popular. It has enough momentum to keep it going for another 10 years at least.
10 years from now, 40k will still be largely the same as it is now, but there will be also be some important differences in the way it is played (Codices will likely be gone). GW is going to do an overhaul of the game in some way or another I predict. But it likely won't be so drastic as AoS for WHFB, altough changes will probably go in that direction (fluff games, simplification of rules, no limits on models, use whatever you like) There might be 1 or 2 new armies released, and I could see the SoB being dropped, as GW seems to have little interest in renewing them. 30k will probably also grow, and might actually become almost as large as 40k.


Also 10 years from now, Grimtuff will still be going strong on his little personal crusade
GW will fall anytime now! Anytime now!

Well 40k is in it's 7th edition so I predict in 10 years time it will be in it's... 15th edition.

It'll do one of two things. Either GW will get their act together and the rules will be really good or they'll be slack and it'll be Age of Sigmar'ed.

The really interesting thing is where does Epic fit, if they are indeed going to revive it. Because right now 40k and Epic have significant cross over and I'm sure GW will want to differentiate them to lessen direct comparisons.

Prepainted marine figures and only marines as they had finally killed off all the xenos and devolved to spikey marine vs space marine.

Well, I think it will be bought by Hasbro sooner or later.
GW will keep the level they are at atm. Not sure if GW's hectic release schedule will prevent them from a decline in sales.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, I think it will be bought by Hasbro sooner or later.
GW will keep the level they are at atm. Not sure if GW's hectic release schedule will prevent them from a decline in sales.

Is the fact that Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast the driving force behind the idea that they will buy GW?

Sure I'll play!

There will be a drastic simplification/streamlining along the lines of the Rogue Trader to 2nd edition or 2nd edition to 3rd move (or WH Fantasy to Age of Sigmar). The game is just TOO COMPLICATED now with the rules basically being a scavenger hunt forcing players to rely on 3rd party applications just to keep track of it all. While Age of Sigmar is not a game I'm interested in, the philosophy on how they published the rules is.

Several unprofitable (or less profitable) factions and sub-factions squatted in the process.

At least one experiment with pre-paints, probably in a starter set.

An experiment with outsourcing several spin off games such as Necromunda and Mordheim. This experiment is quickly squelched out of fear they'd become more popular.

An experiment with replacing rules books with a subscription site, access to all rulebooks and codexes (plus exclusive content, wall papers, stories etc) for $10 to $25 a month. WD goes away for a while, then comes back.

An experiment with limited time offers of out of print models, ie the full Necromunda Escher line for $150, 30 day offer.

A drastic reduction in the number of GW stores.

At least that's what I would expect.

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, I think it will be bought by Hasbro sooner or later.
GW will keep the level they are at atm. Not sure if GW's hectic release schedule will prevent them from a decline in sales.

Is the fact that Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast the driving force behind the idea that they will buy GW?

Well, I think its just the IP which makes it interesting for other company. The IP has some potential and in the hands of a more ingenuine management it can be more profitable.

 wuestenfux wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, I think it will be bought by Hasbro sooner or later.
GW will keep the level they are at atm. Not sure if GW's hectic release schedule will prevent them from a decline in sales.

Is the fact that Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast the driving force behind the idea that they will buy GW?

Well, I think its just the IP which makes it interesting for other company. The IP has some potential and in the hands of a more ingenuine management it can be more profitable.

I don't think GW's IP will be all that enticing to the company that owns Transformers, GI Joe, Dungeons & Dragons, and a host of other stuff. Why buy what you already have?

One way to help look at the possible future is to look at the past and see what has changed.

Ten years ago we were in the middle of 4th edition and 5th edition didn't arrive until 2008. There were no Allies, no Unbound, no Formations, no Flyers, no Fortresses, no Str D weapons and no Apocalypse units. A number of factions still had 3rd edition codexes. There were no Knight Titans, no Centurions, no AdMech, no Dread Knights, no Grav weapons, a lot fewer of the large monsters for Tyranids. There was nothing in the book about forging the narrative, but there was a section about balance.

The unfortunate point is that despite all these changes sales have decline considerably. (Profits are up, but this is the result of efficiency gains within the business, not increased sales.)

It is difficult to think that GW can launch as much new stuff in the next 10 years without a change of direction. 40K is already well bloated and suffering from diminishing returns on every new idea. Therefore I expect a lot of Kid_Kyoto's predictions to come true. I also expect GW to try and diversify away from their reliance on 40K, and introduce more different games.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I also expect GW to try and diversify away from their reliance on 40K, and introduce more different games.

I wonder if we won't see the opposite. With stores being rebranded as 'warhammer' GW has doubled down on its twin-headed IP. It's pretty clear there will never again (under current management) be a LotR type licensed game or one in an original universe (what was the last one, Dark Future?).

Heck with AoS GW seem to have decided their future is a game of shiny good guys vs spiky bad guys.

And their last starter set reflected that, I'd expect less diversity in games and less diversity in models.

10 years from now I would not expect to see a half dozen flavors of aspect warrior on the shelf or 3 flavors of elf. I play IG and 10 years ago there were several IG regiments in shops or on the website (I count 8) + Necromunda, now there's one on the shelf. There were several commissar models, now there's one.

I think less diversity is the future, plastics for example have moved to complex but single pose models.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I think less diversity is the future, plastics for example have moved to complex but single pose models.

It is even apparent in their codexes. There are no generic Chapter Masters in DA or BA. There are no generic Ravenwing Company Masters (though there can be generic Deathwing Company Masters?), just Sammael. GW doesn't want you to play your special snowflake, they want you to play there armies. Option kits for successor chapters are probably going to go away at some point.

In ten years I predict that GW will have closed its physical store (or only kept a handfull), their game system will have a re-write without point cost and a simpler mechanic, they will sell their codex only in virtual copies and the physical ones would be «special eddition». There will be a lot of campaign books. There will be around 5 new armies, but mostly due to the current ones being broken up in several micro-factions. There will be a larger variety of boardgame, a few more terrains and fortification option. 30K will have grown a lot. AoS will market itself to children and young teenagers (lots of classic DnD like models and simple story line), 40K to older teenagers and young adults (same as AoS, but a bit more grim and violent), 30K to adult and more competitive gamers (more complex gaming system, less variety in product, higher prices for models). Forge World will mostly be absorbed, but not completly.

If you asked me 10 years ago what 40k would have been like today, I would not be able to predict the evil-mustache-twirling prices, the horrible resin monstrosities, the complete obliteration of all the hobby articles in the codex and website, the rise and fall of Matt Ward, the comically inept grammar and proofreading errors, the massive amount of rules, Unbound, Formations, and so on.

So 10 years from now, anything can happen. Maybe they will actually drop to a price that would be considered cheap, maybe they will bring back the hobby, or maybe they simply won't exist in 10 years time due to another commercial blunder. Anything can happen when your game company is GW. I'm on a Grox.

 Kharne the Befriender wrote:
Where do you see 40k in 10 years?

How many new factions, if any, will be released?

Will any factions get retconned?

What edition of rule book do you think we'll be in?

Will 40k get AoS'd? Will it be WH50K?

Just curious as to what you all think will become of 40k in the next 10 years

1) Owned by someone else.
2) No major ones. Might see some minor "factions", comparable to the AdMech, the Harlequins, the Farsight Enclave, etc. that are smaller pieces of larger groups released.
3) All factions will get ret-conned. This happens all the time. Will some factions be "Squatted"? Not officially, they just won't get anything more than the barest of token updates.
4) 11
5) No.

I imagine in 10 years we'll see a hard reboot of the game to a simplified edition - I'd expect more of a 2nd ed 40k down to 3rd ed 40k change though, not a WHFB to Age of Sigmar change.

Sisters of Battle will still be metal.