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8th edition lasted just over 3 years, and previous editions have lasted between 2 and 6 years...

How long do you think 9th edition will be with us?

They've settled both games into 3 year cycles which a once in a century global pandemic couldn't shift. 10th summer 2023.

I voted 3 years but I feel like their current manufacturing issues will extend it a bit longer than they had planned.

3 years on average, maybe 4 at most. Gotta crank out those Rulebooks which are FAQ'd useless in 2 weeks.

SemperMortis wrote:
Gotta crank out those Rulebooks.

This is it isn't it?

With 4 codexes and the BRB, I'm looking at over £150 (RRP) for a change of edition

Seems a lot, but perhaps spending £130 (in reality) on books every 3 years isn't the end of the world?

If they pull another 2 year cycle I think they would piss far too many people off. I think 3 is a compromise of spongeing money off people without alienating them too badly.

I might still be a little bitter over 6th. It broke me from buying cards/play aids/etc. I’ll pony up enough to play, but no more. And will pass on some of the “fringe” books. I’ll just play without the special rules in the campaign books for a few months/year. I’m going to have to buy a new codex shortly anyway. But buying a 30-50 buck book for 1d6 pages of relevant stuff is not for me anymore. I used to buy all the codexes/army books, but that was when they were more reasonably priced and had a longer shelf life.

I’d like to see them slow down and go with a living ruleset. I don’t begrudge paying for GW plastic. But every penny for paper is torture. My plastic habit would probably get a lot worse if I didn’t need to worry about buying and maintaining rules for things.

I want to be optimist. Voted for 4.
2 years to update all codici and then 2 years of additional campaign books.

 dreadblade wrote:

SemperMortis wrote:
Gotta crank out those Rulebooks.

This is it isn't it?

With 4 codexes and the BRB, I'm looking at over £150 (RRP) for a change of edition

Seems a lot, but perhaps spending £130 (in reality) on books every 3 years isn't the end of the world?

If they are good books yes. But how does someone feel if they have to spend that, and they get something like the necron codex. And suddenly all the enjoyment in playing the faction is linked to someone telling you that in prior editions the faction was much worse then it is now.

Obviously it won't be a two year cycle, they won't even have all the 9th edition codexes out in two years.

It would be silly to have it be 3 years...but it absolutely will be. That's the pattern, putting it off a year would disrupt their profit forecasts too much. 10th is already well into the design stages at this point, it'll be going to playtesters by April of next year at the latest, and the ruleset will be finalized by the end of 2022, probably right about the same time that the final 9th edition codex comes out, which will then have 6 months before it becomes out of date.

The global pandemic didn't stop it because everything was in motion before the pandemic was even heard of.

I could see them extend it if just because a good chunk of the first year or so is a "null" period for so many people who just can't easily or safely game right now.

There might also be things they want to slow down/adjust in the background as well. We've also no idea how much the global situation has affected their back-end in terms of future product development. It might be that as well as us losing a year to gaming; they've lost a year of concept and design work and such.

So I'd say 3 years minimum, but I could see 4 happening

Voted 4, COVID has had a pretty big impact on the rate of codex releases, in 8th GW averaged more than 1 codex/month until they ran out of codexes, and then continued to average more than 1 rulebook/month (codex supplements, vigilus, pariah nexus, etc.) right up until March 2020 when they went into lockdown and had to shift things 3 months back, etc.

Since 9th dropped, GW has averaged 1 codex every 2 months (so half the rate) and only matches the slightly more than 1 rulebook/month rate of 8th if you add Crusade mission packs, charadon, and codex supplements into the mix.

So a pretty noticeable difference in rate of releases, I imagine that GW would rather delay 10th than not finished its planned content roadmap for 9th.

Logistically I think it's minimum 3 years because of all the delays with printing and shipping books. Cynically, I think GW will keep chasing any minor short term profit they can get which means a new edition (and cycle of books) every few years.

Just long enough for a major paradigm shift at GW that sees 2-4 Codices released without Crusade content, as GW drop that in 10th.

 dreadblade wrote:

SemperMortis wrote:
Gotta crank out those Rulebooks.

Seems a lot, but perhaps spending £130 (in reality) on books every 3 years isn't the end of the world?

Considering i can get the rules/books and army builder for every other game system i play for free?

Hard pass.

 dreadblade wrote:
Seems a lot, but perhaps spending £130 (in reality) on books every 3 years isn't the end of the world?

Buying books?

Madness.

 dreadblade wrote:

SemperMortis wrote:
Gotta crank out those Rulebooks.

This is it isn't it?

With 4 codexes and the BRB, I'm looking at over £150 (RRP) for a change of edition

Seems a lot, but perhaps spending £130 (in reality) on books every 3 years isn't the end of the world?

By itself? No.

But the game balance turns into a trainwreck every time, and then its a couple years to get every army back on the same page in terms of power and paradigm, or even playing the very basics of the same game. Its consistently been a disaster for the last several editions. It wasn't great before 7th, but most of the problems were relatively mild. Now armies just utterly fail the same game test. They're either utterly behind or way out ahead, and when everyone starts to catch up GW slams the premature reset button and starts the whole process over again.

So its less the money more than the failed game state that GW consistently creates to sell more. The failures of the game are tied directly in to this short life cycle.

I'm gonna say four years. The rules aren't particularly wonky in any way I can think of of the top of my head, but there has been done delay in releases because Covid.

So realistically like, three and a half, but rounded to four for being picky's sake.

3 is most likely.

They'll stick with 3. They have to beat one summer's profits after the next, and the best way to do that is with a new rulebook that everyone HAS to buy and a decently well priced starter set of Primaris vs something else.

We'll have 10th in a little over a year and a half, and they'll hype it up as "the best ruleset ever" across about 100 different articles. It'll introduce Tertiary Objectives that require an extra deck of cards to buy and list-building will be "streamlined" (more complicated with points in two different parts of the codexes).

Points?

No! We'll have new Combat Teams that have set models and set weapons.

They'll start using 7-side dice that (1-6 and a 'critical' symbol) in a shape that that only they produce.

All bases will be triangle shaped.

4-5 years.

 Overread wrote:
The global pandemic didn't stop it because everything was in motion before the pandemic was even heard of.

I could see them extend it if just because a good chunk of the first year or so is a "null" period for so many people who just can't easily or safely game right now.

There might also be things they want to slow down/adjust in the background as well. We've also no idea how much the global situation has affected their back-end in terms of future product development. It might be that as well as us losing a year to gaming; they've lost a year of concept and design work and such.

So I'd say 3 years minimum, but I could see 4 happening

My thoughts exactly, voted (and hope for at least) 4.

The book prices just to play have gotten insane. I just can't justify spending that much on books that then get "invalidated" every three years. It's wasteful.

 Afrodactyl wrote:
I'm gonna say four years. The rules aren't particularly wonky in any way I can think of of the top of my head, but there has been done delay in releases because Covid.

So realistically like, three and a half, but rounded to four for being picky's sake.

The 8th Ed rules weren't wonky either but they still released a new edition in fairly short order.

Prior to 8th edition, my only previous experience was 1st edition, which lasted for 6 years. I actually stopped playing before 2nd edition, so the end of 8th was a bit of an eye-opener.

With 9th edition, I decided not to buy datacards or the UM codex supplement (as I don't actually have any UM-specific units). Trouble is, I've just bought Hexfire, which means I'm starting 2 new armies (in addition to the 2 I already have). So that's another 2 codexes I'll need to replace when 10th edition comes along

3 years unfortunately, gotta buy new books constantly is the modern GW policy.

Well, the basic question is whether we will see another SM codex in the 9th ed. as in the 8th ed.
If not, a move to the 10th ed. will be made rather quickly within 2 to 2.5 years.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, the basic question is whether we will see another SM codex in the 9th ed. as in the 8th ed.
If not, a move to the 10th ed. will be made rather quickly within 2 to 2.5 years.

They managed to release a Space Marine codex that only lasted 8 months before being replaced with surprisingly little complaint, I reckon they'll shoot for a 6 month shelf life this time.

The money train has no brakes

I'd be surprised to see them shift from the 3-year cycle that seems to have been in place since 7th (and duplicated in AoS), even though 9th basically missed a year due to the whole world being shut down. Would happily be proven wrong on this, though. In the meantime, I'm just sticking with the one Codex for now; no point forking out 20+ quid a time for something I'll barely use.