Friday, September 16, 2016

Games Workshop Relaunches White Dwarf.......Again!

This is from memory the third relaunch of White Dwarf in the past four years - the professional format relaunch, the weekly relaunch and this the "you guys were right relaunch".


It was about two years that White Dwarf went weekly with the monthly Warhammer Visions as an accompaniment. At the time the internet raged at the decision. The WDW was seen as no more than a catalogue while Visions seem to ignore the fact that modellers could see painted models online. The lack of written content didn't help Visions reception. In true GW fashion this was "Great News".

A lot has happened in two years - the End Times, the destruction of the Old World, launch of Age of Sigmar, further bloat of 40k and release of standalone games - and the relaunch cycle has turned again. I suspect the marketing model of churn GW employs subscribes to the goldfish memory view of its player base so the "Great News" moniker can be paraded again with no remorse.

Certainly my copy of the new WD had no admission that "Hey, the internet was right and WDW and Visions were crap ideas, doomed to fail".

Right, with the "Told You So" out of the way, this relaunch is a massive step forward on what was there before. The acclaim that the relaunch has received on the internet reviews shows that it is appealing to the masses far more than the weekly version ever did. Sure there is a certain amount of "Battered Wife Syndrome" evident as any meaningful contact would have been an improvement.

In reality though this is a significant improvement. I don't currently play any of the three core GW games nor do I own any of their boardgames but there is enough content for me to be happy just from a hobby point of view. For those who play the games and have been starved of in-depth content - new rules, battle reports etc - this must seem like Xmas.

Let's hope it continues.

1 comment:

  1. I don't think I will ever return to White Dwarf following the weekly edition debacle and the AoS content will always make my blood boil.

    ReplyDelete