Battlescribe Data made waves across the web this morning with an update for 40k 9th Edition, but as it turns out, it was completely mishandled.
So the hobby community has been led astray this morning after initial reports on Battlscribe’s social media platforms made the announcement that GW sent them a DMCA notice (which says hey this is copyrighted. Stop what you’re doing immediately). If you went onto the app or web version of Battlescribe, you also were not able to find any 9th Edition data files. However, it turns out that it’s not what it seems and things were handled very poorly.
Battlescribe Rolls Out 40k Update (Poorly)
So let’s start from the top. On Battlescribe’s official social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, there was an announcement made that their 40k files were hit with a DMCA letter (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). This essentially pointed to GW telling them to remove their content.
As we went to confirm this, we’ve got screencaps of the 9th Edition data files missing. Seemingly because GW forced them to take it down…All of this looked like a totally reasonable move on GW’s part because they’ve been focusing on hyping their 40k app recently. However, there’s been an update to the Battlescribe site showing that 9th Edition’s files are back all of the sudden.
An updated just rolled out on Battlescribe’s site showing 9th Edition files to factions that were seen to be totally missing earlier.
These files can also be found on Github.
What Happened Exactly?
If you look at the link first seen in the announcement that their files were gone, it was a DLVR.IT link which means this is an automatic posting. It seems like somebody behind the scenes completely mishandled an update taking place and it automatically posted to social media, sparking fires across the community.
As we checked Battlescribe’s official social media platforms and even confirmed that the files were missing for mobile and PC, nobody within the community is at fault for biting into the lie that the 9th Edition files were gone. In fact, their mobile app is already up to date showing the files once again.
This looks to have all been a completely unavoidable scare for the hobby community this morning…
We are all human and we all make mistakes, but letting this announcement marinate on the internet for 7+ hours is yet another thing that could have been easily avoided.
We would recommend to the Battlescribe Data folks to Either A. take the post down immediately, B. Release an immediate follow-up post explaining everything. Or C. DO BOTH.
The silver lining is that we can still use Battlescribe for 9th Edition army building, but it’s really not cool to see how this was all handled.
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About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
