After the fourth week of two-week pre-orders, it’s Games Workshop is hitting a slump going into the winter of 2023.
It feels strange to talk about GW slowing down, as they just gave out insane dividends for just a few short months, and 10th Edition 40k has really just arrived. It seemed like everything was looking up for the model maker.
However, with tons of delays in fulfillment and three weeks of extended pre-order periods in a row, it seems like there may be a bigger issue.
It’s Official: Games Workshop is in a Slump
After another week of two-week pre-orders (the fourth in a row), it seems like the once mighty juggernaut can’t keep up with its once-a-week schedule as rumored warehouse and labor struggles take their toll. They can even have the Warhammer Day mini ready until two weeks after the actual event.
The rumor is that serious logistic shortcomings are happening as they are too busy counting their profits at the expense of throttling game stores and creating FOMO for their “luxury goods” that they can barely get out the door.
New store set-up time is rumored to be 3-4 months, so from a new customer acquisition standpoint (the lifeblood metric of some businesses), that seems to be problematic in the long term unless they aren’t actually focused on supporting their independent store “partners” in the first place.
Not to mention the fact that they just changed up how new release ordering works for the first time in the modern era, as stores and hobbyists are still trying to figure it all out.
Let’s look at where it started.
GW’s Last-Second Changes To Space Marines Confuses Everyone
Out of the blue, GW announced that the Space Marines would be on a two-week pre-order period, but that’s nothing too crazy on its own.
However, this week, they announced even all the Horus Heresy releases would also be on a two-week pre-order period, which is more or less unheard of for them to do this two weeks in a row, let alone three. That means in size weeks, we’ll only see about three weeks’ worth of releases.
While this isn’t great for customers, things have worsened for independent retailers (i.e.local game stores.) For the first time in the modern era, stores were not allowed to lock in their pre-orders with GW before the Space Marines releases went live for pre-order on the GW webstore Saturday, Sept 30th, 2023, confusing both game store owners and customers alike.
We’re not sure if this is just the warehouse issues they have been having, just catching up from Leviathan and summer, or something else entirely.
We saw these delays starting to show their teeth back in June when GW announced the General’s Handbook would run for a full year instead of the usual six months. At the time, it didn’t seem like a huge issue, but things got worse in August with shipping delays amid logistical upgrades.
Delays Turned Severe For Games Workshop Webstore Orders…
So, this was the initial announcement from GW for customers in the UK, but apparently, this was just scratching the surface, as they sent out another email highlighting the issues to customers in early August:
Greetings Rogue Traders.
We are reaching out to you today regarding your recent mail order due to recent improvements being made with our logistics facilities, we are experiencing a few delays beyond those that were advertised on our web store. Please don’t worry, your order is safe in our system and will be processed again once the improvements have been completed. We thank you for your continued patience and ask that you keep an eye out on your emails for a dispatch confirmation to follow over the next few weeks. If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
Best regards.
This issue also seems to line up with them barely releasing anything for the few weeks in July/August. Unfortunately, this then carried over to Tyranids and now Space Marines and Warcry/Underworlds in early fall.
Tyranids Release Hampered by Shipping Delays
We also saw rumored of new 40k Tyranids release shipping delays from frustrated hobbyists, and games stores reported delays and order shortages to us as well.
Over a month later, they have yet to be resolved due to inventory being sold out.
As usual GW strikes again, just came off the phone to customer service an email will be going out ( supposedly) tomorrow to online purchasers and independents that there is a delay in shipment with the new tyranid orders as there has been a problem with stock at the warehouse, some people have their purchases coming, if not in receipt of the shipping email already you can expect it up to the week after next, this is excluding the 9 day window for actual shipping.
wonderful
Well, adding a week onto the shipping time isn’t the craziest thing we’ve ever heard, but it is frustrating when you’ve already paid, and you’re waiting to get your hands on those new miniatures! This means they have been having issues for the past couple of months, and it seems the new releases for the past three weeks are most likely catching up with all these previous “logistical issues.”
Plus, this is already on top of their supposed standard shipping and handling period of 9 days, so for some, it may be well over two weeks from ordering to getting the products in their hands.
Legions Imperialis Starter Box & Game Delayed: Official Statement
The Legions Imperialis game has also been delayed since August, and tons of rumors are flying about big mistakes that may have been made regarding the box set being “misprinted”.
While we had initially hoped to release Legions Imperialis in August, the release date will now be a little later in the year. Don’t worry – you’ll be commanding a tiny legion of troops to victory very soon.
While this is a little annoying, it might also push back Old World, as we don’t expect them to drop two big box games in the same quarter with these kinds of delays happening.
Will it Turn Around?
The writing has been on the wall for logistical issues with Games Workshop since early summer. Shockingly, even though GW is making more than ever, it seems like they may be slowing new releases down to either catch up with all the earlier summer issues or just don’t have the manpower or systems in place to keep up with their own aggressive new every-week release schedule currently.
Hopefully, things will smooth out soon, but at this point, it looks like the delays will continue until they get caught up. Here’s hoping this slowdown will be enough to get them caught up.
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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.
