Warhammer fans are displeased after Games Workshop announced Warhammer+ will be moving to produce new animations every other week.
Launched in August 2021, for $5.99 a month (or 12 months for the price of 10), the Warhammer+ subscription service grants fans access to animations as well as other exclusive content such as masterclass painting tutorials, an archive of classic rulebooks, and exclusive miniatures depending on subscription length.
Yet, the service has not been devoid of its share of issues, with complaints from fans ranging from animations being poorly animated to official lore sources being less digestible than fan YouTube channels.
Warhammer+ even debuted to bad PR. When it launched, Games Workshop announced that fan animators Syama- the creator of the Astartes series – Lost Legion Studios, PaxelArt, and Codex Film, had been brought aboard as official Warhammer content producers.
However, under a “zero tolerance” policy included in Games Workshop then-newly introduced Intellectual Property Guidelines, other fan works essentially became forbidden.
One such series production was the beloved animated comedy If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, which subsequently went on indefinite hiatus.
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On March 2nd, Games Workshop announced that the second episode of The Exodite series had been delayed “due to a convergence of circumstances beyond our control.”
At the same time, they also took a moment to address the various feedback they had received regarding Warhammer+.
“We also wanted to let you know that we’ve been listening to all of your feedback,” Games Workshop stated. “You want more shows, releasing regularly, and to know what’s coming further in advance.”
“Good news – we’re taking steps to increase our Warhammer TV content across the board,” they then revealed. “It won’t be long before you’ll begin to see the pace pick up, and over the next few months you can look forward to a more regular and robust line-up for Warhammer+ subscribers.”
Games Workshop added, “Soon you can look forward to a new animation episode every other week, with no big breaks between shows,” before further promising that they would also be “gradually increasing episode lengths as well.”
“Battle Report, Loremasters, Citadel Colour Masterclass, and other non-animated shows will ramp up as we move towards one of each show per week,” the company explained. “We’re also looking at expanding what types of shows we make, and we’ll be looking for your thoughts on that in the near future to make sure you’re getting the Warhammer hobby programs you want to see.”
Unfortunately for Games Workshop, thanks in part to the questionable state of Warhammer+, few fans were convinced that these promises were anything more than empty gestures.
One such fan was YouTuber TheArchCast, who took Games Workshop’s statement as a partial admission of their faults.
Further, he felt that the post-update release schedule would actually result in less content overall, highlighting how the FAQ page for the service was updated to state that new content would come to “Warhammer TV and the Warhammer Vault most Wednesdays.”
ArchCast noted that, despite taking in at least £100 million per year ($130.98 million) and boasting 100 employees in their Nottingham, Nottinghamshire office alone, Games Workshop had been barely able to produce one animation a week.
Criticizing the short length of Angels of Death (10 episodes), Hammer and Bolter’s animation and the declining writing quality of both, ArchCast theorized that latter was only intended to be “filler content,” but as it grew more popular, it was expanded in order to meet fan demand.
The YouTuber even dismissed Games Workshop’s claims that the delay of The Exodite’s second episode was the “convergence of circumstances beyond our control,” asserting that this was nothing more than a lie.
“What? War in Ukraine?” Archcast mocked. “Did the Russian army kick down your door and go ‘Stop cyka blyat! Do not produce garbage T’au content, I will shoot! Because if that did happen, someone should have told me, I would’ve found that very funny!”
“‘Convergence of circumstances beyond GW’s control…'” ArchCast lamented with a deep sigh. “Bull—t me harder daddy.”
“To be fair the animation part is the only thing Warhammer+ delivered above my expectations,” he sarcastically continued. “I figured we’d be getting one big-budget animation every month, something big, y’know… a five minute entry Astartes or something every month.”
“That would have been excellent,” The YouTuber stated. “To be fair, they’ve been delivering one animation every week. Now it hasn’t been five minutes of Astartes, it’s been… five minutes of- not even that, half the time- of something that could have been produced by kindergartners.”
“But, oh well, details,” he eventually relented. “Hark at me being a little cruel, but again, this is a £100 million studio we’re talking about here. Not a bunch of YouTubers making this s–t for s–ts and giggles in their spare time.”
ArchCast further dismissed the return of more Battle Reports as being “bothered to play our own game once a week,” the Loremaster videos as “sanitized,” and the Citadel Colour Masterclass as “how to paint pink or spray-paint something black to, once a week.”
Ultimately, he felt that Games Workshop would ultimatelystruggle to keep up with their own fans’ content, despite their earnings.
“I don’t know how to break this to you Games Workshop, there exists this site on the internet, you see,” Archcast began a mocking diatribe in reference to YouTube. “It’s a very weird website, got lots of stupid-**s rules, lots of restrictions, you can’t speak certain words on it and so on- and it’s got a tyrannical Polish overlord who seems to think censorship is the best thing since freshly baked bread.”
“However, it does still have a wealth of content creation on it,” he opined. “Including much better lore than you can make, much better painting tutorials you can make, and as good if not better Battle Reports- released far more frequently.”
“I feel as if you’re really gonna have to make rather special here with these other shows, because your animations was really the only bloody reason to subscribe to your service,” he added. “And just offering up more YouTube videos isn’t gonna help!”
Archcast also speculated that the vague animation release windows of “very soon” was a way to allow Games Workshop to push back releases as needed.
“Warhammer+ is going to be the thing that actually does genuine serious damage to Warhammer, and I cannot wait,” Archcast prophesizesd. “As I’ve said time and time again, I guarantee you, Games Workshop has planned for this project to run at a loss for years, because it is their big, long-term transformation of their entire IP.”
“It’s their sales-pitch, it’s their shiny jewel, their demonstration to the wider audience, and more importantly, the broader market at large- the Hasbro’s of the world- they can effectively monetize their IP in new and interesting fashions, so as to get that nice big buy-out,” he said.
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“Well… It’s not working out quite so well just yet, but hopefully, it’ll only get worse,” ArchCast put forth, still dripping with sarcasm. “I mean, if their supposed view numbers are anything to go by… Yeah. They’ve got few enough customer as it is, and announcing they’ll be offering up even fewer animations, but they’ll be picking up the YouTube video production- I don’t feel like that’s really gonna help all that much.”
It was not just ArchCast who took issues with Games Workshop’s announcement.
In reply to the apology’s post on their official Facebook page, Patrick Boskovski declared, “This is the third time and more than Likely the last time I’m asking here for a real schedule pertaining to the animations.”
“Your customer service is utterly terrible. One 12 minute episode a month is not gonna cut it any more,” Boskovski ranted. “So once again I’m asking can we we get some real answers here on the future of this service as in a REAL schedule and when can we expect dedicated console apps? Real answers plz and thank you.”
“It should be Warhammer – (minus)…” Jakub Zarecki lamented. “Seuriosly [sic] poor content not preaperd [sic] before warhammerTV starts.”
“And this irriational [sic] decision about shipping special miniatures after full year of subscription totaly [sic] unfair to those people who buy full year subscription and will recived [sic] miniatures in the same time with people who buy month to month…” he fumed. “I’m disapointed [sic].”
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