WizKids Announce Multi-Year Partnership With Games Workshop
October 19, 2017 by brennon
WizKids are going to be joining forces with Games Workshop for a new series of board and dice games coming in 2018.
Here's what they had to say...
“We’re thrilled to be working with Games Workshop and the Warhammer 40,000 license,” said Justin Ziran, president of WizKids. “This beloved franchise is known the world over and our partnership will allow us to create amazing products and experiences for fans everywhere.”
The deal will cover the creation of two new board games as well as dice games based within the grim dark future. This means we might be seeing a Warhammer 40,000 Dice Masters game on the horizon.
They will also be reviving Fury Of Dracula and Relic which is nice to hear.
What do you think of the partnership?
"The deal will cover the creation of two new board games as well as dice games based within the grim dark future..."
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Interested to see what comes from this, very interested indeed 😀 .
Very interesting, wonder what the focus will be in the 40k universe, a 40k attack wing could be fun, or even a more board game focused version of gorka morka as the SP(u)D’s dont seem to be working on that IP at all
I reckon whatever licence they have will exclude any form of miniatures game.
Well Tabletop Minions did say in his live show that its most likely about WK continuing were FFG left of with licensed boardgames. I suspect that that’s actually most likely in this case rather than them making some pre-painted miniatures game based on licence.
Does this mean we might see an Adeptus Titanicus Clix game?
Why not. They could reuse the clicky mechs
I doubt it Adeptus Titanicus will be released by GW probably in 2018 so why would they want competiton for their own game?
I wish they found a different partner. WizKids does not exactly have a reputation nor history of good customer service when you have missing components and their website pretty much does everything to prevent you from getting replacements. For example, you can’t get a replacement part without a receipt. Which means, if you received a game as a gift you might not be able to get a replacement part. Many of their components are not exactly high quality either.
We wait and see but I will remain skeptical until I see something has changed.
So, 40K board games with crap mini’s instead of great ones then?
That’s not much different to Fantasy Flight Games. The miniatures that come with their board games aren’t “great”.
Awesome, fury of dracula without an eBay scalper or shipping cost nightmare. The 40K dice masters would be cool to
fury of dracula with figs and solo option would be lovely
FoD from FFG has figs already and they’re great. If WK produces the figs, they’ll be garbage.
The Fury of Dracula figures are about on a par with Imperial Assault figures – mediocre. They’re also very bendy and made from soft plastic. There’s nothing great about FFGs game pieces
They’re boardgame minis, produced en-mass for as little as possible. They aren’t intended for skirmish games, they’re markers taking the place of cardboard tokens. I think you need to lower your expectations a little.
If that’s in response to me, I don’t have any expectations about the game pieces in IA (or Fury of Dracula). I accept that they’re game pieces although that hasn’t stopped me from painting them.
If it’s not aimed at me then my apologies 🙂
How long before they have pre-painted space marines Clix.
Wizkids has a quite uneven trackrecord regarding their games and I had lots of issues with their games.
I hope GW doesnt start to dish out out their license like a 5 dollar whore, the way tey do with videogames. I dont want too see these babies.
Ninja Division got a license, so..too late.
That is disappointing. I have not been a fan of WK products, either of their miniatures or their games.
WK is crap components and crap customer service. I’m not sure they could have found a worse partner.
I think the title is possibly a bit misleading. They’re not really partners as such. WizKids have a licensing agreement to Make some 40k branded games. I would be surprised if GW have any involvement financially or creatively other than to give a final approval on products. It’s also not likely to be an exclusive license so they are free to also ltoicense things to other companies (as they already have)
I didn’t say WK would take over, just what they produce is crap so any games coming out of this will be garbage. FoD from FFG is amazing. From WK, it will have really thin cards, sub-par figs and other components that will just fall apart after very little use. Oh, and all parts will be warped out of the box.
In the end, WizKidz is a smallish company and GWI is a juggernaut. The Kidz are going to do what the Juggernaut wants them to do or else. Personally I liked WizKidz Battletech Click game and thought the models was for the most part better then Ironwinds. GWI will send a good Commissar over to keep the Kidz in line I am sure.
Could be interesting, if GW started doing minis for Wizkids I think I’d be more enthusiastic, after FFG it feels like pairing down.
Aren’t WizKids owned by Topps? Might see some collectable card games
As a fan of GW’s IPs, I’ve never been less excited about a collaboration with another company. Wiz-Kids can only possibly make a pig’s ear of this, as they seem to do with all things.
Well I didn’t see this coming. I never thought that GW would partner up with WK but I have been proven wrong by this announcement.
Hope this lasts longer than GW’s last partnership…
What was their last partnership?
FFG
The FFG partnership lasted quite a while and was ended essentially because FFG were getting too successful and starting to become a serious competitor.
Also, GW have licensed companies since FFG and will continue to do so in tandem with WizKids. This really isn’t a replacement for FFG and it will last for as long as GW or WK are happy with the agreement
The FFG licensing arrangement lasted from late 2008 to early 2017, though FFG stopped working on any new GW product at least a year before that.
GW certainly seem to want to avoid having all their licensing eggs in one company’s basket this time. That said, this is the closest we’ve seen to an arrangement like the one they had with FFG.
10 years nearly. That’s quite a long time, especially considering most businesses consider “long term” to be around 5 years when planning.
I’m finding it hard to see what WK are bringing to the party?
It doesn’t really matter I guess. It’s kind of a no lose situation for GW, whatever WizKids sell GW will get a percentage of that.
Low detail, bendy PVC figures?
Lol’d 😀
A bucket full of fail methinks.
It’s certainly an interesting choice of partner I will say tgat. I’m fairly certain we won’t be seeing WizKids making miniatures for GW, and 100% certain they won’t make any Heroclix style miniatures. If WizKids make a game that needs miniatures GW will want 100% of that profit and will expect that they will supply them. They also wouldn’t want their games brand associated with the sort of low quality pre-painted miniatures for which WizKids are noted for as that potentially undermines their brand far more than a crap boardgame. I think that this agreement will be limited to board,… Read more »
It’s a shame Wizkids won’t be making models. I was thinking quite the opposite. The Nolzur’s figures look very nice and I’ve seen some of the unpainted Pathfinder stuff at my LGS… light years ahead of the CAD crap GW is making these days, and ready to paint out of the blister pack.
“Light years ahead..” Sure.
You do realise those WizKids minis are made with CAD don’t you?
Of course they’re light years ahead, that’s why they’re the number one miniatures maker in the world. Oh, wait. The other thing.
I have a few of the Nolzurs Marvellous Miniatures and to give WizKids credit they’re not bad. However they’re not so good that I would be thinking of entering them into a painting competition any time soon. They’re a decent quality mini for the price you pay for them.
Agreed, the Nolzur’s minis are great looking for the price, much like Reaper Bones minis. I plan to get a few of them for D&D games but “light years ahead” of anything, they definitely ain’t. Reaper and Mantic have been doing low detail PVC minis for years.
That’s kinda the point @lunchbox . They don’t look like CAD figures.
What does a CAD figure look like?
GW ones look cluttered, fat, and stilted. They lack the dynamic movement of companies more skilled in the art.
I wouldn’t exactly say WizKids miniatures were dynamic.
If they don’t look like CAD figures, they must look hand-sculpted, in which case the CAD sculptor is doing a terrible job.
Also, current GW minis lack dynamism vs WizKids figures… OK sure, this definitely isn’t just another one of your anti-GW rants where you just make up reasons to complain about GW. Time for @cpauls1 to lay off the booze now.
Thanks for the personal attack @lunchbox . Very nice.
Here’s an interesting thought. If WizKids made miniatures for a GW game, they would look like GW miniatures.
GW have an artistic direction that they follow and which they expect their licensees to follow. FFG certainly did as the artwork in their 40k RPGs was very reminiscent of John Blanche. If WizKids somehow got a licence to make miniatures, there would be very little stylistic difference between something produced by WizKids and something produced by GW. The only difference would likely be quality of the actual components/kits, an area that GW excel at
That’s interesting. In that case I wouldn’t see there being point of WK making GW licensed miniatures when GW themselves have done those better. WK’s own sculpts are decent but what always ruins those are material used and mass painted pre-paint jobs so quality of GW licensed ones would most likely be inferior to originals that they are based on.
Personally I don’t think GW would allow any licensee to produce miniatures for their games for a number of reasons. However my point really is that many of the things people complain about GW miniatures are actually stylistic design choices and are nothing to do with the design or production method. In the event that GW did allow a third party to create new miniatures for a licensed product they would have to adhere to the same artistic direction and the final result would be a miniature that had all the things that GW’s own miniatures have that people don’t… Read more »
Unfortunately, I think that will be the case.
Just when GW seemed to have turned a corner they link up with WK.
Maybe we will see the return of Chainsaw Warrior (updated and improved I hope) 🙂