Codex: Space Marines iPad Edition!
June 2, 2012 by brennon
Darrell and Warren said it would probably happen, and happen it did. Games Workshop have taken their first steps into the world of Digital Books with new Codices and other material now available from the iBookstore. Check out the video above...
As you might imagine from the video above Space Marines are leading the way with this revolution. Codex: Space Marines is the first full book on their iBookstore and includes the new Stormtalon in its pixel pages. But that's not all...
They have also released a number of other files for you to grab hold of. Most prevalent of all are their Scrolls of Binding for monsters in Storm of Magic. Their release schedule looks to be fairly quick, with a new Army Book, Codex or piece of gaming material available each month.
You can check out more information on this launch here.
The main thing to look at is how this might work for you guys out there in the wargaming community. With the need for a device that could includes either an iPad with iOS 5 or later, an Apple ID and the iBooks 2 app will people be begging to pick these up?
Is there any substitute for a good old physical rulebook?
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i’ll stick with my physical books. nothing quite like the feel of flicking through the pages.
Ideally you’d want both, the paper copies to sit on the shelf and go to when you’re building lists, and the digital copy for reference at tourneys, and since it will always be the same size you wont end up carrying a 100 page book you only need 40 pages of, plus you can have several codices in the same device without it weighing a tonne, plus the warmahoards war room app for when you go over to the other side of the con to play there, and you can post on BoW to brag about it when you win.… Read more »
I have a question for you guys. Does this update every time another product or codex is released?
I’m a big fan of ebooks, but in this case I’ll stick to the physical books.
Hello, if you’re interested why GW haven’t launched an Android app I wrote up my thoughts on it here:
http://www.tetsugaku.info/why-havent-games-workshop-published-their-digital-codexes-on-android-as-well-as-iosipad
You might be far more interested in the follow up post:
http://www.tetsugaku.info/what-could-games-workshop-produce-if-they-fully-embraced-digital-distribution-of-their-rules
Looking for as much constructive feedback posted on the articles as possible, they form part of a personal project to put together a project proposal for GW so they don’t fall off a technology cliff.
Cheers
Wow! So now i’we a good reason to bring my ipad to tournaments! >_>
I think maybe a bit too much has been put into the fluff sections from the look of it, but the rules sections appear to work exactly like they should- click on the short for of a rule or weapon in an entry and see the explanation of it.
Still its nice they’ve finally gone digital, and if the rules bit is usable it would seem a bit churlish to complain its got the fluff included too- though it does sort of hint that codex space marines wont be updated for a while, which is slightly surprising.
I can’t wait until they get it for Windows. I personally don’t like Apple OS so I am just going to wait until the Windows versions are out. It is nice to see they are getting in to the new Millennium. Also it looks like it will be a solid interactive product if I got the part right were the guy selected a weapon and rules for it popped up.
I’ve said my piece in the forum, but to sum up. Digital – great idea. This, well, charging more than the hardcopy is frankly outrageous (and no, it doesnt have anything extra, it has more pages because 1 page in the digital is half of a hardcopy page if you check the video properly), the pictures are all available on the website for free anyway, should you want them. The painting guides eem good value at £3-99 , until of course, you realise they were on the GW website entirely free until 2 months ago, then , not so much.… Read more »
Completely agree, but the one thing that might be able to sway me would be if they start regularly updating the FAQs via updates to the digital codexs (it’s not as if it would be hard in a digital format: no having to worry about reprinting anything. As soon as they realize there was a mistake, all they would have to do is send out an update and, BLAM, everyone’s on the same page… Ward will not be happy, if this actually happens, as all his hard work at making rules as confusing as possible will be regularly thwarted)
If it’s digital then put the updates directly into the book – no need to trawl through the book, then the FAQ to verify the accuracy – now THAT is worth having, big problem is needing an iPad but if you can afford to play GW games I guess you can afford an iPad ….. 🙂
The thing is ebooks wouldn’t get any updates I would imagine. It’s not exactly hard for them to update the FAQs on the site and yet they don’t. For what ever reason GW choose to not bother updating the FAQ’s regularly, and I don;t see this changing that.
£25 still seems a bit steep even with the rules pop up, which is good thinking.
Rotating pictures is a waste of time imho and adds no value or use.
@bloodhunter Am sooo tempted to suggest that there is nothing like the feeling of
picking the pages up off the floor either. But maybe best not.
No wait….DOH!
If they dropped the price by about 25% it might be worth it.
Just like every other GW product. That their price is a little high is really no big surprise.
looks well implemented but the price….hmmm
I think it looks super cool and would love it if they also try some augmented reality with the iPad.
BoW Lloyd.
That would be awesome. Take a pic of your opponants army and the codex entires pop up! Feels like something 41st millenia generals could have access to. Sounds fun. But as said before, the price is a lil steep.
Yeah, you could maybe use it as a blast template etc. As it could look at the minis and working out stuff knowing that models are on standard size bases (tricky once converted I know).
All it would need is a small QR card or two printed to the right size and placed beside the models on the board, the ipad’s tilty wigets and some basic trigonometry would then be able to work out how to overlay the templates on screen.
After seeing the price… I’d rather get the physical book and some minis, get the shipping waived, and end up getting more for my money. The price is not ideal for one new unit entry, what appears to be new fluff, and 360 degree model viewing. That being said, if there were was lifelong product support (update the codex for 6th, or bundle errata and FAQs) through FREE updates then the price could be worth it, but I haven’t seen anything to suggest this either in iTunes or on the GW site. It is a great idea and I was… Read more »
wow very good news !!!!!
The ultra marines painting guide is pretty good
There’s definitely a place for electronic rule books, particularly in the wargaming market and in that regard I guess GW have been pretty slow to catch on although I’m glad that they finally have. Not sure that I can see them giving away a fluff-free version of their rules ala Malifaux, but the corporate behemoth has to start somewhere, right? I’ve been using a tablet at the gaming table in favour of a dozen hardback rule books for over a year now and although I like to own both the digital and hard copies, the price of doing so is… Read more »
..of course, the product is more interactive than your regular PDF so I guess there is some justification for a higher price tag.. but still no more than £6.99 🙂
It’s a good move, but what bugs is that it’s Apple exclusive. This is really half-assed approach. I hate apple and will probably never buy any of their products as they are totally overpriced and their marketing is full off crap. Why can’t we get the app on smartphones using other operating systems like android, windows mobile etc.?
Because Apple already has in place a fully featured and easy to use publishing workflow including free book-building applications. Android doesn’t have that. Android has platform fragmentation. Android is a nice idea, but google is far far too hands off when it comes to quality control. The manufacturers keep pushing out second-rate devices with non-upgradeable versions of the OS and lots of custom crapware embedded in them. There are some good Android devices out there but they are the exception and not the rule. Going Apple exclusive at this point in time is actually really smart, regardless of how you… Read more »
Whilst I do unfortunately have to agree with you on several of your points whether I like it or not, I would say that contrary to your view there are very much worthy alternatives to the iPad in terms of the Asus Transformer line at least which is every bit as good and in my opinion a fair amount better in many respects. The problem is more one of marketing which has resulted in far less being sold in comparison to the iPad which in turn means that its less likely to get items like these, which I think is… Read more »
Fragmentation is about more than just models. It’s the fact that so many Android devices are released in a locked down state that prevents the OS from being upgraded, combined with the fact that the developer APIs are still not stable from OS version to OS version. If you’re using a two-year-old version of the OS (as most android owners are) you’re using a completely different set of libraries for much of the API. And since most of the devices sold are cheap, low-memory devices that are packaged as part of a contract deal, most users end up getting stuck… Read more »
Whilst were probably getting a bit off topic here I do feel I need to reply to you here. Fragmentation is a debatable problem, for the majority of people they won’t even know about it let alone find it effects their day to day lives but as I said its debatable and has many points we can agree or disagree on. I’ll leave that one there even though I do disagree with you on it as we could debate its effects all night really. As for there not being devices able to compete with Apples products, I’m afraid that’s complete… Read more »
When you go Apple it is “Apple exclusive” forever. Their rules say “our platform or others, never both”.
I for one am a happy ASUS Transformer Prime user. With the optional keyboard I get a full day of work on the batteries, have a powerful netbook equivalent, and still only half the price of the iPad. That’s not mentioning the SD, micro-SD, and USB slots that the iPad doesn’t have.
i remember a month ago when i found i could get black library on nook i spent some time to get a hand me down version 1.0 nook now i have to go get a ipad! i think with this digietal stuff more money will go to aplle and B&N then GW.
Does anybody else wonder if 6th edition might get a digital release too? The timing of this announcement just seems to convenient.
I would think its very likely 6th will appear as digital, common sense would be to release the a5 rules that come in the boxsets as it doesnt have the fluff , but I would take a guess at the new hardback being £45 like the fantasy one, and a digital version with some extra graphics for the same or a bit more. As an aside, after a bit of research, I’ve found out that since its launch in January, no book created on the new ibook creator software has been converted to any other format, its very much a… Read more »
6th seems a good candidate for this treatment, wonder if it would reduce box sales as this would replace the mini rulebook?
NO subsitute for books in my opinion, but handy when your on the move. Would be better seeing something like this on the kindle, even if it would lack the interactivity. However given the price they can stick it, nothing more than a gimmicky toy. Beside they should focus on writing books that don’t need FAQs to clarify stuff everyone can spot within 10 minutes of picking up the book. Don’t get me wrong I love GWs games, well until they finish destroying their own background to try sell models, but if they need overpriced product and annual price rises… Read more »
Wow what a stupid price to release this at. Bearing in mind many people had physical copies of this book already. Gw had a chance to massively reduce the cost of entry to the gaming part of the hobby while at the same time increasing profit. These digital versions should be 10 dollars at most for a codex/army book. Bear in mind no publishing costs or shipping costs. A controllable medium only one reseller to deal with. They also had a chance to change the way we get our rules content as FAQ could be made direct to the books.… Read more »
I want my codex to be made out of gold just like the Joseph Smith got! Forget this iPad stuff! Gold plates all the way!
But what about the epic music!
The grand music (and claims) that GW come out with these days makes me think they are going slightly mad in their Citadel Tower.
neat idea but not sure I will put up the cash for the ipad just for this. Seeing as I wouldn’t use it otherwise.
I would never pay that price for a digital book, that is insane. A redeemable code should be inserted into the hard bound book to turn in for a digital copy, like they do for blueray movies. Great job GW, you just made one of the most expensive non-scholastic books on the digital market, they’ve outdone themselves again with their amazing pricing structure.
Only at 2 pounds per book.
I definitely think this is a step in the right direction, I’ve been using PDF’s of my books on my Asus Transformer for a while now and its so much quicker to find the info you need than leafing through a book and it also means you can have as many codices and rule books as you like on one handy device. The only two problems I have with this are one that its iPad only and I very much hope they’ll be releasing an Android and even a windows phone version for those not so keen on the fruity… Read more »