Today marks the 7th Birthday of the launch of www.beastsofwar.com! I know it's hard to believe but we really have been around that long and it's been quite the journey.

After launching on Youtube in January 2009 we quickly set to work on a community site which would allow us to share Warhammer 40,000 (and other content) in formats other than video, and host a few forums so we'd have somewhere to chat and share our hobby with the folk we were making friends with every day.

For a little sneak peak of our earliest test videos check out the video above (you can clearly hear the tremble in Johno's voice)!

The Journey

We launched the site on the 4th July 2010 (...maybe. It's all a bit of a blur these days) and very quickly it became a 'new' home for us all as a community and not a moment too soon.

Then came the great Youtube excommunication event of 2011. Youtube in their infinite wisdom decided to let a bot autodelete our entire account and even after meetings with them in Dublin we were told that unfortunately the content and channel could never be recovered.

It was at this point www.beastsofwar.com took on new meaning for us. Never again would we trust the entirety of our community to an external provider leaving us to the mercy of their decisions and influence from external forces out of our control.

This site became something we could defend ourselves and it became our primary focus for our community building - regardless of how new or fast communities could be built elsewhere - because we saw first hand how fast they could be taken away.

Today we have over 50,000 "Thank You" messages to deliver to every one of you who took the time to register an account here and participate in the giant conversation we have been having these last seven years about an industry that exploded with new activity.

As a community, you may not realise the impact you have had on this industry but many of the companies operating today have you to thank for their existence. A lot of the diversity and innovation is a direct result of the eclectic tastes you as a community brought here and influenced us as a team, each other and indeed an entire industry.

We have big plans for the future, new genres and games to explore and we can't wait to keep doing that with you guys. After all, without you, it wouldn't be possible.

A nostalgic view of the 2nd iteration of BoW

A massive thank you from everyone at Beasts Of War and let's keep on going for many years to come!