Games Workshop’s White Dwarf Magazine Is Changing!
January 9, 2014 by brennon
You might have seen in the News & Rumours forum that White Dwarf from Games Workshop is going to be vanishing to be replaced with something a little different. Well, we've had a dig around and have verified its authenticity and picked up a few extra snippets of information.
Here is what we know. This is going to be official in the next couple of days and will see White Dwarf changing into...
White Dwarf Weekly
This will be a twenty eight page weekly paper magazine available in trade and retail and will come to around the price of a pot of paint. It will feature new releases, the usual columns and general articles.
Warhammer Visions
Visions takes up the usual monthly slot and will also be in print, not digital. It's heralded to be a nice sexy looking magazine looking at the months releases with plenty of high quality images (this makes us think it's going to be a more collector type thing). Visions should also be in news stands rather than just in-house. The cost comes in at around the same price as the current White Dwarf and is more of a 'collectors piece'.
February is going to see these changes coming into effect and they should be floating around from the 1st. We're glad that they're sticking to the print medium and also making White Dwarf Weekly available through their independent stockists too, it should be a nice boon for them.
A weekly mini-magazine also brings into question the way releases are going to hit. Are we going to see releases weekly rather than monthly in quite a big shift? It certainly makes things more flexible for them.
Original story from Faeit 212.
[@Warzan Says...]
This opens some interesting options and some challenges namely:
What do you think?
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Yeah we’ve confirmed this, so it’s out of the rumor status now.
I’m really glad they kept independents in the loop, going exclusively digital would have been a shame.
Good work GW, looking forward to seeing it!
Wonder what impact this will have on those of us with a re-occurring subscription – mine has just renewed this month for the next quarter is WD it actually not going to be available anymore.
I agree, I actually forgot I had a subscription, as I haven’t lokked at it in year and then it whent on my bill a I remembered.
I guess I’ll be getting the visions then?!
Its not been very good for the past 2 years. £5 (ish) to look at our new shiny stuff. Now buy it here! Gone are the days when they had anything useful for the gaming community, such as scenarios or short stories. I for one stopped buying it ages ago. Now they want me to get adverts electrically via this iPod thing for £45 a year! Get bent with a large farmyard animal
Just to let you know i will be stealing the last bit of that statement and using it prolifically.
2 years? It hasn’t been very good since they started only having articles for the big 2 (or 3). If WD was as good as it was in the 100’s or the Fat Bloke era I might miss it, but not now.
Oh the glory days of Fat Bloke! Tis a pale glossy imitation of what was an awesome magazine.
I’ll pass judgment when I see these new WDs in my hand. What I think most people want to see is how to bring new ideas into the hobby and not a glorifed sales brochure.
Hopefully the weeklys will be limited in stock or the hobby centers will be flooded with editions that take up shelf space.
I’ll reserve judgement on the actual magazines until they come out. Anyone buying both magazines is looking at a monthly outlay of about £15.
so paying double if not triple (depending if you get the monthly and the weeklys) does ayone honestly think there will be three times the content, and I mean content not shiny adverts? Well the last thing I bought from them with any regularity is now gone then.
Anyone know what the page count of the monthly White Dwarf is? If it’s around 112 then that basically means you’re paying twice the price to get it weekly.
152 for the december issue
So twice the money for even fewer pages!
There is still a monthly Mag, more of a collectors level thing if what I can gather is accurate. so I would imagine that WD subscribers just move to that. The weekly, seems to be a pick it up each week while your in type affair which… Gives more flexibility for releasing new products Encourages people to go into the stores more often to pick it up But will be a very big project for GW to mangae and deploy, but it will go through their existing distribution setup which is pretty hot. How on earth do they expect to… Read more »
To be fair, the new monthly publication will have it’s own price tag. The bottom line is: about twice the print content per month at about triple the expense. The expense is not entirely without justification, however, since printing and shipping the weekly issues to stores are additional expenses. As for allowing more flexibility on releases, I don’t buy that for a second. GW are free to release what they want at any time. GW’s own policies narrow their preview window and require White Dwarf to be coordinated for previews. They loosen their shackles when the key to remove them… Read more »
Except it says all the hobby stuff are in the weekly, it sounds more like a pictures thing for the monthly.
I’ve never stopped buying it in it’s current form , it’s an addiction I tell myself “no more , it’s just a picture book” then it gets ignored . I actually bought one a couple of months ago and only picked it up to flick through when I got the next issue ! I’ve been reading a lot of my older copies recently , I forgot how many good ideas used to come from WD for games and projects . I even came across some old copies of Warlock magazine , in the days when GW sold and advertised stuff… Read more »
It was a matter of time really. I dont see the weekly magazine lasting for more then 6 months, not in its printed form anyway. I think it’s a safe bet to say “White Dwarf Weekly” will eventually go digital only. As for the Warhammer Visions, well that’s pretty well what WD was these days anyway.
I haven’t bought a WD in several years, and as far as many of us know the WD we grew up with has been long gone. Still though, it’s sad to see a piece of gaming history vanish, I think we could all agree.
I look at it if I’m going to subscribe to some form of news for Games workshop at what 60 GBP/100.00 USD… why wouldn’t I just become a backstager here at BoW for 45 GBP/ about 75 USD and support more and better content about the entire gaming world.
see what I did there for you guys ; P I’m not one yet myself though but once the budget rebuilds itself next month or march I should be picking up an annual pass… just have to remind myself not to buy more minis : )
A company that has struggled to fill a single monthly magazine with content is now going to produce 5 magazines a month? I cant see it. And given the recent spate of DLCesque content in the christmas countdown, I also wonder if they will cut off that income for lower profit (because production costs are exponentially higher with a printed magazine that an electronically distrubuted article) versions in a monthly mag. If there is no actual gaming content in the monthly mag – a reason white dwarf itself has become a shell of what it was previously- then what is… Read more »
I’m still a bit bitter from the days when it was the world’s foremost RPG magazine. I really didn’t get the transition to miniature wargaming but then my BOW profile describes me as “a slumming role-player”.
I thought WD started going downhill the moment it stopped being the Owl & Weasel lol
I long for a decent general gaming magazine, like the defunct Harbinger, with the production qualities of WD (which I’ll give them) that I can pick up in my local newsagents.
I just don’t see the point of GW releasing a magazine at all, there’s very little they can present in print that isn’t already done better by the likes of BoW or any number of other fans who have set up forums or blogs to discuss various aspects of the hobby. Modelling and painting is covered, if I want tips or advice I would much rather look through the 3colours up back catalogue, they’re not going to try and sell me 45 paints just to paint blue. Tactics are covered online by people who won’t try and sell me ‘X’… Read more »
White Dwarf is the main way that GW normalise their games for their consumers. It’s something that’s easily taken for granted but if you’re a young kid picking up his first GW minis, WD helps you (or indoctrinates you if you prefer) fill in all the blanks. It normalises the size of the game, what the game is played on, what the armies look like, what tools are used, and so on.
I would disagree. I don’t buy the magazine, and haven’t with any consistency for about 5 years, but reviews or flicking through a mates, or occasional purchases when some new hope is promised don’t support that. Massive battle reports – apocalypse size or no points are in the ones I have seen – hardly normalisation, with no guidance other than you need every bit of crap we produce.
The games are played on Realm of Battleboards, with Citadel terrain, minis painted in the Citadel style, with Citadel paints, to Citadel colour schemes, they promote the size of game they want to people to play, and the kind of list building they want. All are intended to normalise the way the game is played to how they want it to be played.
Well I suppose in as much as that you are correct. However, most people play considerably smaller sizes and the ‘standard’ game sizes you will see people play are completely detached from what White Dwarf presents. So if it is trying to normalise its failing miserably, both in getting there desired style adopted and in preparing new players for likely gaming experiences.
Being of the generation that bought the Dwarf when GobblediGook and Thrud were considered high brow comic entertainment and when it was possible to get a mini scenario for AD&D , Paranoia or Warhammer RPG I confess to being a little saddened that this mighty name is now relegated to a smear of advertising and product placement. Sure it died for me many MANY years ago but like a school yard crush I never quite got over it. So long WD you will be missed.
Amen brother. But I still have my near mint collection of WD 9 to 130. Some great stuff in those pages but these days we’re really in the hands of the likes BOW. Fortunately the Beasts are expanding their content to cover all sorts of stuff these days. I really think we are entering another golden age of gaming.
Well said and 100% agree. In my meaningless opinion … White Dwarf has been pretty lackluster since what 2007 or so (maybe 05). It went from being a magazine about the GW hobby to an all out advert for GW that costs one $10 bucks. Back in the day the thing was packed with all sorts of cool stuff, extra backstory, chapter approved, campaign ideas, DIY terrain articles, RPG stuff. Also GW was supporting several sideline games all the specialist stuff and there were things pertaining to all that stuff. It is sad that GW has fallen to the point… Read more »
The stories were some of my favourite articles. I remember one about a vindicare assassin flexing one muscle at a time whilst waiting to shoot a cardinal so as not to disturb anything. I didn’t even play 40k back then but I thought it was such a cool little story. Now it’s just lookat this new stuff, lets have a battle with it. It lost the first two times so we replayed until it won.
As long is its not going Digital only I’ll be happy. If this allows them to bring back some of the content they used to have and make it more than a glorified new release catalog I think its good news.
yeah but with less pages between the weekly ones than a current white dwarf and the only thing about the monthly being the glossy pictures do we really see that ?
We all know its not going to bring back anything. They are cutting costs and it is likely going to be even more of an advert. I picture the same 10 pages every month of all the store finder crap and canned “buy this” junk. So they’ll have 20 pages to work with and what can you do for the entire GW range other than pimp whatever was released that month? We’ll get five pages of stuff that is worth looking at each week. I mean compared to the current WD … 20 pages of original content is about what… Read more »
This just sounds stupid, pointless, and like another money-grabbing exercise from a company that seems to be running out of ideas, and I find that rather sad. I used to love White Dwarf, back when it gave away free rules, scenarios, had interesting gaming and modelling tips and some nice background fluff. But all that’s pretty much gone now. The only magazine that seems to do anything similar is Privateer’s No Quarter, which I do pick up every now and again because it’s cheap, has some decent content (a pleasant mix of fluff / advice / expert tips and rules)… Read more »
Wargames and miniatures is quite good. And they do a sci fi/fantasy section now. The unseen lerker was good too, but they went bump.
Hmm, sort of meh.
Maybe if they add Joeyberry as page 3 girl? She would sell millions of copies.
You are a cheeky one
No great loss. It used to have some great content but over time it just became an irrelevant and expensive new product catalogue
I’m a bit confused about the status of digital editions. Do this mean that the new mags will not have a digital edition or that they won’t be digital only. If I can’t get it on ipad like I can now, I won’t be buying it. I haven’t bought anything made of paper for about 2 years now.
I get all the information I need from BOW and other sites. And they are so much more informative and funny.
I literally cannot see the difference. Collectors magazine means what exactly? I suppose we’ll have to wait but I don’t understand why they couldn’t just get back to their old roots instead.
I hope this isn’t just a lame re-branding of more or less the same product.
sounds to me like the difference is they get more money from people..
Collectors could mean you might get more than 5 mins use out of it before its impractical and expensive bog roll
http://andrewjpatrick.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/oh-my-god-who-the-hell-cares.jpeg%3Fw%3D908
I would love to think this was a much need revamp of a product that is not worthy of the label magazine, I have always tried the new formats and revised approaches but the sad fact is I don’t believe it will be. Rather a way of charging more for glossy pics and swallow and vapid content. Particularly skeptical about the ability of GW to produce let alone maintain decent weekly content.
Still will try both, and hope to be proved to be a completely negative ass
Shallow not swallow – oops
Nothing to see here, please move along.
Its just GW selling the same stuff in a different format to con more money out of GW’s ‘loyal’ , fan base.
Just like giving you HALF the number of minatures in the box for the same cost.
Or using a cheaper casting material and charging you more for each minature.
Well, considering they royally f***ed it up when they changed it a while back. I’m not surprised they’re ditching it. Can’t believe it took this long.
White Dwarf used to be amazing but now it’s just an overly expensive figure catalogue.
Overly expensive mini catalog is a great feat of restraint openly displayed there @tasker Its been little over 2 years since I have made any real GW purchase… To skinny up the story I saw the release of escalation book that allows you to play super heavies in standard games. I’m thinking hey that’s uber juicy, considering I have a stompa in paint sitting at the house. So after a long break from GW I go over to the other side of the hobby shop and look at the prices. Holy Sh*t Batman !!! Those people over at GW are… Read more »
Don’t feel bad for me being in the sink, I’ve got plenty more to throw in, and compared to running my skyline, GW is cheap!
fair enough I will make a special effort to cheer you on. Maybe after rethinking my statement I am glad there is something like GW around for those who love to be rules lawyers over a very broken rules set.
Also people who love supporting a game company that is actively fire bombing online retailers as well as people who create sites such as this one.
I guess in that sense GW is cheap.
I have no shame and can’t let this go by 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na_ehW6hm5A
Wouldn’t know about broken rules, still playing second and third edition… And considering I do the majority of my buying from FW, why would I give a crap about online retailers who don’t stock what I want?
@deaddave Now doing older rules editions is still pretty cool so I agree with that one… However not giving a crap about online retailers whether they carry a certain item or not, is a far reach indeed. For atleast myself… A lot of the buzz and continued support for the community has been largely supported in recent times by the online retailers. armorcast battlefoam 40k radio wayland beasts of war miniwargaming privateer press ETC… I am sure I have missed a ton of game makers and retailers who have supported the hobby by either creating video or audio content or… Read more »