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.
If you have an ipad that is…
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.
As ever with GW , not quite there yet.
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 really excited by it, but not so much anymore.
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 often prohibitive since there is usually very little difference in price between the two. Personally I think Dream Pod 9 have the right idea.. you can buy the rules and / or a starter from their store, and for a few dollars more you can get a digital copy of the rules as well.. or even better, take the Dresden Files RPG.. where if you pre-ordered their books you got the PDFs in advance and if you weren’t an early adopter and purchased a physical copy of their books at a later date you could still get a copy of the PDFs for free. Can’t see GW ever doing that, though!
..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 personally feel about the platform because making the books (through iBooks and Author) is cheap (eg. low risk) and there is a large installed base out there to serve as an audience. Android has shipped more phones, many of which haven’t actually sold (sitting in carrier warehouses) and the rest of which all run different versions of the OS, the vast majority of which are two years behind the latest OS releases. So actually developing an Android app is a nightmare compared to iOS because you have to do a ridiculous amount of cross-platform testing just to be sure your app works on 20% of the Android installed base. Google is dropping the ball on this.
Also, this is really optimized for iPad and not iPhone. The Android tablet at this point in time is pretty much a no show. There really is no tablet market, only an iPad market right now. Like it or not, them’s the facts.
I don’t want Apple to be the only competitor in this space. I don’t want another platform monoculture like we had with Windows PCs for almost two decades. It’s unhealthy for the market and it stifles real platform innovation. I want Android to be a product worth buying. But it just isn’t. I’m holding out some hope for Windows Phone 8 because I think Metro is the best UI concept to come around in decades, but it’s going to be an uphill battle for them at this point. MS waited too long to respond to Apple’s mobile strategy.
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 a great shame.
Also fragmentation is only a minor problem and only really for phones as the Android tablets in the main use very similar hardware and software and also you can restrict your app to only those models that are compatible so in reality there is no major reason why this can’t be released for Android at all and as I really dislike the Apple ecosystem, iOS and especially iTunes, I’m very much hoping they do release them.
Basically so called fragmentation is a nonsense, what you should only be comparing is different individual handsets or Tablets as otherwise what you’re doing is comparing hardware to an OS or the reverse, neither of which is a fair comparison. You can compare iOS to Android but not iOS to a HTC One X (the best handset around bar none by the way, far more advanced and usable than the now ageing iPhone 4s) for example.
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 with outdated versions of the core OS and there’s nothing they can do about it. This isn’t just a fragmentation problem (though it is), it’s a security problem as these users are also effectively locked out of security updates.
Yes, there are some really good android devices, but the bulk of the devices being sold are cheap garbage offered as free phones by carriers in exchange for a two year data contract. The install base is an absolute mess. Many developers, especially independent ones, have stopped supporting Android because the Android version of their software was 90% of their support costs and only 10% of their sales volume.
If Google would grow some stones and start enforcing quality standards (Officially Licensed, or Certified Android or something) with their vendors the ecosystem would be a lot more stable and Android would be a more solid contender in the app market. It’s not just marketing that makes an iPhone more appealing. It really is a better experience for the nontechnical user. For someone, like me, who uses Unix, Linux, Windows and OS X daily, it’s not that hard to figure out how to get my phone to work no matter what kind it is. For most consumers, Android just isn’t there yet, except for on a very few devices and most consumers don’t know which ones are the good ones and which ones (Motorola *cough*) to avoid. And even if you are the kind of user who is okay on an Android, the software ecosystem is nowhere near as robust, due mostly to Apple’s superior developer tools.
Author is just one example. Making this book is drag and drop simple on iBooks. There’s really no software to write at all. It’s all WYSIWYG. Even if Android were a platform worth targeting right now, it would require GW to develop their own application to do it. That’s a significant increase in cost. I don’t like Apple’s licensing terms or the agency model or their locked down approach to their platform. But you have to acknowledge that the reason their succeeding is because they’ve provided a better user experience and a better developer experience.
Google has to have more than just technical specs and principles (which are sketchy because Android isn’t really as “open” as most of us would like either) to beat that. What frustrates me most is that a blueprint for success is basically laid out right in front of every one of Apple’s competitors and they’re all too blind or arrogant to follow it. Apple should not be dominating the way they are, but their competitors are just not trying hard enough.
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 nonsense as a Galaxy S2 or S3 and the HTC One X (I can’t speak for the new Nokias as I’ve not used them but apparently they’re competitors as well) amongst others are at the very least the equal of the iPhone these days in terms of usability and reliability and are far better in terms of the actual hardware. Also the Transformer Prime is again at the very least the equal of the new iPad in all the above elements as well, they are all with the latest version of Android very easy to use and far less limiting than iOS and in terms of the phones at least a lot less expensive whilst at the same time providing more “bang for your buck”.
I’m not saying Apple products are terrible (they’re clearly very good) or that manufacturers of Android handsets have all the answers but there are definitely alternatives to all the Apple products that are the equal and sometimes better than them, to get a good phone you have always had to do some research and every Android phone is competing with each other along side the iPhone and windows phones. It simply isn’t a case of Android or Google Vs Apple, its a case of a high end HTC handset Vs the iPhone or the Galaxy S3 and then you’ve got mid range and lower end handsets for those that don’t want to spend £30 pm (£45 in the case of the iPhone) on a contract.
The price brings me to my final point, an equivalent 32gb iPhone4s on the same £31 pm contract as my One X would cost me nearly £200 whereas the One X was free with an £80 free gift as well (to get the iPhone for free you have to get it on a £45 pm contract), the One X is a much newer handset with far more accomplished hardware alongside the cutting edge looks and software with the superb Sense 4 on top that’s every bit as easy to use as iOS and I’ve tested this out with many non techy people. So my question is why pay the massive premium for something that technically isn’t as good?
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 proprietary system and heavy on the DRM.
So proprietary it even excludes Iphones and touches, Ipads only.
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 at massively over the rate of inflation to stay a viable business a lot of people in the Lenton area need sacking.
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. New units could be added in directly meaning that in one fell move they could have solved one of the major gripes people have with there game.
These books should have been released in a one app tool where you buy directly the books you want or can enter in codes when you buy a physical rulebook that gives you the digital version as well.
The idea of going digital 10/10
The implementation of the codex 7/10 a need to see how it can be updated edited etc to go up. Would be great if for example players could notify gw of spelling error etc so that when next updated these were fixed,
The price 1/10
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 tech and two the price is a bit on the high side, at the very least it should be around the price of the books but really needs to be a bit lower. £15 would probably be a bit more realistic.
I do like the idea of digital. Apple exclusive is however the wrong way for me.
As I am not going to purchase an apple product (overpriced hardware which out of date)
I would have loved to see a codex for windows (mob and PC) maybe even with an army building function implemented. For that I would have been prepared to spend this ammount of money. Generally as I said I like digital.
I will most likely still buy the book and if I can get it someday will have the e-version on my windows smart-phone or tablet.
As I don’t currently want or need an over priced under speced penis extention. No I don’t want this to be the way forward.
Not to mention they’ll still charge an arm and a leg for something with no actual phisical presence.
What I like about this is the bit where you can see in the video tapping Dread CCW bringing up a full description. If it’s the same throughout for all game terms then there’s much less need of flipping about pages than the real thing, which is great.
i-Fad only, big mistake. Price point, imho, big mistake, although I think the same of buying lossy compression mp3’s for the same or greater price than a cd despite no manufacture or storage overhead but the world seems to have embraced that one… 😉
I just use PDF versions of the codices I use on my e-reader. Works like a charm. I don’t want to spend so much money on a digital version, because I want the regular book as well. They should just sell the digital copy along with the physical codex.
I do think it looks good, though. Bit expensive, but that is my main concern with all e-books. I also do think this is the future, especially if they release version for android as well.
Plus no one has mentioned the fact it’ll be out of date in about three months.
i think this is really good and i want to get a copy of the new rules on the ipad i only hope that they dont give the cut down version like you get in the starter box but the full rule book. i also hope it doesnt come out to expensive i think they should also make some army builder apps that u can download for free if you purchase the codex this way that would make it more worth while
It looks interesting, but there’s the major drawbacks. First is the apple exclusive.
But then again, Apple does follow the standard GW model of half the capability for twice the price. but at least GW is doing more than just a direct PDF of the book for that price.
And they had better update it for free to the new edition because that’s a horrific price for something about to be out of date.
I really hope they at least release a PDF equivalent for ereaders though
This wouldn’t be such a bad idea, if it were properly scaled price-wise as well. 42 digital as opposed to 33 paperback for Codex: Space Marines? If they update it and don’t make you repurchase the book I can see the justifications over the cost, but otherwise….good lord. This is definitely a wait and see on what they’re going to do for the future.
I think the digital copy should be a little more expensive because the Hobby is still primarily ‘dead tree’ book orientated. The lowest price point should remain with the ‘standard’ edition. Also 6th ed is likely to bring hardback books wich I expect will retail for about the cost of the iPad version. Whilst I see why people would hope for a PDF, it will never happen as it is too easy to pirate. Privateer Press and Pathfinder are still small compared to GW so they need to take risks with PDFs to get their game out to as many new players as possible. GW dont need to do this as much. Also Apple take their cut of the price.
On a side note I am curious that Codex Space Marine has been released as I would have expected that to be one of the first new Codices for 6th. This suggests that it wont be done for a while especially as their flyer has been released too.
Why should the digital copy be more expensive and what does the current status quo of mostly paper based have to do with it?
The digital copy is £25 but their overheads are a tiny fraction of the printing/production/warehousing/storage/transporting/retail-space-that-could-be-shifting-a faster-seller costs so why is the print version only £20? Yes Apple get their cut but so does anyone selling the paper version. If anything Apple getting exclusivity on GW’s digital line you’d expect them to have brokered a better deal than they would with their traditional 3rd party sellers.
If it was the same price as the paper version it’d be a scandalous rip-off but to actually charge more is mind boggling.
I dont think Apple would care about the exclusivity. I’m curious how Apple see the price though as I thought they insisted that it should price match the lowest priced version available but maybe thats just comparing digital copies. I to am used to cheaper digital copies as I often buy from Black Library for my Kindle.
My reference to the current status quo was that if tournaments insist on the player having a copy of the dead tree rulebook then that format should be the cheapest. I agree that in a perfect world they should cost the same but I could see it being worth while if it gets updates for errata for the life of the edition and as i mentioned the price of 40k codices may rise in 6th (WHFB hardbacks are £25). Unfortunately we don’t know if this book will straddle the new edition or how long before theres a new version. I’m interested in the Fantasy stuff but I’d rather have a bundle of scrolls than lots of individual ones. I’m going to wait on 6th ed before I try this out for 40k.
Ah, see where you’re coming from. If it’s required to play, in tournaments anyway, then players shouldn’t be burdened with the extra cost. I can agree with that =)
I still think the price is shameless profiteering (assuming they get people buying it) for the reasons I mention. I can see the attraction in going down that route. It’s probably quite a low turnover physical product for them. They’ll only sell one when someone wants to start a new vanilla marines army but it’s a core product so they can’t not have it in stock and the economies of scale in printing I’d guess they’d have to print thousands at a time which all equates to boxes of unproductive stock which is going to be really costly after your fast “ooh a new codex is out” sales. It’s not a worry at all in an e-product so I’d imagine they’d love that to have more people buying electronically but I can’t see any justification for the price.
As I said above though, those arguments are pretty much identical for mp3’s and you see mp3 album’s going for the same, or even more, than the physical CD even though it’s an inferior product that’s cheaper and if you want it digitally ripping it is childs play but everyone seems to accept that and pump money into it.
Worlds gone mad. 😉
Hello all, I have a Ipod Touch 2nd generation and the truth does not seem bad pick it out. That if I do not think buying an Ipad, my Ipod I have enough for what I want.
Another thing is to get the Space Marine codex when he goes out a new edition of the regulations. What they will do, update it and charge you again later? Not think that is the way and I think in the last few weeks Games Workshop is mistaken, but much, the things you are doing.
Maybe GW will move to a subscription model for digital – pay £NN a month and you get access to 40k rules and one codex – add a bit more and get two codex – a bit more and WHFB etc etc
I could see the appeal if it included free updates as the rules/codex were errated/fixed/balanced etc with a migration fee as new versions were released…
Add in some army builder and tournament management software and you could have a very nice product – make it cross platform and you could be looking at a real winner …
Can they make a Kobo version for those of us that don’t have I-pads?
Or Kindle for that matter.
GW goes digital…GOOD!
But 40+ US dollars…SUPER BAD..I think if it’s $25 I would consider it.
Too greedy I would say.
The online codex’s would probably cost more than the ipad! Typical GW
I personally think this a brilliant little bit of social engineering on Games Workshop’s part.
Think of the userbase as a Venn Diagram:
In one circle, you have iPad owners… for the most part impulse-buyers with more liquid cash than sense; since they can afford to blow £300 on what is essentially an mp3 player with an integrated Etch-a-sketch.
In another circle, you have GW players… for the most part impulse-buyers with more liquid cash than sense; since they can afford to blow £20.50 on 50 grams of moulded plastic at least once a month for the majority of their natural lives.
In ANOTHER circle, you have tournament gamers… for the most part update daemons who are obsessed with the next big thing to a)accellerate their game, b) remain competitive, and c) get a leg up on the opposition.
Where those circles overlap, you have the focus group of this little “development”. Not only do they have enough liquid cash to drop it on an iPad, they ALSO have enough to drop X on little plastic men every month AND are obsessed with maintaining even the slightest edge of advantage (in this case, it’s oodles of information at their fingertips).
GW has targeted this new development at THIS fragment… knowing full well that for this rounded triangle of humanity, this development is the BEST… THING… EVAR!
I’ll stick to my books, thanks. And my PDFs, and my belief that the world is better off without Steve Jobs. How’s the weather down there, Steve? Whaddya mean it’s hot?
Interesting idea about the disposable income group but that’s always been the way because GW make a luxury product. How much do people spend on the average army? £200? £300 easily iPad territory.
As for the comment about Steve Jobs in hell, he wasn’t a Christian.
Wait… he’s dead? I thought he just retired to a monastery in Guatemala!
Oh, jeez… now I feel really bad! 😉
I see what you’re saying about the luxury product… my point was this is GW’s way of squeezing more cash out of the high-resource sector of their market, rather than the majority of us who are just in the mid-to-low/mid-resource sector of their market. I myself love the (stone age) books, and my punk-rock-rebel PDFs on my dodgy e-reader.
I think this is a good example of GW finally moving to tax extra funds off the people who can actually afford it, rather than making Little Jimmy save up two months for that Bike Squad rather than just one and a half months as it is now 😀
etch a sketch, that’s funny. You don’t have one, do you?
Tbh I think this is yet another case of GW having half an idea, and then not quite getting it right in the end. This should have been the electronic equivalent of the AoBR rulebook. People buy the AOBR rulebook for the ease of carrying(due to size) and the fact it only contains what they need in game, if they want pictures and fluff etc they get the BRB and leave it on a shelf til they need it. Same thing goes with an electronic version, it’s probably because you just want to quickly flick through units for rules and wargear etc. I think if they stripped out all the fluff and pictures and just left in the unit descriptions with special rules and wargear and then the army list section it’d be fine for gamers on the go.
I don’t have itunes so can’t check out the price easily here in AUS. In fact I probably don’t want to know.
I can accept they went Apple as it fits their business model. Charge more for a product because you can, you have people love your products because they are great, people who hate them because you charge too much, you can’t stand any competition, will take anyone to court if they even think abouting infringing on percieved IP or name etc etc.
Ideally for an e-book or like Amazon would have been a better approach but then they are all about cost and that doesn’t fit GW culture.
Good luck to those that drop money on this, it does look good but it isn’t for me. I don’ have an ipad, don’t want one because when I sit on the bus reading with the sun shining in any of these ‘reflective’ tablet screens makes it too hard.
Give me a physical book for the pictures etc and an e-book (not an ibook) for any of the many ereaders out there be they kindle, kobo, nook, etc etc or application for laptop, phone or even tablet 🙂
Oh and at a price point where you can sell it to everyone and not just those with more money than sense.
ha ha ha! and the price rise means that both the digital and dead tree versions cost £25 😀
you guys should do stuff for monsterpocalypse
The real test will be when the new edition of the codex is released. Will the iPad version update by itself? Will it cost to update? Or will we have to shell out for another full price codex. Only time will tell.
DD
WOW. I expected a $14.99 price tag but $49.99? Go $%*$ yourself GW.
I have to admit to being very excited when this App came out and downloaded it at the first opportunity; however I quickly noticed that the electronic rule book is actually missing many of the rules and does not include the latest errata.
To illustrate the problems with the App you can go to page 144 of the App (Chapter 5.2) for the entry on the Chapter Master.
Page 144 states:
“Orbital Bombardment: A Chapter Master has the authority to call down a bombardment from a Strike Cruiser.”
Wargear
Iron Halo: An Iron Halo incorporates a powerful energy field that can turn aside even the most deadly attacks.”
There is no other explanation for what an Iron Halo and an Orbital Bombardment do on page 144. The rules for the Orbital Bombardment are found on page 332 in Chapter 12.8 and do not state that an Orbital Bombardment uses a large blast template (unlike the Space Marine Errata).
I have not been able to find the rules for Iron Halo anywhere in the Electronic Book. There are no in game rules for the Psychic Powers (although there is a description of what they do on page 153 Chapter 5.6), No rules for the Special Wargear for any of the characters, No rules for Mindlock, No rules for Combat Tactics or “And they Shall know No Fear”.
For Example the entry for Vulkan He’Stan states at page 227 Chapter 5.43:
“Chapter Tactics – Vulkan He’Stan: Salamanders take great pride in the craftsmanship and artistry of their wargear, as well as possessing a particular affinity for flame-based weaponry”
And? And nothing else so there is no explanation of what Vulkan He’Stan’s Chapter Tactics do within the electronic rule book.
The App is an Electronic Rule Book without the Rules….. It is a good start by GW as I was able to find out the problems are cross reference the sections very easily but this needs to be fixed.
Liam
I finally found all of the Special Rules in the Glossary Section. Not very intuitive and there should be links between the Unit Entry and Glossary.
Liam
Don’t know what all the fuss is! In my version Tiggy gets all of Sicarius’s wargear and still has all psychic powers. I’ll take a 2+/4++ FNP Libby with a special power weapon any day. I’d even argue the blade is better than a force weapon 😉
I agree it was pricey, I had a gift card or I wouldn’t have picked it up.
how abuot an ePub for Nooks. Why limit themselves to iPads? Digital release is easy, and they make a ton more money off it since there is zero production cost once the R&D is done (which is practically nill.)
When I seen this announcement I said at last GW do something right and useful but as per usual GW do it badly. Lets phase out metal was a good idea but fine cast was a bad idea. There is no need for all the digital bells and whistles all I want is a digital version of a codex with short links to rules. (Thunder Hammer ….. +25pts) tap on it and it brings you to the thunder hammer rules. Why do I need to see 360 degree images of models and pop up windows of a ream of different (in this case chapters) It would have been better to have a simple digital copy of the army list with a basic army builder even as a bought ad on.
GW can keep their overpriced 360 view toy on the iStatus device – we don’t have to pay to play. If they had priced it reasonably, pdf’s made by the community at large wouldn’t be required. If they had bundled an army builder tool into it, it might have flown…
Most home printers today have a scanner built into them with free online pdf software.
No worries, many folks (like me) will pdf the 6th edition rule book the day it comes out. For the 6th edition core rulebook, a *.pdf with all of the sophomoric fluff and photos removed will be an easily searchable, tiny file.
And for the legaleeze GW fanboi’s, the pdf is just for my personal back-up, of course…
My guess is that they have been watching Privateer Press demo theirs on-line and rushed to beat them to the punch. They missed out on the price-point and free army builder that will be part of the PP software (iStatus device and Android ready).
Yes I do like to have a PDF backup of rules and codices for easy reference.
On the War Room note I cant say to much as I havnt seen to much of it as yet but it looks like it is going to be function first but yetstill look good GW are just trying to hard sometimes simple is better
For someone with such contempt for GW, you seem to be willing to go to extraordinary lengths to play their games. To break the law, to undermine the process that keeps the game alive and ultimately tear down the company that make this game and yet to so desperately want to take part in their hobby. You can rail against the fanbois but you still want to play their game.
I don’t like GW for some of the shitty pricing, bad models and general attitude of not caring but I still enjoy playing the game and the hobby themselves, I’m sure Maelstrom is the same.
And as long as he A) owns a hard copy of any book scanned and B) does not distribute it either with his friends or online then there’s no legal problems that I know of, it’s just like putting your CDs on your ipod.
Upload all of your pdf codices to your tablet. Boom done.
Why just iPad? I don’t have one and don’t really have a reason to own a $500 toy
Because its not just a simple pdf and because of the locked in system providing it’s own DRM without them needing to enforce it. (Not that the files cant be unlocked)
Sorry I don’t agree that DRM and a locked in system is in anyway relevant. I believe the PDF’s for the necron codex were on the internet before the physical product even hit the shelves and most codices can be easily viewed online by doing a google search Scribd Codex . Is it illegal to view a page on the internet on a legitimate document sharing site?
I’m not for a second condoning such actions, merely pointing out that piracy of a codex to a simple pdf is trivial, already happens and can’t realistic be prevented so it’s a wasted effort.
I still see no justification in this price. If you take Pathfinder as an example their digital core rulebook is only 20% of the cost of the physical one ($9.99 vs $49.99 from their website). Now I’m not saying they should sell the codex for a fiver but it should be significantly cheaper than the paper copy.
It’s not a toy, it’s an extremely useful piece of equipment. I use mine everyday for business and pleasure.
If it’s not a toy, I don’t want one. 🙂
I only have contempt for GW’s marketing and pricing policies. I purchased all of the Space Marine Codex varients, the Necron Codex and the Eldar Codex. The day after purchase I had each spiral wound with plastic covers (lays flat), then I made 2 pdf backups of each; one with every page, and one with just the useful information (no fluff or photos). The old Necron codex had just 14 pages of useful information, the rest was filled with high-school quality sketches and high-school writing style fluff. Nothing illegal about it. But, I can now look at every codex on my phone, my laptop, my desktop, my tablet.. anything that will display a pdf. While using Army builder software, I can open the pdf and review items as I make selections. Ah, yes.. GW forgot to add Army Builder to their overpriced iStatus software…
Publish this to the Google Play store and in Kindle / ePub formats and I might be interested… if the prices are made reasonable. Oh, no, wait… GW. Sorry, stupid ideas.
Interesting move. I have a couple of questions ..
1. What about those of us who are in the android world ?
2. Does this mean no more new codex’s every couple of years?
3. Will the updates be free ?