Games Workshop vs Forge World

[GeneralKiarr]

The nature of forgeworld has changed considerably over the years - originally it was a vessel for making small batch highly detailed models that there was an appetite for in the adult community (there was no way that a child was ever going to get a resin titan for example), armourcast had got to the end of the licence so it was decided that they would try to build a branch out that could do it in house. This worked well and the ranges of wierd and wonderful tanks etc increased needing rules for the models that were coming out hence the imperial armour range of books these were considered very successful but only ever had a small team working on them.
At this point it was considered that forgeworld units were more like centre piece parts of an army and what you could make in resin was far superior to what you can do in plastic (some technical aspects of casting plastics have changed over the years and are now better than those days)
Heresy books came along in the black library and with them the desire by modelers to fight those battles and Alan Bligh and co started doing the heresy stuff - this was much more successful than anticipated and hugely increased the amount or units that they offered hence they decided to reduce the number of items that they offered (this was also due to the workload as making the moulds etc for resin is a time consuming task)
Unfortunately Alan died and with him the rules section of forgeworld whilst there was two other people in that area they were both rather junior in comparison and it was eventually decided that the rules etc would be folded into the main studio (this is also why Cyraxus died it was never finished by Alan) - this is also the lag that was with heresy that sat there for almost two years until they decided to try a soft launch with one model of terminators etc and the boxed set that came out which was successful and hence this years full relaunch.
This leaves Forgeworld doing what it was originally meant to do - low number centre pieces for most armies - more units will turn to plastic now it has been shown that Heresy has been very successful leaving only the specialist units characters etc with them
Whilst there was occasionally friction between the main studio and FW there isnt anything major really there they just occasionally bumped each other and FW expanded in places which was never meant to be in the first place when the group was created (mainly the heresy and rules side)

[Corvinuswargaming]

I wish they would reprint some of the old Imperial Armor books like Badab War. But I don’t see much creativity in the community these days to support the kind of gaming the Imperial Armor books allowed

[Balevolt]

The Malcador chassis in plastic would make my year

[walt_man]

The new tank doesn't match ANY style of Imperial Guard aesthetic.... it boggles the mind making this superheavy class bodge job with round edges... guess it matches the new Sentinel?

[johncalabro]

The people in charge now at games workshop don't have the same vision for 40k as the older generation. I would say by Edition 6 is when the change happen, the old people had left. This when we start to get Forge world staff brought over in the main Edition. Now these units that were only for special games such as apologetics are in the main game.

[Arisawa_Heavy_Ind]

my guess: GW just doesn't care because their stuff sells either way

[americanjihad]

Forge World has the worst customer service if you would even call it that.

[Persn]

FW was the "passion" side of GW, where the cool ideas where made on paper and resine, so ofc in today's GW, where all the passion has been sucked out of the company, FW has lost all its purpose and is now only kept alive by GW for its role as an excuse to grossly overcharge players for bits they couldn't be arsed to do in plastic (despite being somehow able to shit out an insane ammount of one time use only plastic sprue for various events.)

It' only a matter of time before GW just close down that vestigial branch of the company.

[bopaintsminis]

FW might have awesome customer service. They may be the most agreeable company on the planet.

What they don't have are fair prices or decent quality control.

And as for more FW kits in plastic, kreig and solar auxilia, please.

[jiffah]

What annoys me about GW and FW is that, for a miniature company, they keep putting out books to hype their products, but can't satisfy the demands. Why releasing Heresy 2.0 with an immense amount of your products already unavailable and no restocks for months. Who planned this? What am I not getting? Are they supporting their games or are they slowly becoming a mini of the month club? No wonder recasts and 3d printing are the way to go nowadays.

[joshuacouture]

As a custodes player I wish GW would make rules for the forge world custodes and sisters of silence stuff. I still have no idea why they refuse to include forge world stuff in 40K. I could only imagine how funny it would be if GW kept its anti forge world support with the new Horus Heresy rule books

[Dorian]

If GW ever explodes I Hope Macca is the one to buy them and turn this ship 🚢 Straight!

[loltwest]

Nothing hurts more than seeing a model you really want go last chance to buy on Forgeworld.

[EditingComby]

It seems pretty clear to me that GW is trying to segment its fanbase into its 5 different offerings - AOS and 40K for newer players and tournaments, Heresy for groggy and old-school 40K players who don't enjoy the current product, TOW for those who liked Fantasy and want something more complex and grounded than AOS, and then Specialist Games for the kitchen sink approach of capturing everyone else.

With the visionaries behind FW's best years pretty much gone and very little of the old vision left in GW, I imagine they'll become what they were originally - they'll make the expensive minis for game lines that GW doesn't want to support, that being Heresy 2.0 and TOW, and just random one-off models for the rest. GW has always lacked the critical element of following through on any of their ideas, so once the fresh paint wears off on Heresy and The Old World, I'm sure they'll just hand it over for Forgeworld to maintain in stasis.

I think, at their heart, GW just earnestly doesn't want Forgeworld to be too successful on its own - perhaps its because it would make their mainline game strategy seem suspect, or perhaps because it would undermine their existing sculpts as toy-like and generally horrible, or perhaps because simply they don't want to believe that there's a market for the worlds that Forgeworld caters to anymore. I don't know that much, but I feel awful for the people at FW, because I think GW is just taking them for a ride at this point.

[Persn]

Hey, wana laugh for a sec?
Go check the price of the original Krieg infantry in the FW store, and compare it to the GW price for the new plastic ones on the GW store.

[rogerhaukas]

HI. So I am new to 40k and Im at the point where Im building my first army. (Dont even know how to play the game yet) Anyways I was woundering if Gameworkshops and Forgeworld are the same company? And if not, would it not be cheating to bring units from a 3rd party company? Correct me if Im wrong, but it sounds like buying a hack for a videogame

[maxmagnus]

Forgeworld has really great model designers, time and again bringing awesome new designs. The whole Horus Heresy range is full of them. My favorite by far is the Xiphon which I hope to see in plastic someday. The Mechanicum rangeis also great, as is the krieg range. They really put GW to shame with their creative process. GW models are 50% hit or miss whereas FW I think is at 80% hit chance with 25% critical hits.

But clearly the Forgeworld guys aren't good at much else besides designing models

[Krullio]

Think the key thing your said here was “[…], it is not for our [costumer] benefit”. I mean. Fine they govern their company by directing on the finance over product and time (my assessment). Their business to run. But nowhere in the past years have I seen something that really benefited me as the consumer or even remotely felt like it. Bit off topic, so now back on. It is really weird we as costumers should be even notice this GW-FW rivalry and directionlessness and not only that, suffer for it. They have never asked themselves what would be in it for us, which is either a sign of utmost desperation/situation the company was in, a sign of gross incompetence or a sign of gross arrogance.

[brandonmyers]

I play guard so I'm just happy to be getting attention lol

[Hurricanelive]

I feel GW has been going way too stylized, sterile, pretty, high technology, clean models, just cookie cutter copied stuff that has nothing I call warhammer. You could show me Brokaan or NuCadia and I'd be like... what game are those from? Halo? Microsoft making models now? GW looks more and more like 80's toys but 2022 Pandmike prices and 1:16 scale. FW had the better models and factions I wanted but couldn't afford. GW no longer get or understand the warhammer aesthetic; they don't have a clue to what the product is anymore or who its made for. Kiddies I guess.