Press release from Black Industries:
Black Industries regret to announce that Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods out in September will be the final product to be released from Black Industries.
Kevin Rountree General Manager of BL Publishing said ‘As a result of the continued and impressive success of our core novels business, which we have built around 40K and Warhammer, we have decided to focus all of our efforts on growing this part of our business. Black Industries has seen fantastic success, most recently with Talisman and Dark Heresy. This change does not take away from that achievement rather it allows BL Publishing to focus on producing the best novels we can. This is a purely commercial decision and will enable us to carry on the huge growth that we have recently been experiencing with our novels’
For the time being Black Industries will continue to post articles in support of the products on their official website, which is a fantastic resource for scenarios and gaming tools for GM’s and players alike.
~Its a shame as from a fluff point of view, the book is an invaluable resource. Its about the only place you get a good detailed view of what life is like for the ordinary citizen in the Imperium. To think I waited almost 20 years for this since WFRP came out and it got canceled after a week.
33 comments:
I really, really don't understand this decision. The next post down on BI's news blog is them stating that they (the website) sold out of Dark Heresy on _pre-orders_. Clearly the product was/is in high demand.
Yeah, this is pretty stupid.
"We're selling too much stuff! We have to close up shop!"
It is really odd, especially as the Dark Heresy game has barely had a chance to grow a fanbase. Someone was doing some bad accounting somewhere, methinks.
Can you really blame them? Every Dark Heresy/40KRPG product produced was taking away valuable funds they could use to publish more CS Multilaser novels.
@anon - And farseer rape. Can't forget the farseer rape.
word on the STREET is Mongoose Publishing is looking into picking up the licenses. I would believe this except I heard that green ronin worked on the RPG, so they might take a stab at it too..
Now this makes a whole lot more sense seeing as the Open Gaming License (OGL) is pretty much dead when 4th edition d&d drops. This will leave quite a few companies with nothing to write for. I see Green Ronin and Mongoose fighting it out for this.
Also, Mongoose did Cthulutech, which is full of viral marketing, but hasnt made a ripple... so they might need another system...
Ah, the Eric Cartman "You can't come in" marketing strategy. Brilliant. Really fricking brilliant.
Their first product to sell out on preorder and they drown it in the cradle.
Rocket scientists.
This is really a low blow. How many hours after the initial release did they announce they were canceling it?
This is like GW re-introducing the squats, putting a whole new range of models on the shelves. And 3 days later, just after enough people had starting building their new squat army, GW reinstates their "squats never existed" philosophy and cancel the whole model range.
Oh crap, I think I reset the clock again ;)
This is senseless crap. I'm not certain what business model it is they're using, but fulfilling a demand that's willing to shell out money to assuage that demand is basic economics, and it works. No logic in the universe justifies them putting a bullet into this thing so soon, so it must be cowardice at worst and incompetence at best. Slaanesh will dispense justice in due course.
this is what happens when a shampoo salesman named Mark Wells takes over a games company
This is the crappiest early April fool's joke EVER!
The word over this side of the pond is the accountants did the math and found that Dark Heresy not only broke GW's margin rules but actually doesn't break even at the current price.
This is mostly because of the excessive development costs (i.e. the design guys put in way too many hours), and the print cost is very high.
As for Mongoose, they have cleverly made sure they are not entirely D20 OGL dependant with other licences such as Runequest and the upcoming Traveller. Why would they want another SF-RPG when they are putting all their designer effort into Traveller?
Hi there, Long time lurker 1st time poster, so this means the death of Talisman as well? I just got this for the Mrs over Xmas and it was really hard to get, sold out all over. I bought it on the strength of it's expansions which I assumed they would re-release as well given the speed of it's sales.
I'll have to just buy Gaunt's Vol 14 instead.........
It's a purely commercial decision, as they state in the press release: the RPG market simply isn't large enough, meaning cost/profit ratios are insufficient compared to the novels they publish (which are relatively cheap, since there is only 1 author, no interior graphics and no colour printing except for the cover).
THAT is basic economics: there may be a demand, but if the cost to fullfil that demand is to high, then they focus on something with a bigger profit margin.
Let's hope a dedicated RPG publisher like Green Ronin picks up the license (I'm also waiting for them to bring out the new Song of Ice & Fire RPG).
Still, from an economics point of view, they could at least let Black Industries publish the Rogue Trader 40K RPG and the one for space marines (forget the name). Those should cost a lot less in terms of development, since the entire rule system has already been developed, which would automatically mean higher margins.
This is such a shame, I can not believe it. I waited for decades for this to happen and was excited since the first rumors about it.
It looked like the RPG I was searching for since ever. And now,
just after the release they stopp it...thats so sad. I only hope they continue on it if the books stop to sell so well at some point in the future and do a job as good as for the fantasy RPG.
W T F?
i waited for this since i read the announcement and now this?
and don't the dunces see the opportunity? with 4th ed on the horizon i know a lot of the more veteran gamers who'll stop spending money on wotc products and start looking for something new...
well, as soon as my copy is on my desk, i'll start thinking about some expansions of my own...
Personally, it's just as well. That intro adventure was terrible and any RPG where the PCs are under the thumb of an Inquisitor, who controls their lives is the mark of someone with little imagination.
This system was more linear that even "basic DnD" for those of you that old :)
Really, really disappointing, but I wouldn't be surprised if grabnutz' rumors are correct - Dark Heresy's the only RPG book I've ever seen that manages to meet or exceed the quality of Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms books. It feels like a steal, even at $50 a pop.
Of course, with BL giving up on the license, and a fully-functioning set of rules already set down in the core book, I see nothing stopping the fan community from picking up where BL leaves off (Hint hint, Bell staffers. ;)).
Hint received Lexington...
A really disappointing decision with timing that defies description. I had not waited nearly as long as many folks but it still stinks to high heaven.
On the plus side, if there can really be one, I don't have to figure out how to represent a diverse range of Imperial citizens, mutants, brain leaf thralls, etc. That is what I found interesting being in my local hobby store after getting to flip through my copy of DH was finding myself trying to decide between buying zombies and empire militia for low tech hivers/feudal world or a box of spawn for mutants and daemonhost bitz. DH would have induced me to buy even more miniatures and terrain from GW. Now I'm imagining the mini ties ins or bundle deals they might have done in conjuction with the release...a bundle of Necromunda bulkheads or something like that. Oh the missed opportunities will just keep piling up I'm afraid.
While this revelation is indescribably crappy, I believe Lexington hit the nail on the head. When I picked it up from my local brick-and-mortar and plopped it on the counter sight unseen, I was stunned at the 50.00 total. No question this is a quality product. I don’t have any difficulty believing that margins are tight, or perhaps even inverted on production.
The possibility of BoLS Dark Heresy material is definitely a bright spot.
its a little bizarre, but it sounds like things aren't going well and the 'so we can focus on other things' is probably an excuse, and they really just want to drop a failing project.
althought the book doesn't appeal to me at all (i'm not a Role-player and the setting doesn't entice me at all) i would buy the books for the background they contain.
maybe it'll be released as a free PDF from the Specialist games website in a week or two more.
i intend on purchasing a 2nd DH book and keeping it safe untill its worth some more money
I'm sorry, but the claims of 'the item could not break even' do not make sense. It doesn't take a bright bean-counter to realize that if you have a sell-out product, you can increase the price to where it does become profitable. Unless you announce that the line is discontinued the day after you release it, of course. Surely the dumbest marketing move in history.
Couple this "genius" movie with the decision to scrap bitz orders (Apart from those crappy "packs") and I've a sneaking suspicion I'll be blowing my money on other hobbies until Upper Management get a bloody grip or brutally murder Mark Wells to eppease the stock market gods.
A real shame, but if you won't let me buy the product, I can't give you money.
- The answer of why BI got closed seems clear- desperate cost cutting by GW who made a loss last year-
Games Workshop in the red
Date: Tuesday 22 Jan 2008
LONDON (ShareCast) - War gaming model specialist Games Workshop swung into the red at the half way stage, although it said the figures were “encouraging”.
The group reported a loss before tax of £192,000 for the six months to 2 December versus a £127,000 profit the year before on revenue unchanged at £54.6m.
“We have re-established constant currency sales growth in the UK, the Americas and Asia Pacific, our gross margins remain strong, and our cost reduction programme is delivering the overhead reductions we expected,” said the company.
“The directors firmly believe that the prospects for the business remain very good,” it added.
Once again, there will be no dividend, with the firm using the cash to finance the ongoing cost reduction programme.
“The board remains confident in the future growth and profitability of the group and will resume paying dividends when appropriate,” it said.
* News Channel
http://www.digitallook.com/news/sharecast/1868927-12010/GAW-Games_Workshop_in_the_red.html
i got lucky. i picked up the last copy of DH at my FLGS. Guess they sold out in like 3 days.
Seems wierd to cancel a product this soon after release, unless they got hit by some wierd tm infringement or something like that.
I am REALLY skeptical of the "couldn't make a profit" line. Dark Heresy is great quality but the pricing is in line with other books of great quality (even Forgeworld volumes aren't that much more expensive to buy in the US), and with a demand high enough to sell out on pre-orders alone you could probably tack another $5-10 onto the sale price without doing serious sales damage. I can't believe with that kind of demand you can't come up with SOME method to profitably exploit it. Up prices, lower the print quality, even split into multiple books or cancel supplements maybe, but sack the whole thing? If they somehow couldn't do the basic budget/price math to make a profit from DH (which any sane business model would have done assuming LESS than a sell-out), then GW is doomed because they can't manage basic Business 101. There were plenty of chances before the actual release of the books to kill the thing if expenses shot too high and you couldn't set a price that would recover it.
I can't buy the "investing in Black Library" crap excuse either; right now I'd say most of Black Library's big sellers seem to depend on particular known authors, and even if you threw tons of money and hot English women at someone like Abnett there's a limit how much he can write. I don't see how killing BI for Black Library could possibly increase the latter's business or profits. BI is mostly freelancers too I think, not a big salary savings for dissolving them to my knowledge. For damn sure I don't know of any BL books, even the most popular, hit with such demand they sell out. Where would you stick the savings from BI in Black Library that could possibly increase their profits?
Announcing the decision immediately after such a big release is so mind-bogglingly stupid that with the other two bits my "BS company politics" sense is tingling. The last book release is scheduled for September, why announce so early and potentially poison your chance to get some money back on the "fiasco"? This feels like the decision of someone with a hate-on for "wasting money" on the RPG market or BI specifically. My only hope is that they're only doing this to make more money licensing the IP out to someone else for an RPG, that could make SOME sense. If they just killed it period I call it a sign GW is too stupid to live.
Concentrate on what - great works of literature like the iron hands novel?
This is a short-sighted cut. You price supplements to make money down the line. It also displays that GW has a poor project development process since it apparently exceeded their budget.
One thing of note on the Breaking even on this book or not. The Price in the UK is 35 pounds and that translates to almost exactly 70 bucks here but with it only costing 50, not to mention that its actually cheaper than that for the store to buy I'd say some one screwed up big time.
Seems like the US prices got made up before the dollar plummeted...
Whoever picks this license up is sitting on a gold mine. The heavy lifting of core development has been done, and the background is all out there. Of course, it will be really sticky to negotiatie with GW to get access to all their IP. But for companies that have already done that before (Green Ronin!), it'll be a snap.
-sad-
I put it to a redshirt the other day that GW is suffering from something akin to frostbite. Basically the main body is letting all of the extremeties die to preserve itself but as we all know it'll only survive so long before there's nothing left to shed.
As for dark heresy not breaking even? Why the hell did they publish in hardback? I know it makes a nice addition to the bookshelf but it would have been a sell out if they'd published it softback like the original WHF RPG, and would have cost GW a damned site less to produce as well!!!
Seems to me that it's a case of the lunatics running the asylum down in GW HQ.
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