...from RPG publishing, at least (WFRP, W40kRP). This is a bit of a bummer:
28/January/2008 - Black Industries Announcement
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.
For more info go here: [url] http://www.blackindustries.com/?template=BI&content=newslist&newsit em=350 [/url]
I don't have any insight into the financial end of things, but I'm left wondering how this happened.
I was toying with the idea of getting the limited edition of Dark Heresy, but the six minute sellout put the kibosh on that notion pretty definitively. I didn't bother to pre-order the mass release or anything. Then Friday, the street date, I saw that Black Industries had already run out of stock through their online store. I got the last copy (of six) at the game store nearest work that evening.
I have to assume that the decision to axe the line was made and cemented well before the actual release, but wasn't announced so as not to impact sales of the core DH rules. And now they have what appears to be a resounding sales success, selling out and being cancelled all in one weekend. I wonder what the print run was? (Edit: I see the figure 20,000 being put forth in a few places, but haven't found a primary source to confirm that.)
It really is a shame. I enjoy WFRP, but not being a miniatures gamer have never really gotten into the 40K universe. Dark Heresy is gorgeous; I was looking forward to upcoming products. Ah well. They still plan to publish the products in the pipeline, so I'll still get the Chaos book. I hope this reflects more on Games Workshop's strategies and biases than it does on the health of the RPG market as a whole.
Dark Heresy is a great product. This is very sad.
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Absolutely incredible. That would be like Wizards announcing they were not publishing Forgotten Realms RP anymore to focus on the FR novel line! GW and affiliates make excellent products but I've always been leery to buy into their lines because of their tendency to cancel games or slow development to a glacial crawl.
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I think the success BL has had with their Solaris books imprint might be a part of the reason for this move. Add to that the fact that they have published "enough" WFRP stuff for a very long campaign and that by September there will be a "decent" amount of 40k rpg stuff on the market, they were probably seeing diminishing returns on the expensive to produce, with narrow profit margin, rpg books vs. the more profitable paperback industry.
Once again, I would like to emphasize that BL isn't just the media tie in stuff. They have the Solaris imprint which has been doing quite well, and has some pretty good books available.
Given that Dark Heresy literally could not have sold better than it did (with the possible exception of the deluxe edition having sold out in five minutes instead of six), it is becoming increasingly obvious to me that Games Workshop executives have a crippling fear of profit.
it is becoming increasingly obvious to me that Games Workshop executives have a crippling fear of profit.
LOL...that's funny.
I've always held the theory that GW is run by painters. They don't really care about rules or tactics. They just want lots and lots of models to paint. Roleplaying? Bah humbug...that only encompasses skirmish level fighting...way to few models to feed their hunger.
yes this whole thing mystifies me. It's definitely in the realm of the stupid.