Games Workshop, the UK-based company behind the Warhammer products, has released its annual financial figures (opens in new tab) and discussed its ever-increasing presence in video games. The Warhammer brand is not so much the bread and butter of the company, but the entire contents of the pantry, and while its core business remains miniatures and its own products, it is now involved in a large number of licensing agreements to make video games.
The fiscal year saw six new Warhammer games, four on PC/console, one VR and one mobile: the two Games Workshop highlighted as “notable launches” were Total War: Warhammer 3 (opens in new tab)and Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate (opens in new tab). This has helped the company’s total license revenues rise from £11.7 million in 2020/2021 to £28.0 million in 2021/2022, attributed to “a high level of warranty revenue on multi-year contracts signed in the year”, which was £15 million by 2021 £4.3 million.
That income is distributed as follows: 83% PC and console games, 7% mobile and 10% ‘other’. So about £25.2 million of the license money is video games.
That’s a lot of money, of course, but to put that in the context of Games Workshop in general, its core business of miniatures, retail, online sales and all its other in-house products made £391.5 million over the same period. So video games are an increasingly important part of GW, but still a relatively small part of the overall picture.
The financials also specifically mention Space Marine 2, which was announced last year (opens in new tab)“which is the most constantly requested game since the first game came out in 2011. Fan reaction [to the announcement] was mostly positive.”
The statement goes on to say that Games Workshop expects six Warhammer games to launch in 2022/23, including Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (opens in new tab) and Bloodbowl 3. In summary: “A total of 12 unreleased games are in development and four new licenses were signed in the year.”
In addition to the three games mentioned above, the games in development that are known include Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader (opens in new tab), Warhammer 40K: Boltgun, Warhammer 40K: Warpforge, Warhammer 40K: Tacitus (a mobile game), and Nexon’s Warhammer: Age of Sigmar game. That leaves four titles currently in development, but unannounced.
An interesting element of the licensing approach is that Games Workshop has now split that division into “video games” and grouped everything else under “media”, showing how important the gaming side is to the company. We’ll get to that in a moment, but there’s an interesting part of the media section where CEO Kevin Rountree breaks out the usual dry-as-dust tone to say the following about screen adjustments.
“[These deals are] quite complex and we don’t want to neglect any of our legal obligations or misrepresent progress when this industry operates at a different pace from our core businesses. I keep reminding our team that it is a long process and that we can fail at many hurdles. We remain confident that we will bring the worlds of Warhammer to the screen like you’ve never seen before. We are pragmatically patient, it is not in our complete control.”
Returning to video games, GW is looking for more long-term partners, noting that “the effort required to launch a video game is incredible: we take this opportunity to thank our current partners for their continued investment in Warhammer, their hard work and dedication in representing our IP true to their artistic and literary form and wish them continued success.”
Times are good for Games Workshop and its many fans, and it’s great to see the Warhammer universe continue to expand into games: my specific gif is 40K, and it’s such a great setting. The company’s increasing involvement in games over the past decade has produced some absolute crackers and with savvy fan service like Space Marine 2, GW is clearly realizing that there are a bunch of Warhammer nerds like me who may no longer have the time to deal with the thumbnails, but just want an interactive dose of ‘For the Emperor!’ every once in a while. Now, if only it could get to making a decent 40K MMOG…
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