Within the grim darkness of Warhammer 40,000‘s future, there is just one factor: battle. Within the grim darkness of Warhammer 40,000 fandom proper now, there are solely two: not sufficient hardback novels, and too many reseller bots gobbling them up.
Within the huge array of tie-in fiction for the world of Video games Workshop’s legendary tabletop wargame universe, few sequence maintain a candle to the saga of the Horus Heresy. The long-running saga of prequel novels and diverse tie-ins first started publishing in 2006—set in what’s in truth primarily Warhammer 30,000, throughout a time the place the Imperium of Man confronted a brutal civil war among the many chapters of the Space Marines, spurred by the legendary Warmaster Horus turning to the facet of Chaos. The mainline sequence of Horus Heresy books is about to finish this 12 months with the arrival of The End and the Death: Volume III, the sixty fourth entry within the sequence, and the climactic tenth chapter of the Siege of Terra sub-series, depicting Horus and his forces’ assault on Earth itself as he makes an attempt to put his father, the God-Emperor of Mankind, low.
Suffice to say, it’s been a very long time coming, and eagerly anticipated amongst Warhammer followers. Horus Heresy has spun off into its personal fashionable sub-game of Warhammer 40,000 even past the novels, usually considered a few of the stronger in Video games Workshop’s “Black Library” of Warhammer fiction. And given its significance to the narrative background even past that, the seeming closing finish of all of it has drawn loads of consideration. Video games Workshop has capitalized on this particularly for the ten volumes within the Siege of Terra assortment, which kicked off in 2019 with a sequence of limited-edition hardback releases for every e-book within the sequence. Not solely had been the hardbacks given particular, faux-leather bindings to look as in the event that they had been plucked from the cabinets of a House Marine Librarian, they had been additionally the one approach readers may truly get the most recent, bodily chapter of the story first—though digital variations would launch alongside the hardback launch, the usual paperback launch for every novel would solely arrive a month or extra after the restricted version books went on sale.
This creates an ideal storm of complications for the invested Warhammer fan. Every restricted version launch runs nearly a pair thousand copies, in order that they’re very onerous to return by, usually promoting out inside minutes of showing on Video games Workshop’s on-line retailer. It additionally implies that when you’ve gotten on board with shopping for them, you type of wish to go for the total set (Video games Workshop, which is excellent at promoting issues to its devoted followers, additionally prolonged the Siege of Terra sequence by an additional two novels, from the initially introduced eight). It additionally means, inevitably, that Video games Workshop has now spent the previous few years attempting, and largely failing, to fight resellers who scoop up the novels and promote them on third-party websites for magnitudes past the £50/$80 retail tag. Each time a Siege of Terra restricted version has launched, the retailer’s official web site sputters and wheezes out of performance, and would-be collectors have to wish to the varied gods, technological, chaotic, or in any other case, that they will get via and order. And in the event that they don’t? They face having to pay quadruple or extra on the aftermarket.
All this climaxed lately with the pre-order window for the aforementioned concluding chapter of the sequence, Finish and the Demise: Quantity III. The restricted version of the novel already offered out instantly upon launch a number of weeks in the past, with Video games Workshop’s nonetheless comparatively new re-designed web site—meant to extra readily implement queue systems to mitigate high-traffic demand—leaving many tried purchasers within the mud, as resellers picked up copies to promote on the aftermarket for lots of upon lots of of {dollars}.
Naturally, followers had been miffed. To the purpose that Video games Workshop introduced, in an try to show that it had efficiently combatted resellers, it might be relaunching preorders the world over for Finish and the Demise: Quantity III at present, January 24. “We’re dedicated to solely promoting one per buyer, so we now have rejected any orders the place a purchaser has tried to get a couple of copy,” Video games Workshop stated announcing the re-release. “Our tech-savants aren’t revealing their strategies, however for sure they aren’t to be trifled with.”
No matter these strategies had been, they continued to be significantly trifled with. Horus Heresy followers around the globe rushed to the official Warhammer retailer web site at 11 a.m. ET at present to discover a comparable queue system—now with an added captcha code—that despatched them right into a ready room with hour-plus wait occasions, with little indicator of progress. Over the subsequent a number of hours, Video games Workshop up to date the queue to announce it was truly pausing its development a number of occasions, till finally, slightly below two hours later, the location was up to date to announce that Finish and the Demise: Quantity III had offered out as soon as once more, earlier than promptly going into upkeep mode. As of writing, the queue system for the shop is still in place, which means for those who simply needed to order actually something from Video games Workshop in the intervening time, you’re out of luck.
With extra followers now much more disgruntled at lacking out, Video games Workshop has but to touch upon simply how profitable its anti-reseller strategies had been. However contemplating the retailer’s social media mentions are stuffed with indignant followers who had been unable to get via, and websites like eBay are nonetheless stuffed with auctions for confirmed pre-orders, the reply might be the identical because it has been for most up-to-date Siege of Terra releases: not an entire lot. Video games Workshop is way from the one firm that has needed to cope with the repute knock from resellers brushing up against fandom communities; simply have a look at the furor Pokémon found itself in final 12 months over a collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum. However its repeated failure to handle the difficulty implies that certainly one of its most legendary sequence goes out on a bitter word for a lot of followers—extra bitter, even, than most issues the forces of Chaos may cook dinner up.
Need extra io9 information? Try when to count on the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and all the things it is advisable learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.
Trending Merchandise
