Multiple Stores Announce Their Discontinuation of Games Workshop and Warhammer 40,000 Products
Games Workshop has had more of its share of controversies this year, but now multiple stores say they are going no longer to carry Games Workshop or Warhammer 40K products because they’ve had enough of the company’s antics.
Warhammer 40,000 came to national attention in April when Games Workshop introduced female Adeptus Custodes to the property in the most recent Codex: Adeptus Custodes with an excerpt stating, ““Custodian Calladayce Taorvalia Kesh stood upon the bridge of a Cobra-class destroyer. Named Vigilant Flame, the warship belonged to the mighty Battlefleet Solar. She lingered in the shadows at the back of the bridge, positioned at a spot where she could observe the actions of every crew member be they in the instrumentation pits, at the armament shrines or — in the case of Shipmaster Lethwyck — stood ramrod straight before his command throne.”
The official Warhammer account on X confirmed the authenticity of the excerpt and declared that female Custodes always existed. The account wrote, “Since the first of the Ten Thousand were created, there have always been female Custodians.”
This is patently untrue. Former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern aka Grummz shared an excerpt from the Rogue Trader rules in 1987.
It states, “The Adeptus Custodes is the Emperor’s inner guard, the members of which are privileged in being permitted to serve upon the Emperor, attending to his needs, receiving and recording his directions. These men never leave Earth and only rarely leave the Imperial Palace – an endless, black hive of forbidden technology and subterranean passages delving deep within the bowels of the planet.”
Since the announcement, the company has been exposed by inserting pronouns into their fiction, attacking Sargon of Akkad in one of the Warhammer Fantasy novels, and even adding evil gender ideology to one of their Stormcast Eternals models to try to push the radical agenda.
Through this, Games Workshop has upset fans further by increasing the prices of its products and generally adopting a corporate attitude many consider anti-consumer. This has led many to quit the hobby or seek alternative games to play.
Now, multiple local game shops have said they’ve had enough as the tide seems to be turning against Games Workshop because of their business practices.
On August 15th, Paradise Games announced on their Facebook, “We have made the decision to pull out of games workshop / Warhammer. All models are 35% off. The will continue to be discounted until they are all gone. We will continue to carry the citadel paint line.”
It was the first sign of troubles which now amplified in December as another store has announced they’re going to be discontinuing working with the war game company.
Riw Hobbies posted to Facebook, “Good Evening All,
A quick announcement. The straw has broken the space marines back. I hadn’t heard from my GW rep in 3 weeks. He blamed it on my cell phone. I’ve had the same number for 30+ years. He called the store the second week I called back immediately within 2 minutes and left a VM. All I cared about was my Christmas box sets. We ordered a little over 12k in 40K armies. No return calls no email. He called me 2 days before they were scheduled to release, 1 of those days being Thanksgiving to let me know we weren’t getting any of our order. If I wanted, I could order them online at a different discount. They wouldn’t arrive in time for their scheduled release and he didn’t know when they might possibly ship. He did blame me for the error. I know this not to be true. The day he claims he received my submission I was in sunny Florida on vacation. After reviewing our sales and space dedicated to the product, we have made the decision to drop all Games Workshop products. It’s been a nightmare for years. Thursday December 12th is our 12 days of Christmas sale. If you want to play feel free to bring an army. We will be liquidating all existing stock at 40% off. Our going away party will begin at 6pm and run until close. Snack and beverages provided. The 40% sale will start at 6pm. We will organize a line for those of you who want to show up early and wait. It’s first come first serve. We won’t hold anything. Please don’t show up early thinking you will walk around the store and hold items until 6pm. If you have any questions, feel free to send an email to riwhobbies@gmail.com.”
It seems that Games Workshop not only is intent on price gouging customers and inserting identity politics into their games which turns off a lot of their fans, but local game stores are now feeling the pinch of their business antics causing problems for stores as well.
With a limited number of hobby stores even left, it begs the question as to how much longer Games Workshop can last and whether the Warhammer 40K hobby will die as a result.
What do you think of local game stores dropping Warhammer 40K and Games Workshop? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Everyone should switch over to One Page Rules and be freed of the GW system.
Not to be a jerk but 2 stores does not equal multiple. I know why one would think it does but it doesn't; it takes 3 or more. Lookup the definition of multiple and it references several. Look up the definition of Several and it says more than 2. I say this b/c the pro-woke are going to use this to claim your headline is misleading.