Literally the one question the ENTIRE internet wants to know. What is up with Games Workshop’s silence on The Old World?
Just tell me where the beef is, Lebowski. You understand? WHERES THE BEEF!?
It has now been exactly three months since Games Workshop has mentioned The Old World on the Warhammer Community site. Three. Months. Three months is an eternity compared to their rapid fire release schedule when The Old World was first released back in the winter of 2024. For the first two years of the release we saw Arcane Journal and new miniature releases almost monthly. To go from that to not even an article on Warhammer Community for over three months is troubling. The last release in February 2026 saw Grand Cathay getting the last of the models that were previewed in early November 2025. This came fairly quickly after the release of the new plastic Chaos Marauder kits, which were AMAZING.
If you have your ear to the ground on all things The Old World, like I do, than you would know it’s a big talking point at the moment. Square Based, one of the preeminent voices for the gaming community recently dedicated an entire episode to the topic.
There’s definitely precedent for the community to react with apprehension when Games Workshop begins to pull back from their support of a game system. It should go without saying that the destruction of The Old World during the End Times, Games Workshop’s way of ending Warhammer Fantasy and ushering in the Age of Sigmar, left its mark on the gaming community. The Old World in many ways marked the return to Games Workshop for many in the gaming community, and just being two years into the release and now seeing signs of a pull back in support can definitely trigger apprehension and panic.
While I myself enjoy a proper panic with the gnashing of teeth and wailing an so forth, I can think of a couple reasons why Games Workshop hasn’t spoken about The Old World in over three months. The first and foremost reason being that this is the summer of the Warhammer 40,000 11th edition release. Nothing comes close to the money that Warhammer 40,000 brings in for Games Workshop. Especially a new edition with all of the releases that go with it. You can reasonably assume that after the big release in June we will see major releases scheduled for the rest of the summer and likely through the fall as well. The two factions being released in the box set, the Space Marines and the Orks, will need to have their new codices and auxiliary model releases done shortly afterwards. So lets me honest, with such a major release scheduled you can be assured that it is ‘all hands of deck’ for the foreseeable future.
I also believe that Games Workshop has seen better sales and interest in The Old World than they forecasted. I always believed that the release of The Old World was solely for the purpose of keeping their license intact for the ongoing successful Total War Warhammer franchise. I may be wrong about this but to my knowledge the intellectual property owner has to show SOME level of ongoing support in order to retain the rights to charge others for using it. I am sure there is much more to that legally speaking but it makes sense to me that Games Workshop would throw together a hodgepodge of previous Warhammer Fantasy rules into a couple of rulebooks and re-release old model kits from the late 90s and early 2000’s and call it a day. To my surprise, they decided to update the factions with small books called Arcane Journals which gave players new ways to play their armies and updated rules for units not included in the initial army books. We also saw the release of multiple new plastic multi-part plastic kits, such as the High Elf Ellyrian Reavers, Chaos Marauders and Marauder Horsemen, Tomb King Liche Priests, and Dwarven Lords. Very cool! We also saw a release of a brand new faction, Cathay, with a full line of products released over the following year. Each of these releases were met with enthusiasm, and at least where I live the kits were sold out and tough to come by at release time. It’s possible that this level of interest and success lead to higher sales than were forecasted by Games Workshop, leading for them to pause their releases in order to better spread out the profits.
So What’s the Plan, Stan?
My honest opinion on the three months of silence is to just let it ride, brother. The release of 11th edition 40K is a huge event for Games Workshop and to expect their attention on any other thing during this period leading up to and the shortly afterwards is to set yourself up for disappointment. The Old World is in a good place. We saw the release of a brand new faction with a full range of amazing looking models. We have seen quite a few updated plastic kits released as well, which makes me excited to see what else will be updated going into year 3. We may even see the release of The Old World 2nd edition in early winter of 2027, though I do hope for a couple more years of this current ruleset.
If you are a fan of all thing The Old World what are your thoughts on this creative drought? Do you want the return of monthly releases or are you happy to just let the game be as it is? Let me know in the comments section!
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