Games Workshop isn't limited to models though, and in other years has released numerous board games including Doctor Who (1980s), Dark Future Judge Dredd and, of course, Space Hulk. It's had numerous third parties create computer games based off various Warhammer and 40k stories. On top of that they also have several books and comics based off their series and have entered the film industry with Ultramarines: The Movie.
And of course with all this going on it's hard to keep the fans informed, so they also publish their own magazine, White Dwarf, which currently focuses solely on the core three miniature model series (Warhammer, 40K and LOTR:SBG).
Started in 1975, by founders Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and John Peake (who soon left GW), the company originally did resales of miscellaneous traditional games and rpgs (such as Dungeons & Dragons) as well as published a fanzine that would later become White Dwarf. While generally GW had a smooth ride in terms of growth, they were almost done in by The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 as the company tried to cash in on a formerly fast-growing market of video game retail. Surviving that, GW continued its growth while Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson were simultaneously doing Fighting Fantasy for Penguin Books. Approaching burnout, the two founders sold controlling shares to Citadel Miniatures head Bryan Ansell in 1987 and he ushered the policy of exclusively selling Games Workshop trademark goods. In 1991, he sold his rights to GW to former TSR UK employee turned GW sales manager, Tom Kirby, who had secured private equity to do a corporate buy-out and as CEO he was the one to make GW public on the London Stock Exchange.
If you're interested in Games Workshop miniatures, you can normally expect two things: 1) a very friendly (if not nerdy) group of people that will be more than willing to help put together the models, paint the models and then play a game with you; and 2) having no money. Along with their now aggressive stance on intellectual property rights (where before they were quite lax), constant price hikes far beyond inflation rates, and embargo on sales to the Southern Hemisphere in an attempt to force people there to pay further inflated prices, it has managed to attain a reputation of being, well, evil. That being said, GW changed CEOs in 2015, and has slowly but surely began an overhaul of its public image, focusing on stepping up its communication with the fanbase and incorporating their feedback into its rules releases and other output, and even developing a sense of humor about themselves.
In 2021, Games Workshop released its own streaming platform known as Warhammer+.
In 2022, Games Workshop founders Ian Livingstone with Steve Jackson released an official account of the beginnings of Games Workshop in the book Dice Men published through Unbound.
Games published by Games Workshop:
- Chainsaw Warrior
- Dark Future
- Talisman
- Tolkien's Legendarium licenced games:
- The Battle of Five Armies
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Strategy Battle Game
- The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game
- Warhammer
- Advanced HeroQuest
- Blood Bowl
- Dreadfleet
- HeroQuest (in association with Milton Bradley)
- Man O'War
- Mordheim
- Path To Glory
- Warmaster
- Warhammer: The End Times
- Warhammer Quest
- Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
- Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower
- Warhammer Quest: Shadows over Hammerhal
- Warhammer Underworlds (with various editions known as Shadespire, Nightvault, Beastgrave, Harrowdeep, Nethermaze, Gnarlwood, Wyrdhollow, Deathgorge and Wintermaw)
- Warcry
- Warhammer 40,000
- Aeronautica Imperialis
- Battlefleet Gothic
- Epic (with the various editions known as Adeptus Titanicus, Space Marine, Titan Legions, Epic 40,000, Epic: Armageddon and Legions Imperialis)
- Gangs of Commorragh
- Gorkamorka
- Imperial Knights: Renegade
- Lost Patrol
- Inquisitor
- Necromunda
- Space Crusade (in association with Milton Bradley)
- Space Fleet
- Speed Freeks
- Space Hulk
- Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse
- Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team
Licensed games using Games Workshop's intellectual property:
- Black Crusade
- Dark Heresy
- Deathwatch
- Only War
- Rogue Trader
- Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Tropes associated with Games Workshop
- The '80s: The formative years of GW is in the '80s though they started in the mid '70s. As such the pop culture and speculative fiction of the time clearly influenced GW products ( Mad Max to Dark Future, etc.) and even contemporary GW products still has some of that '80s flavoring.
- Chainsaw Good: Someone on the writing staff of GW clearly loves chainsaws, as quite a lot of games, particularly Warhammer 40K, feature characters that use some variety of chainsaw-hybrid melee weapon, the Chainswords being the most notorious example.
- Crapsack World: GW has created two of the greatest examples of this trope ever. Warhammer Fantasy Battle emphasizes the worst aspects of living in a Low Fantasy world, while Warhammer 40k takes it to such extremes that it has become the Trope Namer for Grimdark.
- Warhammer Age of Sigmar, however, averts the trope to a degree; while there's still a lot of Black-and-Gray Morality, it is a FAR better world to live in than Fantasy Battle. In fact, it is the one of GW's original properties that gives you a chance for a better future.
- The Face: Duncan Rhodes, who was the host of the painting tutorials on the company's YouTube channel until his resignation at the end of 2019.
- Friendly Rival: What the players will (hopefully) be to one another. Under normal circumstances, you and your friends will use the game as an excuse to get together to have fun and chat, while watching your armies bash each other's faces in.
- TSR and GW had an interesting relationship business-wise as GW distributed Dungeons & Dragons in Europe while having their own competing product in Warhammer Fantasy. On a personal level GW founders Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone were good friends with Gary Gygax and have a tribute to him in Dice Men.
- Rags to Riches: According to the book Dice Men, GW started off from the humble beginnings of selling Dungeons and Dragons products out of a van and doing mail-order out of their cheap flats. In 2022 the Games Workshop IP was worth over 3 billion UK pounds according to Ian Livingstone.
- Random Number God: Forget the Tyranids. Forget Nagash. Forget the Chaos Gods. The real threat to the Imperium and the forces of Sigmar is bad dice rolls.
