Black Industries Scuttled: Goodbye Warhammer Roleplaying
The cold and bitter calculus that characterizes the phrase "commercial interests" has a new victim tonight. Sadly...very sadly...the folks who for the last several years have labored assiduously to produce some of the highest quality roleplaying source books and supplements I've used since Iron Crown Enterprises still had the rights to Middle Earth roleplaying, are officially out of business. I'm talking about Black Industries, the British-based pen and paper roleplaying arm of Games Workshop, i.e. the guys responsible for the Warhammer miniatures tabletop battle games.
Stunningly, this is happening mere days after the release of the world's first Warhammer 40k roleplaying game, the fabulously wrought Dark Heresy, which according to the news blurb on Black Industries' homepage, sold out "on the strength of preorders alone." I just received my copy, and while I haven't had a chance to get my arms up to my elbows into the rules and writing, everything I've seen so far radiates quality. Make that sterling.
The announcement in full:
Black Industries regret to announce that Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods out in September will be the final product to be released from Black Industries.
Kevin Rountree General Manager of BL Publishing said ‘As a result of the continued and impressive success of our core novels business, which we have built around 40K and Warhammer, we have decided to focus all of our efforts on growing this part of our business. Black Industries has seen fantastic success, most recently with Talisman and Dark Heresy. This change does not take away from that achievement rather it allows BL Publishing to focus on producing the best novels we can. This is a purely commercial decision and will enable us to carry on the huge growth that we have recently been experiencing with our novels’.
For the time being Black Industries will continue to post articles in support of the products on their official website, which is a fantastic resource for scenarios and gaming tools for GM’s and players alike.
After an otherwise extraordinarily productive day, I was just getting ready to settle down with my DS and a little Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, followed by some time scanning my new just-arrived-in-the-mail-today (no joke!) Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game Master's Toolkit, and then...this. I know pen and paper RPGs technically don't come on a disc or through a digital download spigot, but I'll make an exception for Warhammer. With its unmatched, brilliantly career-centric character system and (extremely) dark, fastidiously cultivated source material, it stands well apart from the rest of the rabble.
I know it's borderline maudlin to say my heart's a little broken over all this, but...well...there it is.
If you follow this sort of thing and want to participate in the discussion (play nice, of course) there's a thread at RPGnet here, and on the official Black Industries forums here.
UPDATE: I'm not in the business of speculating about hobby-centric companies, but I spotted this link to a Financial Times article discussing Games Workshop's financials via RPGnet. Among other things, you have Tom Kirby, chairman of the company, telling investors "I'm sorry we have not done as well as we should the last two years... We grew fat and lazy on the back of easy success." To the extent the tabletop game sales flattening affected the decision to scrap Black Industries, I'd call this doubly tragic.
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