Why Do Wargames Keep Making NEW EDITIONS?

In this video, I'll tell you why some wargaming companies make new additions of their games regularly, maybe too regularly, and why some don't. I have a Galactic Empire army for Star Wars Legion, like painted, done. A ton of Stormtroopers, which you know are admittedly easy to paint if you do it right.

Pchia. And uh I've also got General Ve and I've got Director Kren Krennic and I've got scouts and death troopers and all that stuff. 800 points finished. And by the time I got my army finally finished, then the people in my area weren't really playing it anymore. But my friend Kevin was nearly done with his Rebel Force and we planned to play soon.

We had plenty of cool Star Wars terrain. We had a neat desert mat. All that kind of stuff. it was going to be a great time. And then they uh released a new addition of the game. The rules changed. The army points increased to a thousand points. And uh and now we need both of us need even more models to play like a legal force.

Right now, I know what you're going to say. Just play the old version of the rules. That's what you tell us all the time, Uncle Adam, is that you can it's the that's the great thing about tabletop wargaming is that you're in control. And while that's true, and you can do that, Kevin [clears throat] and I are probably going to have to update our armies and rules and cards and whatnot because all the online army builders and like rules discussions and all that stuff that's out there are for the new version, not the old version.

And if people in our area finally start playing it again, then they'll probably be playing the new version as well. But why did the rules change anyway? you know, like why is there a new edition? Why do so many wargaming companies find it necessary to release new editions of their rules? Star Wars Legion is on its second edition, and there might have been a 1.5 in the middle there, or maybe I'm thinking a Star Wars X-Wing.

I don't quite remember, but War Machine is in its fourth edition. Um, Age of Sigmar is in its fourth edition since 2015. and and Warhammer 40k 40k uh 11th edition of Warhammer 40k will come out this upcoming summer. Kill Team as a standalone game uh came out in 2018 and it's already in its third edition and will probably launch a fourth edition the summer after this upcoming one.

So 2027 summer unless it stops making enough money like War Cry did. And there's the rub. The main reason that big companies come out with new editions of their games kind of constantly is money. New additions cause many players to reby the books that they already have because some small things changed in the rules.

Lately, Games Workshop has gotten into a pattern where every other edition of 40k, they also invalidate all of the cotices as well. So like eighth edition there was the indexes that came out that you had to buy and then all the you know cotices went away and then in ninth edition you could still use the cotices from eth edition and then in 10th edition again they did you know indexes although you could download them finally for free which was a step in the right direction but mark my words they'll continue to do that kind of every other edition from now on and I bet that they'll be doing it in Age of Sigmar as well fourth edition of Age of Sigmar which just came a little while ago did it.

You know, got rid of all the battle tomes. Fifth won't, and I bet that sixth edition will. This is generally known as churn in the wargaming industry. And it's kind of different than just like making and releasing a lot of products, right? It's more like remaking products and then trying to force everyone who currently plays to have to buy these remade products, right?

there's usually a big fanfare about the new edition and like all the cool improvements and all that kind of stuff and and then sometimes the changes seem significant. I mean, heck, you know, I was pretty happy when eighth edition 40k came out and things seemed changed for the better because I really hated seventh edition as did many people.

However, over the next 3 years from the launch of 8th, things got dense and complicated again and then it just wasn't as fun anymore. If you're a big game company, like with tons of employees and shareholders, then this is what you'll do because you need to make more and more and more money constantly, always.

And while you could just make all kinds of new products, you know, not just new models and terrain, but also lots of other newer games and systems that might uh, you know, attract different audiences. It's generally easier to get people kind of locked into an ecosystem and then via sunk cost keep them there.

And when you do that, then you need to remonetize that audience as much as you possibly can. What I mean by sunk cost is this. If you get into a war game ecosystem like Warhammer 40,000 for example, and it is an ecosystem with all the rules and the models and the terrain and the the novels and the video games and the merch, all that stuff, then you're less likely to switch to a different ecosystem or even a different game that isn't its own ecosystem, right?

because you've already sunk all this cost, both, you know, money and time into Warhammer 40,000, right? And they can't usually get you to buy new versions of the models as easily as they can get you to buy the updated versions of the rules. But is it just completely the corporate money machine that makes new additions of games happen?

Is it like completely just greed, right? or are there good reasons to make a new edition of a wargaming rule set? Does having to make a a a you know a second edition of a game mean that you originally screwed up the first edition and now you can hopefully fix it? In some situations, I would say that that might be the reason second editions come about, right?

But if there are errors or tweaks that need to be made to your rule set, couldn't you just make a free downloadable FAQ or Arata? In this day and age, yeah, you could. If your game is a fully digital rule set, like one-page rules games are, for example, then you could just update the rules a little bit to fix issues that arose.

And then people who, you know, bought the $5 rule set would get to download the new rule set version for free. And if we're talking about a printed game book, then the FAQ and Arata would be available for free download. And then maybe those fixes would end up in the next, you know, printing of the game book if the game, you know, actually sells enough to require a second or third printing.

And then, of course, there's free game rules. Many game companies that sell you models will let you download the rules for free. They're selling you the models, they might as well let you download the rules for free. Maybe you'll buy more models. That's the way it kind of kind of goes in their minds and it makes a lot of sense.

They might sell you a printed book, you know, if you're into that, you want one cuz you really love the printed page or whatever the deal is. But you can also get the entire rules, not just like the the core rules as a free download. Trench Crusade is a good example of this. All the rules have always been free and they say they always will be free in the future.

They'll be selling a physical book this upcoming year I believe, but it seems that it's more really a kind of like lore and cool art and you know more than anything else. Battletech is very interesting in this regard. It seems like they haven't made a new edition of like classic Battletech ever. Now, however, that's not actually true.

It's just that Battletech is really old and they haven't made any new additions in a pretty long time. Back in the day when Battletech was owned by FAA, there were like four separate editions of Battletech that came out. I remember waiting in line at Gen Con in the early to mid90s to get like a fancy version of the new edition compendium for Battletech.

It was it was it wasn't worth the time. It was a really long line and I really haven't done that again since. But after FAA kind of died, then FanPro and then later Catalyst rebranded the game as classic Battletech. Like that's the name. And since then, which was like in mid 2000s, the game has basically been the same edition all along.

Now, there have been multiple printings, but they've all been considered the same edition of the game. They just kind of go through and, you know, fix Arata and stuff like that. They've had tons of new boxes and starter sets during that time and of course zillions and zillions of plastic mechs, but they haven't had to make new additions every 3 years to keep themselves in business.

Now, that said, they haven't necessarily been without financial troubles according to the internet. But would making new additions of classic battletech every 3 years have fixed the problems and and and and printed money? Probably not. No. uh in their specific case, it most likely would have made things worse by by fracturing the player base and all that kind of stuff, especially people that are entrenched and have been in it for a long time, right?

I've been told many times that Battletech is great because it's been the same addition for so long. And it makes sense. One of the top five complaints I hear about that drives people from Warhammer 40,000 is the addition churn. So, what would be a better option if we got to kind of magically run Games of Workshop?

What would we change? That's a that's a real big question. Honestly, that's But as it relates to additions, I would certainly stop the three-year edition cycle. Some people say 5 years is more reasonable, and while that's technically true, it's is that still necessary? Because between first edition and second edition of 40k, there was a six-year gap.

There was a 5-year gap between second and third and then another six-year gap between third and fourth. A longer gap would let them make more optional add-on books during that time. They could make like optional campaign books and setting books full of new scenarios and stuff like that. The problem is that they don't want to make too many optional books.

They want to generally make the new add-on books not seem optional but required. Think of like the psychic awakening books back in 8th edition and such. like they were technically optional, those nine different books, but people who played even kind of competitively, and I don't even mean like tournaments, but just played competitively like at a store amongst other people and stuff like that sort of needed them to stay relevant or whatever.

You ended up carrying around a lot of books to a game night. If you don't want to be expected to buy new additions of your wargaming rules, like every 3 years or whatever, then I'd suggest looking for games with free rules, whether they have new additions or not, at least you won't have to buy the new additions because, you know, they're free.

However, if you're not even interested in having to learn new editions at all, then I'd tell you to look at most smaller indie games because generally they don't do new additions of their games. If something comes up that needs a change, then they usually have a free download that fixes it. The fact of the matter is the big companies will continue to make new edition after new edition if the players continue to buy them.

In nearly every case, a paid new edition is pretty clearly a cash grab. If it angers you, I'd tell you to look for games with free rules or check out companies that don't seem to adhere to the new edition cycle. What do you think? Are you okay with game systems with paid updates on a fixed schedule, like almost like video game uh seasons or something like that?

Or would you enjoy a game that's a little bit more stable over time? Let us all know down in the comments below if you like videos like this. Uh a little bit of uh depressmentation of the like button would be appreciated by me and by the also potential other viewers who would get to see the video because you've you know hit like.

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