A Reddit user posted a picture of his 3D printed Space Marine army for the tabletop miniature game Warhammer 40,000. The work-in-progress army isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough to the real thing that I would imagine Games Workshop – the games manufacturer – might start to get a little worried.
The growing popularity of 3D printing figures and armies for Warhammer games, to me, says more about the rapidly increasing prices of Games Workshop products than the current accessibility of 3D printers. Armies can regularly cost several hundred dollars, and, depending on the army being created, it can get uncomfortably close to $1000. The Redditer that printed this army said these models would have cost in excess of $300, and the army isn’t even complete yet.
Being able to 3D print a complete Warhammer army has long been a dream for many a fan of the game, and quite a few manage to do it successfully. But realisticall,y the printers available today are simply not capable of producing the level of detail that the figures typically possess, so you can argue that it probably isn’t a huge concern at the moment. However, that is rapidly changing, not only with improving post processing methods and higher quality FFF/FDM 3D printers, but machines using light cured resins like the Form1+ from Formlabs are already producing models detailed enough to match the injection molded originals. It seems at this point the only things standing in the way are printer price and accessibility.
There will be a time when just about anything that is currently manufactured with traditional injection molding techniques can be duplicated with a 3D printer. This may not happen for a few years, or even a decade, but it will happen, and the manufacturers who own trademarks on replicable products will be forced to respond in some way. This is a legal showdown in the making, and it makes sense that the first companies to have to deal with it will be industries that have a significant user overlap with 3D printing enthusiasts.
Games Workshop is notoriously litigious, and it would not surprise me if several of the 3D model marketplaces that host Warhammer models have already received takedown notices from their lawyers. This is a company that tried to sue the makers of a fan film and copyright the words “Space Marine” — so they have lawyers and they are not afraid to use them. But the models are still there, lots of them. And I suspect that they will not be going anywhere any time soon. I’m not a lawyer, but provided there is no money being made from them I’m not sure what can be done about it.
It will be interesting to see where a company like Games Workshop goes from here. Will they begin to attack the people who design and trade 3D models of their products and trademarks similarly to the music industry? Or will they do what Hasbro did a find a different way to deal with the problem?
For years the 3D printing industry has been quietly holding its breath, waiting for a large company to sue over trademarked products being replicated on a 3D printer. I’m fairly familiar with Games Workshop, both as someone who owns quite a few of their products and as a former retailer who dealt with them on a regular basis. I’m not going to put money on it or anything, but it wouldn’t surprise me if one of the first big 3D printing trademark legal battles is waged by them.
They should move to control the market and lead the way in 3D printing. It will be a own goal by Workshop if they don’t do this as if they took the lead in 2nd hand models then eBay and other sites wouldn’t have been flooded with them, all the while costing them ££££.
They are acting like a giant corporate when they should move their business at a faster pace to quickly control and fairly run this market.
It could be a goldmine for them and we all know they need it. If they ever want any business consultancy on how to do this – GW, look me up!
I’ve been saying this for years. GW is perfectly positioned (with the exception of leadership) to own on-demand 3D printing of game pieces in the same way that Sony could have (but didn’t) create iTunes and own the music market.
“Pick me coach, I’m ready!”
GW wouldn’t get the insane margins per model that way, but it would sell way more. Selling more means more players meaning more buyers.
The hobby would spread itself.
What they need to do is lead the industry and make prices accordingly to the cost of a 3d printer, time and money spent mastering the craft and material cost. Not to mention the time spent actually printing something with high detail.
That way people will see little need to print their own models (except maybe some cool customized ones) because it wouldn’t be worth it.
In their 2013-2014 annual statement GW CEO Tom Kirby says the following on 3D printing
“Because no one seems able to grasp the essential simplicity of what we do there has always been the search for the Achilles heel, the one thing that Kirby and his cronies have overlooked. These are legion. I run through the list from time to time when someone says that computer games will be the death of us – they are so much more realistic now! – again. This year it is 3-D printing. Pretty soon everyone will be printing their own miniatures and where will we be then, eh?
We know quite a lot about 3-D printers, having been at the forefront of the technology for many years. We know of what we speak. One day 3-D printers will be affordable (agreed), they are now, they will be able to produce fantastic detail (the affordable ones won’t) and they will do it faster than one miniature per day (no, they won’t, look it up). So we may get to the time when someone can make a poorly detailed miniature at home and have enough for an army in less than a year. That pre-supposes that 3-D scanning technology will be affordable and good enough (don’t bet the mortgage on that one) and that everyone will be happy to have nothing but copies of old miniatures.
All of our great new miniatures come from Citadel. It is possible that one day we will sell them direct via 3-D printers to grateful hobbyists around the world. That will not happen in the next few years (or, in City-speak, ‘forever’) but if and when it does it will just mean that we can cut yet more cost out of the supply chain and be making good margins selling Citadel 3-D printers.
At the heart of the delusion is the notion that designing and making miniatures is easy. It isn’t.”
That last line as well as the one about people having copies of old miniatures are the real kickers to me, as Hasbro’s super fan art seems to take those statements and through them right back at GW.
“Citadel 3-D printers”
Oh my god I’m so hyped.
if they released citadel 3-d printers i would buy 1 so quickly xD
He really knows how to condescend to his customers. The tone of that tantrum would make anyone want to punch him.
INCOMING LAWSUIT IN 3…..2…..1
sueing has already ensued! 2 years ago! http://www.wired.com/2012/05/3-d-printing-patent-law
Leave it to Games Workshop to be on the forefront of being pains in the A**
“but provided there is no money being made from them I’m not sure what can be done about it”
–There is money being lost from them. That’s enough to make an argument and bury the unfortunate defendants in legal fees.
NB.
I think the biggest issue here is who cares if they are as detailed. If you buy any miniatures for any ttrpg that involves miniatures, you do it to build your armies for game play and overall victory. Real collectors will buy them anyway because of value. True “players” will use low res facsimiles if allowed. The issue then becomes, will game shops running 40k events, or even home groups allow them as they are not authentic pieces. Lots of hard core gamers have either never played or stopped playing WH because of the cost becoming prohibitive. This could likely bring players back to the table but will it be in underground WH games similar to DND home games played with rules supplements players “found” on the internet. I bet none of us have ever done that and opted to instead shell out the cash to Hasbro and WOTC. Sure we would rather have a copy of the hard back Races of Faerune but the pdf will give us the stats we need to play what we want. We however won’t be able to use it at a sanctioned event as we would require a physical copy. Most of us don’t play sanctioned events regularly so no big deal in this instance. I think the same will apply for 3d minis as well.
Agree with the comment below that they could …”control the market and lead the way in 3D printing” ……..But they do seem to have a King Canute mentality!
if someone can print an army in a month or two, it would still be worth it.
who earns enough to blow $1000 on some of these armies in just 4-8 weeks?
furthermore, detail is non issue to anyone with the tools to touch up after it comes
off the printer – something to do while the next piece prints perhaps?
and the price of a printer that can do it is often cheaper then the armies.
and for the record, there is a liquid resin 3d printer already that only costs $300 that
can print any “marine” sized figure with 200-300DPI accuracy.
you can find it on kickstarter, its been funded, finished, and is selling to public right NOW.
the times already here, they need to do something NOW.
Ive seen the figures, once sanded and painted out of this thing, u cant tell the difference without
realllly close inspection.
I think the real butthurt here is that the consumer was always aware of the overpriced plastic, and
now its been proven.
do you happen to know the name of the printer???
No company would sue 3D printer makers because they can be used to print stuff they already make. No one who works in the 3D industry who can spell “lawyer” has been holding their breath waiting for a lawsuit. It’s 2015, anyone with Google can learn for themselves why it’d be a disastrous waste of time and money.
I think the biggest issue here is who cares if they are as detailed. If you buy any miniatures for any ttrpg that involves miniatures, you do it to build your armies for game play and overall victory. Real collectors will buy them anyway because of value. True “players” will use low res facsimiles if allowed. The issue then becomes, will game shops running 40k events, or even home groups allow them as they are not authentic pieces. Lots of hard core gamers have either never played or stopped playing WH because of the cost becoming prohibitive. This could likely bring players back to the table but will it be in underground WH games similar to DND home games played with rules supplements players “found” on the internet. I bet none of us have ever done that and opted to instead shell out the cash to Hasbro and WOTC. Sure we would rather have a copy of the hard back Races of Faerune but the pdf will give us the stats we need to play what we want. We however won’t be able to use it at a sanctioned event as we would require a physical copy. Most of us don’t play sanctioned events regularly so no big deal in this instance. I think the same will apply for 3d minis as well.
Very impressive, but what to do if you are not an expert in 3D modelling? Well, I’m a big fan of Warhammer 40K game and recently I’ve found Chaplin, Y’vahra 3D models printer-ready here http://www.gambody.com/3d-files/hammer-of-war. Very good quality, but you need to have your own printer as they sell 3D files, not printed object.
they could make their money selling the army books and updates/new miniatures with a data DVD full of the army 3D printer files printing the exact same thing that you get in the box now. the Micro from M3D at $350 isn’t bad. they could get a contract with someone with a affordable one like that with custom software to maximize the experience. even tying it into current and future video games to get custom characters and stats for “special characters” that only people that achieve things in set game have. the possibilities are endless. even having some kind of VR experience to top the icing on the cake so to speak.