9th Edition WTF!

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So having read this article (twice) and gone through some of the comments on it, it's safe to say Fantasy just got screwed over. To make it clear, this is GW's plan. It's finally occurred to them that they have competition in the Fantasy miniature setting, so they plan to compete with them. Thing is, they plan to do so by first screwing over their Fantasy fans and 20+ years of lore in order to do so. So what does one get in return?

If the rumours are to be believed, then it's round bases. Why? Cause that's what the competition is using. There will now only be six armies in total:

Empire (Humans): Consists of the remnants of the Empire, Bretonnia, Dwarf and Ogre armies.

Chaos: Warriors, Beastmen and Daemons are reunited, loosing a tone of stuff for them to fit.

Elves: Screw three unique factions, they loose most of their stuff for this unification.

Orcs and Goblins: Common fantasy creatures, though have done little in the End Times.

Undead: Because Nagash is still around and will continue to be around for some time.

Skaven: Because. I expect the loss of some uniqueness for them to continue existing.

Aparently Ogres and Dwarf groups are mostly gone and the Lizardmen have moved onto another world.....WTF! On top of that, with a large number of units and flavour now gone, they also plan to support 9th with a lot of White Dwarf datasheets. Why? To support the continued number of limited miniature releases. Yep, rumour says that GW will continue a constant supply of miniatures, but they will only be around for so long before being scraped for something else. So basically, you'll get new units, but you'll need to be quick cause once they're gone, they're gone. And you'll need the datasheets if you wish to use them cause there's a good chance your opponent may not have them.

So in other words: 'It's a new game, just like our competitor's, except it's still the same game'.

It's like Games Workshop is waving it's hands in the air saying "Hey, look at us. We listened to you and are being competitive. Buy our stuff",  except that they haven't listened at all. This is what happens when a company that rely on it's customers to make money doesn't listen to it's customers. There is a reason you must open yourselves to discussions with your customers, otherwise you may just offend the very people who are making you money. And sadly, this appears to be the case. Comments all over the internet have people up in arms over these rumours. Many have stated that this is the final nail in the coffin for Fantasy and more are outraged at the destruction of the lore and flavour of the game. Oh yeah, 9th is suppose to take place a number of years after End Times (I believe it was 100+ or something) and that there were now reality bubbles or some crap like that. So apart from characters infused with God-like powers, expect nearly all named characters to be dead.

Now admittadly, these are still rumours, but most agree that the source of these rumours are usually correct. Some of these rumours even state that there are a number of staff at GW HQ who are against these changes. Wouldn't blame them. Having a hobby you've spent years supporting despite the constant problems only to screw you over in one big change, yeah I'd be upset too.

What will I do if it turns out to be true? I honestly don't know. As a Skaven player it shouldn't effect me too much, save for the fact I'd need to either re-base my entire army or make a new one. I doubt we'll see affordable starting sets, let alone the ability to buy single packs to help grow armies like back in the day. I really don't get why they couldn't just leave Warhammer as it was and bring back Mordheim or make special Warband rules if they wanted a game to compete. Remaking a whole world, screwing with lore and upsetting nearly the entire Fantasy fan base just seems like a bad idea. As much as I hope these rumours are wrong and that this was a side game instead of 9th, I've dealt enough with GW and GW rumours to know that this is most likely true.