To coin an old phrase, I have bad news and good news. In fact I think I have very good news that you will like, but first, the bad news. I regret to have to tell you that very shortly we will cease production of the Specialist Game magazine you subscribe to. I feel I should quote from The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy at this point and say loudly "Don't Panic!" We are not canceling the magazines due to falling sales, or because support for Specialist Games range is coming to an end. Quite the reverse - the increasing popularity of the Specialist Games range has given us the opportunity to vastly improve the quality of the Specialist Games magazines that we publish, by going from small black & white magazines for each game system to a single full-colour magazine covering all of the Specialist Games range in one place!
What this means is that the Specialist Games and published support for the Specialist Games range is not going to go away - in fact it's going to get a lot better. For a while now we have been wanting to improve the format of the magazines we produce to support the Specialist Games range and so, rather than the small black & white magazines that we currently publish, we are going to switch format to a single full-colour magazine with at least ninety-six large White Dwarf-sized pages per issue! The new publication has been christened Fanatic magazine, and every issue will contain material for each and every one of the Specialist Games supported by the Fanatic design studio. The first issue of Fanatic magazine will be going on sale in the United Kingdom in May.
We know a lot of you play more than one Specialist game, and will welcome only having to purchase a single magazine rather than two or more. But what happens to those of you that only play one or two of the games in the Specialist range and you don't want to buy every issue of the new magazine? Well, we will still be publishing an Annual for each Specialist system each year, and this will collect all the material for that game that appeared in Fanatic magazine into a single place, so you'll be able to get it in one handy volume. Also, all of the articles published in Fanatic magazine will be available as free downloads from our website soon after publication of the magazine, so you will be able to get hold of any articles you wish without having to pay a penny (well, excluding your normal internet charges of course!)
Having one magazine also means it will be a lot easier to manage than trying to deal with seven different publications. I'm sure many of you will be able to tell me tales of how getting each issue of the Specialist Games magazines has been an uphill struggle, to say the least. Well no longer! With one magazine released it will be much simpler to get it into the hands of the people that matter, you.
Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions we've received since the letter above was sent out:
- Q: When will Fanatic magazine go on sale?
- A: It will be launched in the UK in May 2004. Issues one and two will be released slightly later than this in North America and Australia, but from issue three (out in September 2004) we will have got far enough ahead on our production schedule to be able to release the magazine in the same month worldwide. Yes, that's right, from September next year readers outside the UK will no longer have to wait until after readers in the UK to get their magazine.
- Q: But the letter sent to subscribers in North America says that the magazine won't be released until September!
- A: We're really sorry about this typo. In fact issues one and two will be on sale in North America in July and August respectively. As mentioned above, from September readers in North America will be able to get hold of th emagazine at the same time as people everywhere else in the world.
- Q: I bet that there'll be less articles for insert name of your favourite specialist game here then there will be for insert name of your least favourite specialist game here.
- A: We've gone to great pains to make sure that each game system gets even-handed coverage over the year. It's true that some issues of Fanatic magazine will have more on one system than another, but over the course of the year each system will get the same level of coverage and support. We love all of these games equally, so why would we do anything else?!?
- Q: What will be the final issue numbers of the current magazines?
- A: The final issue of each will be:
Blood Bowl Magazine 12
Battlefleet Gothic Magazine 19
Exterminatus Magazine 10
Necromunda Magazine Volume 2 Issue 3
Town Cryer Magazine 29
Warmaster Magazine 21
- Q: Can I still submit articles for publication?
- A: Yes you certainly can. Our submissions guidelines will remain pretty much exactly as they are now. The only real difference is that you article will be published in colour, and read by more people! Oh, and we'll be tripling the amount we pay for articles too.
- Q: Where can I find out more about Fanatic magazine, and how can I subscribe?
- We will be sending you more information on Fanatic magazine soon, along with details of how you can subscribe to the new magazine. Until then if you have any questions, comments or feedback about the new Fanatic magazine, we would love to hear from you. You can email us at fanatic@games-workshop.co.uk, or you can leave a message on the forums at specialist-games.com. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if there is anything you want to discuss about this matter.