Latest news with #tabletopgaming
Malay Mail
25-06-2025
- Malay Mail
Local gaming group among those affected as Meta's mass suspensions hits Facebook groups worldwide
KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 — A tabletop gaming community has claimed that three of its Facebook groups were no longer accessible to the public, amid a global mass suspension by Meta artificial intelligence (AI) bot since yesterday. KakiTabletop posted on Facebook that the groups could still be accessed by administrators, but some were deleted with their title changed to the blank 'Group title pending'. It said Meta has since promised to rectify the issue. 'Got through a chain of phone calls from Meta's Business support team, and they confirmed Facebook is having bugs in their system. 'They mentioned that the FB Groups should be reinstated within 48 hours,' the group posted on its website. This comes as thousands of groups, including those dedicated to hobbies, parenting, and shopping tips, have reportedly been affected in countries such as the United States, Canada, Indonesia, Canada, Thailand, and Vietnam. Technology news site TechCrunch reported that group administrators said they received vague notices citing violations such as 'terrorism-related' content or nudity, despite the innocuous nature of their groups, which include communities for pet owners, gaming fans, and interior design enthusiasts. Many of the suspended groups are sizeable, with memberships ranging from tens of thousands to millions, and some admins claim that all their groups were removed simultaneously. 'We're aware of a technical error that impacted some Facebook Groups. We're fixing things now,' Meta spokesman Andy Stone was quoted telling TechCrunch in response.
ABC News
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Board gamers foster connections and fight loneliness by rolling the dice
When Luke Atkinson started a tabletop gaming club more than a decade ago, only 10 people turned up to its first session. They squeezed into a small room at the local library to play a single game, and it was an altogether modest affair — but at its end, Mr Atkinson was jubilant. He had only moved to the small town of in Kadina on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula earlier that year, and alongside a friend, Mark Dennett, had founded the group with the idea of making community connections in his new home. In that light, the first event had been, for him, an unqualified success. But he could not have foreseen how his and Mr Dennett's club would prove an even greater one: the group, 13 years on, now has its own building, and more than 300 people come there to play games throughout the year. Copper Coast Tabletop, the gaming club the pair started, still runs three times weekly out of a former weigh station in the nearby town of Wallaroo. They play everything, from Monopoly and Cluedo to miniature model games like Warhammer, or the card deck-builder Magic: The Gathering. The club has, in many ways, been the beneficiary of the board-game popularity boom that has blown the industries out to an estimated $18.8 billion globally in the past decade. But its success is also attributable to a larger social movement that has become particularly important in regional communities — combating loneliness. It's no secret making friendships can be difficult for people moving to regions, particularly if they don't play sport. And Mr Atkinson knows that all too well. So when he arrived in Kadina, he thought one of his old hobbies might help him and others who felt the same way. "When you first move to a town, you don't know anyone, and generally there's a lot of close-knit friendship groups because they've known each other for generations or went to school together," Mr Atkinson said. "And I've loved board games and miniature games since childhood, for both the challenge and their artistic value, and I wanted to offer that same joy and connection to the wider community. "Because developing an environment where people can just come and enjoy hobbies and not feel like an outsider … and just connect with people, that's so important. "Moving to a new place can be lonely." According to the Department of Human Services (DHS), 27 per cent of South Australians experience persistent loneliness, while 20 per cent experience persistent social isolation, meaning they had infrequent social contact for at least eight weeks at a time. The DHS says South Australians are the second-most socially isolated people in the country behind the Northern Territory. Flinders University senior lecturer in social policy Ben Lohmeyer said in Australia, young people in particular were more vulnerable to loneliness than previously thought. "Having choice over where they do that, particularly if they're choosing something that's a shared interest, sounds like a great way to build connections and get to know other people." He said it was important for people to have a "third space" — somewhere outside of work and home. "It could be sport, a religious community or a shared interest like gaming. "But that third space is really important to give us a sense of connection and combat things like loneliness." Across South Australia, on the Eyre Peninsula, another group of gamers gathers. In Port Lincoln, Steven Johnson from the West Coast Youth and Community Support group runs games sessions every Thursday and it expands to more than board games. "We noticed that a lot of the clients I was working with, a lot of the people that I met, were gamers of some degree and shared a love for gaming," Mr Johnson said. "Through my program we try and link people who are a bit isolated in the community back into their community in all the wonderful areas that it has." He said the community was created for people who felt isolated and wanted to make friends who shared a similar interest. "It just lets everybody come together in the same physical space and actually create some friendships." Back in Wallaroo, Mr Atkinson reflected on the 13 years and the hundreds of people who have come along to Copper Coast Tabletop to play. "This community is something special," Mr Atkinson said. "For many of our members, especially those with social needs, the structured nature of games provides a framework for interacting, helping them build confidence and a sense of fairness. "We've seen many people grow — not just in gaming skill, but in confidence and connection — and that's what keeps us going."
BBC News
01-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Hull tabletop gamers level up struggling high street
With Warhammer creator Games Workshop riding high on the success of videogame Space Marine II and recently joining the FTSE 100, Josh Gorroño Chapman visits the tabletop gaming club thriving on a struggling high street in between Boyes and a vape shop, you could easily miss the small shopfront with "Hull's Angels" above the the staircase leading up from it, the hum of voices turns into a cacophony and I find myself in a large room packed with people."You've got the Hell's Angels motorbikers in America. We're not quite that," laughs Adam Stephenson, chair of the tabletop gaming club on of players are locked in battle across 18 tables, each populated with terrain from the shelves that line the explains the space had been empty for nine years and was not always the well-equipped gaming hub it has become."It used to be a William Hill betting site, so it took a lot of effort and time from our volunteers trying to make this our new home."They showed up, scrubbed the floors, scrubbed the walls and got painting," explains the 32-year-old. "It was a a great experience and we turned it around within a month." Mr Stephenson says the idea for a club first came about when they realised nowhere else in the city had the capacity for Warhammer games on this play the Games Workshop wargame, with the worldwide tabletop sector worth about £8.6bn in 2023, according to consumer data firm in 1983, players simulate battles between armies using painted plastic miniatures. "You may have a 100 model army," explains Adam, "all the way down to a five model. It's available for all sizes and budgets."Hull's Angels have set up their own leagues, matching players who want to get involved."It's great for growing that community and getting people together." Connor O'Neill says he first got into the hobby during Covid-19, "to keep [his] sanity", but has since found it is a great alternative to boozy nights out."As I got older I stopped going out partying and drinking and it was just a way for me to socialise," explains the 30-year-old. "A lot of the friends and people I associate with now are from this place."Asked what has driven the recent surge in interest he cites ex-superman actor Henry Cavill being a "poster boy" for the hobby as well as the videogames and media surrounding the Taylor, 32, thinks games like Warhammer offer a "very different sort of experience" to online games. "It's very social," he Atkin agrees. "I get bored after about 20 minutes," he says. "The computer's doing it all, whereas here I'm physically moving the pieces."The 70-year-old started playing in the early 1980s and says, while the scene in the city has "massively increased", having a place like Hull's Angels has really helped. "I had my garage kitted out, but it's much easier to come to a central hub." Amy Snuggs is sitting with her partner Tim Davis learning a new tabletop game. "It's changed my life," says the 32-year-old."Before I met him, I had no idea about miniature painting or war gaming."Finding she loved the painting side, she has now turned it into a job, becoming a professional miniature painter for tabletop gaming company 2020, Hull City Council received a £1.75m grant from Historic England to regenerate and "breathe new life" into Whitefriargate. The council said the street had been impacted by the Covid-19 Stephenson says centres like Hull's Angels could help revitalise Britain's high streets. "We see it in the news all the time. Our high streets are struggling and shops are struggling to stay open.""Places like this really seem to thrive and succeed, and it's maybe time for the high street to change."Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
CNET
30-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
As Trump Moves Tariff Pieces Around the Board, Tabletop Games Face Calamity
I've been playing board games for decades, from crowd-pleasers like Settlers of Catan and Sushi Go to King of Tokyo and Descent -- and in recent years, I've seen them show up in even my most mainstream social gatherings. In a world overrun by digital screens, tactile games are a novelty that gather people around a table rather than in tiny squares on a Zoom call. With bold, vibrant art styles and creative pieces to play with, tabletop gaming has expanded beyond mainstream favorites like Monopoly and Settlers of Catan with ever more intriguing games like Gloomhaven and Hive. It's these physical components that set board games apart, as their makers think up creative scenarios that players engage with using well-designed pieces. Picking up and moving these parts around is core to the magic of tabletop games, of ideas rising out of the board and fitting in players' hands. But the Trump administration's tariffs are crashing hard into that domestic scene, with dire financial consequences for businesses that depend on the import of custom physical pieces. From custom miniatures of creatures and vehicles to the boards the games are made on to the boxes they come in, the vast majority of tabletop products come out of specialized factories in China with decades of experience. Board games are created in volumes and shipped at times that make selling such unique productions profitable. Tariffs have affected many other industries that source products from China, like tech and gadget makers, but those may be manufactured in other areas. The board game industry sources its pieces from specialty factories in China that can handle small-scale batches of very specialized parts. Amid the tariffs, the board game industry has scrambled to find production alternatives in other countries, but the specificity of its products has made it difficult. If they're forced to keep making games in China, they may need to raise prices, which would be passed on to the consumer. The tariffs haven't just paused imports -- they've thrown the rest of the year's schedule into disarray. As a longtime board game player, I'm now facing the prospect of store shelves being empty around Christmas. Now is when board game makers put in their orders for games to ship in time for the holidays. But a dizzying uncertainty -- most recently with a federal court blocking many of Trump's tariffs before an appeals court reinstated them the next day -- might lead them to limit or cancel their orders, leaving store shelves empty around Christmas. "The next three weeks will be telling if we're going to have a holiday season or not, and then we'll know who's in business next year -- because if they can't make the holiday season, they may have to close up," John Stacy, executive director of the Game Manufacturers Association, a trade organization representing about 1,700 companies in the industry, said in early May. Many board game makers are small and medium-size businesses with a dozen or fewer full-time employees, making this especially devastating. Their slim margins rely on tight timelines for order and delivery to retailers and consumers to survive. These tariffs have threatened the financial outlook of anyone bringing games into the US and led the entire industry into an existential crisis. Cephalofair Games COO Price Johnson holding the company's game Frosthaven next to shipping boxes full of the same. Cephalofair Games Cepholafair Games, which makes the very successful board game Gloomhaven, successfully funded its next Gloomhaven game on crowdfunding platform Backerkit. This March, the company planned to deliver on its promises by shipping some of its new products to backers' doors -- except for Trump's new tariffs, which at their peak would have made it so expensive to import them into the country that it would be cheaper to have never made them at all. "I speak on behalf of those publishers, but we cut things really tight, and we depend on the infrastructure of our industry, the right retail stores and distribution models to really get our games distributed widely and at margins that make sense for us to operate," said Cephalofair Chief Operating Officer Price Johnson. Trump's tariffs have gone up and down, charging importers at their height a proposed 145% fee before temporarily reeling that back to 30% for importing from China -- at least for a 90-day pause before the number could shoot back up. Even that timeline is thrown into question with the recent court decisions about blocking the tariffs. The 90-day pause may be enough time to get existing products out of China, but is "the bare-minimum step to avoid pandemic-level trade disruption," Johnson wrote in a Facebook post criticizing the topsy-turvy tariff rates. But even that lower tariff rate is potentially unprofitable to import existing product stock that board game makers have stashed in warehouses outside the US, waiting for trade relief -- and wondering whether to act now or gamble on whether the tariffs spike again, which could potentially bankrupt them to import. Publishers with products to sell now are gambling with incomplete information, Stacy said. Those who will take longer than the 90-day pause to ship or finish production runs of games are left with even more uncertainty. "How can you, in good conscience, commit to a new product without knowing the costs to make, ship and import it?" Stacy said. "Setting prices to ensure profitability becomes challenging without all the factors included in the calculation. It's like playing a game where the rules change every round, and it's unclear what those rules are until you are halfway through the next round." Under the 145% tariffs, 51% of the board game companies GAMA surveyed in late April said they would have to shut their doors or lay off employees if conditions didn't improve in two to three months. "These are small businesses -- they don't have that kind of cash to weather a storm like this," Stacy said. Rollacrit, a board game maker and nerdy merchandise company staffed by veterans from the shuttered online retailer ThinkGeek, had been sitting on a reorder of Heroes of Barcadia, one of its more popular games, which it couldn't afford to bring into the US under the 145% tariffs. "If we were to ship it in now, the amount of money we'd have to pay is astronomical," Erin Zipperle, owner of Rollacrit, told me in early May. In the face of financial calamity, tabletop game producers have been scrambling for alternatives, making drastic changes and calling their US elected representatives in hopes they could lobby for leniency from the Trump administration. The crisis, reminiscent of the COVID pandemic's disruptions, has already forced several game publishers to shut down entirely. A handful of board game companies, including Stonemaier Games, XYZ Game Labs and DinkerHouse games joined product makers from other industries in suing the Trump administration over the tariffs. Even if the tariffs were completely recalled tomorrow, their impacts of increased hardship would still ripple through the industry. Board game makers would clamor for slots in factory production queues, shipping costs would ramp up, and the resulting cost and supply instability would shake consumer trust. If the tariffs extend for weeks or months to come, more publishers will likely go under, and there may not be any new board games on store shelves by the holidays. Board game pieces from a Cephalofair Games tabletop game at PAX East 2024. Cephalofair Games The board game industry is a flotilla of small businesses When most people think of board games, they imagine Monopoly or another mainstream game sold by a company as colossal as Hasbro or Mattel. But many of the popular upstarts defining the new era of tabletop gaming come from companies a fraction of the size. As widely known as the tactical fantasy roleplaying game Gloomhaven is within the games community, Cephalofair employs eight people full time, including Johnson. Rollacrit lists 10 employees on its staff page. Stonemaier Games has eight. For folks who have spent years building their businesses in an industry that requires a unique alchemy of product and marketing shrewdness blended with the wonder of playful design, becoming besieged with spiking tariffs has seemed like something of an existential crisis. Zipperle felt like he worked his entire career ensuring he had enough money to properly start and grow his business organically without outside investment, and now this happens. "We're literally the American dream of what you want to do to create a company out of nothing, and to get to this point just to be derailed by the government from a random war on toys?" Zipperle said. That echoes Trump's recent comment that "maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls" as a result of the tariffs. Board game makers weren't caught unawares -- after all, Trump campaigned on tariffs, and had deployed them in his first term. But the severity blindsided the industry, including Jamey Stegmaier, founder of Stonemaier Games, maker of hit games like Wingspan and Tokaido. "We were expecting tariffs and slimmer margins, but not like this," Stegmaier said. Though Stegmaier concedes that the decrease to 30% tariffs is progress, it still doesn't take into consideration the need for grace periods for all the products made before the tariffs -- around 250,000 units for Stonemaier, including the yet-to-be-launched game Vantage. Like Cephalofair's Price, Stegmaier has been vocal in his criticism of the Trump administration's tariffs, and even after their reduction to 30%, will continue taking part in the lawsuit against the president for tariff disruption of business. "We will absolutely proceed with the lawsuit, which focuses on the Constitutional power of Congress to apply taxes (not the president)," Stegmaier told me. "A tax like this has such a massive impact on small US businesses that it deserves the due process that we're seeking with the lawsuit." The purported intent of the tariffs is to spur US manufacturing instead of sourcing parts or products from China. But board game makers that I spoke to don't believe they'll have that effect. Even in the miraculous scenario of companies breaking ground today on new factories, it could take three to five years before the first ones start producing the kinds of miniatures and other products needed for board games. And it could be a decade before the US ramps up to the kind of product expertise and factory scale that China has. By then, many tabletop companies could be long gone. "It's a craft," Zipperle said, cautioning about all the learning and care that goes into avoiding what can go wrong among dangerous plastic fabrication processes, let alone the years of expertise needed to operate such precisely calibrated machines. "You don't just start making stained glass windows." Then there's the vulnerability of investing millions of dollars in a factory given the uncertain future. Even if a US company invests in domestic factories to make board game parts, if the tariffs are lifted at any time in the years to come, board game makers will likely simply go back to paying for cheaper production in China. It just won't be cost-effective to build in the US without consistent investment for the better part of a decade. Cephalofair Games COO Price Johnson (third from left) and the rest of the company's staff stand beside boxes of their game Frosthaven as they prepare to ship to backers. Cephalofair Games A decisive moment for small businesses with products ready to ship It's not just financial success at stake, but customer trust too. Cephalofair and other board game makers have won customer trust with track records of successful crowdfunding campaigns that stick to schedules and deliver products as they predicted. Now, tariffs threaten that trust. Rollacrit hit all the successful milestones of a crowdfunded project, but at the worst time. After launching a Kickstarter in September for its Heroes of Barcadia game that raised over $1.2 million and secured lots of preorders at set prices, the company put in its order for production, which finally finished in April, on the day Trump announced reciprocal tariffs. "It's my new favorite April Fools' Day joke," Zipperle lamented. Crowdfunding is a pivotal part of these small board game companies' business models, as it allows efficient fundraising that directly connects to customers. In 2024, backers pledged $220 million for tabletop games on Kickstarter, and while tariffs haven't yet measurably impacted the platform, the company's head of games, Asher McClennahan, said lifting the tariffs would be a relief for campaign creators. "Unlike large corporations, most Kickstarter creators are small teams — sometimes just individuals — working hard to bring their ideas to life. Even modest cost increases can have an outsized effect on their ability to fulfill rewards or stay financially on track," McClennahan told me. Kickstarter recently added a Pledge Manager to handle post-campaign schedule adjustments and a tariff manager to handle US import costs. Game makers like Cephalofair, Stonemaier and Rollacrit with successful crowdfunding campaigns scheduled to deliver backer rewards are scrambling to fulfill their orders on time, and the chaos is also affecting those about to launch new ones, said Maxwell Salzberg, co-founder of BackerKit. "You've seen less projects in the tabletop games category being fulfilled, because it sort of feels like everyone's waiting for the shoe to drop," Salzberg said. BackerKit is helping how it can, releasing its own Tariff Manager and a way to charge backers for shipping later -- say, after tariffs are reduced or (hopefully) repealed. "That's what BackerKit provides for creators," Salzburg said. "Creators are going to create. Crowdfunding is predicated off of people making cool stuff, and that's not going to ever stop. Not even tariffs can stop them." An attendee of PAX East 2024 takes a turn playing a Cephalofair Games tabletop game. An over the shoulder view of someone playing a board game with a hand of cards on a playing mat below. Alternatives? Move production outside China, abandon retailer allies…and look beyond the US Originally, Trump's reciprocal tariffs meant dramatically higher prices on imports from many other countries, but a 90-day pause on those tariffs left products from China suffering far more severe cost increases in comparison. In the interim, board game makers have looked at other nearby countries with comparable production capability, like Vietnam and Indonesia, as temporary alternatives -- or if the China-US trade war drags on, for the longer term. Tech giant Apple made similar moves over the last five years to shift iPhone production to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, as well as India. Amid the uncertainty, one strategy board game makers are considering is ramping up sales outside the US. Currently, 65% of Stonemaier's sales go to American buyers with 35% elsewhere in the world, but they may try to shift that split to a more even 50-50, Stegmaier said. Another way Stonemaier could offset tariffs and improve its slim margins is to push for more direct sales to consumers, though it's reluctant "because I really, really appreciate our distributor and retail infrastructure," Stegmaier said. "But it might be necessary because of lower margins in China." There will still be board game fans in the US, and there could be ways to avoid tariff price hikes by making them in-country. In fact, that's what board game makers explored during the supply chain crisis caused by the COVID pandemic. The handful of factories in the US that make game components are specialty producers -- Cartamundi, a Belgian game producer, owns a factory in Texas that makes cards for Magic: The Gathering, and another in Michigan produces basic plastic parts that don't match the meticulous detail that modern board games require. When Stegmaier looked into diversifying game production to make parts in China and boxes in the US, he discovered that it would cost as much to make just the boxes domestically as it did to make an entire complete game in China. Further, Chinese factories are better at producing at low scales and high numbers. For smaller board game creators with modest crowdfunding campaigns that want to make only 1,000 units or so to satisfy backers, China can facilitate that, while US factories might require runs of 5,000 to 10,000, Stegmaier said. Attendees of PAX East 2024 play a Cephalofair Games tabletop game. Cephalofair Games If the tariffs go away tomorrow, the damage is still done Board game makers continue looking for ways to survive. But even if the tariffs were completely ended tomorrow, the damage would still be done. "Probably close to a dozen or two" board game businesses have already shut down, Stacy told me. Game makers like Greater Than Games and Final Frontier Games have publicly announced their shuttering, blaming the economic conditions and uncertainty that they'd be able to hold out until relief came. If it doesn't arrive in the next few weeks, more may follow, Stacy said. This point in the year is when board game businesses order their stock for the holiday season, and they may not be able to afford that. The reduction to 30% offered a brief respite for Stonemaier, which was able to place orders for more stock. The bad news is that the company could order only enough during the 90-day pause to last until mid-August, which is well before its holiday print run would arrive in the US. This would strand them unless they receive more tariff respite. Ultimately, increased prices to import on thin margins are going to impact the board game industry regardless, which could -- and may still -- lead to increased costs passed on to the consumer. But companies can't make decisions until they have enough information to make big decisions about pricing, product sourcing and how they'll run their business. "Uncertainty is one of the core problems with the way these tariffs were implemented," Stegmaier said. "There was no due process, just an agent of chaos raising tariffs from 20% to 145% in the span of one week. As a result, it is impossible to properly plan ahead."
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Is this Britain's most successful firm? The High Street shop which has given every worker thousands of pounds - after being set up by three supergeeks in a bedroom in 1975
A major high street firm that could be Britain's most quietly successful brand has enjoyed such a prosperous year that it has given all its staff members bonuses totalling thousands of pounds, 50 years after it was founded. Games Workshop was set up by three supergeeks in a bedroom in 1975, but is now one of the UK's top companies, having entered the FTSE 100 with a total value of more than £5billion. Best known for creating Warhammer figures - a table-top model game played by millions of people worldwide, which has spawned a series of video games - the firm is now worth more than easyJet, B&M, Burberry and Ocado. And after a bumper year it's now handing out some £20million to its 2,950 staff worldwide - the equivalent of £6,779 each. Games Workshop's shares have soared in recent years and it joined the FTSE 100 for the first time in December. The £20million payout is an increase on the £18 million awarded last year and £11 million the year before that. It comes as Games Workshop forecast its sales to soar to at least £560 million for the year ending June 1, up from £494.7 million in the previous 12 months. The brand is beloved by millions across the world - most notably actor and The Witcher star Henry Cavill, who has previously posted photographs of himself painting his own figures on social media. Former Conservative leadership candidate James Cleverly is also a fan of the game. But the origins of the firm are far, far away from the bright lights and star-studded hills of Hollywood or crowded chambers of Parliament. The gaming dynasty was founded by a trio, Steve Jackson, John Peake - who came up with the name - and Ian Livingstone. Livingstone has since been honoured with a knighthood for services to the 'online gaming industry'. Originally, the pals had been a manufacturer of wooden board games such as backgammon, with Peake crafting sets to supplement his meagre income as a trainee civil engineer. But everything changed when the schoolmates managed to wrangle the distribution rights to Dungeons & Dragons - which has since seen a recent resurgence in popularity after being featured Netflix's 1980s-based sci-fi fantasy, Stranger Things, and a film starring Star Trek actor Chris Pine released in 2023. The 'pivot' from traditional board games to fantasy table-top figurine battlers proved divisive and led to Peake cutting ties with Games Workshop in 1976. 'John left because he wasn't really interested in fantasy games, he did wooden games,' Jackson said in an interview. Little is known of what happened to Peake after he left the company. However, he seemingly wrote a critical one-star review of his former business partners' book 'Dice Men', earlier this year. The book chronicled the rise of Games Workshop but was dubbed 'very much a disappointment' by a reviewer claiming to be Peake on Amazon. 'I'm John Peake, the co-founder of Games Workshop with Steve Jackson. Having read the first thirty or so pages of Dice Men I realise I need to tell things the way I remember them,' the reviewer says. 'It's now over 49 years since Games Workshop came into being, and I've kept quiet all this time. But much of the account of the founding and early days of Games Workshop given in Dice Men does not align with my memories of that time, which remain clear. 'I feel strongly that Dice Men almost completely ignores my pivotal role in those early times, not only with conceiving the name, but also the crucial financial contribution I made in the first twelve months, producing wooden games for sale and thereby funding our fledgling business. 'I know I'm banging my own drum, but without my initiative, Games Workshop would not exist, and I regret that this fact is ignored in the book.' Initially working from their top-floor flat in Shepherd's Bush, west London, the Games Workshop founders started selling Dungeons & Dragons by mail order, having netted themselves an exclusive three-year deal to supply all of Europe. 'We started selling D&D by mail order, but people would be milling about outside looking for a shop,' Ian told the Londonist. 'Of course it wasn't a shop. We'd have to open the window and yell down: 'are you looking for Games Workshop? Up here mate". 'The phone would always ring, it would be telephone sales for D&D and we'd run down the stairs, and it'd be too late because he'd just hang up on people, because he got fed up of all the calls. 'Ultimately we agreed we had to leave because people and parcels were arriving.' The pair opened their first office in the 'cubby hole round the back of an estate agents' that was so small 'that if a customer arrived, one of us would have to leave as it wouldn't have space for all three of us', Ian added. Despite their increasing popularity in the late 70s, retailers failed to spot the appeal. In 1978, Jackson and Livingstone opened their very first Games Workshop store in Dalling Road, Hammersmith. Fast-forward 46 years, and there are now 548 stores worldwide - with branches in most cities and big towns in the UK. Livingstone and Jackson sold their shares in the company in December 1991 for about £10million. Livingstone has since gone on to be knighted, while Jackson is a professor of game design at Brunel University. It was after this period that Games Workshop's new bosses sought to focus on is miniature games, Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000 - which have gone on to become their most lucrative sellers. Small packs of its resin models typically sell for £26 a pop while some of the most expensive individual figures can sell for an eye-watering £2,169.99. Some fans have become so addicted by the hobby, that they have vast collections of 'armies' worth tens of thousands of pounds. The firm's revenues benefited considerably from the Covid-19 pandemic, when consumers sought new indoor hobbies to occupy their time. Although lockdown curbs eventually ended, the firm's trade has continued expanding, and its market value now stands just above £5billion. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'Games Workshop has a rock-solid core business, underpinned by an army of fans emerged in its fantasy worlds who collect miniature figures and play its board games. 'This success has enabled the company to build a rich library of intellectual property that is now the platform for additional revenue generation. 'Licencing the rights to certain brands and characters is easy money, but Games Workshop is fiercely protective of its assets and won't let anyone come along and milk them.' Superman star Cavill, a self-declared lifelong fan of the figures, will star in and produce a Warhammer 40,000 series with Amazon Prime and Games Workshop. Last December, hw posted on Instagram: 'To celebrate some Warhammer news, I decided to make a pilgrimage to the very first place I bought Warhammer models over 30 years Little Shop, on my home island of Jersey! 'My incredible team and I, alongside the brilliant minds at Games Workshop, have been working away in concept rooms, breaking down approaches to the enormity and magnificence of the Warhammer world. 'Together, we've been sifting through the plethora of incredible characters and poring over old tomes and texts. 'Our combined efforts have led us to a fantastic place to start our Universe, which has been agreed upon by those up on high at both Amazon and Games Workshop. That starting place shall, for now, remain a secret.'
