Games Workshop Is Building for Warhammer's Next Decade — Financial Report Implications
For most of us lowly lot, the Warhammer hobby is measured in the span of hobby projects. You start with a Kill Team box, maybe that becomes an army. Maybe that was just your first army — and soon enough the home office becomes a shrine to some completely fictional and malevolent god.
Y'know. Like the Emperor.
Jokes aside, Games Workshop looks at the Warhammer hobby a bit differently.*
Games Workshop measures Warhammer in edition cycles, tooling, factory fit-outs, warehouse leases, logistics capacity, and service levels. Is this glamorous? The average accountant might think so, but the vast majority of us aren't getting misty-eyed over ever-increasing distribution space. But if you want to understand where Warhammer is going next, the least glamorous stuff is often the most useful indicator of overall direction.
Right now, those signals are starting to stack up in really meaningful ways. Taken individually, the recent developments around Games Workshop aren't especially dramatic. A new warehouse here, more production capacity there — mentions of factories, robotics, and logistics buried in investor-facing material that most hobbyists will never read.
When these signals are stacked so high that they cast a shadow that puts the one from your pile of shame... to shame...** it's a good time to pivot your attentions and take some notice.
This goes beyond the next quarter. The latest Games Workshop Financial Report shows a company building the kind of operational backbone you put in place when you expect Warhammer to get even bigger, even broader, and even more demanding. This kind of projection needs more support over the next decade than it has ever had over the last one, so let's pull some information out of the latest Financial Report and see what they're getting everyone into.
Logistics & Infrastructure in the Financial Report — the Boring Stuff underneath the Warhammer
On July 9th 2026, Games Workshop announced a new logistics facility at VGP Park East Midlands. This makes Games Workshop VGP's first UK tenant — VGP being a pan-european owner of high-end commercial real-estate.
Exciting stuff.
One of the good things that eco-heads might like to hear, though, is that VGP is also a supplier of sustainable energy solutions. So we might safely presume that the tenants within the facility have their operations powered by VGP's sustainable sources. While this is safe speculation, it's speculation nonetheless.
Ready to be the coolest nerd in your group chat? Drop this article in there and watch it light up. What could possibly be bigger than news of a new Primarch? A new Cinematic trailer? A new faction?
That's right; literally anything.*** Because those are concepts, son.
In this specific context, though, literally anything translates to: a 250,000 square foot logistics hub in Leicestershire, near Castle Donington, intended to support Games Workshop's logistics operations for years to come.
Glorious, glorious warehouse space.
Ok, so, we're zeroing in on the plot — minis don't deep strike themselves from the hallowed teleportariums of fortress Nottingham straight into your local shop's deployment zone. Every sprue has to be quality checked, packed, stored, picked, shifted, and shipped. Once a company reaches Games Workshop's global scale, logistics stops being background admin and becomes a very real part of the overall customer experience.
If you have spent the last few years watching a variety of kits across game systems be consumed by warp storms, just to reappear months later, you'll already understand what's happening. Kit availability has been a constant thorn in the side of the hobbyist for time immemorial — and it's not just an issue for the more obscure or complex kits, either, it's something that can even affect a faction's core battleline kits.
If I was steering the ship at Games Workshop, I would want core entry-level faction kits to be readily available at all times. That is, before inadvertently dooming the whole operation with some other particularly bad ideas. But what do I know?
Perhaps the investment in warehouse infrastructure will cure this particular affliction.
Games Workshop's 2026 Annual Financial Report in Simple Numbers
"Our ambitions remain clear: to make the best fantasy miniatures in the world, to engage and inspire our customers, and to sell our products globally at a profit. We intend to do this forever."
Of course, Games Workshop's own annual results, published on 28 July 2026, has strong signals all of their own:
Record group revenue of £659.7 million
Core revenue rising to £626.8 million
Licensing revenue fell year-on-year, £52.5 million to £32.9 million.
That's worth dwelling on. While the health of the business is undeniable, it does give us a bit of nuance in the narrative.
Even with licensing down, Games Workshop is still investing in the slow, expensive, unsexy parts of the business. That is usually a better indicator of long-term confidence than a flashy external short-term deal.
This aligns with the rhetoric — we intend to do this forever.
The report lays out the infrastructure spread pretty plainly, too.
Factory 1 now has 40 injection moulding machines.
Factory 2 has 17.
The Easter Park property is already in use for paint activity and innovation work.
Factory 4 is in fit-out and due to receive moulding machines and a tool room in the year ahead, while acting as a packing location in the meantime.
Games Workshop also confirmed the news of the VGP Park East Midlands location during the reporting period here.
That's enough solid infrastructure to navigate the future of the space and warrant a top-notch Gellar field while they're at it.
The Entertainment Front — Big Names. Big Games.
So we're starting to get into something a little more interesting here.
To absolutely no fanfare or surprise, the annual report firmly places the core miniatures operation at the centre of the business. What's clear now, though, is that Games Workshop wants to keep expanding the reach of Warhammer. Through everything including animation on Warhammer+, Live action through Amazon MGM Studios, and off-table immersion through a veritable throng of video game titles that would have any level of Warhammer 40,000 enthusiast hooked for years.
And all of this would come at no expense to the core offering — where Games Workshop wants to do "no harm" to the business. It would be easy to think that with the 11th Edition cadence of Warhammer 40,000 releases that Games Workshop wants to clear the decks for the impending non-miniature releases, but the wider picture tells a different story.
The release schedule for Warhammer 40,000 needs to be consistent in order to meet Games Workshop's proclaimed goal of smoothing out releases across the calendar year. We think this is the clearest signal yet that delivery of non-miniature and core miniature products is intended to be combined-arms effort. Notably, Games Workshop has recently blended their tabletop and videogame marketing by specifically tying the new Nazdreg release to the new Ork Codex and the on-the-horizon release of Total War: Warhammer 40,000.
The whole machine pulling in the same direction: coordinated cross-platform promotion.
Big Games — Dawn of War 4 and Total War: Warhammer 40,000
Remember when we all thought Dawn of War had died with its third installment and the end of Relic Entertainment? It was a dark time to be alive.
But the light of the Emperor has graced our weary bones.
Here we are. Dawn of War 4 is coming. It isn't a figment of your imagination, a feverish rumour, or a vague future possibility. It's real, it's announced by SEGA, and it's officially set to launch on 17 September 2026. Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is equally real, but at time of writing it still doesn't have a concrete public release date. Which is fine — we'd all rather that the game was working properly and was completely finished by the time it reaches the general consumer (because these things don't automatically come hand-in-hand in 2026).
This heavy-hitting sci-fi videogame combo doesn't appear to be something Games Workshop's tabletop business intends to avoid colliding with. Though, when we think about it, how could they possibly have given them any dedicated space? Warhammer 40,000 features the best part of two-dozen factions, never mind subfactions of varying popularity. Since an edition of Warhammer 40,000 typically lasts 3 years, we would conservatively see a Codex release every six or seven weeks — hardly the room to give any individual release (of any format) its own breathing room.
So from our perspective here at Brush & Bolter, it makes all the sense in the world that any given non-miniature digital release would correspond with its miniature counterpart if it had one — evidenced by the aforementioned example of the Ork codex, Nazdreg's miniature, and Nazdreg's Total War feature.
Reinforcing the Disclaimer
Just to reiterate, while licensed entertainment remains a priority, it hasn't become the main event. Games Workshop is still a fully miniature-centric business.
Again, the numbers are useful here. As above, core revenue reached £626.8 million. Licensing revenue was £32.9 million, down from £52.5 million the year before. Games Workshop also states plainly that licensing revenue is not really under its direct control in the same way as its core business, obviously because it depends on partners successfully developing and shipping licensed products.
So, whether core business decisions are being directed by the games industry or not isn't in question. The real question is whether Games Workshop is preparing itself operationally for a world in which all of those fronts continue to work in tandem, maximising attention, customers, and fresh demand.
At Brush & Bolter, we say the answer to that is a resounding "yes".
In Case You've Seen the Clickbait Elsewhere
In case you've seen some clickbait from the usual suspects elsewhere in the Warhammer blogging community, it's also worth noting that there is no real evidence of a broader collapse in Warhammer licensing partners. What Games Workshop has actually confirmed is that two licensees chose not to continue their licenses during the 2025/26 financial year.
While this looks bad within the context of a £19.6 million drop in Licensing revenue, this is actually an expected come-down from the unusual high of Space Marine 2. In other words, the evidence we have just points to normal Licensee churn within an active licensing programme, not a clear retreat from external studios or partners or a substantial drop in expected income.
Big Names — The Amazon MGM Studios Project is Measured in Years
More Disclaimer Action: The latest hype is driven by a combination of the information in the financial reporting, a whole bunch of speculation and inference, and from things Henry Cavill has actually said in past interviews. The latest interview where he actually goes on record still remains to be the Esquire interview that took place in May 2025. Since then, everyone directly involved with the project has been tight-lipped.
So, the information available on the subject of the Amazon MGM Studios & Warhammer 40,000 project is still limited and speculation-laced. The project is essentially under wraps — non-disclosure agreements are presumably responsible for this across the board. At time of writing, July 29th 2026, we can safely say that the following is true:
The Amazon deal is live and active
Henry Cavill is (still) on board
Vertigo Entertainment, the Horror Movie experts, are (still) on board
'Project 1' is in early stages of writing/outlines
There's an option for a second project relating to Warhammer Fantasy.
Production company 'United Artists' is now involved
'Horror Maestro' Mike Flanagan joins the team
Games Workshop also disclosed more Amazon-linked screen activity beyond the live-action project, including a Deathwatch animated series and another Secret Level episode.
Mike Flanagan 
Henry Cavill
This spread of horror film and entertainment experts leans heavily into the Horror genre — speculation on whether the project could feature the Eisenhorn narrative are starting to gain even more weight. You can find the Eisenhorn Omnibus from Games Workshop here.
More importantly, Games Workshop also states that the project has completed its initial outlines, and that it will be now moving on to script with the direction of Mike Flanagan. Big names with a lot of Horror-centric accolades and successes are on board with the project, this is probably the best indicator so far that it's in good health and everyone on board is pulling in the same direction.
At Brush & Bolter, we're looking at Henry Cavill, Vertigo, United Artists, Mike Flanagan, and the wider Amazon relationship and concluding that Games Workshop is putting together something with scale and longevity. It might not be on the cusp of an immediate pop-cult eruption, but this just further compounds our theories about their sci-fi dominance in the grim darkness of our near-future.
Regardless, though, as fans we understand it's difficult not to get swept up in the third-party hype coming from all corners of the Warhammer 40,000 community.
Games Workshop Financial Report Indicates a Corporate Machine is Gearing Up
This report is subtly front-loading expectation for what's coming.
A company like Games Workshop doesn't expand factory space, tooling, logistics capacity, and warehousing if it believes demand is going to plateau or settle. It does these things when it expects the sustained pressure that comes with growth.
Warhammer is now bigger than it was ten years ago, and far bigger than it was twenty years ago. The trend is obvious to anyone that has been in the hobby for any reasonable length of time. It's bigger operationally. Bigger geographically. Bigger digitally. Bigger as an entertainment property. Bigger in the number of ways a person can encounter it —without ever being that wee wean waddling past the (now long-since-moved) Glasgow Queens Street Games Workshop store with your old man leading you by the hand.****
Games Workshop is prophesising a future with more customers, more channels, more release rhythms, more external partners, and more expectations. The sort-of-surprising thing is that Games Workshop appears to understand that well enough to keep investing in the aforementioned 'unsexy' bits.
We also know, too, that they have experience in over-estimating the longevity of external licensing and partner agreements — so let's hope that they've learned from the repercussions of the contraction in interest in the original Lord of The Rings trilogy and its associated miniatures/games.
Final Cogitations
Sorry, Nazdreg lovers, but the strongest signs of tone and direction aren't always the flashiest ones. So step out of the Henry-hype and briefly segue into a world of implications: warehouse leases, factory fit-outs, moulding machines, tooling spend, and long-term logistics planning tell the real story.
These are the signals that suggest Games Workshop is taking aim at sustained growth, and that the business around it needs to be able to cope with a broader, busier, more demanding version of the hobby than ever before.
There are tons of things to speculate about and theorise on today, but there's little-to-no evidence that everything is set to explode tomorrow. The detail says the ship is moving in the right direction, but it's going to do so like it was slow and purposeful.
I think Games Workshop's long term goal is getting clearer. In future, possibly ten or even more years from now, when you think of the sci-fi and fantasy giants of the modern age — you're going to think of very specific brands and titles:
Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, DC, Lord of the Rings...
and the biggest one of them all...
Warhammer.
So here's to the grim darkness of our near-future.
Until next time.
Jamie M
*Like it's some kind of business or something idk.
**I promise I'll do better.
***Liberal modern-day usage of the word literally.
****Cheers, Dad.
Absolutely cannot wait to see what comes out on the video games front personally. Such a great ip with a rich setting and the past ten or so years have seen a string of absolutely bomb games. Vermibtide. Darktide. Total war. Gladius battle sector. I'm unbelievably excited for total war 40k.trailer looks spectacular