Network News: GW finally joins the Information Age

Super HOT Off the presses guys. Pretty big news for the tech nerds in all of us.

And there you were thinking there was only one blog post today! So, what’s going on?

Today we launch Games Workshop’s very first digital products.

Now that is some pretty big news, I think you’ll agree. To find out more about these new products, we’ve created an article on the website telling you what we’ve got coming out and providing a link to the Apple iBookstore where you can peruse our first downloadable products.

The Techpriests in our digital department have created nine products so far, ranging from painting guides and Scrolls of Binding to the entirety of Codex: Space Marines (complete with plenty of extra bonus material), all of which will be available to download today from the Apple iBookstore. To see a bit more of Codex: Space Marines in digital format, check out the video below.

The Codex includes dozens of pictures of the uniforms and heraldry of the Space Marines, 360 degree miniatures galleries, a searchable glossary so you can find just the right unit or page instantly, up-to-date rules for weapons and wargear, the full rules and background for the brand new Stormtalon Gunship, and plenty more besides. It now weighs in at a mighty 324 pages of pictures, background, artwork and rules.

Bearing in mind how different this makes the digital version to the paper version, I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at it and see how it works. The first thing you notice is that the Codex is split up into sections. So there’s a section on the history of the Space Marines, a section on the composition of a Space Marine Company, the bestiary section, the miniatures gallery, and so on. Each of them are clearly labelled, so navigating them is as simple as poking the screen with your finger (you can probably tell I’m about as technologically adept as an Ork).

You can zoom in on pictures to see intricate details. You can, for example, zoom in on the artwork on the side of Marneus Calgar’s personal Land Raider, or get a close-up image of Chaplain Cassius’ face. You can spin Captain Shrike round in the 360 gallery or look at all the different variants of the Stormtalon Gunship. Of particular interest to me was the weapons section, where you can click on the name of the weapon to see its stats – a very useful attribute as I regularly forget what guns can do what and how low their AP is (apparently making a guess isn’t good enough for my regular opponents).

Of course, the other great thing about it is that all your digital products are there on your iPad right when you need them. You could, should you feel the need, look at the painting guide for Ultramarines whilst exploring the depths of the Amazon Rainforest. Not a common example that one, I’ll grant you, but you could do it if you wanted to. There is a definite appeal to having everything on your iPad in one easy place. No more flicking through the Codex mid-game – just tap the pad, type what you’re after and hey presto.

So, what you need to do now is check out the article about the new digital products and, if you have an iPad, download a couple (or nine).