Is Warhammer Quest Cursed City gone for good?

Last Updated on April 27, 2021 by FauxHammer

This is just one man’s opinion on the status of the recently released Warhammer Quest Cursed City. Just putting my opinions out there as to what is happening with Warhammer Quest Cursed City. Numerous outlets have jumped on the bandwagon after seeing a few posts from the Warhammer Community Team and even some emails sent out to FLGS retailers. So, what do we think? Is Warhammer Quest Cursed City really one and done?

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Why is everyone saying Cursed City is gone for good?

Things have been a bit weird in the world of Games Workshop for a while now. Since Covid hit, their release schedule has been severely affected. They are definitely still playing catch-up, along with being impacted by global shipping constraints. Sure, most of their plastic models are manufactured in the Nottingham HQ. but it’s widely speculated that their paperwork is manufactured overseas. And despite things being made in the UK, they still release all of their products day and date across the world. Hence, released being impacted. There’s a good chance a chunk of their raw material is imported too. (who knows? they keep this stuff very close to the chest for obvious reasons).

There are also a ton of GW staff still working from home at the moment. The site is almost a ghost town aside from the production teams. I just happen to live nearby and when driving past you can see just how few vehicles are in the area when compared to how it was just over a year ago.

Anyway, I digress… Cursed City.

Warhammer Quest Cursed City GW All alt

At no point was it suggested that Cursed City was a limited release. Sure we had the initial release day troubles of the game selling out online super-fast. 1hr 15 mins for the UK GW site before it was gone. Faster at most 3rd party retailers. Before release, several contacts at FLGS stores said that they were limited to only 30 copies.

But then just a few days before the preorders went up. This allocation limit was upped to 100 copiers for the larger online stores.

See our Cursed City Review

Warhammer Quest Cursed City Review - Featured

All of our online affiliates (see list in the ads section above) sold the game at their normal reduced price. Whereas sets like Indomitus (which we knew was limited) were sold by many online retailers at full RRP.

All of this is fairly in line with most ongoing releases, with the exception of the occasional army set boxes like Piety & Pain. So why do people think it’s not coming back?

Well, people started speculating when retailers immediately started listing the game as “no longer available” rather than delayed” or “not currently available”…

But then, almost 2 weeks after release, The Warhammer Community team came out with this tweet

We’ve contacted a few retailers and the story we are getting is pretty much that [“this appears to be the case”]. None of our contacts have committed to a firm yes or no. Just that it appears this way. But in all honesty, having Cursed City be gone for good, just doesn’t make sense!

This Tweet raised a lot of questions from the community.

  • Are you talking about the Boxed Game or the Book?
  • Why would you put some much development into a new game only to make it a one-off?
  • Are you crazy?
  • Don’t you like money?
  • Why was it not made clear before release?
  • Does this mean there won’t be any expansions?
  • But you [alledgidly] said on your Warhammer Streams that this will be part of the ongoing range?

To add further evidence to this, UK store “The Outpost” have emailed their customers with the following

Based very specifically on where the quotation marks are in this communication, it suggests that Games Workshop’s official statement is the following…

Cursed City is sold-out on games-workshop.com and we are not expecting it to return online. All other copies have been sent to stores around the world.

Please check with your local Warhammer store or independent retailer to see if they can help. Stores will not be resupplied once these copies are gone.

Miniatures from the set may become available in different formats in the future, and we know that there is a full army of Soulblight Gravelords miniatures on their way very soon.

Someone from GW who communicates with retailers

Here, GW has reiterated pretty much what was said in the community team’s Tweet, but they have also stated that the miniatures “may become available” in different formats in future (which would be odd considering how they are grouped on their sprues) and “we know that there is a full army of Soulblight Gravelords miniatures on their way very soon”

Why do we think Cursed City is coming back?

I’m gonna be straight to the point here, and I could be wrong, I often am. But I highly doubt that Cursed City is gone for good. I’m convinced we’ll see it come back, and here are my reasons.

1. Warhammer Quest was marketed as a Game System, not a Game

A lot of development has surely gone into this game, it’s not a throw-together box, like Piety & Pain or Shadow & Pain. Which are essentially the main Warhammer Battle Games repackaged.

Warhammer Quest is a separate pillar of GW’s product offering. Like Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, Warcry, Underworlds, Kill Team. It’s not a game, it’s a game system and we haven’t seen a Warhammer Quest game since 2018’s Blackstone Fortress – which had multiple expansions and set the precedent for what consumers expect from a WHQ game going forward.

Further, we haven’t seen a WH Quest game based on the fantasy side of things since 2017’s Shadows over Hammerhal. The follow-up to 2016’s Silver Tower – which has since become a pretty “meh” and unrelated (gameplay-wise) mobile game. Available on iOS and Android.

With Cursed City picking up some elements from Blackstone Fortress (such as the single-player aspect) GW has (perhaps inadvertently) set the expectation for consumers that this would be an ongoing product line.

Warhammer Quest Cursed City has it’s own website.

Again, this is something normally reserved for an ongoing series of games rather than one-shots. Warcry has its own site, as does Kill Team and Underworlds.

I’ve not seen this much effort go into any of the one-shot releases. Further indicating this is more of a system than a game.

GW’s language used, and lack of follow-up in their communications on the subject

Let’s look at those comms in a bit more detail.

Cursed City is sold-out

WarhammerCommunity

Are you talking about the game or the book?

we are not expecting it to return online

WarhammerCommunity

Expecting? what do you mean expecting? For one, “expecting” is a very loose term. It doesn’t say “it’s definitely not coming back”, but on the other hand it doesn’t confirm that “it is”.

Oh, and It”s also interesting that they specify it will not “return online”. Is it to be store exclusive in future? GW exclusive with no chance for 3rd party retailers?

These are words you would only use if you intentionally want to leave people uncertain and give yourself some wiggle room to bring it back or not later. But how can GW community staff themselves not “expect” it to come back. They are part of the whole for the ones who make it.

Sure the WarComTeam are not the decision-makers, they are part of the marketing team, and are probably working from home. Likely that the people behind the release decisions are at home too. But MSTeams exists, so do phones. Surely the Warhammer Community team just ring said decision-makers and say “hey, are we making more of these?” and the reply would be either, “yes”, “no” or “we’ll see how popular it is and what the reviews say”.

If it’s a yes, you would say, if it’s a no, you would say. If it’s a maybe, as it has been positioned to be, then the community are expecting some kind of qualification. “Why?” Is it a production issue? We’d totally understand.

“Expecting” has been used very intentionally here and the term was reiterated to “The Outpost“. They clearly want to keep us guessing. And we need to understand that this is the way GW operate, with so much IP they need to keep quiet about so much to protect their business.

But remember, they don’t actually owe us an explanation. In fact, part of the draw in this hobby is the speculation, the wonder and the mystery of what’s next? WHAT’S NEXT?! How popular are their own reveals and previews? How many of us wake up on a Saturday morning and browse the Australia GW site just to get an early look at what is available for pre-order that week?

Warhammer Quest Cursed City re-release – Final Thoughts

I’m not buying it, not for one second, and I say that fully prepared to put my foot in my mouth.

Far too much time and effort has been put into this to make it a one-off. Development, pre-release info, painting guides, review copies sent out etc etc.

The way I feel about this right now is the same way I felt a few days after watching Avengers Infinity War. I;m no longer questioning whether it/they will come back. I’m more wondering about the “how”.

I’m putting my stake in the sand and firmly standing by it. Warhammer Quest Cursed City will be back.

Or i’m gonna look like an absolute D!ck.

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FauxHammer

Self-appointed Editor in chief of FauxHammer.com - But I need to thank the team for existing and therefore enabling me to give myself role - without them, I'm just a nerd with a computer and a plastic addiction.

8 thoughts on “Is Warhammer Quest Cursed City gone for good?

  • April 24, 2021 at 9:08 pm
    Permalink

    I think you are right, we will see cursed city return at some point. As you’ve pointed out they have spent too much money for it to be a one off. It’s got its own website, it got a lot promotion, Black Library not only did a book but it also got a Audiobook release which is still available on their own website and audible.

    Reply
  • April 26, 2021 at 9:46 am
    Permalink

    Jeez, the number of grammatical mistakes and repeated words in this article is terrible. Considering this is your day job I think you need to step up your game.
    “Why do we think Cursed City coming back?” – *is
    “Warhammer Quest was marketed as is a Game System, not a Game” – * remove the ‘is’
    “Warhammer Quest Cursed City has it has its own website.” – come on dude!

    Reply
    • April 26, 2021 at 9:48 am
      Permalink

      It’s not my day job at all. It’s just a hobby blog. but thanks for the feedback, it’s fair and this is far from my best work. always welcome.

      Reply
  • April 26, 2021 at 5:01 pm
    Permalink

    Pure speculation but this smells of legal action. Maybe some copywriter infringement or other legal issue. And now GW needs to scrub everything online till the lawyers sort things out.

    Reply
    • April 26, 2021 at 6:51 pm
      Permalink

      But they have not scrubbed everything from online.
      The site is still up and GW stores with stock are still selling it.

      Reply
  • August 19, 2021 at 11:12 am
    Permalink

    The day Cursed City will come back, I’ll be like Watson in the 2010 Sherlock TV show : first I will not reconize it, then I will not believe it, then I will break its nose for letting me suffer and believe it’s dead.

    Reply
  • August 19, 2021 at 11:35 pm
    Permalink

    They also had Blackstone Fortress sold out and then it suddenly starting appearing again.
    Unfortunately, only the core box came back, not the expansions.

    Cursed City will come back, just watch.

    Reply
  • December 22, 2021 at 4:49 pm
    Permalink

    Well, and here I thought you’d end up with your foot in your mouth… :)

    Reply

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