Pre-order sales for the Warhammer 40k 10th edition Leviathan box set on the GW webstore will be protected by anti-scalper measures, including limiting the number of items individual customers can buy. That’s the message from Games Workshop’s official Twitter account on Sunday, responding to a fan concerned about a pre-order weekend blighted by resellers.
The GW webstore will also enforce a queuing system for the Warhammer 40k 10th edition pre-order weekend. This will slow down the process of making a purchase, but if it works, it should prevent the website from crashing under high volumes of traffic, and allow for effective stock management as thousands of customers attempt to purchase the same product at the same time.
GW hasn’t yet published the actual date we’ll be able to pre-order Warhammer 40k 10th edition, but with preview articles published on the Warhammer Community website for almost every Warhammer 40k faction, it must be soon.
Scalpers buy up high demand products from retailers on launch day, often using bots, then resell them at a markup via eBay. Recent Games Workshop releases such as Lion El’Johnson have been particularly affected, as demand outstripped supply so far that the GW webstore crashed. GW has faced other difficulties fulfilling demand this year, with stores reporting that GW failed to fulfil their orders for the World Eaters in time for release weekend.
All of this has raised some concerns that the much sought after Leviathan launch box will not be accessible to everyone who wants one. Speaking at Warhammer Fest 2023, Warhammer Community lead Eddie Eccles said that the firm has made a huge quantity of stock for the highly anticipated launch, but didn’t give exact figures.
The Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Dominion box set, which came with the game’s third edition, was actually overprinted; some stores sold copies at liquidation prices in Spring and Summer 2022.
While it’s reasonable to interpret low stock levels for sought-after products as a sign that GW doesn’t have enough production capacity to meet the demand for Leviathan, it could also mean that workers and machines have been dedicated totally to making the new Warhammer 40k starter set.
Will you be joining the queue for Leviathan on pre-order weekend? I’m testing yellow paint schemes on some Space Marine Intercessors, in the hopes of painting up the Leviathan box set marines as Imperial Fists, while editor Alex is experimenting with purples to prepare for the Tyranids.