In an announcement via its investors portal on Friday, Games Workshop announced it has an “agreement in principle” with Amazon‘s media production wing to develop the games manufacturers intellectual property into “film and television”, starting with the Warhammer 40,000 universe. However, financial information given with the news suggests it has no plans to sign the deal this financial year.
In the statement, Games Workshop advises investors not to expect any change to the company’s profit forecast for the period ending in May 2023. That appears to mean that, however well talks are going, GW doesn’t expect to sign with Amazon until the new financial year.
Games Workshop accounts for guaranteed revenue from licensing deals in the year that the deal is signed. The firm’s Half Year Trading Update to investors, published December 7, notes that “the related guarantee income on [licensing] deals is recognised on signing the contract in line with our accounting policy”, and explains that an apparent drop in licensing revenue between the first half of financial year 2021-22 and 2022-23 can be attributed to a bumper crop of video game licences being signed in 2021-22.
No bump in projected revenue before the end of 2022-23 means no big licensing deals being signed in the period. GW says that:
“Whilst the parties have reached agreement on material commercial terms, the project is wholly dependent on and subject to contracts being agreed and entered into, which the parties are working towards.”
The announcement from GW comes less than 24 hours after American media journalist Jeff Sneider shared rumours of the deal on YouTube talk show The Hot Mic, adding that former Witcher and Superman star Henry Cavill is involved with the project. Sneider says the source is a trusted tipster, but leaves them anonymous.
We’ve explored how much of a Warhammer 40k fan Henry Cavill is before – he’s an avid collector of the Adeptus Custodes, the golden guardians of the Emperor of Man. At the moment his involvement remains unconfirmed, but there are loads of great roles for him across the myriad Warhammer 40k factions – we think he’d make an ideal Ibram Gaunt for a Gaunt’s Ghosts series, or any one of the Space Marines‘ many glowering heroes.