If you are unfamiliar with the Iron Kingdoms universe, it is a collection of tabletop games (wargames, board games, and RPGs) set in a steampunk fantasy world that meshes magic with technology. Most famous for its flagship wargames, Warmachine and Hordes (or WarmaHordes), the Iron Kingdoms by American developer Privateer Press (PP) have been a very popular alternative to the UK juggernaut that is Warhammer for over two decades.

Well, a quite unexpected email showed up in my inbox today from the Steamforged Games (SG) newsletter…it has been announced that Steamforged Games has acquired all of the Privateer Press Iron Kingdoms IP; and I mean everything! The P3 paint line, Warmachine, Warcaster, the Iron Kingdoms RPG, and all of the board games.

Unfortunately, at this time, the details of the deal have not been made public. “Acquired” could mean anything from licensing to full ownership, and the official announcements released from both companies today are vague and unclear on this point.

Once hailed as the “GW Killer”, Privateer Press has fallen far from the pedestal that the wargaming community once placed them on. The widely panned MK3 edition of Warmachine, fans feeling alienated, hemorrhaging key talent, distribution struggles, a poorly received MK4 Warmachine launch (which included scrapping their entire existing range), and switching to a 3D-Printed production process has left an extremely sour taste in the old guard of the community.

It was obviously clear to PP, as it was to the community, that they could not continue on their current course. Hopefully this monumental shift will see Warmachine rise back to a place of preeminence in the Wargaming space.

While the details in the announcement articles were sparse, there were some key details that we can glean in the interim:

• Miniature production will shift to SG, which will most likely mean an eventual return to plastic
• SG will be responsible for distribution, which should mean better distribution throughout Europe and the US
• Warmachine development will stay with PP
  • It is unclear if PP still owns the IP, or if this will happen with oversight/partnership from SG
• More details will be coming on 6/6/2024 from SG

Let’s be honest, the announcement is mixed bag. While most of these changes are welcome and positive, so far there has been no comment on the biggest issue the community has…what is being done for legacy armies?

Many of the scrapped legacy models were not sculpted digitally so there is no easy pipeline to get them back into production. This deal does not change that, and I doubt that SG will want to take on the monumental effort of re-sculpting everything that was lost…or managing the hundreds (if not thousands) of SKUs that existed before MK4. The best that the community can hope for is now that PP has extra bandwidth from unloading the logistics nightmare of production and distribution, they will devote some space to making sure legacy armies receive rules updates.

We also have yet to see how this will affect pricing for Iron Kingdoms products going forward. The current pricing of MK4 Warmachine products (which are all 3d printed) is quite staggering. Paying $200 for a starter force where the infantry cost literal pennies to produce is a tall order. It will be interesting to see how SG’s retail strategy for the Iron Kingdoms unfolds. Will they lower costs and take a volume of sales approach or keep the price where it is to offset their other business costs?

To end the post on a positive note, SG is really big on community engagement, and so far they are extending that commitment to the Iron Kingdoms. I have seen their employees on Reddit fielding questions all day and their Discord is on fire with their “Pod” (community engagement team) taking in questions from the influx of all of the Iron Kingdom fans.

If you are interested in reading the original announcement posts, you can find the SG article here, and the PP one here.

And of course, I will post an update on the 6th of June when SG makes their next big announcement!