Games Workshop and the big ambition of a miniatures business

Some of the world’s biggest companies started from humble beginnings, but Games Workshop’s early days were less glamourous than most.

“We ended up having to live in a van,” says Sir Ian Livingstone.

He launched the brand – best known for its Warhammer games – with co-founder Steve Jackson back in 1975.

Sir Ian tells BBC News the pair asked a bank manager for £10,000 to kickstart their business.

They would go on to create popular miniature figures that players around the world collect, paint and battle in complex tabletop clashes.

But it was a rocky start.

“He looked at us rather like a dog watching television, no understanding of what we were talking about, and asked us to leave,” he says.

The pair ended up working out of a small room in the back of an estate agent’s office, and joined a local squash club to access the showers.

“We had no aspirations of it being anything large at all,” says Sir Ian.

“We were following the passion of being gamers wanting to be involved in some sort of fledgling games business.”

That passion has bloomed since then, and Games Workshop is more successful than it’s ever been, recently entering the list of the UK’s top 100 companies.

It made £126.8m ($154.4m) profit in the second half of 2024, selling its products worldwide.

Miniatures were only part of the equation and a good chunk of its profits came from licensing – allowing its products to be adapted into video games, films and TV series.

Academic Dr Hailey Austin, from Abertay University’s department of games and arts, tells BBC News the company’s always been good at expanding into new areas.

“They’re willing to try new things,” she says.

“They’ve always been pushing the boundaries, going into miniatures, paints as well as books, magazines and even digitising their games.”

Games Workshop believes it’s sitting on “some of the best underexploited intellectual property globally” and has the potential to go further.

The company recently finalised a lucrative deal with Amazon to create Warhammer TV series and films, and lent its name to one of 2024’s best-selling video games.

Space Marine II – based on the hulking galactic soldiers from the sci-fi-inspired Warhammer 40,000 (40K) series – was a surprise runaway success, selling 4.5 million copies in its first month.

Games Workshop boss Kevin Rountree told investors Space Marine II had created “excitement” for its miniatures, and that store staff had told him they’d seen more people coming into the company’s high street stores as a result.

The power of TV and games to give fans more ways to engage with their favourite hobbies is something more companies are leaning into.

Last year, video game adaptation Fallout sent the 10-year-old title flying up the bestseller charts.

Warhammer fans say they noticed a similar effect too.

Katie Foad was first drawn to Warhammer through painting its detailed miniature figurines, but says her interest deepened when she played the 40K-inspired strategy video game Dawn of War.

That led her to the Games Workshop community and she’s now part of Tabletop Tactics – a YouTube channel dedicated to all things Warhammer.

She joined in 2021, when Games Workshop – like other indoor hobbies – was experiencing a boost off the back of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Katie says the channel saw a spike in new subscribers after Space Marine II was launched last year – and videos featuring characters and creatures from the game were especially popular.

“We’re definitely seeing way more of an interest coming in because of the popularity of Space Marine II,” she says.

Warhammer’s also had another boost from inside the entertainment industry – Superman himself, Henry Cavill.

The actor has been described as the “world’s coolest nerd” thanks to his very public interest in video gaming and Warhammer.

Katie thinks this has helped to expose new people to the hobby, and also encouraged them to be more open about their interest in it.

“For those people that were already into Warhammer, they’ve looked at him being so proud about it and gone: ‘Oh, this is something that is cool’,” says Katie.

“‘I can talk to people about it. I can encourage other people to get into the hobby’.

“And I think people that were already into it are now excited to share it.”

Cavill was a key part of the deal with Amazon and is due to executive produce and star in its Games Workshop adaptations.

Adapting the Warhammer universe and its vast tomes of lore – background information about the different races and characters within it – can be a challenge.

It’s something Clive Standen, who plays the lead role of Lieutenant Demetrian Titus in Space Marine II, knows well.

Standen tells BBC Newsbeat his early recording sessions involved negotiating with Games Workshop representatives to inject depth and emotion into his traditionally stoic ultramarine character.

“We have to find small nuances just to get the audience behind him,” says Standen.

“Otherwise, it’s going to be very cold out there.”

In the end, Standen says, they found a “common ground”, and his performance in the game has put him in the running for a Bafta Games Award.

He also voiced Titus in a Space Marine II-themed episode of Secret Level (the Prime Video anthology based on popular video games).

Amazon claims it was the biggest debut for an animated series on its streaming service.

Standen believes streamer’s deep pockets mean it is the right place to do justice to further Warhammer shows.

But he warns it will take a lot of work.

“You’ve got to do a fine balance between pleasing the fans and giving them something that they’ve personally invested in, and also pleasing the mainstream fans,” he says.

“Because if you don’t get enough viewers, it won’t get commissioned for a season two.”

Games Workshop has said it will be some time before its adaptations hit the screen, and cautioned that hits are not guaranteed in the volatile and unpredictable video games business.

Katie thinks the “massive universe” propping up Games Workshop means it will continue to be successful.

But she says she’s excited to see how future works based on Warhammer are received.

“There’s so much to it that I think it’s always going to be successful,” she says.

“But depending on how this Amazon show goes, if that really reaches a wider audience, I think it could go huge.

“It could be Marvel.”

Sir Ian, who sold Games Workshop in 1991 for £10m, says he’ll also be watching with interest.

“Standing now, almost like proud parents watching this great British success story kind of conquer the world and become one of the premier games IPs of all time, you can’t help but feel a great sense of pride,” he says.

“And hopefully that will long continue.”

Additional reporting by Chris Vallance and Peter Gillibrand.