40K Friday: MiniWarGaming

 

"They Play and Call It Work"

Something a little different this week ...

For those unfamiliar MWG is a miniature wargaming enthusiast site and YouTube channel that's been around for close to 20 years now. They made their way mainly focusing on 40K but they have always included some other games as well. For a while they had a physical store, then transitioned into mainly the YouTube work, and expanded over the years as well. Recently they started doing a lot of 3D printing and ran some Kickstarters for 3d printable terrain. 

Dave and Matt - the two main guys here

They were one of the early 40K YT channels that got big, probably the biggest for several years, and they were one of the first to monetize it - before Patreon etc. - with their"Vault" program where some videos were free on YT and others were in the Vault behind a paywall. It worked really well for them for I would say a long time. They are a bunch of polite Canadians, focused more on narrative and creative stuff, less on the tournament thing, and a lot of people talk about how MWG helped get them into the whole hobby. So they were well-known and well-liked in 40K circles - some nice guys who found a way to live the dream of doing miniature stuff for a living.

Lately though it hasn't been so great. Their views have been declining. They proved that that this could be done and now other players have entered the game and are doing better than the originals. The last few years have seen Matt, one of the two founders, make multiple videos telling everyone that times are tough and they'd really appreciate people signing up for the Vault. They knew -and announced  - that they were in trouble and to their credit they did try some new things but it apparently was not enough.

The single biggest misstep they made though was probably the Ravaged Star Kickstarter they ran in 2023. It brought in 1.6 million dollars - great! - for a very 40K-ish miniatures game with a bunch of boxed sets of minis and rules and a lot of people were pretty excited about it. However as we ride towards the end of 2026 it has not fulfilled, communication has been thin, and backers are now rioting. It's a pretty colossal failure for a team that is online posting YouTube videos multiple times per week. 

That all came to a head this week as multiple other YT'ers started posting videos and asking questions about it and about MWG in general. MWG announced layoffs of most of their staff.  It's been all over the 40K internet and YouTube this week and in response they too released a video opening up about the state they are in, how they got here, and how they plan to get through it. It's a shame things have reached this level for a group of people everyone liked and who have been a part of the online element of the hobby for years. 

For me I have been a Vault member in the past because I liked what they were doing. The 5th-6th-7th edition 40K years were peak for them and they were a lot of fun to watch. I've never met them in person and I've never been to their bunker. I backed some of their recent terrain Kickstarters because it looked solid and they had managed to fulfill the first few of those with no problems. I did not back Ravaged Star - I remember them hyping it up but then (and now) I have absolutely no need of another game that's pretty much alternate 40K and whose miniatures I did not particularly care for. I suppose I dodged a bullet there but I feel for the people who did jump in, trusting Matt and Dave, only to see it fizzle out and vaporize. 

To be fair they did say the money for the Kickstarter is separate and it will be fulfilled, that they just did not realize what they were getting into when they did it (not uncommon honestly) but there were no dates given and considering the first wave was supposed to be "on a boat" multiple times now over the last year I wouldn't expect anyone to give them the benefit of the doubt. As much as I like them, well, once you take people's money you are obligated - regardless of what the crowdfunding site's terms say - to deliver or you will pay a price. When your normal business depends on people liking and watching your content on a daily basis you have really put yourselves out there and it's going to be a hard fall if you fail. I have seen more anger and venom directed at MWG this week than I've seen in the last 15+ years combined. The worst thing I've seen said about them before was that they were pretty loose with the rules in their batreps and that was not an unfair comment but it has reached a whole new level now. It's sad to see a reputation built up over all that time devastated this quickly.

One final comment: MWG used to be a lot of fun to watch because Matt and Dave were on it and in the videos and making a lot of the content. Banter Batreps, Beat Matt Batreps, APOCALYPTICON!,  "Mark of Dave" comments when going through an army - they were the faces of the endeavor, not just the owners. I would say we liked them and that as much as anything else was a big part of their success. As time went on though, they were on the channel less and less. A lot of the people they brought in were good, but it wasn't Matt and Dave. Also, as time went on, it became apparent that they were not all that thrilled by or interested in these later editions of 40K. As other channels sprang up with say, 8th edition, and started cranking out new formats and new approaches to making videos they kind of stayed the course or even pulled back. It felt like their hearts were just not in it anymore. I get it, I don't always love the newer editions either, but if you want to make money doing this kind of thing ... current edition 40K is the vast majority of what people want to see. If you cut back on that how do you keep going? Sure I'll watch a 4th edition 40K batrep in 2026 but how many other people will? Oldhammer and Midhammer have a definite presence online but is it enough to sustain a 40K channel at their past or current level? I'm pretty comfortable going with "no" there. 

Anyway, I've watched these guys a long time, liked a bunch of what they've done, my kids and I used to watch their stuff weekly, and it's just hard to see their current state. I really hope they can right the ship, handle their obligations, and find a new course so they can stick around for us to watch in the future.