The seventh edition of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000, which launched last Friday, is outselling Sixth Edition, which launched two years ago (see "'Warhammer 40k Sixth Edition Rulebook'").  "We’re already beating the sales numbers we did on the last edition," Games Workshop Director of North American Sales Trade Recruitment Matt Lewandowski told ICv2.  "It’s selling better because it’s a better product, and long term what will happen is that our customers will vote with their wallets and you’ll see great things from this edition."

Lewandowski explained the differences in play between the two editions.  "The 7th Edition of 40k is going to change the way that people build their armies," he explained.  "It’s going to revolutionize how we build our armies and play the game.  Previously there was a very structured way that you would organize and build your armies. You’d use what’s called a Force Organization Chart.  You have to have so many troops and so many heroes, etc."

"You can still build your army that way in the new edition, but in addition to that, you can build your army using something called Unbound, which quite literally means there are no restrictions.  You take any model you like, regardless of point value, size, anything, and you can put it together and build an army.  So literally there are no limits.  You can do anything you want whether it’s a background story and replicating that, whether it’s just I like these ten models and they look great, or I want to have these five characters and they’re really cool together, and do it."

The core product is a slipcased set of three hardcovers:  A Galaxy of War is 144 pages explaining the art of collecting and painting armies; Dark Millennium is 128 pages describing the setting of the 41st Millennium; and The Rules is a 208-page rulebook for Warhammer 40,000.  The set retails for $85.