Games Workshop Group (LON:GAW) has reached a final agreement with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) to adapt the Warhammer 40K universe into films and television series, with associated merchandising rights. The aim of the exclusive agreement is to initially place GAW’s Warhammer 40K intellectual property into new markets and to a wider audience, which naturally should generate incremental new revenue, with the hope the content encourages more people to take up the hobby and benefit the core business. By definition, the content production cycle for film and television series is long and ‘may take a number of years’ to benefit GAW’s results so is unlikely to benefit near-term estimates.
Note: *PBT and EPS are normalised, excluding amortisation of acquired intangibles, exceptional items and share-based payments.
GAW has announced that it has agreed creative guidelines and reached a final exclusive agreement with a subsidiary of Amazon to adapt GAW’s Warhammer 40K universe into films and television series, together with associated merchandising rights. Amazon also has an option for exclusive rights in the Warhammer Fantasy universe (ie Age of Sigmar and Old World) after the release of any initial 40K production. As with any other licence, the terms are confidential.
As management commented, the production process may take a number of years and GAW has made no change to its own forecasts for FY25. Please see our recent note, which covered the H125 trading update that resulted in an upgrade to estimates, and our October outlook note.