Let me tell you a story, /HHG/.
I've been coming here for some time, even before ATG got shoehorned in out of pity, and I like you cynical lot very much.

30k died with Bligh.

The loss of Forge World as a separate creative entity closed the door entirely for 1.0 and the vision that was needed for the IA books and Horus Heresy.
Alan was a force of nature and penned both the lore and the rules, which is why the rules resonated with the lore so well in most of 1.0.

Remember that the original plan was for The Old World to get Horus Heresy style leather-bound books? Most people have forgotten this, since GW design studio proper seized the idea and this project got dropped. Alan was writing these books in his free time, as a passion project, same as 30k started years back.


Anyway, Malevolence was still mostly Bligh, with some final work done by French and Hoare, and the book released posthumously.

They had John French tie together the narrative scraps that Alan left after his death and that became Crusade, which did not even get a new book title. It kept is working title and was a rush release, and much thinner than planned. The Dark Mechanicum rules and models got cut entirely.

After that the game entered a lull because the source of it all had died and the handful if writers were working on 2.0 and other projects.

Anuj came in and tried to reanimate 1.0 it as best he could (he was non game designer) to get some buzz going on, but he was mostly doing the forework and prep for 2.0.

He left the company before it was done and the SDS under leadership of Andy Hoare finished it as best they could within company deadlines.
With the roster of 30k being so vast, 2.0 was again rushed to meet deadlines, and a lot was cut from the game.