Games Workshop Stock Plummets By 24 Percent

[Arron Worthy]

All the folks banging on about how 3D printing going to kill the miniatures business, at the moment the professional standard printers that companies like Raging Heroes use to print the masters that they make the moulds from still need to be touched up with greenstuff to get them up to standard. It's like inkjet printers didn't replace books or photographs, they aren't a mass production technology.

Miniatures are expensive, get over it, go on ebay and buy second hand. Warmahordes is cheaper and more balanced but the minis and fluff are rubbish. Malifaux and Infinity are set in interesting worlds with lovely mini's but they're skirmish games, they're different things. Malifaux doesn't even use dice.

How many of you going on about how the quality has dropped have actually went out and got the new tactical marine squad when it came out and put them together? I mean actually got your hands on them?

GW is going through a massive restructuring and is pumping out new releases at an unprecedented rate, it dosent suprise me that they haven't made as much last year because they have been investing in their products.

Those lazy fucktards at ChapterHouse haven't helped, in fact they have taken a lot of the fun out the hobby because now every Codex entry must have a model. The new Nid codex ended up getting smaller, the whole gaming in gaps, make your own stuff has been squeezed out so a company that makes crap miniatures (by anyone's standard) but can afford good lawyers couldn't be bothered to do what every other bits company in the industry does and use slightly different names. It's the gamers and quality third party suppliers, the good ones who have suffered.

And looking at those profit margins is it any surprise they protect their IP, I mean FFS Fallout 3...

 

[willsham45]

To be honest I was wandering when Games Workshop was going to break. There are a number of things that lead to this.
The cost of the models
Reducing the selling of products through independent retailers
The incentive of playing larger games with more models
Keeping the expensive lord of the rings IP
Reducing staff
It really looks like games workshop is really struggling to compete with more game systems and to a point other entertainments. Games Workshop?s only reel advantage not is there brand. When anyone things of table top gaming they think games workshop. But now they just work as a way of getting people into the hobby. Start with the relatively simple fantasy or 40k and then move onto another gaming system that plays more to your liking like.
On top of that they are debatably one of the best model makes in the business.
The main problem is they are so big it seems they feel it does not matter and they can get away with it. But people are losing faith in them and with those loosing customers.
It is safe to say Games Workshop needs to straighten up there act.

 

[willsham45]

?On another note I recon the big question here is how long can you sell 1 product. GW now runs with 3 games which have evolved constantly for years.
I have a number of thoughts but how can games workshop revive their products.
Each army is updated one at a time seemingly. Maybe they need to do a full on update for all armies. Bring everything up to the same level and start again.
Another would be to make up a new game, fantasy in modern times could be interesting, or 40k in the past whatever works for you.
Or alternatively revive some of the old specialist games. Push 40k and fantasy on the back burner and revive some of the classics.
In short spice things up, make us want to buy stuff and make the products feel fresher and different. Now just another update to an old army book but this time it?s got a new unit. In short stop being cheap.
A lot of the things GW has been doing really feels like that is what the bank has been telling them to do.
In a failing café the bank will tell you to up your prices to help pay your bills, when in reality you need to update your menus and cook better food.
Games workshop needs to do something to give us faith in them again.

 

[endtherapture]

Just my 2 cents:

Everyone making the point that there's a "barrier to entry" because of assembly and painting of the miniatures are completely wrong. That's part of doing the hobby and many people collect just to paint rather than to play. It's an essential part of doing any game and if they started selling pre-painted, pre-assembled models that would just be completely missing the point.

In my opinion, GW need to hit the reset button and go back to how it was in 2001. Everything seemed healthy then, Hobby stores were booming, the LoTR bubble hadn't burst, and in general stuff was positive.

1. Bring the "hobby" back into "The hobby". Before I picked up even a single model I spent hours on GW website as a 11 year old boy. I was awed by the terrain articles for Weathertop, the Mines of Moria, Lothlorien and Amon Hen. It was so inspiring and cool. I made my first terrain board painting grass, roads and rivers onto a bit of wood before I even got my first models and was making loads of trees and stuff, even a little clay well. Then I saw the Helm's Deep board they had made. Wow. They need to bring stuff like this back. The Hobbit has tons of great locations, the Carrock, Goblin Town, the cliff where the fiery trees are etc. Erebor but none of this has been utilised. This would be interest in the hobby from young kids like me back in the day. Same for 40K and WHFB. Bring back the guides to the site and WD and inspire people rather than selling soulless boring terrain.

2. Commission 3 DeAgonstini magazines. One for each system. That'll serve to get the install base up. Start with Space Marines for 40K. Last Alliance for LoTR. Tell the entire story to get people interested. £5 for a biweekly issue should suffice. £10 a month isn't bad. Get rid of their Finecast stock too maybe. People will get led into the Hobby from subsidised magazines like this.

3. Freebies with WD too. Bring back better articles too.

4. Advertise. Advertise in "geek and nerd" magazines, film magazines, TV adverts during Sci-Fi shows on TV. Keep an active FB and Twitter feed. Youtube channel. Utilise the internet. At the moment I feel like GW is run by a bunch of politically correct Grannies who got some nasty spam email once so decided never to use a computer again.

5. Plastic command sprue in with the plastic warriors sprue so you feel like you're getting more for your money.

That's just my 5 points.

Also buy a license for Game of Thrones battle game TV show that'd be so sick.

 

[Thaluikhain]

In my opinion, GW need to hit the reset button and go back to how it was in 2001. Everything seemed healthy then, Hobby stores were booming, the LoTR bubble hadn't burst, and in general stuff was positive.

Yep...well, provided you mean 2001 before the Tau came out.

1. Bring the "hobby" back into "The hobby".

Yup...local stores making their own custom terrain and throwing the old ones out every few months.

Modular terrain has lots of advantages to be sure, but like you say, it lacks soul.

3. Freebies with WD too. Bring back better articles too.

Very much this. Nowdays, WD is little more than a catalogue with paint tips.

Back in the day, it'd be full of short stories and other fluff. Back issues are worth reading just for those.

 

[endtherapture]

In my opinion, GW need to hit the reset button and go back to how it was in 2001. Everything seemed healthy then, Hobby stores were booming, the LoTR bubble hadn't burst, and in general stuff was positive.

Yep...well, provided you mean 2001 before the Tau came out.

Well I only started in 01 but it was really positive and cool back then,

 

[Mangod]

I'm a sad, sad person, but I did some basic + and - and came up with the cost for entry into Warhammer 40k vs entry into Warmachine/Hordes.

Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook - $74.25
Codex: Space Marines - $58.00
Space Marine Captain - $30.00
10 Tactical Marines - $40.00*
10 Tactical Marines - $40.00
Total: $242.25

Warmachine: Prime/Hordes: Primal rulebook - $29.99
Warmachine/Hordes Battlegroup - $49.99
Total: $79.98

*10 models per box, so if a basic marine unit is only 5 marines, then you can cut off $40 from the cost.

Depending on wheter or not a unit of Tactical Marines are 5 or 10 models minimum per unit, the cost of getting into 40k will be a little over twice or three times higher than the cost of getting into the competitions game. And GW, rather than lower their prices in an attempt to stimulate the market, are cannibalising their own infrastructure in order to make up for lost profits...

I'm trying to think of a horror story analogy, but I'm drawing a blank :/