Games Workshop's Latest Price Insanity

[Lord Relvenous]

Tournaments really don't cost anything to run. It just ties up store tables. I suppose the employee running it has his pay, but that's a pittance compared to the business that a tournament brings in. Unless GW doesn't do entry fees, their product costs for the prizes are covered by buy-ins.

[Korto]

I've often thought it would be better for their business model if they gave away/sold cheaply their rules. Their models are excellent, but their rules are nothing special. I could probably work out some rules just as good, so they have people buying their models with no interest in the rules, but no-one I've heard of buys the rules with no interest in the models. The rules are just too dear.

But here's my point. The rules push people towards the models. Even if someone had no intention of getting the figures, after reading the fluff, the stats, and seeing the cool pictures they start feeling more inclined to get the ded 'ard Gronko BludSlamma WarBoss, and then some of his retinue, hey maybe some Tuf Gits, etc, etc.
You could use GW figures in any rules, but GW rules really suck you into GW figures.

Doesn't help the price rises at all, but. That's why I've cast up a chaos army of my own, which one day I might even finish.

[Nephtys]

That's kinda what PP does. Warmachine/Hordes have gorgeous full-color hardcover thick rulebooks printed on excellent paper, filled with bright art. And they only cost 25 bucks.

[Agent Sorchus]

I'm hearing more rumors today of a change to the way GW is doing marketing for future releases, namely not. No info whatsoever, not even that there is a release planed until the week before. This is such a stupid idea that I really doubt it of course, because it is counter intuitive towards building anticipation for the release.

As others have noticed, Duke Nukem Forever gets a lot of extra publicity and hype thanks to it's twelve+ year development time. If no one knew that it was in development all this time how could they get such a bonus with just saying: A new Duke Nukem game is coming out, anyone remember the original at all?

Plus it seems so counter intuitive, since the Dark Eldar release went so well for them to change it so much. (I heard that the number of DEldar stuff that sold for something like the first 4-6 months outsold all Space Marines and their variants, including Chaos. They built a lot of hype with that release, and lots of effort so why wouldn't they start trying to learn what went right for DEldar?)

Anyway, just reporting what I have read.

[Kojiro]

The 'Black Boxes' that used to be shipped to retailers with upcoming releases has indeed been cancelled. Retailers will no longer have any display models to generate interest or buzz. The reason for this is that GW want to allegedly create more anticipation at release day.

As for the Dark Eldar, they had a leg up. They're eldar, who have always had some of the most beautiful models out there. Secondly they got a new codex- full of new and brokenly powerful special rules. Thirdly they are the victim of GWs pathetically incompetent development team- that being that they were released in third edition, eleven years ago and have only just now got their new book. After 11 years there were a lot of people who wanted that second shot with them and adding gorgeous models with some brutal rules didn't at all hurt.

But the fanbois don't see the power creep, nor do they realise that 11 years is too freaking long for a faction to go without an update (hey, could have been worse- they could have just annihilated the faction all together!).

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I don't tend to buy a lot of GW stuff any more, but I do love to assemble and paint some of their models, especially the monsters. I find the attraction of their rules/tournament scene a bit baffling, so I must be in fringes of the hobby. But I certainly noticed the price hikes. I don't talk about GW even with the friends who used to play. Everyone is embarrassed to mention it these days.

That said, they still make some damn fine models. I have picked up a couple of finecast models, models I always wanted but wasn't willing to get in metal, and I enjoyed the hell out of them. They are much easier to work with than PP's "plastics". However, I had to exchange miscast parts on one of my models, so be warned about the quality. Fortunately, GW has some of the best customer service in the business. I have also had trouble getting replacements for defective parts from Privateer Press.

I'm very excited about Mantic and Wargames Factory. They both produce plastic science fiction or fantasy figures for a fraction of GW's prices. The quality may be lagging quite a bit, but if you want models that you can convert or paint up to look nice they give you a nice foundation.

It seems to me like GW is in a death spiral and the only way out is to sacrifice most of its stores and focus on producing excellent models for a much better price once they let go of the dead weight and let the local games stores and the internet discounter shoulder the burden of stocking them.

[Slacker]

I'll be honest, I read that GK list a couple of pages back and I immediately thought of ways I could make it better. That wasn't that nasty-if you want to spam scoring units with Coteaz, you go with four henchmen units in Razorbacks, two with psyammo assault cannons and two with twin linked lascannons. Dreadknight, two Riflemen dreadnoughts (of course with psyammo) Couple squads of purifiers and season to taste.

You have a ton of scoring units and kill points mean nothing if you wipe your opponent off the table. It's the same philosophy Dark Eldar players have to deal with, and they console themselves with 25 odd Dark Lances.

Back on-topic, about 40% of GW's retail brick and mortar sales by volume come from the GW stores, the other 60% from independent retailers. That number comes from 2009, so the number could be a little off now.

Running a tournament isn't very expensive at all-our local gaming store runs one a month, rotating between 40K, Fantasy, and either Flames of War or Warmahordes depending on what's 'hot' in the store at the moment. Normally the store charges a nominal fee-$10, normally-and that covers pizza or BBQ and prizes. We do more for Grand Tournaments-our GT fee is $50-but our prizes are insane for the Grim Open, so it's generally worth your while.