GW Price Increase

Don't quote me on it, but sifting through threads I believe I read that it was due to cutting costs that they increased profits.

But raising prices on models makes me somewhat doubt that.

On their last financial, they attributed their large profits due to the price increases actually. On the financials from previous year before it they were making profit in large part due to cutting costs.

man if anyone can troll people into a conversation it's GW. Good game GW. Good Game.

There are plenty of other good miniature games out there. Obviously, not all of the have lots of people playing which is a bummer if you like tournaments. But plenty of good games out there that are less expensive.

Look, the fact is, Ebay and Bartertown has been the answer for most of us for years anyway. The only time I've bought full retail from Joel was when at least part of it was store credit.

I don't know about you guys, but you have to be an idiot to buy full retail GW. I mean these price hikes are meaningless to me. The only thing it means is that I can get less shit with my store credit.

I thought Joel sold everything at discount. He sells GW at full retail?

Ovich, not everyone is willing to do that. What most players do is go over to a different system. This is not my opinion, but what I have witness.

A lot of players have gone over to Warmachine and FOW.

I hope GW gets a shock so big it impacts their corporate think from top to bottom and they re-tool the entire business structure with the customer as the center of focus.

But base on GamesWorkShafts past, they will drive in straight into the ground. Hasbro and some major corporation will pick up for nothing and kill whatever is left into oblivion.

Kyle, Joel sells at a discount.

JerryB

Well, one thing that HAS changed in the last few years is that FoW and Warmachine have actually become competition.

Here's my take: At the end of the day miniature games live and die by the number of people that play them, and in that, GW is king right now.

I tried getting into other miniature games. Infinity, Battletech, A Call to Arms, Anima Tactics, Heavy Gear, Confrontation, AT-43, bunch of others. At one point or another I was building an army or had an army for each of those systems, and more. Other than my Legend of the High Seas crew + ship (which I hang onto due to my inordinate love of pirates), I got rid of those games.

Was it because of the rules? Because of the miniatures? No. Most of those game had awesome miniatures and great rules. The reason I gave them up and focused on GW is that I can play a GW game at almost any time I want. Do I have a free day? Drop by the store. My schedule only permits X many hours on day Y? Drop by the store or post on the forum. Chances are, I can get an opponent at the drop of a hat. And tournaments? Totally sweet, instead of just paying to play, I can get 3 full games and usually get my money back in the form of something I was going to buy anyway.

So far every other game has not only been a fad, but I never play because if I want to play, I have to somehow find a way to be free on the one day that people are actually playing it. In other words, it's inconvenient.

Yeah, I know it's selfish of me to expect things to be at my convenience, but you know what? That's what GW games give me. Convenience and a bevy of opponents.

Warmachine and Flames of War are finally starting to get to the point where they have regular nights and an expanding player base. Are they at the GW level yet? No.

Do I want them to be? Yes.

But until then, I can't honestly say I'll "give up" games workshop by any means. Because I love the game, and their games are alive, much more so than many other games.

Hell, I had a warmachine army a year before people down here started playing it, but got turned off by the player base and got rid of it. Loved the models, sure, but what's the point of spending the time and effort in a game that won't get played?

I really admire people like Jerry that take it on themselves to flog a game locally and try to get it started. I personally don't have that level of energy. Call me lazy, but I ride the popularity wave for all it's worth.

The reality is nothing is going to happen in the near future. Customers will complain a little and then go right back to playing.

This is GW's third straight year of raising prices and people objected, but nothing is actually going to changed except the prices. At least that's what I believe.

There is economic term for what is happening, "What the market will bear"
Meaning so long as GW customers are willing to pay $30 for a rule book; $25 for a blister; $50/$60 for box of plastic and what not, then GW will keep raising the price.

All of it is very interesting, I would like to see where it goes. What is everyone's wallet pain threshold? Will you pay $30/$35/$40 for a blister? $70/$80/$90 for box of 5 to 10 units?

JerryB

Actually, the pound is currently at a two year low. Something like $1.45 to the dollar. If it keeps dropping, it could mess things up for GW. Personally I am looking at Forgeworld orders for myself. Hell, if they hit our dollar or come neAr it, it would be cheaper to import. Just get a big enough order for free shippping.

That would be hilariously if the British Pound drop through the floor and distributors seizing the moment order a year or two worth of orders. The fall out would be no more orders for a year or more, GW would have to post enormous loss to their stock holders, rumors would fly that GW is completely destroy, setting in motion a self fulling estimate that is irreversible!

BattleFront picks it all up for a song and runs it like should be!

I can dream can't I...

JerryB

PP is one of the biggest competitors to GW, but where they fail is that they have no global saturation and are basically only in the US while GW has the global market pretty tight.

Battlefront with Flames of War while has grown greatly in popularity, is not even in the top 5 selling games in the US and really the whole historical aspect is going to be a barrier for it to ever overtake GW or PP in the US especially. Battlefront is stronger overseas.

Across the pond GW is pretty dominant still but there is tons of competition out of France, Spain, and now Germany. Lot of skirmish level games if you haven't noticed been coming out as many companies have gotten the clue to not try to compete with GW with mass combat 28mm games.

For a while people were like "oh these collectible prepainted games are all the rage, and will bring down GW", yet we see how that went with almost all those ventures failing or being nothing but short term money grabs.

As Vycem says one of the biggest trappings of the industry is what people are playing. So many players try other games but discouraged when they don't see others playing that game and everyone seems to be playing in mass the other games, which is generally GW products. PP is probably only one in the US who has gotten enough market saturation that you go to stores and it's what most people play. Back in W&P's day, they tried so many games at that shop, but the tables were always full of people playing WM/Hordes. You would get into a game of something else and then a bunch of folks show up to play a PP game and people would abandon that different weird game you are playing.

All these competing interests and then you got the problem of limited player base and places to play. It's very similar to how whenever anyone goes into a roleplaying game, they almost always are pushed towards D&D first as that is what they only see being played.

Retailers and distributors are also afraid to try any other games out because of how fragile the industry is and they stick to what is safe.

jerryb wrote:That would be hilariously if the British Pound drop through the floor and distributors seizing the moment order a year or two worth of orders. The fall out would be no more orders for a year or more, GW would have to post enormous loss to their stock holders, rumors would fly that GW is completely destroy, setting in motion a self fulling estimate that is irreversible!

JerryB

Well GW does not let you do import orders so you still would be stuck ordering from your local GW US distribution, it would only cause a localized issue. Also a mad rush to buy inventory is likely not going to happen with how frail most game retailers are when it comes to money. And if they did go and suddenly order 1 to 2 years of inventory immediately, that would just benefit GW since they already overcharge for the product and make lots of profit off of it. There would have to be a massive monetary collapse for them to really lose out with how inflated their prices are.

It's true, many times , what you chose to play is governed by what other people play.

I started playing Warmachine, and even though I like the game a lot, and I like a lot of the guys that I was playing with, it wasn't the same group of people that I've already bonded with.

So over time, I lost interest, because ultimately it's about the social connection for me, not just the game itself.