GW Indy Tournament Circuit discontinued

The North American Games Workshop Business Support team along with our management team has spent an extensive amount of time reviewing the current tournament circuit and the best way to offer support to hobbyists interested in hosting events of their own.

As you are undoubtedly aware, there is a Games Workshop tournament circuit in which tournaments must apply and those chosen are offered support. After serious consideration, we will continue with the current 2012 circuit ending in May 2012 and host the culminating Throne of Skulls tournament this October. Going forward, in order to be more supportive of events of all types, especially those in our retail and trade outlet stores, we will discontinue the GW tournament circuit.

We would like to thank all the organiser's from the 2012 Circuit and we wish everyone the most success with their events in the future.

Regards,

Desiree Dorsey
Director of Business Support
Games Workshop

Folks... Read between the lines. It's the beginning of the end. GW is only going to continue shrinking until it ceases to exist. Enjoy it while we have it.

Seems like an admission that they can't write clean enough rules to play the game on a tournement level. Without the game, there is no reason to collect..... regressing to a pure hobby scene seems like a really bad move.

All it tells me is that they can't afford to support tournaments that they aren't even paying for. The heyday of GTs is long gone and its pitiful that they can't afford to support Indies with prize support and advertising. GW is rapidly shrinking and will continue to shrink because its anyone's guess what their business strategy is. They've essentially killed fantasy, LoTR had one good year and they couldn't be bothered to clarify some rules to make the game better, and yearly price increases make any of their game systems very difficult to get into let alone maintain. If 6th ed 40k flops, they won't have a leg to stand on and it would end GW.

Yup. I think their new retail store will flop, but hopefully we will get some events in first.

KingdomCome wrote:All it tells me is that they can't afford to support tournaments that they aren't even paying for. The heyday of GTs is long gone and its pitiful that they can't afford to support Indies with prize support and advertising. GW is rapidly shrinking and will continue to shrink because its anyone's guess what their business strategy is. They've essentially killed fantasy, LoTR had one good year and they couldn't be bothered to clarify some rules to make the game better, and yearly price increases make any of their game systems very difficult to get into let alone maintain. If 6th ed 40k flops, they won't have a leg to stand on and it would end GW.

GW can easily afford to run these events, it's simply they are being stingy and choosing to pinch pennies while building more bad feelings with it's customers.

I think GW is truely run by morons. In todays global and competitive markets, NOTHING they choose to do seems like a good move IMO.

They are run by suits and commitee who just look at numbers. Lot of folks who left GW to work for other companies are very talented individuals who know whats up, but their hands are tied behind the corporate structure of GW unlike other smaller game companies who are run by actual gamers.

As I said before, the best thing to happen to GW would be failures, to bring them down to a level where they have no choice but to change and return to the roots and get the gamers as a focus instead of dollars on a fiscal earning report.

I don't think its GW being stingy. I think they are ( and have been) in a financial down spiral for a long time. There really is no other explanations for eliminating their GTs, phasing out support for Indies, and flat out dumping 'Ard Boyz. From what I've heard from friends, the quality of Games Days has gone down drastically. If their goal is to completely change their products for hobbyists only, they are well on their way. Which means a large portion of their customers are well on their way out. How many people actually buy their models just to paint and display them? Well if fantasy is an indication, not many.

From their financials, GW is doing just fine, even when things have gone sour, it wasn't the end of the world. They have pulled their ass out of the fire fairly well and they are benefiting greatly from licensing as well still. They got more money than most game companies, they still have the number 1 selling miniature game on the market and even with all the preconceived notions on Fantasy failing, it's still selling fairly well and even Hordes still can't surpass it.

Their financials are not showing a company that is going down in flames, but for years they have been showing that to keep their numbers up, they will toss fan opinion under the bus.

GW clearly has the power and money to run these events, they simply aren't because they are idiots and screwing the community to save money/resources.

I try and try to make sence of what GW does and it just doesnt. Dropping tournaments is a bad move, people look foward to the tournaments and to show up and compete, is a game of competition is what attract evryone to it, cept the miniscule portion that does it just to collect the pieces...which with the current pricess wont be possible anymore

luis the young wrote:I try and try to make sence of what GW does and it just doesnt. Dropping tournaments is a bad move, people look foward to the tournaments and to show up and compete, is a game of competition is what attract evryone to it, cept the miniscule portion that does it just to collect the pieces...which with the current pricess wont be possible anymore

Majority of the buyers for hobby games do not play at a tournament level. Problem is the heads at GW probably got the bright idea in their head that the tourny population really makes up a smaller portion of their buyers. This though it stupid because without the tourny players and these people actively playing the games in stores, it reduces the games visibility. You kill the tournament scene, you get less people playing the game in stores and doing big events, you are going to lose a huge selling point. The casual hobbiest who buy into these games are not going to see other people playing the game.

Biggest selling factor for games is to see others playing and the hobby itself.... dude walks into a store and sees tables full of cool 40k armies, that's a big selling tool. GW kills the tourny scene and they lose that huge self promotion. Most other mini games and such have a hard time getting into the hands of gamers since players never see others actually playing the game. Why buy into something like Infinity if you don't know a store or ever seen people actually playing? No, players are going to gravitate to the games that other people are playing.

They are being clueless by ignoring one sect of the playerbase in favor of another.

maybe they are tryin gto concentrate on the European market, i dont know how big is over there. i wonder if they do tournamets in other countries as well, i think they do.

The best way to promote the games is to have people play at the stores. I trust Kyles numbers that GW still shows profit, but I'd bet that most of that now comes from the European continent.

Fantasy seems to be dead everywhere. I check boards all over Florida and Atlanta. All fantasy sections are dormant of posts. Some places (Sci-Fi City) still post their normally scheduled monthly events, but I'm told attendance is sparse. Nothing you could count on and travel for.

I have no idea what they plan to do at the new Sunrise store to generate interest.

This board is still very active:
http://warhammer.org.uk/index.html
.....but these are mostly the folks who use the modified ETC rule set.

It's a massive train wreck. I'm throwing almost everything up on European Ebay very shortly while I can still get something fair for it.