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Broken Loose posted:I think this is inaccurate. They don't have a game design department. Instead, it is populated by what should be the marketing department (even if they're poo poo at it), leaving no official marketing department leftover. This is probably a good explanation as to why 
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May 8, 2014 15:59
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Broken Loose posted:I think this is inaccurate. They don't have a game design department. Instead, it is populated by what should be the marketing department (even if they're poo poo at it), leaving no official marketing department leftover. If they had a real marketing department we wouldn't be seeing this poo poo, because their game designers would design a good game and then professional marketing people would figure out how to market it effectively. As it is, the same group of people is trying to do both things.
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May 8, 2014 16:26
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This belongs here rather than the main GW threads. 'Ere we go: the 'Eavy Metal facebook group is being killed off. And our long-blogging friend, who's starting to completely lose interest in GW altogether, has a post about it. With the downgrading of Golden Demon and now this, GW has downgraded "painting models" as a thing they want to encourage people doing. Which is remarkable considering their paint lines are still one of their single most profitable enterprises, but there it is. Consider this too: Just in April, the blog was actually optimistic about what GW was doing. They've gone from that to "we don't care anymore" in a month. From "If you implement cheap trinkets in your web store that we can get after buying your miniatures we will buy more miniatures just to get them" to "We don't care what GW is doing and don't want to think about them anymore" in fifty days, and a lot of it apparently has to do with the new edition release. (But how will GW source photos of painted miniatures now that their paint team can't post them? By asking people to send them in, that's how. They'll publish them via Warhammer Visions, their new monthly thing, and basically seize the rights to monetize them. Brilliant!) If you were in that facebook group, there's already a community replacement here. Rulebook Heavily fucked around with this message at 22:00 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 26, 2014 21:57
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How a publicly listed company can have such a disastrous non-relationship with the internet and social media escapes description, it really does.
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May 26, 2014 22:09
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NTRabbit posted:How a publicly listed company can have such a disastrous non-relationship with the internet and social media escapes description, it really does. GW literally wan'ts nothing but it's player-bases' money. Anything that does not DIRECTLY get them money is being cut. Even if what is being cut would indirectly bring them more money then it costs to maintain. GW is really a poo poo company.
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May 26, 2014 22:13
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Rulebook Heavily posted:With the downgrading of Golden Demon and now this, GW has downgraded "painting models" as a thing they want to encourage people doing. Which is remarkable considering their paint lines are still one of their single most profitable enterprises, but there it is. Seems to be the same tactic as their actual games. They sell the paints and want you to buy the paints, but don't give a poo poo if you actually do paint your models or not. They're only wanting you to make the initial ~£50 splash on paints, hopefully get you to drop £300+ on the mega paint set, but then don't care about your repeat custom afterwards.
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May 26, 2014 22:31
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Forums Terrorist posted:Just going to quote this for posterity. I'm going to be wrong and it's going to be amazing. I guess I'll have to chip in on getting the winner something though if I am.
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May 26, 2014 22:59
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NTRabbit posted:How a publicly listed company can have such a disastrous non-relationship with the internet and social media escapes description, it really does. GW is going to make jolly well sure that every one of those deckchairs is present and correct, iceberg be damned.  E: also, in chatting with my brother, he pointed out that the only GW games we're remotely interested in playing these days are Mordheim and Necromunda. Neither of which are currently supported, and neither of which we have any GW models for (we haven't started playing NM yet, but our MH warbands are mixes of minis from Reaper and various other lines). There's a point in there somewhere about how terribly GW is run, but I can't be arsed to tease it out.
Sydney Bottocks fucked around with this message at 23:48 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 26, 2014 23:43
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I am going with August 31, 2015, please. Here in TG looking for another game with little mans to play because I have been thinking about coming back to the hobby lately. Hopefully Infinity or Mantic becomes popular in my area.
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May 26, 2014 23:43
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I feel as though I picked the absolute worst time to get back into this hobby, too.  Infinity looks cool though. And I should be encouraged by the fact that people do still play Battletech even though FASA died over a decade ago.
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Jun 5, 2014 00:17
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That is a really desperate-looking starvation measure. I'm sure they'll save some money by laying off whoever was in charge of that, but the hit to their media presence is not insignificant either.
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Jun 5, 2014 17:50
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Maxwell Lord posted:That is a really desperate-looking starvation measure. I'm sure they'll save some money by laying off whoever was in charge of that, but the hit to their media presence is not insignificant either. They have to have the dumbest marketing and product departments in the history of the loving planet. How can a company not legitimately understand the relationship between encouraging painting and sales of paint? How do they not understand that helping retailers will create more places for people to play 40k and in turn increase sales? Seriously this company's incompetence makes me so angry
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Jun 5, 2014 18:21
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TheChirurgeon posted:They have to have the dumbest marketing and product departments in the history of the loving planet. How can a company not legitimately understand the relationship between encouraging painting and sales of paint? How do they not understand that helping retailers will create more places for people to play 40k and in turn increase sales? To me what's really troubling about it is that it comes across as a "counting pens" maneuver, one of those things where a company starts trimming minor costs everywhere without addressing deeper problems. Granted, looking back, GW seems to do this historically. The specialist games don't have as big a profit margin as the ones where you're constantly buying new army pieces, so they get chopped. RPGs get shunted off to a third party publisher (who are doing a good job but you see the idea.) Their own stores go from full game shops to pure company stores to increasingly emaciated company stores. They've become this increasingly narrow business that does one thing only.
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Jun 5, 2014 22:36
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Apollodorus posted:I feel as though I picked the absolute worst time to get back into this hobby, too. Just play something other than 40k, there's a bajillion different wargames out there.
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Jun 5, 2014 23:52
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Maxwell Lord posted:To me what's really troubling about it is that it comes across as a "counting pens" maneuver, one of those things where a company starts trimming minor costs everywhere without addressing deeper problems. A lot of it has to do with how much money they make in the UK for how little work they have to do there. If they cut off the entire rest of the world, they would still be a fairly successful company just doing business in the UK so it's hard to convince the suits to really fight for that ~30% of their profit that comes from worldwide sales when tightening their belts to avoid hunger pains pretty much has always worked in their home country due to other people doing their jobs for them.
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Jun 6, 2014 00:18
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If it's still being kept track of, callin' May 13, 2015.
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Jun 6, 2014 01:37
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Maxwell Lord posted:To me what's really troubling about it is that it comes across as a "counting pens" maneuver, one of those things where a company starts trimming minor costs everywhere without addressing deeper problems. This reminds me of a story--did you know the original Xbox was made to sell Windows? Most purchases of Windows are made by people purchasing a new PC. If you look at the people buying new PCs the most frequently (and Microsoft did), one of the key segments of that group is gamers--power users who frequently buy or build new PCs in order to play the latest games, which require better and better hardware. In the late 90s, the PlayStation2 was luring PC developers away (even before its launch), creating a fear that flagging PC game sales would lead to lower sales of Windows, so the DirectX team at Microsoft took apart a bunch of Dells and made a prototype console that would run DirectX ("Xbox" is short for "DirectXbox") and serve as an attractive 2nd platform for PC developers who could continue to make PC games but also have a console to release them on. Now, Microsoft is not the world's smartest company, and they gently caress up fairly often when it comes to branding (firing their ad agency was long overdue). But it's worth noting that their most-loved product (by a country mile) was originally conceived as part of a long-term strategy to sell their flagship product, Microsoft Windows. Not only could you argue that it was a success in that regard--PC gaming is doing pretty well--but it also became one of the most profitable parts of their business. Now Games Workshop is no Microsoft (though I'd argue their brand is about as well thought-of). But my point is that even with the dumb things that Microsoft does, they still think about the long term, and acknowledge that some of their big plans are gonna fail. Games Workshop seems so focused on the short term that it's hard to imagine they are even aware that there are long-term business ramifications to consider. Edit: Also, because I haven't done this yet, I'm gonna call the long, slow wheezing death -- Acquired for their IP in 2Q 2016
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Jun 6, 2014 01:49
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SALT CURES HAM posted:Just play something other than 40k, there's a bajillion different wargames out there. Yeah...I hope I can find some cool opponents who will let me use my Land Raider Crusader as a PzKpfw VIB Tiger II.
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Jun 6, 2014 02:02
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That's your sunk cost fallacy talking. Sell your 40k stuff right now before more nerds realize that Games Workshop death is imminent.
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Jun 6, 2014 03:14
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stoutfish posted:That's your sunk cost fallacy talking. Sell your 40k stuff right now before more nerds realize that Games Workshop death is imminent. ^^^ This. ^^^ Also finding alternate communities means fewer people who nitpick dumb poo poo like if all your figures are canon. In a sense you'd be getting back to Rogue Trader levels of good-natured flexibility which is ironic for this thread. Chipping in with my guess for the death pool: October 25, 2015
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Jun 6, 2014 03:20
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A new release always kinds of boosts their sales, so I doubt it's this year I'd be surprised if they caved this year . I make my prediction my birthday Oct. 9th 1979. Edit: just realized I made my prediction earlier but I am changing it. No way they fold this year. Hollismason fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 04:29
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Hollismason posted:A new release always kinds of boosts their sales, so I doubt it's this year I'd be surprised if they caved this year . I make my prediction my birthday Oct. 9th 1979. Well, it'd be pretty hard for them to actually stop being able to produce any more releases. But they can definitely keep seeing diminishing returns as fewer and fewer people are conned into buying the newest poo poo, or they buy much less of it. They'll hit a point where the shareholders et al. realize it's not the plastic money printing machine they thought it was when they bought in, and so they'll  and have a fire sale.
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Jun 6, 2014 04:44
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Speaking of GW and new releases, what's the consensus on how 7th edition seems to be doing so far? I've read a few odd "it's not selling well at my FLGS" things here and there, but I wondered if anyone might have heard or read anything that was a bit more insider-y or whatnot.
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Jun 6, 2014 05:53
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JerryLee posted:Well, it'd be pretty hard for them to actually stop being able to produce any more releases. But they can definitely keep seeing diminishing returns as fewer and fewer people are conned into buying the newest poo poo, or they buy much less of it. They'll hit a point where the shareholders et al. realize it's not the plastic money printing machine they thought it was when they bought in, and so they'll No I'm saying that their implosion will be so great they'll tear open a hole in space in time traveling to 1979 and ceasing to exist and this timeline forever will be altered.
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Jun 6, 2014 06:03
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Sydney Bottocks posted:Speaking of GW and new releases, what's the consensus on how 7th edition seems to be doing so far? I've read a few odd "it's not selling well at my FLGS" things here and there, but I wondered if anyone might have heard or read anything that was a bit more insider-y or whatnot. Soon after release day I was in one of my FLGSes (ironically not the one where I go to play 40k) and an older gentleman was buying not one but two of the giant slipcover boxes.  This is just an anecdote like any other of course.
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Jun 6, 2014 06:06
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My two locals say that it's selling "pretty OK" not super bad, but not as good as 6th edition. I think once people see others playing with the new objective rules and once they release a stand alone rulebook it will pick up. GW's rep says ~6 months for a new starter so were going to see a sort of funk until then. Right now it's just the hardcores that are updating, everyone else will roll in eventually but it will take a while. It's certainly going to be a slow burn, and we'll see how that works out. Overall I really like most of the changes, and I think a lot of their changes to how the game will be played (with the mutable objectives and such) will help support a competitive scene.
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Jun 6, 2014 06:19
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Yeah, once I can buy a mini rulebook from ebay, I'll probably play again. Until then I'm in stasis or playing with people who will agree to use 6E/let me borrow a copy of 7E.
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Jun 6, 2014 06:26
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JerryLee posted:Yeah, once I can buy a mini rulebook from ebay, I'll probably play again. Until then I'm in stasis or playing with people who will agree to use 6E/let me borrow a copy of 7E. You can actually just print out a 1-page list of rules changes for 7th and use that with a 6E rulebook. I've already done this and it works fine.
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Jun 6, 2014 12:02
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TheChirurgeon posted:You can actually just print out a 1-page list of rules changes for 7th and use that with a 6E rulebook. I've already done this and it works fine. Where does this list exist to be printed?
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Jun 6, 2014 12:54
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End of last week GW announced a 20p per share dividend, up from the 16p they normally do when giving out a dividend. Plus the rumour is they've taken out a loan to finance that dividend. Is that a preemptive attempt to stop a run on their shares when the disastrous full year financials come out in July?
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Jun 11, 2014 09:06
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The newsletter from the store I buy from mentioned that for them Dystopian Wars was outselling 7th edition "around 6:1". That may just be Australians being severely biased against GW by now though.
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Jun 11, 2014 09:17
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NTRabbit posted:End of last week GW announced a 20p per share dividend, up from the 16p they normally do when giving out a dividend. Plus the rumour is they've taken out a loan to finance that dividend. Taking a loan to pay an increased dividend SCREAMS of "Don't look at the iceberg. If you don't look at it, it's not real".
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Jun 11, 2014 09:33
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Aristocrat posted:The newsletter from the store I buy from mentioned that for them Dystopian Wars was outselling 7th edition "around 6:1". We buy from the same store  , and they hate GW just as much as any other retailer
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Jun 11, 2014 09:36
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Hijo Del Helmsley posted:Taking a loan to pay an increased dividend SCREAMS of "Don't look at the iceberg. If you don't look at it, it's not real". Just a reminder to everyone (not you personally) that it's only been quoted as a "rumor" so far, and that as bad as GW is, it's easy to make up poo poo. I've got as much popcorn ready for the schadenfreude show as anyone, but let's not jump the gun.
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Jun 11, 2014 09:55
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As someone who works at an Australian games retailer, dealing with GW is pretty much the worst. The guys that work for shipping in Australia are awesome, please note - I feel so bad for them as they must have to deal with so much poo poo as the higher ups say "Jump impossibly high". However, it's vexing when we can't plan out anything, limited ordering amounts, higher and higher price markups to the point we can only charge a couple dollars less than RRP to even make it worthwhile to stock it. With no real advanced notification on releases, there have been numerous situations when we've restocked items only to find out in next week's White Dwarf that those items are becoming obsolete. The most interesting thing to me was that I ran the wargaming section for both 6th edition and 7th edition. 6th edition, we ordered an absolute slew and sold out with the open copy always in someone's hands. 7th edition, we ordered the same amount, but there was no excitement, selling 11 books total over the entire release weekend.
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Jun 11, 2014 10:03
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I think it's pretty telling that on a new edition release, they're being outsold by the new edition of what I hope is going to be a fun game (else I'd look silly for collecting a bunch of ships just for display), but is otherwise a small and niche resin competitor. vv Just one store in one country too, but it's a pretty high profile store NTRabbit fucked around with this message at 10:50 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 10:44
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I think that's only in Australia. While Australia is hardly GWs best continent, it is still telling that a small time manufacturer is outselling the biggest company by such a significant margin. What's also telling is that the Limited Edition rulebook is still available, 3 weeks after release. This is a 2000 print run and it's still available. By comparison, 6th ed had a 5000 copy limited edition that was sold out in two days.
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Jun 11, 2014 10:49
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Just one question: I know a lot of people are deeply disdainful of GW's business policies, but I assume there's a overlap with people that actually want to like the game/setting itself and would be at least a little bummed if the company folds completely. Is there a realistic scenario in which some other company swoops in and takes over GW, perhaps making some actual substantial reform to their business policies and allowing for continuance of the game/other related properties such as Black Library?
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Jun 11, 2014 13:01
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I'm one of those people! I really like the 40k aesthetic, and enjoy the game (but it is not really a good game), but I rather dislike GW as a company. I think it would be plausible for someone to buy up the IP if GW went out, but I'm not really a business dude.
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Jun 11, 2014 13:11
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Me too. I love 40k despite my better judgement or financial wellbeing. That said, I've quit the actual collecting side for now because I've hit my financial turnaround point, they've priced me out.
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Jun 11, 2014 13:55
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