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As of now, Kevin Rountree has been responsible for Renegade, Start Collecting!, The Killteam (coming out Sept 3), among other things such as Deathwatch Upgrades being $2 in the box. Do you think that he will continue to guide GW into a friendlier age?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh yah,cand the Killteam is 40 pounds. For a tax squad, fire warriors, rules and more.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Tac, not tax

IMO GW has been on an excellent path since he took over and progress company-wide has moved at a commendable pace. I know it's the Internet and much venom shall flow but, yeah, I say yes it will continue even further into a friendlier age

I feel that he has begun to take GW into a proper direction. It still has a long way to go, but the effort is being noticed.

I'm still going to hold my final judgement on what he's doing until we can see 8th Edition for 40k and if his influence can return the game to a more reasonable experience.

The force is strong with this one... And the future is very bright. I think we may be entering a new golden era of GW.

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I think we've turned a corner, I've been very happy with much that's come about recently and I am optimistic moving forward.

...but yes, I am very keen to see this edition of 40k laid to rest and what will come about in the future... that said, I'm then worrying about what a very significant change will do to 30k...

One can only dare to hope, even if I do not agree with everything GW has done of the last year this looks somewhat promesing

Hit and miss.

Renegades was a nice discount with a decently amusing mechanic. So that's a bonus. Start Collecting made some of the more expensive models more feasable and struck a nice balance between the battleforces of old and the Dual-faction starter sets. GW's website also started moving towards being hobby-centric again and opened dialogue with it's fanbase.

However he hasn't cut down on how marine-centric the game has been (in fact I think he's responsible for Angels of Death, which just made marines even more powerful and actually made even more legit variants of marines than ever before) and the DW book is still filled with imbalance issues and quirky rules, so the rules team hasn't changed that much, if at all. there is no hint towards any sort of balance and even though AoS has seen a return to points and army composition, there still doesn't seem to be all that much of a hurry to focus on fixing the problems with all of the game systems.

That and the models are still stupid-expensive as ever even though the pound dropped in value.

Like I said before, I won't burn him at the stake for taking small steps, but I gotta admit that the changes are going at a snail's pace. Still though, there are changes, which is good.

I feel like maybe 40k should get a minibox like AoS did, with only a few SM's and a few Cultists, or Xenos.

I certainly hope so. Let's see what the new White Dwarf reboot looks like.

Probably the same. Maybe with a bit more freebies like the collecting AoS had.

lliu wrote:As of now, Kevin Rountree has been responsible for Renegade,

What is Renegade?

oni wrote:The force is strong with this one... And the future is very bright. I think we may be entering a new golden era of GW.

Why would this be a golden era? Just because GW opens up communication and deals now? We still have HORRIBLY written rules. FAQs are still confusing. Rules are NOT CLER CONCISE and easily understandable. I guess 40K 8th edition when ever it comes out, will be the proof, but still, to be a golden era, it will take many years. GW still has show individual priced minis are ridiculously high. It's two steps forward one step back with GW still, so no way even close to a golden era. Also the sales prove that they are not close to a golden era.

I maybe forgive, but I will never forget what GW did and how they didn't want me to be a customer. GW has a long ways to go. I just can't believe Kevin Roundtree will not lower prices on individual kits as well. Until GW does this, it's still all smoke and mirrors to make us feel good. Only good thing is so far is a lot of us are feeling good. Sad thing is, I still see the same crap when I play a 40K game so here is hoping GW really does well with 8th edition in Clear, Concise, and BALANCED and fair rules/codices and then maybe GW will start a golden era. Until then, it's baby steps no where near the golden era.

He has done amazing things since taking over, but he wasn't made captain of a sinking ship..
After AoS and other things that boat was deep underwater with customers. GW is attracting
new players but is it enough to replace the customers they lost?

Kirby had some great years at Games Workshop.. but his last years there seemed to be throwing
stuff on the wall and see what sticks or hiring consultants that has nothing to do with the gaming
business.. making a big mess then leaves...
You almost feel sorry for Roundtree left to clean up the mess..

I think the launch of Aos was probably the low point for the company. The free rules pdf should have been a success but the jokey rules scuppered that. A new game was launched with even more Khorne minis ( the most boring of gods) and three months of releases with only two factions. There were no gameplay demonstrations, no interviews with designers no battlereports.
The turn around since then has been remarkable. Aos is in a pretty good place now. They have introduced a fairly simple points system. They have improved the battletomes They have turned the lack of fluff into an advantage by encouraging community involvement and they have made collecting a viable army cheaper than it has been for at least 15 years.
In the wider company they have got back into board games in a big way with six boxed games in the last 12 months with at least 2 more to come this year. That is more than the previous 10 years combined.
They have brought back specialist games. That move has yet to bear fruit but if they can get bloodbowl out for £50 or less they could have a major hit.
They have rejoined social media in a big way.
They are even going to put an Aos event on twitch.
They are bringing back the grand tournament next year.
They have given up the awful weekly white dwarf format though it remains to be seen how good the new magazine will be.
They have introduced new entry level products like battle for vedros.
They have introduced more than 30 discounted bundles sometimes as little as half price.

There are still problems of course.
Despite the bundles Gw products are very expensive.
There is major rules bloat in 40K.
The art is not what it used to be and the one week preview window is ridiculously short.
Overall though, the company is in a much better place than it was a year ago.
I hope this translates into better sales or we may see all this progress undone.

Davor wrote:

lliu wrote:As of now, Kevin Rountree has been responsible for Renegade,

What is Renegade.

Renegade is the boxed game with the terrain and two titans for the price of only one Titan.

He's made some good moves to be sure, but he's not done anything truly huge just yet. However, it is clear that's he's been putting more effort in the last year to turning the company around than Kirby did in 10. Considering how quickly the Start Collecting! boxes came out after he took charge, how community outreach has started again, and the absolutely massive undertaking that the faq is, he is trying, that is for sure.

HOWEVER, the real test will be 8th edition. When it drops, it will have been out long enough that Roundtree's policies will be the only influence and all possible blame for leftover Kirby policies will gone. If some major changes don't happen with 8th (cheaper books, lower cost of entry for newbies, streamlined rules, and the ever important rebalancing the game needs) then all goodwill will disappear.

If GW, and Roundtree by proxy, screw up 8th ed, the blowout we saw from AoS will look like a mild temper tantrum by comparison. It would kill 40k, the company, and would probably damage the GW brand to the point that it wouldn't recover for a long time, if at all. The fans would be about as close as nerds can get to marching on the HQ with pitchforks and torches.


8th ed will be the deciding factor. Until then all Roudtree has really done is some minor but promising tweaks. He's done little of true substance as far as the health of the game is concerned (if anything that's gotten worse) so until the major shakeup happens we're stuck in a "wait and see" kind of situation.

A step in the right direction, they still need to deal with numerous internal issues before the sales gather some win.

Kevin Rountree has a new face? Oh my stars and garters, this is most shocking! I hope it's sewn on well or it should be a most frightful thing I would imagine!

xraytango wrote:
Kevin Rountree has a new face? Oh my stars and garters, this is most shocking! I hope it's sewn on well or it should be a most frightful thing I would imagine!

Oh, come on!

I am cautiously excited but

They're no longer grinding the boat against the iceberg, but they've still got a long way to before they're in the clear.

There's been some interesting price savings put out lately, but 40K is still too expensive of a game to drop in blind, and the rules are still a mess that causes games that easily take 3-4 hours to play a simple game. Vedros-style play (small games, something you can do in about an hour) need to become more viable.

They make the smallest of morsels available to the crowd and suddenly all is forgiven and its the sign of a new age.

Nope, this is GW - the next C&D probably isn't far off.

I would say that yes there are improvement, but they are still a long way from having turned the boat.

"First rule of holes : if you are in one stop digging"

Currently GW seems to have stopped digging, or at least slowed it. Problem is that the hole they are in is already rather deep, so it's not sure that they can get out of it without doing something really extreme like using the virtual corpse of Kirby as a step ladder.

Sure, they have water and food that can last them for a long time in the hole (no moneytary debt, what remains of their large fanbase still giving them a dominant position in the industry ...), but at the point that they are they not only need to stop digging, they need to find a way to really climb up.

While they are still technically in the black, let's remember that year after year they have been seeing their profits get lower and lower, and this year only reached the expectations thanks to licensing fees (mainly Warhammer : Total War), the core activity still saw a large fall in profits.

I think that to really show a change, they would probbaly need to remove Kirby completly from the board, recognize at least some of their errors and explain to their customers what they want to do to fix them.

Also, the start collecting boxes are nice, but if they continue to release new kits more and more expensives for a similar product, they won't go very far.

 Fenrir Kitsune wrote:
They make the smallest of morsels available to the crowd and suddenly all is forgiven and its the sign of a new age.
....

And/or the incessant whinging was waaay OTT!

GW have taken a more client facing position and their customers are clearly pleased with it, which only underlines how poorly they have managed customer relations over the last decade.

jtrowell wrote:
I would say that yes there are improvement, but they are still a long way from having turned the boat.

"First rule of holes : if you are in one stop digging"

HA! Not sure why this was so funny to me, but thanks for a good morning chuckle.

lliu wrote:

Davor wrote:

lliu wrote:As of now, Kevin Rountree has been responsible for Renegade,

What is Renegade.

Renegade is the boxed game with the terrain and two titans for the price of only one Titan.

Thank you so much.

MrMoustaffa wrote:He's made some good moves to be sure, but he's not done anything truly huge just yet. However, it is clear that's he's been putting more effort in the last year to turning the company around than Kirby did in 10. Considering how quickly the Start Collecting! boxes came out after he took charge, how community outreach has started again, and the absolutely massive undertaking that the faq is, he is trying, that is for sure.

HOWEVER, the real test will be 8th edition. When it drops, it will have been out long enough that Roundtree's policies will be the only influence and all possible blame for leftover Kirby policies will gone. If some major changes don't happen with 8th (cheaper books, lower cost of entry for newbies, streamlined rules, and the ever important rebalancing the game needs) then all goodwill will disappear.

If GW, and Roundtree by proxy, screw up 8th ed, the blowout we saw from AoS will look like a mild temper tantrum by comparison. It would kill 40k, the company, and would probably damage the GW brand to the point that it wouldn't recover for a long time, if at all. The fans would be about as close as nerds can get to marching on the HQ with pitchforks and torches.


8th ed will be the deciding factor. Until then all Roudtree has really done is some minor but promising tweaks. He's done little of true substance as far as the health of the game is concerned (if anything that's gotten worse) so until the major shakeup happens we're stuck in a "wait and see" kind of situation.

I agree. GW is on a good start in January 2016. I never thought I would spend so much money on GW again. Thing is, though what is so great now? Prices are still high. He will not lower prices but make box sets instead. So you still can't really buy what you want if you want that great deal in a lot of cases. Yes we have great deals, but if you don't want whats in the deal, are you really saving money though? Where are my deals on Zoan/Venomthropes? Nope they are still as expensive as ever. How about my Raveners? Oh GW said they would be cheaper once in plastic. They are even more expensive in plastic now. Mr Roundtree has been around 2 years now, and those prices are still expensive as ever. We just have the illusion of GW becoming cheaper. Things are still expensive as ever once you start expanding from the "get started boxes".

Yes it nice to get savings, yes it's nice GW is communicating with the player base again and doing things they never did before. But in the end, GW is still the same when it comes to prices. Rules are still crap. Rules are still unfair. Rules are still not clear. (Just look at Deathwatch, people still discussing how some of it's rules are suppose to work. You would think now would be a good time to write clear concise rules). I guess we can handle the high prices or at least swallow the high prices. With GW communicating now, and interacting with communities now, all is left is the rules, balance and how clear and concise they are.

I believe Mr Moustaffa is correct. We have to wait for 40K 8th edition to see the true test of GW now. I am wondering now if our expectations are so high for 40K 8the edition, standards are set so high now. This can be like the Suicide Squad, everyone thought it was suppose to be this AWESOME movie but the results came crashing down. It wasn't the movie that everyone expected it to be. While a lot of people like the movie, over all it' is such a disappointment on the expectations. Or maybe No Mans Sky is a good example. A lot of people thinking or expecting the game to be the next best thing or something else and therefore became such a huge disappointment.

So I guess 40K 8th edition will tell where GW is actually heading. Given what Age of Sigmar did and how it was handled, Mr Roundtree did an excellent job in getting a lot of excitement back, maybe we are expecting a bit too much for what 40K 8th edition is going to be.

I agree. I just hope that once the dust settles, we'll be the ones with fatish wallets instead of GW's.

Davor wrote:


I agree. GW is on a good start in January 2016. I never thought I would spend so much money on GW again. Thing is, though what is so great now? Prices are still high. He will not lower prices but make box sets instead. So you still can't really buy what you want if you want that great deal in a lot of cases. Yes we have great deals, but if you don't want whats in the deal, are you really saving money though? Where are my deals on Zoan/Venomthropes? Nope they are still as expensive as ever. How about my Raveners? Oh GW said they would be cheaper once in plastic. They are even more expensive in plastic now. Mr Roundtree has been around 2 years now, and those prices are still expensive as ever. We just have the illusion of GW becoming cheaper. Things are still expensive as ever once you start expanding from the "get started boxes".

I agree with this. Rountree is using more common sales tactics but the overall theme on price is still the same. It's easy to get tricked into buying a bargain but end up spending more money than you planned. Take this Kill team set - unless you want both a Tac and Tau squad then it's not really a bargain because you could be spending £10 more than you actually need to because it looks a bargain. It is only a bargain if you actually were going to buy all the items, if not step away and work out the cheapest option for what you want.

The high price issue is still...well an issue, but at least I no longer feel like I just got mugged on the side of the road when I buy something now.

Granted it just means that when I'm tallying up my expenses at the end of the month, I get an even bigger shock, but hey that I can live with.

 Fenrir Kitsune wrote:
They make the smallest of morsels available to the crowd and suddenly all is forgiven and its the sign of a new age.

Nope, this is GW - the next C&D probably isn't far off.

Realize that a C&D is mostly used for keeping up your copy writes andor trade marks (i forget which)

every and i mean EVERY company that has one or the other does some sort of BS legal action as they need to show they are protecting their marks otherwise they lose it.

it has nothing to do with evil GW or whatever.

BUUUUUUT you make a good point. they have been going in the right direction, but there is still quite a lot of salt left in the salt mine to clear out.