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This is a question for everyone, GW critcs and supporters alike. Given, the mixed response of 7th edition as well as the seemingly lack of innovation or new products, who do you think could best buy out the Warhammer 40k ip and reinvent it?

My personal vote is for Blizzard. RTS like Starcraft and Warcraft are close enough to tabletop gaming that I think Blizzard would have a reasonable grasp. Add in Blizzard's recent foray back into card gaming with Hearthstone, and I think Blizzard could definitely make something that would be cool/may actually be balanced (if World of Warcraft balancing is any indication).

I realize that Hearthstone, War/Starcraft, and World of Warcraft balancing are not in the same vein of tabletop wargaming. This is purely for fun and discussion.

A new company. They could screw up or really innovate. Either way I still have my books to play regardless.

Personally I don't Bliz would want to go into mini's but im not 100% on that.

I can't think of an existing company at the moment that would take over. It would probably be a Mini Company already to have some experience with making rules, models and whatnot.

Wizards of the Coast
They have a long history of tabletop-games, even though MtG is just a TCG.
But that means they know how rules should be made and how they should be tested.
They know what people like and they surely know how to attract new players.
They also explore new paths, they have a sanctioning body for competitive play and they host tournaments.

I like how even with DnD, which they can only sell rulebooks for, they feel comfortable enough to put the core-rules on their website.

And imagine this: A store where you can play Warhammer, Magic: The Gathering ánd DnD. Nerdgasm..

The most important thing is that they seem to understand that our greatest hobby is playing WH40k, and not buying it

Have to go with WOTC: they have the experience to run a successful game business, developers (at least on the MTG side of the company) that understand the process of making a good game, and the financial resources to absorb GW's entire manufacturing/retail/etc assets and keep things running without any interruptions. Some people might prefer other miniatures companies from a rules/models perspective, but how many of them are actually big enough to take over GW successfully from a business perspective?


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Kangodo wrote:
And imagine this: A store where you can play Warhammer, Magic: The Gathering ánd DnD. Nerdgasm.

You mean like every FLGS in the US? It's nice living in a country where GW stores hardly exist.

This is a topic for dakka general, not 40k in specific.

Just like last time.

Moving to Dakka Discussions. I would lock it and merge it with the other thread, but that ended a few months ago. So instead, this gets to live.

 Peregrine wrote:
You mean like every FLGS in the US? It's nice living in a country where GW stores hardly exist.

No, it's not.
My nearest GW-store is a 30 minute drive and it's in Germany. I can't speak the language, sooo annoying.
The nearest Dutch GW-store is 1.5 hours in the train followed with a 15-20 minute walk.
And then we have the nearest FLGS, also a 30 minute drive with no parking whatsoever.

It's crap that our old local FLGS closed.
I worked there so we had permission to stay as long as we wanted.
Usually we started with 40k around 18h and continued with MtG till 5 in the morning.
It was also some youth centre, so we had enough tables for an 6 by 8 Apocalypse (that are 6 by 8 RoB's).
Sadly the owner only had 18 plates.. and 12 custom made with trenches and broken Stompas. God I feel spoiled now.
It sucks when stores get in financial trouble.

FLGS's are the biggest reason why I wish I could move to a large city

If I had to pick a company with experience dealing with miniatures, I'd say Wizkids or whoever bought them out.

I used to love playing their Mage Knight and MechWarrior miniature games and they had a pretty interesting way of selling four random minis in blind boxes which was always exciting to buy and see if you got any rares.

 jreilly89 wrote:

My personal vote is for Blizzard. RTS like Starcraft and Warcraft are close enough to tabletop gaming that I think Blizzard would have a reasonable grasp. Add in Blizzard's recent foray back into card gaming with Hearthstone, and I think Blizzard could definitely make something that would be cool/may actually be balanced (if World of Warcraft balancing is any indication).

.

Bwahahahahahah. This is hilarious.

The chances of GW allowing blizzard to buy them out is about as likely as Donald Sterling selling the clips to magic Johnson.


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 Thorgrim Bloodcrow wrote:
If I had to pick a company with experience dealing with miniatures, I'd say Wizkids or whoever bought them out.
.

Ahh. So you like crappy prepaints and blind buys? Sweet.

EA should buy them out so we can combine two companies that put the players first!

 Kirasu wrote:
EA should buy them out so we can combine two companies that put the players first!

No thank you, micro transactions while i am playing 40k?

Fox should buy them, they can have a Chaos Democrats VS Imperial Republicans!

Kangodo wrote:

And imagine this: A store where you can play Warhammer, Magic: The Gathering ánd DnD. Nerdgasm..

I believe this is called an independent retailer

 cincydooley wrote:
The chances of GW allowing blizzard to buy them out is about as likely as Donald Sterling selling the clips to magic Johnson.

Who says they have a choice? GW is a publicly owned company and more than 51% of their shares are owned by investment banks and other people who have no ties to the company. If Blizzard makes an acceptable offer GW will be sold.

Blizzard buying would be hilarious after GW canning the original WHFB game that turned into Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. Doubtful though, but I'd buy the feth out of some starcraft minis if they used GWs production line for it.

WotC/Hasbro is the standout option it seems in ability to do so and make the most of it.

Wargames Foundry.

Tom Kirby, with an investment vehicle behind him to swoop in and take over (again).

Most probably as a form of pre pack administration.

Not the best by a long shot, but as likely as WOTC/Hasbro et al.

No one.

No one would buy out GW.

I'd figure Hasbro would, but GW has an inflated opinion of itself; absorbing the IP and business would probably value a buyout of GW in its entirety for hundreds of millions of dollars. An impractical number despite the comparative revenues (4 billion vs .15 billion) and would hardly be worth Hasbro's time given they already dominate their market niche and need nothing else to propel them forward.

If GW were to go bankrupt, I'd bet that the IP would sell for several million and everything else about their gamse will be divided up between other investors looking at other things than making GW products.

 WarOne wrote:
I'd figure Hasbro would, but GW has an inflated opinion of itself; absorbing the IP and business would probably value a buyout of GW in its entirety for hundreds of millions of dollars.

But that's at their current state. In theory all it would take would be a bad financial report that crashes the stock price and suddenly the cost of owning GW is a lot more reasonable. And remember that a majority of GW's shares are held by investment banks that don't really care about the details of the business. If Hasbro shows up with a reasonable offer for stock in a company that isn't doing too well I could easily see them cutting their losses, and even GW's management might realize that it's better to take what they're offered now and not risk letting the value of the company drop even lower.

 Jehan-reznor wrote:

 Kirasu wrote:
EA should buy them out so we can combine two companies that put the players first!

No thank you, micro transactions while i am playing 40k?

You already have those, I believe that you call them Dataslates.

As to the OT, the best end result for the IP and probably the games as well, would be if Hasbro bought GW.

We have this discussion at least once a month, minimum. Cliffs notes of my usual comments:
Hasbro ruined Marvel Legends action figures, and Hasbro is responsible for all those crappy preprinted plastics (heroclix, D&D minis). If Hasbro gets GW, it'll be bad. You guys wanting it are still fools. Hasbro does cards fine. Keep them away from minis.

If that's still too long for some...Hasbro can suck it.

I think whoever buys GW will need to make bold moves, have a good sense of gaming and need to leverage the IP. Of the companies I've played game from and spoken to my FLGS manager about, here is how they stack up:

- WotC (Hasbro) - Good tournament support, good rule sets. My only complaint is that they occasionally paint themselves into a corner (reserve list) and have made some choices I don't agree with (mythics) in MtG that I'd like to see them change. With DnD, they seem to have somewhat learned their lesson and are making amends for DnD v4. I have seen any model based games from WotC.

- Fantasy Flights Games - Any game I have player from them has been pretty good. I like the LCG model better than MtG CCG model and think it fits better into the GW business model. The X-wing game models are solid and many people love the game from what I understand. The Star Trek game is similar so I will credit FFG instead of Wizkids.

- Privateer Press - Probably the best parallel to GW with superior rules, good fluff management and they are also using the IP for other games. Only issue I have with them is that they seem to going down the same path as GW in some aspects (models are getting pricey) and they haven't published multiple games for the same models.

Assuming WotC could come up with good rules and a good price point, I think I would like to see them buy GW. If not, I'd probably like to see Fantasy Flights as they seem to have a better grip on model based games.

WOTC to handle the rules. Someone else for the minis - though I can't think of anyone big enough to pull that side of it off. Not to the standard we're used to anyway. Personally I'm a fan of Corvus Belli's minis, but I wonder if they'd be able to capture the feel of 40K. And of course there's the fantasy side of it to cover as well.

I'd vote for Fantasy flight, or a group of smaller game companies coming in as investors to clean up GW.

I don't see a big toy company as the ideal savior of GW, rather I think it would be much better for a group of investors who are experienced in the field of wargaming to really take the lead.

I don't see WotC as a good choice, as they are wont to completely scrap the current rules in favor of the next edition (happened when i played D&DMinis - 4E came along, and a clean minis game was totally revised to match the 4E style). Also, it'd likely lead to overpriced soft-plastic pre-painted minis in randomized packages with rarities on each mini type.

(Okay... Enough of my ranting from 5-10 years back )

Seriously, looking at what they did with WHFRP, as well as the general quality of their own products, I think Green Ronin might be able to give a good, unified, continuity-based go at the 40K line. They did pretty good job on the WHF universe.

 Carlson793 wrote:
I don't see WotC as a good choice, as they are wont to completely scrap the current rules in favor of the next edition (happened when i played D&DMinis - 4E came along, and a clean minis game was totally revised to match the 4E style).

Good. The rules need to be scrapped and brought into the 21st century. The skirmish base that is the foundation for 40k's current rules doesn't work with the current scope of the game.

 Carlson793 wrote:

Also, it'd likely lead to overpriced soft-plastic pre-painted minis in randomized packages with rarities on each mini type.

If anybody buys GW, then they also buy all of their production capacity, why would they scrap all of that just to make a completely different product?

 cincydooley wrote:

 Thorgrim Bloodcrow wrote:
If I had to pick a company with experience dealing with miniatures, I'd say Wizkids or whoever bought them out.
.

Ahh. So you like crappy prepaints and blind buys? Sweet.

Or maybe I just picked a company that has experience with miniatures and I just happened to have fond memories of? Never said they were the best, just said I used to enjoy their products.

Personally i think the best company to buy out GW would be GW.

In other words the company buys back all of its shares and ceases being a PLC and goes back to GW Ltd.

They were a much, much better company when they weren't beholden to share holders.

However it is highly unlikely that will ever happen and to be honest highly unlikely that anybody will buy them.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
We have this discussion at least once a month, minimum. Cliffs notes of my usual comments:
Hasbro ruined Marvel Legends action figures, and Hasbro is responsible for all those crappy preprinted plastics (heroclix, D&D minis). If Hasbro gets GW, it'll be bad. You guys wanting it are still fools. Hasbro does cards fine. Keep them away from minis.

If that's still too long for some...Hasbro can suck it.

Hasbro doesn't own HeroClix, WizKids does. WizKids has zero connection to Wizards of the Coast. Aside from the early D&D Minis and their distribution method, Hasbro's prepaints are held in high regard throughout a large section of gamers. There were a LOT of people sad to see Star Wars Minis go away.

Also, it's your opinion Hasbro ruined Marvel Legends, and far from fact. I actually prefer the 3.5 inch series over the old ones and the Infinite series is on plate to over us an even better replacement(we're getting freaking DEATH'S HEAD).

 Peregrine wrote:

 cincydooley wrote:
The chances of GW allowing blizzard to buy them out is about as likely as Donald Sterling selling the clips to magic Johnson.

Who says they have a choice? GW is a publicly owned company and more than 51% of their shares are owned by investment banks and other people who have no ties to the company. If Blizzard makes an acceptable offer GW will be sold.

GW is a private limited company. Which means its shares are not available to the public.