Let's say that when you wake up the next day, Hasbro surprises the wargaming community by sweeping in and buying GW out by burying them with a deal then proceeds to announce that it's going to look over the creative team for "assessment".

How would you react on the first day of this news? Who do you think is going to get the axe?

As the weeks roll by it announces a deal with IDW for an on-going 40k comic series will be sought after and the possibility of further merchandise down the line. Prior deals in place, such as with the creative assembly for the Warhammer fantasy game, are still kept intact. Hasbro also teases a 40k Transformers run and confirms a deal for a movie.

Would this be a positive or a negative change to 40k as a whole?

I know not much of this "Hasbro".

But I doubt they'd do a worse job balancing than GW. My worry would be even bigger brand name = anything not selling well gets completely cut.

Honestly, I'd be pretty nervous about how the fluff was handled, regardless of who got it. And Hasbro seem fond of big reboots, so I'd be especially worried for the fluff. Though I'd also be somewhat hopeful that the new merchandise would be good.

As for who'd get let go, not sure, so I can't really say.

 Troike wrote:
Honestly, I'd be pretty nervous about how the fluff was handled, regardless of who got it. And Hasbro seem fond of big reboots, so I'd be especially worried for the fluff. Though I'd also be somewhat hopeful that the new merchandise would be good.

As for who'd get let go, not sure, so I can't really say.

They only do Reboots whenever whoever owns it isn't doing well, they leave wizards of the coast to their own doings so long as they do good.

I'd be extremely happy. GW's IP is great, but everyone in the company needs to be fired and the rules need a complete redesign from scratch. And Hasbro seems to have the sense to let WOTC do their jobs as long as the profits keep coming in, so we could reasonably expect big improvements in rule quality/marketing/etc without any excessive changes to the fluff/models.

 Peregrine wrote:
I'd be extremely happy. GW's IP is great, but everyone in the company needs to be fired and the rules need a complete redesign from scratch. And Hasbro seems to have the sense to let WOTC do their jobs as long as the profits keep coming in, so we could reasonably expect big improvements in rule quality/marketing/etc without any excessive changes to the fluff/models.

See, that's the problem - GW is turning out the profit, despite everything. And because it is, it's fairly expensive for what it brings to buy out for Hasbro, which is probably why they (or anyone else) haven't.

I wouldn't like it, not after what they did to X-COM.

Maybe if they brought in someone who actually cared about the franchise, and understood the dark sense of humor that permeates the setting.

What will most likely happen is they will turn it into some generic good vs evil GI Jo nonsense, with the IoM being a bunch of poor, democratic good guys and Chaos is a bunch of Cobra Commander wannabes.

Marneus Calgar (r) action figure, and Space Hulk cartoon running every Saturday morning \o/

Backfire wrote:
Marneus Calgar (r) action figure, and Space Hulk cartoon running every Saturday morning \o/

Yep. Oh the horror

IG Joe: An Imperium Hero. That's gonna happen. Straken and Roadblock on the same side.

deepstriker wrote:
IG Joe: An Imperium Hero. That's gonna happen. Straken and Roadblock on the same side.

..I actually kinda wanna see that right now, damnit. It'd be the weirdest but incredible teamup.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
What will most likely happen is they will turn it into some generic good vs evil GI Jo nonsense, with the IoM being a bunch of poor, democratic good guys and Chaos is a bunch of Cobra Commander wannabes.

I seriously doubt it. Doing something like that would require them to completely fail to have even a basic understanding of what the 40k IP is about and why people like it, and to be willing to throw away everything that makes 40k different and worth buying in favor of turning it into a generic setting. And that would be incredibly stupid since they could just invent the new setting without any of 40k's baggage if that's what they want, and completely changing everything would instantly drive away all of the customers and throw away what little brand identity the 40k IP has.

I'd likely be mortified. They'd probably nerf the vicious violence and drop factions like Chaos down a notch in the horrible eldritch abominations notch with CSM's becoming less Chaotic Evil.

Just that chance would scare me, as Chaos is a big part of why I like W40K, especially the grimdark chaotic evil/chaotic neutral attitude of Daemons and CSM's. Or mess around with the Black Library.

I'd pretty much just be terrified for the whole process until they directly stated they weren't going to do anything to the fluff and just improve the tabletop. Which is something woefully needed.

Although some nice collectible W40K stuff wouldn't be that bad at all.

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'd likely be mortified. They'd probably nerf the vicious violence and drop factions like Chaos down a notch in the horrible eldritch abominations notch with CSM's becoming less Chaotic Evil.

Just that chance would scare me, as Chaos is a big part of why I like W40K, especially the grimdark chaotic evil/chaotic neutral attitude of Daemons and CSM's. Or mess around with the Black Library.

I'd pretty much just be terrified for the whole process until they directly stated they weren't going to do anything to the fluff and just improve the tabletop. Which is something woefully needed.

Although some nice collectible W40K stuff wouldn't be that bad at all.

Why does everyone think Hasbro will do this? They kept the evil stuff in MTG fluff and background, even some of the more horrific looking artwork.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'd likely be mortified. They'd probably nerf the vicious violence and drop factions like Chaos down a notch in the horrible eldritch abominations notch with CSM's becoming less Chaotic Evil.

Just that chance would scare me, as Chaos is a big part of why I like W40K, especially the grimdark chaotic evil/chaotic neutral attitude of Daemons and CSM's. Or mess around with the Black Library.

I'd pretty much just be terrified for the whole process until they directly stated they weren't going to do anything to the fluff and just improve the tabletop. Which is something woefully needed.

Although some nice collectible W40K stuff wouldn't be that bad at all.

Why does everyone think Hasbro will do this? They kept the evil stuff in MTG fluff and background, even some of the more horrific looking artwork.

Compare that to horrible eldritch abominations with legions of abominations that happily will engage in raping your soul or torturing you for possibly eternity if you're an Eldar, ripping your life essence to pieces before re-stitching it just to do it over and over again? Or the Dark Eldar and everything that makes them the Dark Eldar?

I'm pretty sure Magic the Gathering doesn't do grimdark horror like W40K. The simply existence of the Walkers in Magic prevents this.

Compare that to horrible eldritch abominations with legions of abominations that happily will engage in raping your soul or torturing you for possibly eternity if you're an Eldar, ripping your life essence to pieces before re-stitching it just to do it over and over again?

Yawgmoth

Or the Dark Eldar and everything that makes them the Dark Eldar?

Phyrixxians, I even showed you several of their cards that could be DIRECTLY comparable to Homenculi laboratory.


While they don't reach 40k level grimdark, the fluff is pretty damn dark at times and it shows they don't exactly shy away from the darker stuff, they even do black humor at times with the fluff text and such. This isn't going to become Kiddy40K overnight if Hasbro takes a hand at it.

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'm pretty sure Magic the Gathering doesn't do grimdark horror like W40K.

Of course not, because MTG is not a grimdark horror game. But the point is that Hasbro is clearly willing to allow grimdark things in their products, and so there is no reason at all to believe that they'd throw away the defining theme of 40k in favor of making a saturday morning cartoon out of it.

Hasbro's arguable flagship franchise, Transformers, itself has a dark and moody comic series.

It also has steampunk Optimus Prime fighting Cthulhu with buzzsaw hands. Which is metal as hell.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'm pretty sure Magic the Gathering doesn't do grimdark horror like W40K.

Of course not, because MTG is not a grimdark horror game. But the point is that Hasbro is clearly willing to allow grimdark things in their products, and so there is no reason at all to believe that they'd throw away the defining theme of 40k in favor of making a saturday morning cartoon out of it.

WotC cleaned up MtG from potentially "offensive" elements (including Demons and card art which could be seen as occult) some years before Hasbro bought them out.

I agree that Hasbro (or anyone else) probably wouldn't be as stupid to actually mess up the lore or feel of the universum signifantly. However, it is undeniable that any large company does feature corporate suckups and 'Image Consults' who would propose such a thing:
"This looks like really unique franchise with great potential. But what it needs is a brand extension to really broaden its appeal and power the franchise up to next level so it can compete with Star Wars brand! For starters, we need to make it somewhat more family-friendly. We have to remove all material which might be considered religiously offensive. Also, some of the violence need to be toned down. These Space Marines, with their multiple factions, bright colours, awesome names and distinct markings, they really have potential to be big! However, they need some modernizing - I note complete lack of female characters, for starters. Also, some stereotypical ethnic characters are needed to represent the minorities. Look at how George Lucas has done this - he is really good at this sort of thing! Now, as for other factions - Orks, Tau, these are really good...but these 'Tyranids', they do not talk! We really need to give them some dialogue so they can properly interact with others and make them more suitable for cartoons, comics, games etc. As for Imperial Guard - these Comissars? Summary executions? I'm afraid that's a no-no."

Never underestimate the stupidity of people who butt in from outside with their "great ideas" to "improve the product". You see it a lot in sports, for example.

Honestly, I'd be indifferent. Hasbro has shown in the past that they aren't complete idiots when it comes to managing their IPs. So I doubt we'd see any real changes to the fluff outside of a few new comics and other things. In fact, I think it would be good for Warhammer in general. They could get rid of a lot of the bad writers and leadership at GW and they already have a large group of people via WOTC that have experience working on gaming systems. It'd probably end up a little more balanced.

Backfire wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'm pretty sure Magic the Gathering doesn't do grimdark horror like W40K.

Of course not, because MTG is not a grimdark horror game. But the point is that Hasbro is clearly willing to allow grimdark things in their products, and so there is no reason at all to believe that they'd throw away the defining theme of 40k in favor of making a saturday morning cartoon out of it.

WotC cleaned up MtG from potentially "offensive" elements (including Demons and card art which could be seen as occult) some years before Hasbro bought them out.

I agree that Hasbro (or anyone else) probably wouldn't be as stupid to actually mess up the lore or feel of the universum signifantly. However, it is undeniable that any large company does feature corporate suckups and 'Image Consults' who would propose such a thing:
"This looks like really unique franchise with great potential. But what it needs is a brand extension to really broaden its appeal and power the franchise up to next level so it can compete with Star Wars brand! For starters, we need to make it somewhat more family-friendly. We have to remove all material which might be considered religiously offensive. Also, some of the violence need to be toned down. These Space Marines, with their multiple factions, bright colours, awesome names and distinct markings, they really have potential to be big! However, they need some modernizing - I note complete lack of female characters, for starters. Also, some stereotypical ethnic characters are needed to represent the minorities. Look at how George Lucas has done this - he is really good at this sort of thing! Now, as for other factions - Orks, Tau, these are really good...but these 'Tyranids', they do not talk! We really need to give them some dialogue so they can properly interact with others and make them more suitable for cartoons, comics, games etc. As for Imperial Guard - these Comissars? Summary executions? I'm afraid that's a no-no."

Never underestimate the stupidity of people who butt in from outside with their "great ideas" to "improve the product". You see it a lot in sports, for example.

Yep. This is what I'm afraid of.

Backfire wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'm pretty sure Magic the Gathering doesn't do grimdark horror like W40K.

Of course not, because MTG is not a grimdark horror game. But the point is that Hasbro is clearly willing to allow grimdark things in their products, and so there is no reason at all to believe that they'd throw away the defining theme of 40k in favor of making a saturday morning cartoon out of it.

WotC cleaned up MtG from potentially "offensive" elements (including Demons and card art which could be seen as occult) some years before Hasbro bought them out.

I agree that Hasbro (or anyone else) probably wouldn't be as stupid to actually mess up the lore or feel of the universum signifantly. However, it is undeniable that any large company does feature corporate suckups and 'Image Consults' who would propose such a thing:
"This looks like really unique franchise with great potential. But what it needs is a brand extension to really broaden its appeal and power the franchise up to next level so it can compete with Star Wars brand! For starters, we need to make it somewhat more family-friendly. We have to remove all material which might be considered religiously offensive. Also, some of the violence need to be toned down. These Space Marines, with their multiple factions, bright colours, awesome names and distinct markings, they really have potential to be big! However, they need some modernizing - I note complete lack of female characters, for starters. Also, some stereotypical ethnic characters are needed to represent the minorities. Look at how George Lucas has done this - he is really good at this sort of thing! Now, as for other factions - Orks, Tau, these are really good...but these 'Tyranids', they do not talk! We really need to give them some dialogue so they can properly interact with others and make them more suitable for cartoons, comics, games etc. As for Imperial Guard - these Comissars? Summary executions? I'm afraid that's a no-no."

Never underestimate the stupidity of people who butt in from outside with their "great ideas" to "improve the product". You see it a lot in sports, for example.

This is exactly what I fear and might end up me giving up entirely on the current direction if it happened, just sticking to GW material but buying any models they produce. But I'd rail against them if they dared touch CSM's or Chaos Daemons. Hopefully there'd be enough nerdrage to force them to back off if such a thing happened.

Hasbro bought WotC and killed D&D miniatures because it did not make as much $$ as Magic (go figure). Then put out 4th ed and killed that too. Hasbro =\ good for gamers (RPG/Table top/strategy.

Backfire wrote:
WotC cleaned up MtG from potentially "offensive" elements (including Demons and card art which could be seen as occult) some years before Hasbro bought them out.

This happened a long time ago, at the height of the "demons in games are the work of Satan" idiocy, and that policy was reversed a long time ago. Demons and similar elements are back in the game and WOTC does not show any reluctance to use them.

However, it is undeniable that any large company does feature corporate suckups and 'Image Consults' who would propose such a thing:

Except that Hasbro has already demonstrated the ability to let WOTC run their games without turning them into saturday morning cartoons. They care about profit, obviously, but they aren't stupid and they aren't going to destroy the 40k IP (the only thing worth buying) just to make a bit of extra money. I am pretty confident that anyone with a bit of sense can look at the 40k IP and realize that the grimdark elements are the only interesting parts, and getting rid of them leaves you with just a generic scifi setting. And at that point why would you risk damage to your precious IP for something so hopelessly generic when you can just invent a new setting to exploit the market for a "not grimdark" 40k variant?

And no, Star Wars isn't comparable. It's an incredibly popular IP that everyone is familiar with, so it makes a lot of sense to use the "Star Wars" brand name to sell variant products. As long as you avoid doing too much damage to the core brand any spinoff product with the "Star Wars" name attached already has a huge advantage over a similar product line with an entirely new setting. 40k, on the other hand, is such a niche product that the target audience would respond exactly the same way to "Warhammer 40k" and "Battleclub 9999". That is, they would both be brand new product lines that would be evaluated purely based on their content, not their brand history.

 Peregrine wrote:

Except that Hasbro has already demonstrated the ability to let WOTC run their games without turning them into saturday morning cartoons.

That's only because WOTC does have Saturday morning cartoons already.
Not about Magic, though. (yet).

 Peregrine wrote:

They care about profit, obviously, but they aren't stupid and they aren't going to destroy the 40k IP (the only thing worth buying) just to make a bit of extra money. I am pretty confident that anyone with a bit of sense can look at the 40k IP and realize that the grimdark elements are the only interesting parts, and getting rid of them leaves you with just a generic scifi setting. And at that point why would you risk damage to your precious IP for something so hopelessly generic when you can just invent a new setting to exploit the market for a "not grimdark" 40k variant?

Oh, I didn't say they definitely would do such a thing, quite the contrary. Just that it can't be ruled out. Obviously, something being stupid does not mean someone wouldn't try it. Otherwise nobody would ever do anything stupid, would they?

There is another aspect to this. At the moment, GW is not very attractive target for buyout. Though their last financial wasn't great, the company is still doing nice profit for its size and not in danger to run out of cash, and the stock price is not particularly undervalued either. A large company would not buy GW out simply to enjoy about their profit. For company like Hasbro, GW's annual profit is pittance, and not worth the buyout hassle. GW has little major growth potential since miniatures wargaming is a very mature hobby. Even if Hasbro puts out some corporare genius at the helm who could double the sales (I think even most optimistic would see it as highly unlikely), that's still not a huge gain for giant like Hasbro.
IF large company was to buy GW at this point, it would be only because they saw potential for major exploit of its IP: and that, ladies and germs, brings out highly dreaded phrase of "brand extension"...

 Wyzilla wrote:
Compare that to horrible eldritch abominations with legions of abominations that happily will engage in raping your soul or torturing you for possibly eternity if you're an Eldar, ripping your life essence to pieces before re-stitching it just to do it over and over again? Or the Dark Eldar and everything that makes them the Dark Eldar?

Wizards of the Coast under Hasbro has done some stupid things - replacing Slivers with Slivers In Name Only is exactly the sort of bs that people are afraid of with regard to factions like the Tyranids, but Games Workshop has already been doing the same gak, giving them special characters and one-of wargear.

After the disappointing financials GW just turned in, and the closing down of shops all across Europe and the US, I doubt Hasbro will touch GW with a 10 1/2' pole.

If, and I do mean IF, Hasbro took over...

Kiss every licensed IP use of anything related to GW good bye. No more Fantasy Flight Games RPG. No more video games. All new projects in development by GW would come to an abrupt halt. Nothing new would be released for about a year.

So much went on behind the scenes when Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast that you would not believe it. People let go- people long involved with D&D and M:tG. Whole projects where canceled or indefinitely shelved. Employee dress and appearance standards implemented. There was a ton of other changes that went on as well. Such things are NOT publicized, but rest assured, there would be some sweeping changes when it comes to the IP of Games Workshop.

I'd bet we see no new products for 6-12 months. The manufacturing facility in the UK would be closed down almost immediately and all new manufacturing would be folded into the China/Taiwan factories that Hasbro already owns.

I mean, I could go on and on about all the changes, but rest assured, GW would undergo massive changes, and we would not necessarily recognize the end product.

I'd think it could be worse. They could be bought by Activision-Blizzard. There's a grim dark future

Okay. I want to direct people at this Blog:

http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2013/08/the-future-of-games-days-games-workshop.html

It basically says, that at the moment, GW is making a profit, but at the cost of sacrificing future profitability. But they have come to an end in what they can do to increase their profit margin. I think we've seen the bubble pop, so to speak with their stock prices dropping.

Now: How is this relevant to this thread? While yes as Tamwulf replied, There would be culture changes within Games workshop, that's nothing new everyone does it.

Will Hasbro cancel all existing licences? I don't think so. For the simple fact that one of the things GW needs to do is diversify its revenue, and royalties is one of the things that they have under developed as it is. Could there be a delay while Hasbro makes sure all these other projects are up to their standards? Of course. Perhaps they would want to move the 40K RPG to WoTC. But this is conjecture.

The only thing that would draw Hasbro to Games Workshop, IS their IP and what can be done with it, not the profits they would immediately start taking in.

The biggest thing I fear: Is they will want to change it to the "pre-painted random boosters" like they seem to do with other WoTC miniture games.

Kain wrote:Hasbro's arguable flagship franchise, Transformers, itself has a dark and moody comic series.

It also has steampunk Optimus Prime fighting Cthulhu with buzzsaw hands. Which is metal as hell.

Holy crap that sounds awesome. Link me!?

Backfire wrote:
"This looks like really unique franchise with great potential. But what it needs is a brand extension to really broaden its appeal and power the franchise up to next level so it can compete with Star Wars brand! For starters, we need to make it somewhat more family-friendly. We have to remove all material which might be considered religiously offensive. Also, some of the violence need to be toned down. These Space Marines, with their multiple factions, bright colours, awesome names and distinct markings, they really have potential to be big! However, they need some modernizing - I note complete lack of female characters, for starters. Also, some stereotypical ethnic characters are needed to represent the minorities. Look at how George Lucas has done this - he is really good at this sort of thing! Now, as for other factions - Orks, Tau, these are really good...but these 'Tyranids', they do not talk! We really need to give them some dialogue so they can properly interact with others and make them more suitable for cartoons, comics, games etc. As for Imperial Guard - these Comissars? Summary executions? I'm afraid that's a no-no."

Never underestimate the stupidity of people who butt in from outside with their "great ideas" to "improve the product". You see it a lot in sports, for example.

Have you seen D&D? I mean, I know people crap all over 4e and all that, but half the stuff you just listed (religiously offensive material, violence, various alien races being completely alien) remains alive in D&D. GI Joe comics already exist, as do 40k comics, so I'm not sure why you think Hasbro would do a complete 180 on either of those.

You make it sound like Hasbro has 0 business sense when it comes to existing IPs, or would be 100% in the dark on what 40k is. I would think neither of those are true, especially if as in our hypothetical, Hasbro is buying out GW.

Ralis wrote:Okay. I want to direct people at this Blog:

http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2013/08/the-future-of-games-days-games-workshop.html

It basically says, that at the moment, GW is making a profit, but at the cost of sacrificing future profitability. But they have come to an end in what they can do to increase their profit margin. I think we've seen the bubble pop, so to speak with their stock prices dropping.

Now: How is this relevant to this thread? While yes as Tamwulf replied, There would be culture changes within Games workshop, that's nothing new everyone does it.

Will Hasbro cancel all existing licences? I don't think so. For the simple fact that one of the things GW needs to do is diversify its revenue, and royalties is one of the things that they have under developed as it is. Could there be a delay while Hasbro makes sure all these other projects are up to their standards? Of course. Perhaps they would want to move the 40K RPG to WoTC. But this is conjecture.

The only thing that would draw Hasbro to Games Workshop, IS their IP and what can be done with it, not the profits they would immediately start taking in.

The biggest thing I fear: Is they will want to change it to the "pre-painted random boosters" like they seem to do with other WoTC miniture games.

I agree with everything you posted up until the part in bold. The "random boosters" thing already sunk two of their lines, and would require a complete change to an existing system. D&D minis and SW minis were not existing ranges, and neither did fantastically because of their random nature. I believe the latest iteration of D&D minis (Dungeon Command) is actual faction groups.

 streamdragon wrote:

Kain wrote:Hasbro's arguable flagship franchise, Transformers, itself has a dark and moody comic series.

It also has steampunk Optimus Prime fighting Cthulhu with buzzsaw hands. Which is metal as hell.

Holy crap that sounds awesome. Link me!?

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Infestation_2

An IDW ongoing 40k comic would bring great things to the fluff. They know what they're doing.

And it also opens the road to crossovers.

So you can finally see Megatron fight Marneus Calgar.

 Kain wrote:

 streamdragon wrote:

Kain wrote:Hasbro's arguable flagship franchise, Transformers, itself has a dark and moody comic series.

It also has steampunk Optimus Prime fighting Cthulhu with buzzsaw hands. Which is metal as hell.

Holy crap that sounds awesome. Link me!?

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Infestation_2

An IDW ongoing 40k comic would bring great things to the fluff. They know what they're doing.

And it also opens the road to crossovers.

So you can finally see Megatron fight Marneus Calgar.

You didn't say it has the Ninja Turtles.

Why didn't you say it also has the Ninja Turtles?

This is amazing.

Perfect Cannon cross over, Hasbro buying GW and rights? My Little Pony: Friendship is War

 conker249 wrote:
Perfect Cannon cross over, Hasbro buying GW and rights? My Little Pony: Friendship is War

If that were to happen I would spend the rest of my life infiltrating Hasbro to get within CC distance of the being of incredible stupidity who made such a amazingly stupid line of products, I would in sheath my Chainsword of Retribution and slay that Naysayer then and there.

Feel the wrath of the Thraka...

Transformers vs. Adeptus Mechanicus. Make it happen.

 conker249 wrote:
Perfect Cannon cross over, Hasbro buying GW and rights? My Little Pony: Friendship is War

HERESY! And mind you that you're being told that by a heretic!

 Kain wrote:
Would this be a positive or a negative change to 40k as a whole?

It's hard to say. Changes would be certain but who knows whether they'd be for the better. When I read your post I immediately thought of Heroscape. It was a really fun basic miniatures game that started under the Milton Bradley umbrella. To say that Heroscape had a healthy and loyal fan base would be an understatement. It was a pretty united and devoted community. Then it was transferred to WoTC and the changes that happened were so jarring that the community was left reeling and support dropped off. What fluff and theme the game had was largely eradicated as WoTC blended it with a D&D theme. This was the beginning of the end. Tragically, the game never recovered and was subsequently canned in 2010 or 11. It still has a good following but it's a shadow of what it once was.
But then again, someone could take over 40K and knock it out of the park. Who knows.

Hasbro. The company that can't sell D&D to role-players (by way of WOTC)
Messed up Star Wars minis & RPG.
Killed D&D minis.
Killed Heroscape.
Made a mess of Axis & Allies.

Yeah, that would be an awesome way for Warhammerto go

 Kain wrote:

 streamdragon wrote:

Kain wrote:Hasbro's arguable flagship franchise, Transformers, itself has a dark and moody comic series.

It also has steampunk Optimus Prime fighting Cthulhu with buzzsaw hands. Which is metal as hell.

Holy crap that sounds awesome. Link me!?

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Infestation_2

An IDW ongoing 40k comic would bring great things to the fluff. They know what they're doing.

And it also opens the road to crossovers.

So you can finally see Megatron fight Marneus Calgar.

Crossovers are stupid.

Backfire wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'm pretty sure Magic the Gathering doesn't do grimdark horror like W40K.

Of course not, because MTG is not a grimdark horror game. But the point is that Hasbro is clearly willing to allow grimdark things in their products, and so there is no reason at all to believe that they'd throw away the defining theme of 40k in favor of making a saturday morning cartoon out of it.

WotC cleaned up MtG from potentially "offensive" elements (including Demons and card art which could be seen as occult) some years before Hasbro bought them out.

I agree that Hasbro (or anyone else) probably wouldn't be as stupid to actually mess up the lore or feel of the universum signifantly. However, it is undeniable that any large company does feature corporate suckups and 'Image Consults' who would propose such a thing:
"This looks like really unique franchise with great potential. But what it needs is a brand extension to really broaden its appeal and power the franchise up to next level so it can compete with Star Wars brand! For starters, we need to make it somewhat more family-friendly. We have to remove all material which might be considered religiously offensive. Also, some of the violence need to be toned down. These Space Marines, with their multiple factions, bright colours, awesome names and distinct markings, they really have potential to be big! However, they need some modernizing - I note complete lack of female characters, for starters. Also, some stereotypical ethnic characters are needed to represent the minorities. Look at how George Lucas has done this - he is really good at this sort of thing! Now, as for other factions - Orks, Tau, these are really good...but these 'Tyranids', they do not talk! We really need to give them some dialogue so they can properly interact with others and make them more suitable for cartoons, comics, games etc. As for Imperial Guard - these Comissars? Summary executions? I'm afraid that's a no-no."

Never underestimate the stupidity of people who butt in from outside with their "great ideas" to "improve the product". You see it a lot in sports, for example.

Can I have examples please?

 conker249 wrote:
Perfect Cannon cross over, Hasbro buying GW and rights? My Little Pony: Friendship is War

Id be ok with this


IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE THERE IS ONLY FRIENDSHIP.

I don't get why nerds think their franchises will be babyfied if a major company buys it out. Why would a company buy an IP and then proceed to change every aspect of it? I could see it as a way to kill a competitor without damaging their PR but in 40k's case it would be one of the dumbest moves in Corporate history.

 conker249 wrote:
Perfect Cannon cross over, Hasbro buying GW and rights? My Little Pony: Friendship is War

You make a valid point...

 Ugavine wrote:
Hasbro. The company that can't sell D&D to role-players (by way of WOTC)
Messed up Star Wars minis & RPG.
Killed D&D minis.
Killed Heroscape.
Made a mess of Axis & Allies.

Yeah, that would be an awesome way for Warhammerto go

Half the issue with miniature games produced by WoTC, is that they go with the "pre-painted random booster" as a distribution method. Meaning that you could only buy tons of miniatures you don't need hoping to get the one you want/need. So YES they have a horrible track record with mini games, because they treat them like card games! That being said, the mechanics of those games were pretty solid.

Now as far as the Star Wars RPG goes, the official line was "we don't have any more material to put out" I think the real reason is they didn't want to continue paying the royalties for it when the recession started. DnD 3 and 3.5 were good! I have no issues with those. But 4th was bad, They wanted to make the game appeal to the MMORPG players, but didn't realized those guys wouldn't leave the computer to play with actual people. And while it was popular with new players, they lost the existing player base.

GW already has its product designed and in production. Hasbro isn't going to change that, since its been established that that works.

I think it would be okay to an extent. Maybe they would stop selling some of the less popular stuff and sure there would be some lag time for releases probably but I think the BEST thing that could come out of it is marketing.

Hasbro markets a fair bit. They are in like every Walmart, Target etc etc so that would bring more people to the hobby I think. I am not sure if it would end well though but it would bring more people to the hobby in my opinion.

 Ugavine wrote:
Hasbro.

The company that can't sell D&D to role-players (by way of WOTC): It is still strong in my area. The only problem is that they are not the only game out there.
Messed up Star Wars minis & RPG.Messed up, I am not sure about, I do know that Lucas Film Just decided to go with another company
Killed D&D minis: I think it just had it's run and competition killed it.
Killed Heroscape: It had its own issues and everyone I talked to about it know it was going to have a short lifespan.
Made a mess of Axis & Allies: Mini’s...The FoW crowd did it in.

Yeah, that would be an awesome way for Warhammerto go
What we would get is Pre-Painted Starters and Kits and frequent FAQs that actually tried to fix the game.

Can honestly say that pre-painted kits, while they'd probably make the game more accessible, would not be what I'd want. Modeling is my favorite part of the game. I'd probably continue to play, especially since that would probably drops prices quite a bit, but I'd draw less enjoyment from the building of an army.

It would only be bad for the hobby. Hasbro is a horrible company and GW is not that bad.
Hasbro would probably end up destroying 40k. Hasbro is much, much bigger than GW. If anything, the moneygrabbing would only increase.

Yeah... I think that pre-painted kits would, in a way, "dumb things down" a bit too much. A main appeal of 40K is being able to paint your troops up any way you want, and pre-painted kits would discourage that somewhat.

I wouldn't mind pre painted so long as its easy to prime over and not made of that junk vinyl material.

Id be more interested how the rules will go.

It's not that they'd dumb things down per se (though serious thought would need to be given to units like Crisis Suits or HQ models) but it would basically remove the hobby aspect of 40k.

Now I think fans of 40k should honestly give that serious thought. Pre assembled kits would streamline the army building process for everyone. The game itself would likely benefit greatly from such a change. The question is do we want to sacrifice the hobby for the game?

its alos possible they could keep the painting but remove assembly of the models. People who really want to bash will still find ways to kit bash, since they already cut up models a lot anyway.

 LordofHats wrote:
It's not that they'd dumb things down per se (though serious thought would need to be given to units like Crisis Suits or HQ models) but it would basically remove the hobby aspect of 40k.

That's what I'm saying, it , in a sense,"dumbs things down" in that it takes some focus away from the complete customisability we usually have with paint schemes.

I guess it could be sprayed over easily enough, though. But it still seeems like it's de-emphasising the painting aspect somewhat.

 LordofHats wrote:
IPre assembled kits would streamline the army building process for everyone. The game itself would likely benefit greatly from such a change. The question is do we want to sacrifice the hobby for the game?

Does the assembling of models really put so many people off, though? Even kids can do that easily enough.

 Desubot wrote:
Id be more interested how the rules will go.

Well... How has Hasbro handled that stuff in the past? Did D&D or MtG get a major rules overhaul once Hasbro acquired them?

Edit: not that i'm convinced that Hasbro is definetely going to acquire GW yet, mind you. But it's still an interesting possibility to discuss.

I dont play D&D, but MTG it dont even recall much of a change other than streamlining specific words. also there awesome sauce database and FAQs.

The more I think about Hasbro MLP and GW 40k crossover the more funny it is to me.
Equestrian Empire
troops: Earth Ponies
Fast attack: Pegesi
Elites: Unicorns
HQ: Alicorns
Heavy: not sure yet, ill think of something sometime

Does the assembling of models really put so many people off, though? Even kids can do that easily enough.

I think it does. Not everyone is into building things. People who otherwise might play the game and buy models probably never do because they'd have to put the kits together themselves. Pre-assembled would mainstream the game more, opening it to a wider audience.

And I will add, some kits are a pain in the butt to assemble. I hate putting land speeders together. The hood never wants to fit down properly, even when I rubber band the crap out of it.

Honestly I thin GW needs to change or burn. They're not doing a good job anymore. Probably haven't since I even started the game a few years back. $40 for 10 tac marines (in a kit that doesn't even have all the unit options no less) is god damn ludicrous. Even now with some spare cash and an ardent desire to put a riptide together I struggle to justify $85 on one model, even if it its god damn awesome. Wizards of the Coast isn't flawless, but I think that they could run this game a lot better than GW and make some of the needed sacrifices that need to be made.

EDIT: I wouldn't even mind the kit prices per se, if they were complete but often to make the units you want you end up buying several kits, just to get an arm or something.

 Desubot wrote:

 conker249 wrote:
Perfect Cannon cross over, Hasbro buying GW and rights? My Little Pony: Friendship is War

Id be ok with this


IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE THERE IS ONLY FRIENDSHIP.

God rainbows sending enemies to the moon and turning all the foes into lovely garden statues... *mutters mutters*

 StarTrotter wrote:

 Desubot wrote:

 conker249 wrote:
Perfect Cannon cross over, Hasbro buying GW and rights? My Little Pony: Friendship is War

Id be ok with this


IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE THERE IS ONLY FRIENDSHIP.

God damn raimbows sending enemies to the moon and turning all the foes into lovely garden statues... *mutters mutters*

PREPARE THE FRIENDSHIP CANNON!..



Really though im 50/50 on the assembling part of the game.

ID like to play with built models but i dont want to rush screwing em up as i spent like 50$ on 5 little things. I have a lot more fun with partially assembled like AOBR marines (i love those).

Partial assembly is another option. Simplify the building process with more 'fit together' pieces. Putting a whole squad of marines together can be quite a bit of work and I wonder if the shoulder pads really need to be a separate piece from the arms or the back pack from the back. I get that it allows customizing but they only make shoulder pads for a few chapters anyway, and mostly the ones in the kits are ultramarine pads, so do we really care that much?

 conker249 wrote:
Heavy: not sure yet, ill think of something sometime

Trains. Trains pulled by horses.

 LordofHats wrote:

I think it does. Not everyone is into building things. People who otherwise might play the game and buy models probably never do because they'd have to put the kits together themselves. Pre-assembled would mainstream the game more, opening it to a wider audience.

Would you get rid of painting too, though? To me, painting seems like the most challenging of the two. And if they're both gone, well, the hobby aspect is mostly gone too.

 LordofHats wrote:
Now I think fans of 40k should honestly give that serious thought. Pre assembled kits would streamline the army building process for everyone. The game itself would likely benefit greatly from such a change. The question is do we want to sacrifice the hobby for the game?

Pre-assembled kits would be awful. Even restic wouldn't be as gak if they had sprues to protect them during transit.

 conker249 wrote:
The more I think about Hasbro MLP and GW 40k crossover the more funny it is to me.
Equestrian Empire
troops: Earth Ponies
Fast attack: Pegesi
Elites: Unicorns
HQ: Alicorns
Heavy: not sure yet, ill think of something sometime

Dragons of course! Minotaurs, heldra- phoenixes, dakka pony. That could work for heavy maybe? Also you could drop earth ponies from troops, swap them to heavy, and then make troops critters , donkeys (donkeys could be heavy sense weight and all), and make it so fast, elites, and heavy are the more elite ponies whilst the troops are the normal EP, unicorns, Pegasi... Oh and make the HQ Alicorns, Discord (cannot count as Warlord), and ponies of renown (all IC buy them as a unit).


Joking aside about a silly concept... Meh, on one hand I'd like Hasbro to buy it out and on another I think not. They largely left WoTC to their own devices and they don't really seem to hate dark stuff. I could see them leaving 40k how it is simply because taking that away would remove the one unique part about it. It would be like making ponies from mlp into huma-..... on second thought nevermind (it was a one time thing). I'd be surprised if they made a show about 40k or tried to make it good versus bad. To be honest, GW already does that on occasion taking out more gruesome bits and making SM knights of honor with Kaldor Draigo fething a daemon primarch for the lulz then roaming the warp like it's nothing. So I can't even say what changes would do to the worlds it's already so retconned that we get consistent arguments where both sides have truth to their statements. I doubt they'd try to price gouge any further honestly. I'd also be surprised if they didn't try to boost advertisement for the brand. Overall, I usually think Hasbro does well, making hiccups and blunders along the way because no company can't, and I would feel they'd be more likely to be a positive than a negative. Oh, and I don't much care for crossovers usually (then again I kinda found the novelty of optimus prime in fallout kinda funny)

But its not like you cant paint over it.

People that want to will
while people that dont want to wont have a sea of grey.

Yeah, I know. Preassembled/prepainted models in some combination could free up time and money for other aspects of development and expand the game to a wider audience.

We don't even have to do away with them entirely. Like I said, more snap together models could form a solid middle ground for hobbists and gamers. Instead of a Tac Marine being a 8 part model, it could become 4 or 5 part model (or even two or three parts). It's a lot less work at the price of customization (but we all know people will kind ways to cut the models up for those who really want to).

It will also save money in building and producing sprues for kits. Fewer bits to hold together and less time spent finding the optimum way to cut up a model for assembly. A Crisis Suit could become a 3 part model in a tiny box with some gun options added into the cit. Glue the head and legs to the torso, guns to the arms, done.

 LordofHats wrote:
Yeah, I know. Preassembled/prepainted models in some combination could free up time and money for other aspects of development and expand the game to a wider audience.

We don't even have to do away with them entirely. Like I said, more snap together models could form a solid middle ground for hobbists and gamers. Instead of a Tac Marine being a 8 part model, it could become 4 or 5 part model (or even two or three parts). It's a lot less work at the price of customization (but we all know people will kind ways to cut the models up for those who really want to).

It will also save money in building and producing sprues for kits. Fewer bits to hold together and less time spent finding the optimum way to cut up a model for assembly. A Crisis Suit could become a 3 part model in a tiny box with some gun options added into the cit. Glue the head and legs to the torso, guns to the arms, done.

It worked for Heroclix, which is still around, though that's preassembled models and such.

D&D ones were just mismanaged horribly by WOTC and sold at a loss.

 Troike wrote:
Yeah... I think that pre-painted kits would, in a way, "dumb things down" a bit too much. A main appeal of 40K is being able to paint your troops up any way you want, and pre-painted kits would discourage that somewhat.

You can have non-painted, non assembled bits for the purists, and pre-painted, pre or partially assembled kits for the lazy parts of the community.

Hasbro knows how to please a fanbase.

They have to put up with the hilariously whiny Transfandom after all.

Ok after talking it over a little and if we take the WotC buyout as a model.

The BRB: Would go to 1/3 Rules, 1/3 Fluff and 1/3 Base Core Units.
>Example: Core Units for Space Marines that would be a Caption, Terminator Squad, Tactical Squads, Assault Squads and Devastators with the Rhino, Land Speeder or Strom Raven and a Land Raider.

2 Months later we would get the first Marine Supplement that would expand the Base Roster, the next Book a month later Orks, then the next book Eldar and so on every month.
A year after the BRB came out we would get Space Marines II: Ultra-Marines, then a month later Orks II: Blood Axes, and do on.

The Starter: They would most likely be with the soft plastic snap fit un-painted or vinyl, but all would be pre-painted.

The Rules themselves:
>Will kill off a lot of Sacred cows selling their rotting meat to Krusty Burger.
>Simplified without dumbing them down.
>Will listen to the fan base when making their choices, but if they make a mistake will stick to their guns and try to fix it with FAQs.
>Frequent FAQs: Complete with an updated book every year.
>Free Starter Rules on line and basic Army Builder: Need to pay for Full Army Builder.
>Electronic Rules Books: Available on PDF Rules. [Which they will shut down for abuse and then later bring back]
>Open Gaming License: The Basic Rules system will now be available for everyone.
>Availability: You will be able to get the Starter at Wall-Mart
>White Dwarf: Suddenly it would be worth it. Each month would have a Battle Report, A new unit or two, and a scenario if it is anything like Dragon Magazine.

Figures:
>Model Kits: Most likely just farm it out to a Model Maker, might even be the same ones who are doing it now.
>Plastic Grab Bags: Could see and I would buy.
>Action Figures: Could see, complete with rules on how to play Warhammer with them. [Did this for Star Wars d20]
>Pre-Painted Sets: Just like all of the others like MLP. You could get 3-6 pre-painted figures per box set.
>Pre-Painted Army Kits: For $99.95 you can just pick up a fully legal 500 point Army, fully painted.

 Sienisoturi wrote:

Backfire wrote:
Never underestimate the stupidity of people who butt in from outside with their "great ideas" to "improve the product". You see it a lot in sports, for example.

Can I have examples please?

Well, one example would be new Soccer rules attempted for US's Major League Soccer because apparently, American attention span can't handle a soccer match. Of course what happened is that actual soccer fans were pissed off and nearly all of those rules were discontinued or never implemented.

Another example would be FIS, International Skiing Federation: for years they have attempted to screw over Cross-country skiing and Alpine skiing with stupid gimmick events which are meant to make them "more TV friendly" but hated by fans and athletes equally: including mass starts for cross-country, and pair competitions. Fortunately, Biathlon has its own federation so they're not subject to FIS whims.

Then there was attempt of consortium led by Bernie Ecclestone (F1 mogul) to take over professional tennis - ITF and ATP. They had lots of ideas again to "make the game more TV friendly", including timed matches, simplified scores and one serve per point. Needless to say, those would have completely ruined the game and fans were horrified to learn about them.

The BRB: Would go to 1/3 Rules, 1/3 Fluff and 1/3 Base Core Units.

I honestly think this is what the BRB should be. They could even cut it further, giving each army basically a blurb of 4 or 5 pages followed by 4-6 pages of core units with a basic war gear list. Boil every army down to its most basic components. Give each army a focus and cut back on their ability to cover multiple points increasing the flavor. No special characters, simple war gear options, simple rules.

Examples of how I'd do it;

Space Marines



Eldar



Tau



Create a simple bare bones version of the game (call it the BRB Standard Rule Set) that is universal to everyone with simple components and pieces. Sell 1000 point packaged army boxes priced around $200 to $250 for each army using the core rules, and lower the barrier to entry to the game and to new armies. It would be easy to balance and maintain making it tournament friendly and easy to revise in later editions. Then release supplements that include new fluff, models, rules, etc.

Example;



And just do a new supplement every 3-4 months. It could give people new rules to play in, new armies to build for those rules, but leave them options for simpler rule sets or more complicated ones if they wanted. It cuts Codex's from the picture and after a time, older rule sets could have simplified versions published in PDF or maybe compilation books for people who missed them when they were live. Supplements could be rereleased with new titles as upgrades to the old ones every 2-3 years. This could replace the current codex system where every 4 months one army gets some love and maybe its yours to several armies getting some love in the same time period with little stuff instead of a full rules update.

Figures:
>Model Kits: Most likely just farm it out to a Model Maker, might even be the same ones who are doing it now.
>Plastic Grab Bags: Could see and I would buy.

The biggest problem for the game though imo, is models cost far too much. Far far too much, and GW likes to make things more complicated. I honestly think the Eldar (and other armies) are blugeoned with a large number of models that only a few people use. Models GW makes anyway in full. Kits could become simpler in the future. 3D printing could eventually reach a point where GW won't have to support a massive model base anymore. For example Howling Banshee Upgrade kit, a kit that can combine with a Guardians kit to make Howling Banshees and save a little a plastic and reduce costs. Instead of an ever growing list of models to support, they can cut off regular production of older model kits that few people buy and then just make them to order later on with a 3D printer.

This could expand the game to include a lot more models without a huge burden on GW to make them constantly, and allow them to experiment with more units at various stages of the game.

 LordofHats wrote:

The BRB: Would go to 1/3 Rules, 1/3 Fluff and 1/3 Base Core Units.

I honestly think this is what the BRB should be. They could even cut it further, giving each army basically a blurb of 4 or 5 pages followed by 4-6 pages of core units with a basic war gear list. Boil every army down to its most basic components. Give each army a focus and cut back on their ability to cover multiple points increasing the flavor. No special characters, simple war gear options, simple rules.

The smart approach would be to go back to the 2nd edition approach of using multiple books. Once you have a real codex, you should be able to leave the fluff and black codex at home.

Oh, and I missed the sacking all their best staff at Christmas.

Hasbro. Lovely company!


I've been gaming for 27 years and not yet come across a worse games company than Hasbro/WOTC. GW are saints by comparison.

 Ugavine wrote:
Oh, and I missed the sacking all their best staff at Christmas.

Hasbro. Lovely company!


I've been gaming for 27 years and not yet come across a worse games company than Hasbro/WOTC. GW are saints by comparison.

Honestly, as strange as it would be, I would feel safer if Disney bought out GW than anyone else. They at least respect their IP's.

 Wyzilla wrote:


Honestly, as strange as it would be, I would feel safer if Disney bought out GW than anyone else. They at least respect their IP's.

That and the epic battle of Mandelorian and Space Marine could finally be settled. Palpatine and Abaddon can duel over who is a bigger douche bag.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Ugavine wrote:
Oh, and I missed the sacking all their best staff at Christmas.

Hasbro. Lovely company!


I've been gaming for 27 years and not yet come across a worse games company than Hasbro/WOTC. GW are saints by comparison.

Honestly, as strange as it would be, I would feel safer if Disney bought out GW than anyone else. They at least respect their IP's.

Buyception.

Hasbro buys GW, but Disney buys Hasbro.

To further this, Google buys Disney.

I simply don't see this happening.

GW IP is not in what I'd call a "rock solid" state. In other words the things which have the most value, rules and fluff, are also the things that they have pretty well fethed up lately.

clively wrote:
I simply don't see this happening.

GW IP is not in what I'd call a "rock solid" state. In other words the things which have the most value, rules and fluff, are also the things that they have pretty well fethed up lately.

Given that Hasbro can turn Transformers into something that can gross over a billion dollars with a critically panned movie I'm at this point convinced that they can turn lead into gold.

 Kain wrote:

clively wrote:
I simply don't see this happening.

GW IP is not in what I'd call a "rock solid" state. In other words the things which have the most value, rules and fluff, are also the things that they have pretty well fethed up lately.

Given that Hasbro can turn Transformers into something that can gross over a billion dollars with a critically panned movie I'm at this point convinced that they can turn lead into gold.

Lots of Critically panned movies sell well, it's not a new thing.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

 Kain wrote:

clively wrote:
I simply don't see this happening.

GW IP is not in what I'd call a "rock solid" state. In other words the things which have the most value, rules and fluff, are also the things that they have pretty well fethed up lately.

Given that Hasbro can turn Transformers into something that can gross over a billion dollars with a critically panned movie I'm at this point convinced that they can turn lead into gold.

Lots of Critically panned movies sell well, it's not a new thing.

Getting over a billion is rather difficult.

Although I liked the Transformers trilogy unironically.

My single biggest fear would be pre-painted/pre-assembled models. I'll play with whatever rules people put in front of me (it's really just an excuse to have fun with my friends at this point) and we all pretty much make up the fluff as we go along by this point, but I absolutely love being able to sit down and spend a few hours turning giant sheets of sprues into assembled models complete with some dynamic poses and (basic) conversion work. Then spend a few more hours painting them all. It is the main aspect of the hobby that I don't want to see changed.

That said, I'm not always such a huge fan while I'm doing it...

 dementedwombat wrote:
My single biggest fear would be pre-painted/pre-assembled models. I'll play with whatever rules people put in front of me (it's really just an excuse to have fun with my friends at this point) and we all pretty much make up the fluff as we go along by this point, but I absolutely love being able to sit down and spend a few hours turning giant sheets of sprues into assembled models complete with some dynamic poses and (basic) conversion work. Then spend a few more hours painting them all. It is the main aspect of the hobby that I don't want to see changed.

That said, I'm not always such a huge fan while I'm doing it...

They could easily allow both.

Although I feel that a great deal of elitism would emerge and you'd unfortunately have people being really snobbish about having hand painted and assembled models towards those who just bought them pre-done.

 Kain wrote:
Getting over a billion is rather difficult.

It's not that difficult when you take a top tier director who pretty much has his OWN following (Bay) and turn him loose.

Bay is a master at getting people to pay him to blow things up and I know lots of people that will go see a movie simply because he directed it. Letting him work his magic with well known giant robots from outer space and you are simply printing money. Critics like story lines and continuity. Movie goers, especially the kind that watch movies like this, want to see things go boom. Which it had in spades.

Warhammer has more brand recognition than any other table top game, save the likes of classic board games and D&D. There's value in that, even if the game is suffering. The IP is very valuable, even if GW spends half their time screwing it up.

 Kain wrote:


So you can finally see Megatron fight Marneus Calgar.

Marneus Calgar would die very very quickly and painfully.


I think if Hasbro bought GW out the first thing we would see is a massive drop in prices. Hasbro is a good company, has done well with the IP's it owns and will continue to do so. Not everyone agrees with them, they some times have a hit and miss but they have done well. For Transformers: G1 was great (They killed off almost every Transformer from the 1st 2 seasons in a 90min movie[The controversy of which is the only thing that stopped Duke from also dying in the GI Joe film] ), Beast Wars was a great follow on, Beast Machine's was messy. Japan flourished doing their own thing which then came to the west, the west returned with Transformers Animated which was kid orientated but still held dark tones and the Prime has been one of the best written series since G1 and Beast Wars. They've had 3 good games with Prelude to Energon on the PS2 and then War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron on the 360/PS3 and other games were released to the market in Japan alone.

First of all, I don't think Hasbro will buy GW until the LotR license runs out and the stock price continues to drop. Most companies have a licensing retraction statement in the contract if significant changes occur. Hasbro buying GW would be such an event. Someone recently was burned pretty bad by this when they bought a company with several licenses and lost all the licenses, ending up with a multi-million dollar logo by the time it was said and done.

I suspect the Hasbro understands how games need to be both fun and have tight rules. If you look through Hasbro Games (not WotC) you'll see many "staple" games on there that the average person has played (Monopoly, Scrabble, etc.) My only concern with most of these games is that they are inherently balanced (mirrors) and relatively simple. The one game that sticks out to me is Risk, which is at least a war game.

WotC is the arm of Hasbro which probably has the most in common with GW as they serve similar specialized audiences through specialized stores. I think WotC is best equipped to deal with the fluff, restoring the FLGS as a key cog in the product marketing and helping with a tight rule set.

I know the that the local stores would go away. They don't make much money and cost a ton of money to keep and maintain. I suspect as a good faith arrangement with the FLGS, direct sales form Hasbro would not occur, instead following the WotC model of via FLGS or internet company.

I would hope that GW is left to be it's own arm of Hasbro with leadership coming over from WotC and new faces off the street being hired for rules and modeling. Hasbro can leverage it's current distribution and manufacturing system to drive down manufacturing costs, thus allowing them to lower the prices.

I suspect a live action movie would be licensed to "relaunch" the GW brands once the rules and infrastructure are ironed out. Transformers was sort of relaunched with those movies and I think the GW brands need the same thing.

I would hope the Hasbro is smart enough to create a step wise, backwards compatible game system for the GW lines (40K and Fantasy). For example:

Entry level game, think Space Hulk with more players
- Squad level, 2-4, player game with 44 pre-painted, pre-assembled models, 11 for each of 4 factions (SM, Eldar, Ork, Tyranids).
- Expansion(s) are available for other factions (Tau, CSM, Dark Eldar, IG) adding scenarios and armies.
- Total cost for squad game $40, $15 for each expansion.

Skirmish game, think X-wing
- The same models form the squad game can be used
- Make the game a two player game
- Ability to add larger pre-painted models
- Make squads available for $15 each
- Make large models $20 each

Large skirmish game, think 40K
- The same models form the games can be used
- Make the game a two player game
- Make unpainted, unassembled kits for people to put together.
- Give more options in units and higher quality models

Full on Wargame, think Apocalypse
- The same models form the games can be used
- 2 to X player games
- Make some huge models that are only for this game which need to put together and painted.

The game side follows an ever increasing model count and scenario complexity format. The model side follows the RC car model, where entry level is cheap and mass produced, while top end is custom built, but with far more capability.

Backfire wrote:

WotC cleaned up MtG from potentially "offensive" elements (including Demons and card art which could be seen as occult) some years before Hasbro bought them out.

Are you kidding me?

It wouldn't bother me.

GW is currently like the Titanic turning north into icy waters.

Actually, given that Hasbro made a movie out of battleships of all things I think they may very well make a 40k movie.

They'd at the very least expand the brand into other media more aggressively.

I love the fact that my marines come in 8 pieces. Half the fun is the detailed and complex construction of the models.

I even decided to buy Space Marines and Chaos Marines before any Xenos because they're a fair bit bigger assembly wise and easier to manipulate. Ever tried gluing Scourges together? Man they're tiny! Hard to do right off the bat, makes you want to get better and learn new techniques.

Remember that one of the core themes in FB and 40k is the modelling and customization, being able to field an army that is uniquely yours. There are so many different aspects to creating a finished miniature that often it takes enthusiasts to websites like this one in search of more knowledge. We owe a lot to the plastic sprue. To do away with that in the name of "revival" would be ridiculous.

Now on the other hand, games like the LOTR line and The Hobbit would probably greatly benefit from being converted into a preassembled, prepainted thing. The main reason kids don't get into GW is because of the complexity, so give them a viable entry point.

A company like Hasbro could only do poorly for us. Keep in mind any drastic change can't affect the overall look and feel of the models otherwise the visual disparity will further alienate long time collectors. Scale creep has already invalidated some of the older models not to mention that a marine from 3rd and a marine from 6th look so different it's hard for the OCD sufferers to field them together. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who needs his toys to look good together!

All in all this is another reply that's much too long for the quick reply box and I fell like I should wrap it up.

No, I don't think Hasbro or any other toy company would be a good buyer for GW. Another model company perhaps, but never a toy company.

darkcloak wrote:
I love the fact that my marines come in 8 pieces. Half the fun is the detailed and complex construction of the models.

I even decided to buy Space Marines and Chaos Marines before any Xenos because they're a fair bit bigger assembly wise and easier to manipulate. Ever tried gluing Scourges together? Man they're tiny! Hard to do right off the bat, makes you want to get better and learn new techniques.

Remember that one of the core themes in FB and 40k is the modelling and customization, being able to field an army that is uniquely yours. There are so many different aspects to creating a finished miniature that often it takes enthusiasts to websites like this one in search of more knowledge. We owe a lot to the plastic sprue. To do away with that in the name of "revival" would be ridiculous.

Now on the other hand, games like the LOTR line and The Hobbit would probably greatly benefit from being converted into a preassembled, prepainted thing. The main reason kids don't get into GW is because of the complexity, so give them a viable entry point.

A company like Hasbro could only do poorly for us. Keep in mind any drastic change can't affect the overall look and feel of the models otherwise the visual disparity will further alienate long time collectors. Scale creep has already invalidated some of the older models not to mention that a marine from 3rd and a marine from 6th look so different it's hard for the OCD sufferers to field them together. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who needs his toys to look good together!

All in all this is another reply that's much too long for the quick reply box and I fell like I should wrap it up.

No, I don't think Hasbro or any other toy company would be a good buyer for GW. Another model company perhaps, but never a toy company.

...They can easily have both you know. Unassembled and unpainted for those who want customizability, and pre-assembled and pre-painted for the lazy people.

 Wilytank wrote:

Backfire wrote:

WotC cleaned up MtG from potentially "offensive" elements (including Demons and card art which could be seen as occult) some years before Hasbro bought them out.

Are you kidding me?

Spoiler:

Ok, that is pretty metal.

Sire of Insanity sounds great for a Chaos Demon sort of thing.

...They can easily have both you know. Unassembled and unpainted for those who want customizability, and pre-assembled and pre-painted for the lazy people.

That's two different lines to support which if applied across the entire range, is probably more a burden than a benefit. Not every franchise is Gundam and able to support numerous grades of quality and complexity for the same model.

 LordofHats wrote:

...They can easily have both you know. Unassembled and unpainted for those who want customizability, and pre-assembled and pre-painted for the lazy people.

That's two different lines to support which if applied across the entire range, is probably more a burden than a benefit. Not every franchise is Gundam and able to support numerous grades of quality and complexity for the same model.

Yeah, Hasbro won't even bother with that idea. Too much money and effort needed to cater to both types of customers.
They would probably still have the assembled models, I suspect. All of the machinery is still there, and it's cheaper to use what already exists instead of building a whole new series of machines for prepainted minis. They wouldn't even have to pay for paint, because we would

I think assembled models staying would be for the best (I do love it), but I would appreciate assembly being simplified both so that I can have an easier time putting together basic troops, and to make the game more open.

40k would probably also get actual marketing.

 LordofHats wrote:
I think assembled models staying would be for the best (I do love it), but I would appreciate assembly being simplified both so that I can have an easier time putting together basic troops, and to make the game more open.

Yeah, that's reasonable. I was putting together some immortals the other day, and I was thinking "did they really have to separate the spine from the rest of the body? That seems to be a bit unnecessary for this kind of model."

So I read the title of this thread and thought it was in the vein of the rumor on Faeit 212 the other day that was totally utterly slowed. Remember this one like 5 days ago...

http://natfka.blogspot.com/2014/01/rumors-are-rumors-hasbro-toys.html

And all it made me think was this....

http://www.hark.com/clips/sjzvrrttbl-whos-the-slimy-little-communist-gak-twinkle-toed-cock-sucker-down-here

Obviously it wasn't its a "What if" but its funny to me how mad I got for 10 seconds!!

 lobbywatson wrote:
So I read the title of this thread and thought it was in the vein of the rumor on Faeit 212 the other day that was totally utterly slowed. Remember this one like 5 days ago...

http://natfka.blogspot.com/2014/01/rumors-are-rumors-hasbro-toys.html

And all it made me think was this....

http://www.hark.com/clips/sjzvrrttbl-whos-the-slimy-little-communist-gak-twinkle-toed-cock-sucker-down-here

Obviously it wasn't its a "What if" but its funny to me how mad I got for 10 seconds!!

Yes, give in to your anger! Let the rage flow through you.