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So the rumor is the next Orc and Goblin book will be a $50 or more hardcover. Since FFG has been doing pretty will with $40 to $50 HCs and FW has been doing $100 books for a while it seems GW is looking to test that price point.

Can anyone confirm that's the format for the Orc book?

And does this mean the GKs and future Codexes will also be $50 HCs?

EDIT - Warseer reports a price of 29,50€ about US$40 a 33% increase from the current book.

when is the orc and goblin book coming out? i don't really follow the timeline of fantasy releases.

March IIRC.

That would suck on several levels, and be good on none I can think of.
A) $50 friggin dollars!
B) Can't get it spiral bound easily
C) Cumbersome
D) I would only have the books for my armies and would download the rest, vs getting them all like now.
E) Listening to people talking about how much GW is ripping us off.

Yeah Feb or March:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/326761.page


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And yeah, it would mean an end to buying books because an army looks interesting. I'd just get IG, Chaos and =I= in the future.

Would effectively make it 30 Quid over here.
Sure hope this isn't the case

Not sure that's confirmed.

My suspicion would be slightly crossed wires, and a limited edition hardback being available...


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Seriously, they cost far, far more to produce than a paperback, so I don't see GW's cost cutting drive really marrying up with this.

Could well be wrong though. This is just speculation on my count.

£30 for an army book!!

wow, not cool GW, not cool.

If they are, they better be planning to up the page count and dramatically add to the content. Maybe this would be acceptable if they were doing the fabled multi-Codex books like one with 2-4 Space Marine variants all at once.

Mr Mystery wrote:Not sure that's confirmed.

My suspicion would be slightly crossed wires, and a limited edition hardback being available...

I hope so.

Seriously, they cost far, far more to produce than a paperback, so I don't see GW's cost cutting drive really marrying up with this.

Could well be wrong though. This is just speculation on my count.

Not really true. It's been a while since I in publishing but the price difference for producing a HC and PB was not much, just a few bucks, plus I suppose some extra cost in shipping. When I was working on a book in China we upgraded to HC for like a dollar, so the Chinese version was actually a lot nicer than the English.

Then the retail price is anywhere from 50% to 100% more. HCs are high profit items but sell less due to the higher price point. If GW assumes that demand is inelastic (and we have statements from them saying just that) then HC army books that are vital to play the game and need replacing every 4 years (10 years for SoB and Dark Space Elfs ) would make a lot of sense from their PoV. It would depend on how many sales they think they would lose from people buying books just to have them or check them out.

Guess that would be cool as a special edition, but tbh they could only do it with marines, plus costs so who knows.
Be a bit silly though imo, and if they got to cut back on their costs I don't see how they could make it feasible

Edit: just saw what you put Kyoto and maybe they would see it as a money spinner basing it on the fact we would need the books like you said.
I'm now starting to think it's just their kind of caper

Maybe they will do it like Privateer press and have both options available?

Yes, anything higher than £25 would end my interest of buying them for a casual read (and I've bought pretty much all of them at one time or other).

Since this point has been made a number of times so far, I would wonder how much market research GW do if the past evidence didn't so clearly point to bugger all.

I think we've gone over this before. Price rises mean people buy less. Higher barriers of entry mean I would put off starting a new army and would only buy the army books/codexes I need.

NAVARRO wrote:Maybe they will do it like Privateer press and have both options available?

+1. I think that if GW goes the way of hardback armybooks and codices, they'll have to do it this way. I think they'll lose too many purchases otherwise. I can see them releasing the hardcover with wave 1 of the new minis and paperback when they release wave 2. That way, if you want to jump on the bandwagon as soon as it comes out, you have to buy the hardcover. Otherwise, you wait for the paperback or download a pirated copy.

Considering that new rules are a great way to get people to try new models (therefore selling more models), making rulebooks harder to acquire via higher buy-in costs would be pants on head slowed.

if they do that with 40k releases, i'd simply stop buying army books just to be familiar with them. i pretty much pick up every codex for the fluff read (in this edition) as well as to be familiar with the rules (in 3rd edition).


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sourclams wrote:Considering that new rules are a great way to get people to try new models (therefore selling more models), making rulebooks harder to acquire via higher buy-in costs would be pants on head slowed.

is everyone a yahtzee fan now? first HBMC now you!

Everyone would. What you would see is a massive decline in GW rulebook sales and a corresponding increase in .pdf ripoffs pirated online. There's barely any reason to buy a GW codex as-is, even if you play the army. Going exclusively to $50 hardcovers, something that doesn't necessarily sell out in even limited edition initial runs, would be about as smart as putting your pants up on your head and running about, flapping your arms.

NAVARRO wrote:Maybe they will do it like Privateer press and have both options available?

They've tried that before, with a 'Limited Edition' hardcover Marine codex available last edition. Didn't seem to do too well, but then I haven't actually seen sales figures... maybe they just lasted in the webstore so long because they printed a boatload of them.

I own all the 40K codexes currently. Them costing £30 would herald in a new age of me not maintaining that trend because I'm not prepared to spend that kind of money for the pleasure of a casual flick.

sourclams wrote:Considering that new rules are a great way to get people to try new models (therefore selling more models), making rulebooks harder to acquire via higher buy-in costs would be pants on head slowed.

Remember, this is Games Workshop we're talking about. Pants on head slowed is their specialty.

sourclams wrote:Everyone would. What you would see is a massive decline in GW rulebook sales and a corresponding increase in .pdf ripoffs pirated online. There's barely any reason to buy a GW codex as-is, even if you play the army. Going exclusively to $50 hardcovers, something that doesn't necessarily sell out in even limited edition initial runs, would be about as smart as putting your pants up on your head and running about, flapping your arms.

lol, but this IS GW we are talking about.... they've been pricing themselves out of business for that past 8 years

If that happens I am likely to start downloading the books instead of buying them. That is lame.

Bah humbug
Since I bought the O&G Army Book less than 6 months ago they can stuff the new one where the bad moon don't shine

Limited Edition Hard cover codex versions with extra fluff and pictures I can see but as a main codex its just terrible. More expensive and its cumbersome to carry around. The Hardcover fantasy codex is like a big brick.

I will give serious consideration to the pros and cons of illegal downloading.

Sorry, as somebody made the "pants on head slowed" comment, I couldn't resist

Eh, the _current_ cost of army books is a little hard to take let alone a $50 luxury edition. This really hit home when I picked up Warmachine Prime MkII this last weekend. 250+ pages in full colour for $27 Canadian.

I'd probably aquire it by other means. An RPG is a whole game. £30 for a WHOLE GAME is fine.

£30 + ARMY+ RULEBOOK is not cool.

If this is the case GW can feth right off.

/angry

If true, I look forward to the GW spinspeil on how cool these books are for an awesome gaming experience!