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I had a wonderful dream this morning. Not the kind which ends up in a frenzied trip to the bathroom, and an embarrassing conversation with mum later on, but a nice dream nonetheless. I dreamed that I had woken up, logged in to Dakka, fresh cup of coffee in hand, and read the following press release from Mark Wells and Games Workshop. I know it's not likely, in the same way as the other nice things such as flying donut cars, and the robot slaves that all look like Robert Smith from the Cure, which also inhabited the dream are likely to come true. But, isn't it a nice thing to contemplate regardless?

"To the customers and supporters of Games Workshop,

You, as our fans, are really important to us. We appreciate the support you have given Games Workshop over the years and through our development from a small business, into an internationally spanning franchise bringing more people than ever before the high quality miniatures, evocative and fun gaming world and community-building games that they have come to expect.

We also understand that the introduction of our new Finecast product has been met with some minor issues. The switch to Finecast miniatures has required a massive overhaul of infrastructure and the technology involved in ensuring that you as the customer receive the highest quality miniatures possible. As such some teething difficulties were unavoidable. We at Games Workshop pride ourselves on producing the highest quality miniatures possible, and rest assured that we are doing everything that we can to rectify the situation. We know that resin as a material is the future of miniature production, and we fully expect both Games Workshop and it's customers to benefit from the direction we have taken once the initial minor difficulties have been corrected.

With this in mind, and with the knowledge that the world is facing an unprecedented level of economic difficulty both at home and abroad, Games Workshop would like to announce that for the year 2012 we will be applying a price freeze to all of our products across our entire range.
We hope that this will allow our customers to try more Games Workshop games and miniatures, and also to remain as our valued customers in these trying and difficult financial times.

We hope that you as customers will continue to benefit from our wonderful products both now and in the future. Thank you for your support."

As much I think it unlikely to happen, just the tiniest of concessions by the company would do so much to endear them to those who have had their goodwill eroded over the past year . The 'hardcore' element of the fan base, so mistakenly (both in terms of concept and grammatically) labelled as 'hating on' Games Workshop, who have had their feelings of respect (and even love?) towards the company twisted by a series of uncaring policy changes.

It is an often used video, but just for once those fans, the ones who care most of all about the future of Games Workshop and understand the importance of that company within the wargaming industry, would like not to feel like the chap on the left in this video. It is surely the perfect metaphor of these fan's emotional state and feelings:

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xCwLirQS2-o


So is it likely to happen? And how would you feel if such a press release were to be made, with the corresponding halt in price increases for 2012?

Too much time on your hands Pacific?

People still buy GW minis?

I thought we just went on the intarwebz to gripe about them.

I thought that's what the GW hobby was.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:I thought we just went on the intarwebz to gripe about them.

Well that's why I'm here. I dunno about the rest of you.

Too much time on your hands Pacific?

haha yes.. I should have been working but there you go, priorities and all that

I started writing this as a joke, and then it took a turn for the serious. I should have just posted the fish-slapping dance and been done with it!

It would be too little too late for me.

Too little, too late. The current prices are bad anyway so even freezing them would not change anything

To me this reads, "The Sales/Profit ratio finally went past the tipping point so we wont be pushing it for the time being".

I will probably buy a starter set for the new rulebook, and the DA minis. Might well sell the other army. Still hemming and hawing over the paint set. But the chances of me buying anything else new are zero, even if there were a price freeze. Which is probably why GW won't do the price freeze. They've already lost most of us as customers...

Oh well, Im going to start saving up and buying in bulk.
Im only going to buy blisters now.

My GW expenditure has already dropped off considerably recently, probably spent a total of £50 this year so far. (most of that on BL) I'll grab 6th ed but little else i suspect,

Too little too late for me. There are other systems more desevring of my disposable income...

Not that it would happen anyway..

To be quite frank I make 57k a year, which ends up around 41-42k after taxes and if I still think their plastic army men are expensive but I can just now afford to buy them then there is something wrong. I've wanted to get into the hobby since I was 16 and 9 years later I can finally afford it. They really need to look at the approach of sell for less = sell more = moar moneh.

n0t_u wrote:I thought that's what the GW hobby was.

It's not the hobby, it's the HHHobby!

I gave up brand new GW models two years ago and since then I have bought only some Tau Shield Drone parts because I thought they were going to Finecast.

IMO it would take several years of price freeze to get the models back down to a reasonable level.

That said, I would buy an Orca Gunship kit if they did an awesome one.

Won't happen. Like, at all.

That said, I need to put in that order for a couple of Carnifexes and Tervigons that I keep putting off before they get even more expensive.

If a hike happens this year I expect it to be minimal.

IIRC the last few releases before a hike usually start out priced according to the upcoming hike so their price doesn't have to be changed so soon after release, and the new Necron kits are only 50p more than comparable units from other armies.

I may(MAY) grab a couple more boxes of Chaos Warriors and Pink Horrors before the annual Raping of the wallets, but other than that, it's all OOP metal blisters and FW for me. Luckily, the local Hobbytown USA's still have a decent stock of metals, all marked down to sell to make room for more Finecast stuff(that isn't selling there).

I haven't bought anything "new" from GW in...a long time. The last time I bought something new it was at a 30% discount from my FLGS.

Everything else comes off of the secondary market.

Please GW keep raising prices! It makes the value of the models in my possession I bought ages ago more valuable to trade away or sell later on.

Those 3 landraiders I bought at $45 years ago are now what, $66? So selling them off at a 40% discount means I get my money back. Hell even 50% off of the current price is still pretty good for me.

Well as they no long use metal they won't be subject to the increasing metal costs in the world so I fully expect them not to make a price increase this year.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:People still buy GW minis?

I thought we just went on the intarwebz to gripe about them.

So true.
The few things that could lure me to spend stupid money is no longer there... Today I spend 20 quid and open a box full of miscasts and melted bubblegums, the armies look like toysrus got into warhammer, the cool things like old fluff and RT groovy stuff is long gone etc etc even the bastion for uber sculpts FW is long gone with the new sculptors that deliver errrrr subpar designs and sculpts...

Grip over for now

Howard A Treesong wrote:Well as they no long use metal they won't be subject to the increasing metal costs in the world so I fully expect them not to make a price increase this year.

Then again they have been rising prices on some ranges but not others for some time, it's rarely a percentage across the board as is often portrayed. I would expect to see sometihing.

Price of Gas has gone up from $2.80 to $3.80 a gallon in the past two years....the price of plastic and metal have increased 20-50% in that time frame (you can check all of this online), a small price increase for all things plastic and metal that are shipped would seem to make sense.

I agree that alot of what GW is overpriced for the physical product you get...but it's like buying an ipod. $300 for something that honestly costs maybe $5 to put together and with it's parts. BUT the use you get out of it justifies the $ you are paying which goes into apple salaries and their support and R&D structure which allows the product to be available and the company to exist.

GW is the same way, if they charged $2 for a pot of paint and $10 for a finecast and $20 for a Land Raider, sure....it'd make everybody happy...until they closed all their stores and then sold off the brand to a company without the same ability to create the IP that has made the game so great for 20 years.

If you don't like it...don't buy it....but the complaining about prices is a waste of time and honestly, misguided.

deggreg@yahoo.com wrote:Price of Gas has gone up from $2.80 to $3.80 a gallon in the past two years....the price of plastic and metal have increased 20-50% in that time frame (you can check all of this online), a small price increase for all things plastic and metal that are shipped would seem to make sense.

Except they have changed for a vastly cheaper material in the form of resin. Furthermore, they are using a cheaper, lower grade resin and using a less time intensive form of casting, so even amongst other resin models they should be comparably cheaper.

I agree that alot of what GW is overpriced for the physical product you get...but it's like buying an ipod. $300 for something that honestly costs maybe $5 to put together and with it's parts. BUT the use you get out of it justifies the $ you are paying which goes into apple salaries and their support and R&D structure which allows the product to be available and the company to exist.

The difference being that Apple's products are, by and large, roughly analogous to their rivals. A new iPhone costs a similar amount to a new Samsung Galaxy and has a comparable performance. If on the other hand if it didn't, and say that Apple were selling phones for twice the price or more, and that also a large percentage of those phones were not fit for purpose, then you would have most of the fans calling for a cheaper product. Many customers would simply buy from a different manufacturer instead, and a small percentage of Apple die-hards who just like the brand/claim there is pixie dust inside etc. would continue to buy Apple. But the company would suffer, and the point is that there would be some acknowledgement from the company that it needed to combat it's rivals with a high quality product and competitive cost. GW does not acknowledge it's rivals, and so continues to sell products which are vastly more expensive, and since the release of Finecast have taken a step back in terms of quality.

GW is the same way, if they charged $2 for a pot of paint and $10 for a finecast and $20 for a Land Raider, sure....it'd make everybody happy...until they closed all their stores and then sold off the brand to a company without the same ability to create the IP that has made the game so great for 20 years.

Why must everyone instantly go to extemes?. No one expects to buy a Land Raider for $20, and even the re-casters in Russia who have 12-year old feral children who are tied to work benches putting their kits together would cost more than that. I don't think a price freeze or even slight reduction for 2 or 3 years, in light of the companies financial situation, and the price of rival systems, would be unreasonable.

If you don't like it...don't buy it....but the complaining about prices is a waste of time and honestly, misguided.

Well yes, I think you're right. I suppose the point is that for more and more of us there is no longer the option. Even amongst the 'hardcore' element of forum posters, who generally love wargaming and miniatures enough to bother registering here, there are more and more posters saying they simply cannot afford to buy new armies any more.

I, and I know I speak for a lot of other posters here, have a great deal of respect for Games Workshop. It has been a big part of my life, and that is why I feel so strongly about what is happening at the company at the moment. To draw a crude analogy, it would be like if a bunch of drunken cave-men stole your favourite car, managed to start it, and then screeched away in a cloud of tyre smoke, screaming and waving their clubs around in the air as they did so. You know it probably won't end well.

Sorry didn't mean to pick on your comment, and a slightly extreme reply!

Howard A Treesong wrote:Well as they no long use metal they won't be subject to the increasing metal costs in the world so I fully expect them not to make a price increase this year.

That's a little naive, unfortunately. The annual price rises have affected codices (used to be $20, now they're $30) and plastic kits along with metals. I would love for you to be correct, but to date GW's been pretty consistent with the price hikes.

This is just a thought, but given how GW went about last years price increase and the move to Finecast... I think we'll see increases come with new releases rather than an across the board price increase. Tho, GW works in strange and mysterious ways and loves to anger their customers.

oni wrote:This is just a thought, but given how GW went about last years price increase and the move to Finecast... I think we'll see increases come with new releases rather than an across the board price increase. Tho, GW works in strange and mysterious ways and loves to anger their customers.

Or we could have both? New release price rise, and yearly price rise.

I know we should expect this, but it is still disappointing.

Hopefully the price rise will be small or non-existent or, barring that, there won't be anything I want!

2012 might be the year I switch fully over to Infinity in terms of game purchases anyway!

Well, maybe some Dropzone Commander stuff too...

I watched a lot of UK news programmes today and one of the IMF officials was in the UK basically to cast their opinion on the UK economy. She said that the the British economy is showing little sign of improving and while she applauded the Government's austerity measures she felt that they needed to slow down all the cuts;then suggested they lower interest rates, reduce vat, and bring in tax cuts tax cuts to encourage growth. Somehow this government will do nothing except screw us into the ground. The UK is still basically flatlining with unemployment high and especially high at youth level. They spoke to the boss of a toy seller/importer (The Entertainer?) who said that while costs had increased, the economy was such that he felt he could not pass the costs onto consumers as the markets were fragile and confidence was too low. I work in a high street shop and customers are only buying if they are getting a big price cut. I'm not talking about high price tag items, I've had people refuse to buy stuff that was already under the £10 price tag.Sorry the for the politics!
My point is so how do GW think they can buck the trend? I admit that they will get a major shot in the arm with the release of the new rulebook and no doubt take the opportunity to raise the prices vastly again.I'd also say that they may well lose money with the Hobbit franchise(my opinion). At a time when everybody is having to cut back they seem to think they can do the opposite and still 'claim' to make a profit!
In other posts there has been news on new finecast stuff and to be honest the ridiculous rises in price. I take this as a sign that GW are trying to recoup the losses of their resin adventure, which at least is worse than they've 'admitted' to judging by the steep increase in many cases.
This recession is going to go on for some time, even longer if the Euro collapses. Shouldn't GW be doing more to increase their customer base rather than helping to erode it regularly?

I recently started playing Battletech with some friends an hour away, and used their models for a time. I started buying my own, and you know what? Individually they're only a little bit cheaper than GW. One metal was $13-that's the same as a character model in plastic, and only $2 less than a metal GW character was last year. GW models are far more detailed than Battletech, but the amount of minis you buy is considerably smaller-yet individually, they cost more than non-character GW models. Yet nobody complains. Privateer Press models are the same or more than GW models, yet you need less to play their games. GW's big problem with prices is that you need a large number of models to play their games (hypothetically). I could pay ~$200 to get an 1850 Daemon army or Grey Knight army using 2 GDs, 3 Princes, Nurglings and Draigo-wing, respectively. A 35pt army of PP costs around the same, right? I own 5 Battletech minis and I've spent around $60 on them.

Anyway, long message over, I felt a while ago that GW was getting too expensive for me (had a crappy job/income), but now I have the means to keep buying and playing, and even start new game systems-without going crazy, buying everything up, GW is actually not too expensive of a hobby-going out drinking one night and having a good time will cost over $20, usually. 1 night of drinking or half a box of soldiers you can use for the next decade? Hmm...unless you're bringing home a smoking hot girl who is willing to do things that are illegal in every non-third world country, I'm pretty sure the models are a better deal. Avatars of War prices the same as GW, or fairly close. Scibor looks to be more expensive individually. Maybe it's time we stop the griping? I'm not trying to White Knight-I disagree with MANY of their decisions. I'm just saying they aren't priced way above everyone else-they just build a system that encourages us to purchase more than other companies do. Drop to small game sizes (1000-1250pts) and you should only be dropping one to two hundred bucks into an army. We have a say over what size games we play-GW doesn't anymore (since their sanctioned tourneys are gone).