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zerosignal wrote:
Back to 40K though: buy second hand on ebay. Strip and repaint. Convert or proxy. Build up an army slowly.

this is your answer. only pay retail for stuff that you cannot get elsewhere.

 SolarCross wrote:

Oggthrok wrote:

In contrast, if I buy a $50 Leman Russ I get a much larger, high quality model. And the first thing I think, after building it for a month, is that it's of little use without two more to fill out a squadron, or at least one to make an HQ unit, and it needs six or seven boxes of guard to go with it to make an army...

I don't know, a single Leman Russ is more than a little use in a 500pt game, and bit of a monster in a 250pt game. I think part of the reason why people are freaking out over the cost of gaming in 40k is that they are just assuming that because there are like a dozen different factions and each faction has dozens of different units each with a great variety of upgrades and that large combinations get substantial game bonuses that you have to buy it all to play. Yeah if you have 7 leman Russes you get some bonus or another in some formation but you don't have to play on that scale, you can play 40k with just one russ and a squad or two. You have the rest of your life to build up to the big scale armies, why not start small to start with?

The good thing about 40k is that there is always room to grow. This is what draws me to 40k over Xwing, either can be played on small scale with just a few models but I think with only like 3 factions and a dozen different ships, X-wing is quite limited in how far you can take it. After a few years you have most all the ships, the game play will get samey, and have nowhere else to go with it.

I don't generally buy models (at retail) anymore. With that said, I have a NiB Leman Russ on my hobby pile. Reason for that being is that I am going back into Guard, and I have been offered 4 damaged Leman Russes for $60USD. The one that I have is essentially a 'patch kit' for the other four. How did I get it? I watched a buddy's animals while he went away over the holiday weekend.

I know Walmart is atrocious to it's workers. GW seems like that as well. Do their workers get benefits? Funny I don't see or read about long time GW workers in thier stores. There is a high turn over rate there.

But business practice aside, I meant to compare about buying in a lots quality and selling volumes for profit. Ok, let's forget Walmart if that is a bad example. What about what I said before.

So if a gaming store I went to sells stuff cheaper, a lot cheaper basically American prices or less in Canada, and I said how do you stay in business when other stores claim they can't sell cheap, the gaming store they sell in volume.

So GW can lower prices, we buy more for our army, I am sure a lot of would start buying for other armies as well. That would mean more sales right?

Isn't that what GW wants, more sales or just make as little as possible and charge as much as they can. Thing is, I am sure we all can agree this isn't working for GW anymore.

hobojebus wrote:

 Griddlelol wrote:

pm713 wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
To be fair, those ever-increasing prices are making some pretty awesome models. Valkyrie. Imperial Knight. End Times. Wraithknight. Huge Scenery.

Although some people would call those pretty bad.

Some would tell them to go play another, cheaper game.

I did and its been a massive improvement I can get more than one game in a night, no need to stop playing to check rules like always happened with 40k which means zero arguments it's heaven.

It was so much cheaper I actually started several other games and still had money left over to upgrade my pc.

Still spending the same but it's going to several companies instead of GW, I voted with my wallet I urge others too.

Break out of the walled garden.

I hope another ground combat miniatures game quickly fills the void left by 40k in the American gaming scene. 40K has become strictly a tournament game, which means strictly Eldar, Space Marines and multi-codex armies with tacky combos like Eldar+Dark Eldar+Tau. The FLGS doesn't want 40K people hanging around, they tend to create a hostile atmosphere and scare away social gamers. There's nothing popular enough to really step up as a mainstream replacement in the LGS scene. I just want to play a skirmish game that forms a coherent in-universe narrative, but nothing other than GW has achieved the sort of mainstream recognition necessary for pickup games in a small-town FLGS the way M:TG, YuGiOh and X-wing have.

 Daemonhost Cherubael wrote:
[b][u]
Hell, even Magic the Gathering is cheaper than this. And on top of all that, my friends now have to buy the citadel paint sets and brushes for yet again another $30 - $40. What the hell GW?

I'm sorry, were you not around for the $1200 Standard deck era? $1200 for something that rotated out and pretty much fell out of favour because it didn't hold up in Modern or Legacy?

Ebay and Local Stores. GW has always sold things at a premium but this statement that MtG is cheaper had me laughing.

No, it really isn't. That squad of Space Marines will still be viable in 20 years time. The flippy Origins Jace is a thing with a 2 year lifespan tops. And you know what? The squad of Space Marines is actually cheaper than that single card was for the longest time.

We just talked about some guys deck who placed 1st in most recent WMCQ...ended up calculating that this deck is worth around 1.1k euros if not more. So please...

Back on topic about GW's pricing, don't forget that they still have a small army of staff, their retail shops, their designers, writers, artists, lawyers. All, who also add up to the cost. Unless their payments come from different sources...

I wonder if all those who think GW's prices are too much also think that the price at which the resellers of GW's products sell is too much?

GW direct sells a box of 10 tactical marines for £25, all the online resellers seem to sell that same box for £20.
Which is a discount of 20%. If you look at anything else GW on the reseller sites it is pretty much all at a 20% discount under GW's direct price.

Those same resellers never seem to sell X-wing or Malifaux or any other games for more than a 15% discount.

See I have heard that GW's trade discount relative to their MSRP is actually much better than other manufacturers, so resellers have more room to discount whilst still making a profit. You kind of need to factor that in when comparing the price of KoW, X-Wing and the rest with GW.

Davor wrote:
So GW can lower prices, we buy more for our army, I am sure a lot of would start buying for other armies as well. That would mean more sales right?

There is no guarantee that lower prices would increase the volume of sales, but lower prices guarantees that GW would need to make more sales to make the same amount of money. If you sell it for less, you need to sell more of them. It's a mantra they jam into the head of all of their sales reps and independent retailers.

GW thinks like the movie industry and is interested in making back their investment during the first week of sales.

(Cost of Manufacture and Distribution)
----------------------------------------------------- x (Profit Margin) = Wholesale Cost
Expected Number of Sales at Release


It's also why GW's reprints are being offered at a discount now. Betrayal at Calth went from $180 to $150, the Get Started sets are hovering around a $50 discount on average, Imperial Knights Renegade is about a $150 dollar discount , etc...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Some people will also be priced out reguardless of what GW could reasonabley charge.
Let's say GW decided to cut all their prices in half. They would have to make more than TWICE as many sales from then on to make what they are making now. The greater would incur greater manufaturing costs, greater shipping costs, greater storage costs, al least twice as much labor etc...
All so a hypothetical army would cost $500 instead of $1000. Many of the same people would still be priced out, even at that level, and GW can't reasonabley lower all their prices by 50%.

Not to mention that if GW changed prices on an existing product down, retailers currently with the product would get screwed.

 SolarCross wrote:
I wonder if all those who think GW's prices are too much also think that the price at which the resellers of GW's products sell is too much?

GW direct sells a box of 10 tactical marines for £25, all the online resellers seem to sell that same box for £20.
Which is a discount of 20%. If you look at anything else GW on the reseller sites it is pretty much all at a 20% discount under GW's direct price.

Those same resellers never seem to sell X-wing or Malifaux or any other games for more than a 15% discount.

See I have heard that GW's trade discount relative to their MSRP is actually much better than other manufacturers, so resellers have more room to discount whilst still making a profit. You kind of need to factor that in when comparing the price of KoW, X-Wing and the rest with GW.

So, in other words, GW set their RRP much higher relative to the production costs than other manufacturers?

 Azreal13 wrote:
So, in other words, GW set their RRP much higher relative to the production costs than other manufacturers?

Or other manufacturers are settling for a lower percentage of profit per model because they don't feel their brand can justify the higher MSRP. Or it could other reasons, we don't know.

 Azreal13 wrote:

So, in other words, GW set their RRP much higher relative to the production costs than other manufacturers?

You could look at it that way but it is beside the point, GW gives more room for resellers to discount. The reason for doing that is that right from the earliest days GW intended to create a luxurious excess of products from which the punters could choose but that means having a vast inventory which realistically they couldn't expect any reseller to stock completely. If a reseller doesn't stock it then it may as well not be made in the first place as it will never be sold. Consequently GW had to also have a retail presence in addition to being a manufacturer so that there would always be at least one place that a given product in their enormous range could be found by the punters if no one else felt it profitable to stock. But then GW as a manufacturer is in the awkward position of being in competition with the substance of their customers who are the resellers. This makes resellers nervous because if their supplier chose to undercut them they will be left with stock they can't sell except at a loss. To ensure the confidence of the resellers that GW will not undercut them they make a resolute policy to set their trade prices quite generously lower than their own retail prices and never discount or do deals on their own retail price.

Kill Team lets one buy a few boxes, and enjoy 40k quite well. Wounds allocations and Morale is about the only thing lacking in an environment where every model is pretty much Combat Squaded to themselves, and the lack of 2+ ARMOUR saves, and 4+ wounds... I can dig it.

I think that's a great way to get into the Game, with a low budget

Only other real rules differences are the particular tables to choose three "Specialists" on, and the Leader must be the highest LD Character in the army.

Fun =)

 SolarCross wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:

So, in other words, GW set their RRP much higher relative to the production costs than other manufacturers?

You could look at it that way but it is beside the point, GW gives more room for resellers to discount.

You realize their trade terms prevent excessive discounts, right?

The reason for doing that is that right from the earliest days GW intended to create a luxurious excess of products from which the punters could choose but that means having a vast inventory which realistically they couldn't expect any reseller to stock completely. If a reseller doesn't stock it then it may as well not be made in the first place as it will never be sold.

Citation needed. If you've any evidence of any grand plan from GW, feel free to share, because pretty much any interview I've ever seen with some of the founders and influential staff describes and environment where they were making it up as they went along. The large range is more an inevitable consequence of using new releases to drive sales and the irrelevance of discontinuing a product when you've already sunk the majority of the development costs into it up front.

Consequently GW had to also have a retail presence in addition to being a manufacturer so that there would always be at least one place that a given product in their enormous range could be found by the punters if no one else felt it profitable to stock. But then GW as a manufacturer is in the awkward position of being in competition with the substance of their customers who are the resellers.

GW's retail presence is more a product of the Kirby regime's desperate need to control the message, it's a massive financial liability and barely turns a profit. Of course, given a lengthy track record of burning bridges with third party retailers, they're now painted into a corner. Producers also being retailers is hardly new or unique and many companies manage it just fine, they accept that different company profiles appeal to different consumers and accept the lower margin in exchange for higher volume.

Plus "a given product in their enormous range could be found by punters?" Gimme a break, I expect the number of direct only items probably outnumbers the ones held in stock in a GW retail store, I expect many independent stores have a wider range, if only by dint of having stuff ordered new and sat on the shelf.

This makes resellers nervous because if their supplier chose to undercut them they will be left with stock they can't sell except at a loss. To ensure the confidence of the resellers that GW will not undercut them they make a resolute policy to set their trade prices quite generously lower than their own retail prices and never discount or do deals on their own retail price.

This is just rubbish, sorry. GW trade discount is ~40%, which is nothing significant in retail terms. Neither is there anything generous about it, it's simply standard wholesale practice, they're not cutting anyone some sort of break.

I agree with hobby cost comparison. Yes, every kind of hobby, be it sport, video games, music, even learning four different languages (hundred euros in various books and dictionnary for my part ). So, this is right. Though, this said, when I look at warlord games' prices, despite of a lower quality which in fact means quite nothing as they are not as fine as great too, I just can't stand such trashfanness from GW, this love for expensive gigantic minis and that I get one leman russ allost at the lrice of 3 STUGS ( stuggy fan alert). And of course a kit of three russes offers no NO single euro off...

To cut it short: yes, having a hobby is costy, but yes, GW is fooling us. That's why I hope they'll lose much costumers and be forced to have to prices go done.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
If GW felt that "high" price was actually hurting them (i.e. reduce pay & reduce bonuses), they could easily do something about it (i.e. reduce prices). That hasn't happened, so GW's production cost reductions and gross margin improvements mean they're not concerned. I look at IKR, WHQ:ST and think GW is doing just fine.

I have more than enough, and I buy almost nothing now, so it doesn't matter that much.

Sale #'s are dropping steadily though. Last year core product profits fell. Only thing that saved overall profits was royalties from 3rd party(total war warhammer) going up. Sale #'s been going down steadily so unless they are total idiots they know they HAVE to do something to it. Sale # dropping constantly isn't sustainable(after all if it drops constantly eventually it hits 0).

However just because they realize something needs to be done doesn't mean it's same conclusion players might do. FB was 3rd best selling in USA but dropping in sales. What players would have done? Reduce prices, increase support, improve rules. What GW did? Drop support to life support, keep upping prices, start working on replacement game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Davor wrote:
So GW can lower prices, we buy more for our army, I am sure a lot of would start buying for other armies as well. That would mean more sales right?

Let's say prices drop 50%. Would you buy MORE than double what you did? Ie you spend 100£/month now. Would you then spend 130£/month?

It's not as black and white. For starters miniatures are niche product. They have user base cap they cannot really exceed. For second it's worse for them if they drop price say 50% and sale # doubles. Also dropping prices isn't quarantee to even result in old players buying more or new players joining up. GW has generated lots of ill will so simply dropping prices isn't going to cause quick change in buying habits...

As people have said it is a very niche market to sell to. To make enough profit y out have to do one of two things; either sell lots of cheaper product, or smaller amounts of expensive stuff.

With GW, it has to be the second as there aren't that many players in the grand scheme of things. And then you have to factorij costs other than just the plastic it self. There's the machinery, the molds themselves, the designers, the day labour in the factory, artists for box covers, shipping costs and so on. It can fairly rack up expenses. Hell the metal molds for plastic injection are hugely expensive as they have to be used over and over while subject to high heat and pressure, and still retain all the details.

Then there's shop costs, electric for the shop, staff wages, leaflets, pens, rent, even toliet paper. for every single shop they own they have to buythise things. This is why third party can do 20% off, because GW don't have to pay for anything extra beyond making and shipping.

If they cut costs more people would have to buy more, but most people already have a sizable army. That puts pressure on selling to new players, which leads to that horrible pushy sales tactic in stores everybody hates. It's why they did age of sigmar, because most players already had a huge army and wouldn't buy more to add to their collection of ancient models that they got 15 years ago. They needed to makeit more accessible because theonly way to play was to buy a massive army to compete with veterans.

If everyone really wants lower prices in gw, it would have to take more people buying more stuff first to show GW that it wouldbe worthwhile to actually lower prices. But nobody wants to do that because it's too expensive right now. It's a catch 22 for both parties

It costs literally pennies to make a sprue including material costs and labour.

The cardboard costs more than the sprues they hold.

The cost comes from the mold and even then that's only the steel ones the aluminium ones are cheap but wear out quicker.

No let's make no bones about it your paying that price because they are locked into long term leases on shops that don't make enough money to pay for themselves, and dividends to bloat kirbys bank balance and to keep shareholders from selling up.

GW are set up for mass production they should be selling in bulk, instead they are trying to run a boutique.

I feel like this thread has really devolved into a bunch [citations needed].

 Azreal13 wrote:

You realize their trade terms prevent excessive discounts, right?

I heard that they complained of online retailers discounting so much that B & M stores couldn't compete. That does not imply they against their resellers discounting just that they wanted to protect the LGS who they imagine do more to support the hobby. As I understand it they now have a variable trade discount depending on whether the reseller has a B&M presence. B&Ms get a better discount. Actually Privateer Press also complained of online retailers hurting B&M stores.

 Azreal13 wrote:

Citation needed. If you've any evidence of any grand plan from GW, feel free to share, because pretty much any interview I've ever seen with some of the founders and influential staff describes and environment where they were making it up as they went along. The large range is more an inevitable consequence of using new releases to drive sales and the irrelevance of discontinuing a product when you've already sunk the majority of the development costs into it up front. ----

Well I was speculating there. It seemed plausible to me, but equally your own narrative is also plausible.

 Azreal13 wrote:

This is just rubbish, sorry. GW trade discount is ~40%, which is nothing significant in retail terms. Neither is there anything generous about it, it's simply standard wholesale practice, they're not cutting anyone some sort of break.

I was told it was 50% by an independent stockist from whom I bought up a rack of GW stock for resale on ebay (He mostly sold Airfix kits & similar with only one bay for GW, when a new LGS opened nearby dedicated to wargaming & GW with tables and big selection of stock, he no longer had customers coming in for GW so wanted to redeploy his capital on something that would sell faster). The distributor from whom I buy everything that doesn't come from GW such as Army Painter, X-Wing, Malifaux, has a trade discount of 45%. That 5% difference would seem to account for how it is that online retailers like Goblin Games can sell ALL their GW at 20% off whilst selling everything else at not better than 15% off.

 SolarCross wrote:
That 5% difference would seem to account for how it is that online retailers like Goblin Games can sell ALL their GW at 20% off whilst selling everything else at not better than 15% off.

Not necessarily. A larger discount can be counter-balanced by larger volume of sales. It's not necessarily anything to do with the trade price.

Jeremy Corbyn always reminds me of the peasant from Monty Python & The Holy Grail lol.

I dunno, I see price gouging on a whole new level between FLGS here:
I see Renegade selling for $190 at the more high volume FLGS and then $250 for the more local store and still see the old Knights on the shelf for $190.

My Polish friend is such an enthusiastic guy commented that "They are all gouging Bas@$%^&*!"... and made a marine company completely out of used models.
The more messed up the models the more he liked them (cheap!!!!).
He soaked them, cleaned them, took them all apart into components and put them all together again.

An entire 2nd edition style mechanized marine company for a couple hundred bucks.
Yes GW sucks at this time for affordability, but there is enough product out there to be easily found.
I am sure the "plumbing drop pods" still have great utility:

 SolarCross wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:

You realize their trade terms prevent excessive discounts, right?

I heard that they complained of online retailers discounting so much that B & M stores couldn't compete. That does not imply they against their resellers discounting just that they wanted to protect the LGS who they imagine do more to support the hobby. As I understand it they now have a variable trade discount depending on whether the reseller has a B&M presence. B&Ms get a better discount. Actually Privateer Press also complained of online retailers hurting B&M stores.

That's a different issue, and not the one I was referring to. There is a clause that was introduced more recently which is along the lines of "discount deeper than 20% will not be tolerated."

Price fixing is illegal of course, but a supplier does retain the right to refuse to sell to a company for an infinite number of other reasons, many of which would be spurious and vague enough to be unprovable in court, so anyone wishing to continue to sell GW has no choice but to toe the line.

I was told it was 50% by an independent stockist from whom I bought up a rack of GW stock for resale on ebay (He mostly sold Airfix kits & similar with only one bay for GW, when a new LGS opened nearby dedicated to wargaming & GW with tables and big selection of stock, he no longer had customers coming in for GW so wanted to redeploy his capital on something that would sell faster). The distributor from whom I buy everything that doesn't come from GW such as Army Painter, X-Wing, Malifaux, has a trade discount of 45%. That 5% difference would seem to account for how it is that online retailers like Goblin Games can sell ALL their GW at 20% off whilst selling everything else at not better than 15% off.

There are tiers of discount, but the highest I've ever heard from anyone is ~40 (maybe 45?.) Your guy could have been including the VAT or all sorts that would fudge the discount as a % of RRP, or maybe he got some sort of special deal as a new account or any number of other reasons.

 SolarCross wrote:

I don't know, a single Leman Russ is more than a little use in a 500pt game, and bit of a monster in a 250pt game. I think part of the reason why people are freaking out over the cost of gaming in 40k is that they are just assuming that because there are like a dozen different factions and each faction has dozens of different units each with a great variety of upgrades and that large combinations get substantial game bonuses that you have to buy it all to play.

Absolutely true, and I think on that front the fault is with me .

I've been into 40k since the mid-90s. That means I've been kicking around in this hobby for twenty years now. In my time I've built two full sized ork armies, three space marine armies, one Tau, one Dark Eldar, three Chaos Marine, two Tyranid, three Imperial Guard, and countless little projects like Armorcast titans and the like, to say nothing of Epic and Necromunda and all of the spin-off games.

As my collection grew larger and larger over the years, I always wanted to play full 2000 point games to get as much of it out there on the board as possible. I had a whole room stuffed with terrain and a full sized gaming table.

Now, Emperor protect, I'm getting middle aged. I'm married, and have a kid, and our lives are full of responsibilities I never imagined ten years ago. I still love my old hobby, but suddenly it seems really inconvenient to wedge the gaming table into the kitchen, and drag all of the terrain out of the basement, and try to schedule kid-free time for a friend to visit and play a game. My collection has shrunken tremendously, and I've not played a game of 40k in over a year.

And, while this has been happening to me, GW has been ballooning the game out of control - now there are aircraft, and routine super heavies, and endless formations, and on and on, which seems impossible to keep up with if I wanted to pack an army and head to a store for a pickup game.

So, for someone like me, X-wing is more attractive not because it's a better game, but because it's a smaller, simpler game, that fits better into my life. So, in retrospect, I guess my problem isn't price at all, but the perceived scale of the game I expect to play in 40k. Next time I get a chance, I should ask a friend to play a 500 point or less game with me, in a 3' x 3' space like X-wing, and see how it plays at that scale.

Tailessine wrote:
its made mostly in china. I'm willing to spend a bit more on quality, UK manufactured models.

Just how sure are we that stuff is still made in the UK and not just repackaged in the UK ?

 Talizvar wrote:
I dunno, I see price gouging on a whole new level between FLGS here:
I see Renegade selling for $190 at the more high volume FLGS and then $250 for the more local store and still see the old Knights on the shelf for $190.

Again that's not gouging. Really people should at least use proper terms.

You claim that's gouging. How those are essentials you need to buy?

 oldzoggy wrote:

Tailessine wrote:
its made mostly in china. I'm willing to spend a bit more on quality, UK manufactured models.

Just how sure are we that stuff is still made in the UK and not just repackaged in the UK ?

100%

There are pictures of the production floor in Nottingham.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Plus, FW can actually cast stuff to order while you wait at WHW, and post isn't that fast

Their operating costs are probably what kills them and what forces the price increases in the models. Then they spin it by emphasizing the high quality of the product. The biggest lie they tried to sell was the "we're a model company"
....except for the fact that they're really a conglomerate of companies
a model design company
a model manufacturing company
a board games maker
a magazine publisher
a book publisher
a video game "producer" - not a developer or distributor or publisher - but they help to produce the games by offering creative consultation and licensing
I would have added paint and model supplies maker but I'm going to assume these are outsourced and GW/Citadel branding is applied.

When I look at the list above, I see so much overhead.
Each "division" has management teams and executives that are being paid in GBP, in a country with a high cost of living.
They manufacture products in 4 separate mediums - Without a doubt they require separate machines, chemicals, suppliers, industrial processes etc...

What really blows my mind is the fact that they're sales numbers are bad and have been trending downward for a few years. As a publicly traded company, their beholden to the shareholders to make money. So why are they still operating the business in a way that seems to not be aimed at increasing profits, lowering operating costs and expanding your customer base. Right now, they seem to think that the only way to make money is bleeding their existing customers as much as possible by repackaging existing products and rule set changes that improve under performing products, causing sales spikes.

Their really fudging the numbers to the board. No one wants to make the hard decision it seems. I get it though. It's an expensive business to operate. high detail, very small injection molding is costly. Those molds require artists, complex cad programs and precision machines.

So here's my fixes to lowering the cost of entry so the OPs and my friends will take the dive into the wonderful world of 40k:

Manufacturing Practices
+Only manufacture in plastic. GW would cut costs by having to only work in 1 medium and not have to have specialized machines, processes. chemicals/materials, etc... that require you to make products in metal, resin and finecast. AOS has shown you can have amazing details via plastics.

Branding / Corporate Structure
+Get rid of Citadel and Forgeworld - Market everything as Warhammer/WH40k. It far less confusing for newcomers when all they have to know is Warhammer or Warhammer40k. Also if they have separate management structures, you could combine staff and cut unneeded weight.

Creative
+Take the best writers and IP people from the company and form the Warhammer Universe creative team - this team is basically responsible for all the lore and rules for AOS and 40k. They're job, is to keep everything coherent and to progress the story line. They keep continuity in the setting. make decisions as to what gets published - like George Lucas with the star wars expanded universe.
+Poach game designers from boardgame companies and form a rules team that cleans up the current 40k rule set and balances all the codices - THEY WOULD work in tandem with the creative team to provide the best product possible.
+Standardize rules - get rid of similar rules with different names - namely special rules for a unit in 1 codex that are similar to core rules.
+++You'd still have 40k, AOS, Horus Heresy, LotR - just not sperate rules teams for 40k units and forgeworld units
+Remove the most of internal modelers, diorama makers, painters....all art now digital or drawn art, not photos of the models on elaborate tables. Instead ask for fan submissions. if you want to include pictures of painted models. - Cost savings would bet huge - hire companies to paint the models for the events when required, or to do tutorial videos rather than keeping them on staff and paying salaries, benefits etc.... Hell they'll do it for free to get the advertising - "this Warhammer painting tutorial was provided by Awaken Realms painting...."

Publishing
+Cease all published media and...Form a partnership with a major international publisher, license the rights to the Black Library to print and distribute to that publisher. Bantam or Random House (published a lot of the Star Wars expanded universe books) . Sign a deal to have Dark Horse, DC, Marvel, to publish comics or graphic novel series. - The marketing and distribution will be better than anything GW could do and the company will make money off of the licensing and not have to pay all the people to run the BL. The deal would be structured in a way where GW's creative team would need to vet the stories to ensure they fall in line with the established universe and the direction for the universe.

Additional Revenue Streams
+Sell licensing rights to various manufactures to make paints "designed" for 40k/AOS. This lets people choose the paints they want, generates more money from licensing fees.
+Sell licensing rights to games makers to make boardgames - that's their core business, they'll do it better than GW. GW makes money and doesn't have to employ people to do this.
+Continue striving to make quality video games and sell licenses to quality game developers

Digital + Rules - RULES SHOULD BE ENTIRELY DIGITAL - EVERYONE HAS A PHONE, TABLET OR PC/LAPTOP available - if they only have a laptop / PC they can write their lists on pen and paper / print rules as needed
+Improve online presence
+Run 1 website
+Buy battlescribe
+Change digital codices to mainly rulesets for units.
+Integrate digital codices with battlescribe
+Allow people to buy codex subscriptions - live - updates, patches, errata, FAQ for $50USD per year.
+Codex subscription also includes 40K the Rules subscription free. Core rules would also be updated same as codices.
+Rules would still contain standard game types of Eternal War / Maelstrom
+Turn White Dwarf into a digital subscription - $20 for the year - now cheaper to produce, fanzine content, maybe work with your publishing partners to provide sneekpeek content to new books/comics coming out, provide sneekpeeks into new models

Codices need to change
There should only be 3 book types you can optionally buy that can be produced for less because they are A. not produced by GW B. Don't have dioramas to create, all digital art, C. Contain less content D. Can put out the scenarios books more often
+Lore - artwork, history, short stories, unit descriptions - NO RULES or game scenarios - Full colour book - soft cover - $30 USD
+Collectors Editions - Lore +includes the standard collectors edition extras - full colour book hard - NO RULES - cover - $100 USD
+Scenarios and Campaigns - contain different scenarios for games types and settings - can put these out more often, $30 USD each

By cutting costs everywhere else in the business you can start offering lower priced products. By not attaching rules to all the books and lowering prices, you can put them out more frequently and generate more income. Lower priced products will mean people will buy more, boosting sales.
By moving to digital systems for rules and list creation you can charge subscription fees and release updates for all armies at once. By merging brands into 2 core brand, you eliminate confusion. The company is either Warhammer or Warhammer40k and all products related to those brands would be branded as such.

Lower prices, easy brand recognition, excellent digital presence and tools, new content for games, rules that are simplified and updated regularly would only help the company get new customers.

Naaris wrote:

Manufacturing Practices
+Only manufacture in plastic. GW would cut costs by having to only work in 1 medium and not have to have specialized machines, processes. chemicals/materials, etc... that require you to make products in metal, resin and finecast. AOS has shown you can have amazing details via plastics.

You do realize their fixation to going all plastic is why we end up with ridiculously priced character models? Since they sell less than basic troops but production costs are basically same they need to charge up more for them...

You forgot retailer.

The retail chain overhead is by far the highest overhead, and it barely generates the turnover to cover it.

Their given cost of sales is ~25% of revenue, which covers all the cost of development and production, and their net profit is <10% of revenue.

A substantial portion of the 65% difference is the cost of running all the shops.

FFS it's cheaper than golf.