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Firstly i love posting such questions as it gives everyone a chance to say there personnel views on the topic.
My last one was about the chaos space marine codex.

Anyway just let me know what you think because personally i do not, because it has become such a globally known wargame.


Steve

Even if GW went out of business, people would still play Warhammer. Although there wouldn't be new models (officially, anyway) people would keep on writing rules to add new stuff into the game. We've all invested a lot into this game, and we wouldn't all jump ship immediately.

No. Something to do with someone's soul and a deal with someone or other...

GW could but the Warhammer brand would be bought by another company. I don't see Warhammer disappearing even if GW went to the wall.

Eventually yes it would and eventually warhammer and 40k would go away too. But I don't think that will be for a very long time.

GW's likely reached the point that the 40k IP would live on far past the founding company. Someone would buy the property to try and exploit it, even if meant releasing a pre-painted game or similar.

It could, it wouldn't be hard but I agree the IP would live on somehow.

But those second lives never seem to work out look at Shazam's life at DC, Warzon/Mutant Chronicle's various revivals and venerable properties like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

I doubt it. As others have said, form might change, but the beast will go on.

Other wargames companies that have come and gone were different beasts altogether, usually burning brightly, then burning out. GW have such a massive slice of the overall market, they'd have to seriously go some to go fully extinct.

Plus, something I realised just the other day. I'm 30 this year, and got involved 22 years ago through Heroquest. As did many members of my generation. This gave GW a considerable boost in the mid-late 90's, and early 00's. And in 5 or so years time, those of my kind who have spawned their spawn will be introducing them. The second wind if you like. Sure, there are 2nd Generation gamers now, but in a different way. My mate Paul's kids for instance, will be the first kids who Dad's experience of Wargaming is primarly (and often only) GW.

GW, like everything else, will at some point cease to exist.
I mean honestly,how many games from as recently as 200 years ago are still played?
In time GW/Warhammer 40k will fade away and be replaced by other "diversions".

It won't go anywhere, the whole warhammer/40k is a cash cow and one that never stops producing milk. Not too sure about LOTR games, I could see that dying out though.

I mean honestly,how many games from as recently as 200 years ago are still played?

Monopoly has been around for over 100 years. Though back then it was called The Landlords Game and it laid the foundation for the game Monopoly. Got this from google, first game that popped in my head that could be over 100 years old.

Oh and chess has been around since pretty much forever.

HI all.
Unless the current GW plc starts growing its customer base again, it will close eventualy.And probably have the IP bought off by another company.

MOST companies realise it is FAR more efficient to keep customers and generate good will. (GW depends soley on word of mouth for marketing remember.)

Pre PLC days GW DID cater for gamers of all ages and abilities, and as a consequence grew to be the biggest fish in the pond.

Post PLC days they primarily focus on the 'churn and burn of new customers,' to keep a constant stream of SHORT TERM new player-new spend , at the detriment to other customers.

So when this generation grows up, they will just remember The GW Hobby (tm) as a very expensive fad.And WILL NOT want to let any one they care about repeat this mistake.(Compared to the cost of other companies products ...GW charge 2 to 16 times the retail price!)

Despite raising RRP well above inflation , turn over has fallen in real terms.This simply means less customers and /or fewer purchases.
Raising prices increases the barriers to starting the GW hobby (tm), so GW can not recriut new customers as fast as it is loosing them.
But dont worry GW plc have got it covered, to cover the short fall in customer spend, they just put the prices up again...

Am I the only to see aproblem with this ....

Plus, something I realised just the other day. I'm 30 this year, and got involved 22 years ago through Heroquest. As did many members of my generation. This gave GW a considerable boost in the mid-late 90's, and early 00's. And in 5 or so years time, those of my kind who have spawned their spawn will be introducing them. The second wind if you like. Sure, there are 2nd Generation gamers now, but in a different way. My mate Paul's kids for instance, will be the first kids who Dad's experience of Wargaming is primarly (and often only) GW.

I'd disagree with this only in so far as I think GW are getting a bigger "boost" from those of our generation now, since we (probably) hold stable jobs and have vastly more disposable income these days. Readily available information has helped vastly too with forums and advice on what to buy etc.

I started like yourself back in the late 80s with Heroquest et al and began with 40k in 93. But back then it really was scrimp n scrape time. A couple of units a year was the max.
I remember using airfix paints and brushes on my early models and getting something like a tank/walker was just
Nowadays its possible to buy literallty whatever is choosen/wanted/needed. A lot of €s were expended last year on terrain and upgrading armies with more to follow this year.
Simply would not hve been financially possible to do that back in the 90s and early 00s with college etc.

Point is they may have got a customer number base boost when we all started back in the 90s but financially we contribute more these days imo.

Point taken about introducing our kids to the hobby in time but will they have any more money then we had to boost GW?
I certainly wont be throwing money at my kids for GW stuff, my parents didnt and in a way it made it all the more magical since you had to save for that uber unit.
Perhaps part time jobs are more prolific these days with kids being more independant but thats 12-15 years down the line which is a long time!

I'm going side with FITZZ and say eventually. I can't see people still doing this in 200 years time, at least not in the same format. For the time however, GW's foothold (stranglehold?) is reasonably strong at the moment so I don't expect Warhammer to disappear anythime soon.

Flashman wrote:I'm going side with FITZZ and say eventually. I can't see people still doing this in 200 years time, at least not in the same format. For the time however, GW's foothold (stranglehold?) is reasonably strong at the moment so I don't expect Warhammer to disappear anythime soon.

But imainged the company slipped as badly as TSR did (who made DnD products for a long time and then overextended themselves in the mid-late '90s) who got bought out by Wizards of the Coast. Then next thing you see, the company gets gobbled up by Hasbro, a megaconglomerate of toys and hobbies. They spin off all this crap to get a capture of the market for a particular product and often you see complaints crop up with how shoddy the product has gotten.

A fair example:

Wizards under Hasbro's rule has spun off innumerable card games and miniatures games as an attempt to lure gamers to their product. Axis and Allies miniatures was a significant attempt that is dismal in comparison to the variations they have made on the board games of the same name. Dungeons and Dragons has gone through many changes since Hasbro took over, and the current incarnation of DnD while making things simple, turned off some older RPGers who like the story focus over the power gaming. Oh yes, there was Duel Masters. It was an anime kid friendly version of Magic the Gathering. Fail. Then they released Hecatomb. It was a more H.P. Lovecraft inspired adult oriented version of Magic the Gathering. Fail.

If Games Workshop released as much...stuff...as Wizards did without the backing of Hasbro, imagine how far the company would be in the toilet. Then all their product ideas would belong to Mattel or worse.

Every company shuts down at some point, and in a niche hobby like our it may take a few decades but they will close or sell out someday. Could be a decade could be 3 who knows.

Who knows, really. Some would say that ever company will shut down eventually, but Beretta has been around for 500 years, and is now better off than ever with US army contracts and all.

Games Workshop will likely close it's doors someday, but theres a very real chance Warhammer will live on. Dungeons and Dragons is a good example of what i think is warhammer's future.

Lord of the Rings however, won't be as lucky (In my opinion)

abhorsen950 wrote:Firstly i love posting such questions as it gives everyone a chance to say there personnel views on the topic.
My last one was about the chaos space marine codex.

Anyway just let me know what you think because personally i do not, because it has become such a globally known wargame.


Steve

No.
Not unless they collectively agree that they rode the horse as long as it was financially possible. Then the corperate talking heads will slash and burn sell it out of existence.

The background players in GW are some serious heavy hitters in financial circles and they are associated with some serious institutions amd individuals who know thier business stuff, even if they don't know about gaming.

As long as bessy keeps cranking out that milk, she's going to be around for another few years. The minute she don't, she's going to the slaughterhouse.

Warhammer 40K will go on until year 41,000.

Then it will obviously join the historical game genre, played only by old beardies who take hours calculate the effects of wind spead and temperature on bolter rounds at 175.23 meters. A six round game will take 1.5 months.

FITZZ wrote: GW, like everything else, will at some point cease to exist.
I mean honestly,how many games from as recently as 200 years ago are still played?
In time GW/Warhammer 40k will fade away and be replaced by other "diversions".

You are right that this eventually will go away...just not at the moment. Other companies are seeing the potential for this particular IP and have the tech to make it work finally. Even if GW was on the verge of going down someone would come along and buy them out. Hell that is what WotC did to TSR. Fans who didn't want to see their favorite game go away and hey, they actually had the money to make an offer. I could see the same thing happen when the time comes.

GWs turnover (for 40k and fantasy) has been on the slide for a decade. I foresee the day when GW isn't a toy soldier company.

Some day our sun will go nova and all life in the solar system will be permanently extinguished. It is likely that GW will have long since closed its doors at that point.

Not many companies last extremely long but some do. Will Microsoft be around forever? Definitely not, but will it outlive every single person that posts on Dakka Dakka today? Probably.

Games Workshop, for all its flaws, is at the forefront of miniature war gaming. As long as there is a demand for miniature war games, it’s likely that the GW body of work will be around in one incarnation or another. Anything can happen however. I happen to believe that GW is heading in the right direction at the moment but I could not say that as little as three years ago. Three years ago I would have said that the companies behind Flames of War and War Machine would offer alternatives that would eventually force GW out of business. Today I think that GW is on solid ground but War Machine is in trouble.

I can see GW eventually selling of the Lord of the Rings tabletop game franchise or eventually discontinuing it. I can even see GW splitting into a “40k” and “Fantasy” company under one financial umbrella corporation. There are all sorts of things that could happen.

For the moment though, GW is moving in the right direction. They have a long way to go but they’re getting there.