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 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Now if only they'd stop charging Australia/NZ/Japan/etc. x2 the UK price, maybe all would be forgiven...


Anyway, this just popped up on my Facebook feed as well. Is employees sharing in a bonus unusual in the UK?

Who honestly believes that GW sets those prices?

Neronoxx wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Now if only they'd stop charging Australia/NZ/Japan/etc. x2 the UK price, maybe all would be forgiven...


Anyway, this just popped up on my Facebook feed as well. Is employees sharing in a bonus unusual in the UK?

Who honestly believes that GW sets those prices?

Um, they have the prices on their own web site, so I would assume GW is setting those prices.

Fair play to them for sharing it out, now are they only able to spend their bonus of gw products lol.

 Stormonu wrote:

Neronoxx wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Now if only they'd stop charging Australia/NZ/Japan/etc. x2 the UK price, maybe all would be forgiven...


Anyway, this just popped up on my Facebook feed as well. Is employees sharing in a bonus unusual in the UK?

Who honestly believes that GW sets those prices?

Um, they have the prices on their own web site, so I would assume GW is setting those prices.

Is GW setting the prices for Steam games or electronic products? How about other books and games from other companies? GW set those prices as well? This thing with Aussies and New Zealanders is not just a GW problem but an over all problem. Blaming GW for this is just silly.


I am glad the employees are getting a bonus. Good for them.

Davor wrote:
Is GW setting the prices for Steam games or electronic products? How about other books and games from other companies? GW set those prices as well? This thing with Aussies and New Zealanders is not just a GW problem but an over all problem. Blaming GW for this is just silly.

It is an overall problem, but one that's really gotten much much better over the last decade or so. I don't know if it's still cheaper to fly to America and buy Adobe than buy the the Aussie version but all my Steam purchases these days are just done with US prices and whatever the current exchange rate is.
As everything else has been reducing that gap GW under Kirby did everything it could to stop us buying from overseas at cheaper prices.

Actually lets check something. The Combat Company, my first choice for online shopping in Australia lists the Japanese starter box from Infinity (most recent big release from another mini company) at $131 AUD recommended retail price. The War Store (not sure how popular that is in the US but I've heard the name plenty) has it listed as $99 USD RRP. According to Google's currency converter that's bang on the same exact price in both regions (in fact it's 38 cents more expensive in America ). The big Foregebane kit that GW released recently is $265 AUD, which converts to $201.50 USD, but the US price for the same set is only $160.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Now if only they'd stop charging Australia/NZ/Japan/etc. x2 the UK price, maybe all would be forgiven...


Anyway, this just popped up on my Facebook feed as well. Is employees sharing in a bonus unusual in the UK?

It's unusual for a company to just decide to give staff that don't have some sort of bonus or commission in their contract a bonus.

Good to see them giving all staff bonus -

Neronoxx wrote:
Who honestly believes that GW sets those prices?

Everyone. Duh! GW has their own retail chain and international web store where the prices are fixed based on region. Of course they set them themselves. How could you possibly think otherwise?

Davor wrote:
Is GW setting the prices for Steam games or electronic products? How about other books and games from other companies? GW set those prices as well? This thing with Aussies and New Zealanders is not just a GW problem but an over all problem. Blaming GW for this is just silly.

All of which has very little to do with what we were talking about, but nice try all the same.

 Scott-S6 wrote:
It's unusual for a company to just decide to give staff that don't have some sort of bonus or commission in their contract a bonus.

Ah, ok, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying that.

I remember two staffers once talking about how crap it was to work for GW, the low pay et cetera, and one of them reckoned that GW had put him up in some kind of bedsit but when he got there, a joist was so rotten it had fallen through the ceiling and there was a hole right through to the roof.

The company seems to have come a helluva long way since those days, it's good to see.

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
Spoiler: All the bonuses are actually in GW credit. Only redeemable on their products.

Another spoiler: No one would probably complain.

Actual spoiler: from what I heard, most people took the bonus, turned right around and gave the money back to their employer in exchange for more plastic crack not unexpected but still funny.

Yeah... should have bought shares back in 2016. I was really tempted when we saw the Genestealer Cult in Overkill - for me that was the turning point. Regret not doing so.

I don't really get the idea GW haven't changed. They are acting like a games company rather than a pure model company. Its not just having a facebook thread and some funny videos - its an entire culture shift in the relationship with the consumer.

The fact the quality of the models has (IMO anyway) increased significantly, putting them once again ahead of the competition, probably helps too.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:


Anyway, this just popped up on my Facebook feed as well. Is employees sharing in a bonus unusual in the UK?

Not unheard of but it's usually confined to businesses that are (part)owned by their workers or who always do it (and often pay less 'basic' as a consequence),

an out of the blue bonus just because the firm did really well is fairly unusual

 Arbitrator wrote:
Proof that if you practise a basic social media presence and tell people "no, no, we're totally listening" you don't have to change anything else and people will buy it hook, line and sinker.

What exactly has GW changed from before the Kirby era? Okay, so they say they're listening but once 8th edition took two steps out of the starting gate, GW's non-existent ability to write rules reared it's head again. Oh right, but now you get to pay £25 for their 'balance changes' that just swing the pendulum. You'd think for all this profit, they'd actually hire people who can do their jobs. In any other job if you were this incompetent you'd be sacked months ago, but apparently GW's writers get a pass from both the company and buyers because, uh, they smile and tell you they're your friend now?

It's all smiles on Facebook and WHCommunity, they make cute videos and comics - as per the social media presence - but as far as I can tell that's about the only difference between Kirby and now.

I would tend to agree. While there have been positive changes, like previews and massively discounted box sets, return of SG... and the model line is stronger than ever, in the end it all comes down to the rules, and GW evidently doesn't have a single competent designer left now that Hewitt left. "Listening to the community" is just "New GW" speak for "if you complain enough, we'll errata these massive problems with the game that any other gaming company would have caught in playtesting". It's astounding to me that people still bend over backwards to make excuses for a company that is continually failing not only to match its direct competitors in rules quality, but struggles to even stay in the same ballpark as the free games on Wargames Vault written by lone enthusiasts in their free time.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Crikey o'blimey! Not bad, eh?

I was disappointed that I didn't see your name behind this thread Mad Doc!

I guess my next question would be how much money are you expecting to see out of this? (I jest! )

 Mymearan wrote:

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
Spoiler: All the bonuses are actually in GW credit. Only redeemable on their products.

Another spoiler: No one would probably complain.

Actual spoiler: from what I heard, most people took the bonus, turned right around and gave the money back to their employer in exchange for more plastic crack not unexpected but still funny.

Amusing, but as you say quite an expected thing if one considers that many of those working for GW are likely hobby fans themselves in some form. As a niche hobby and an industry that, lets face it, isn't top paying they are more likely to attract people who have a genuine interest in the hobby itself. Heck most GW shop staff I've met are basically just gamers who get paid to sell games to other gamers (at least in the UK market). So yeah give them a bonus and chances are some of that is going right back on getting some hobby stuff (I bet FW division did well! )

 Pacific wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Crikey o'blimey! Not bad, eh?

I was disappointed that I didn't see your name behind this thread Mad Doc!

I guess my next question would be how much money are you expecting to see out of this? (I jest! )

Nowt! Not worked at GW since 2010.

I’m now an Investigator, and hold an Inquisitorial Mandate (no, really.)

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 Pacific wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Crikey o'blimey! Not bad, eh?

I was disappointed that I didn't see your name behind this thread Mad Doc!

I guess my next question would be how much money are you expecting to see out of this? (I jest! )

Nowt! Not worked at GW since 2010.

I’m now an Investigator, and hold an Inquisitorial Mandate (no, really.)

I don't think anyone expected that!

ERJAK wrote:
Then you have business practice stuff like why in the Sam Hill are Witch Aelves still 60$? And why were the Malign Portents characters 35$? And why did you make the rule of 3, it's an abomination?

You know, while I agree on the first two (and ditto for Primaris characters, especially seeing in their case they don't even have low volume of sales excuse) I like how something we had for ages in 40K in the form of 3 slot FOC is suddenly now abomination because you can't spam whatever cheese your Codex comes with (and the fact some people would prefer their best unit to be ruined instead of being able to take a few of them still is mind boggling to me). I mean, I am last person here that would support broken units or pay to win stuff, but if writer feels a unit that is awesome in fluff needs good rules, then it should get good rules and be limited in some other way instead, not being mediocre in fluff-breaking way because then you won't be spamming it anyway...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Now if only they'd stop charging Australia/NZ/Japan/etc. x2 the UK price, maybe all would be forgiven...

Yup, because local taxes and duties, shipping costs, and aussies deliberately shooting themselves in the foot by mass buying recasts (with two of biggest AU 40K youtubers being the most prominent recast apologists on the net, to boot) forcing GW to raise margins on volume of sales they get all don't exist, eh?

And that's ignoring the fact most of EU pay much more in absolute terms for GW stuff, and somehow doesn't complain even 1/100 as much despite not living in a country with highest wages in the world. Poor AU indeed

Ah good. The "Living Expenses" fallacy.

New face. Old tricks.

Jeez, are people still beating that dead horse that everything in Aus/NZ is twice as much due to import costs and duty?

Do yourself a favour and do some research so you don’t end up looking like a complete muppet running that (wildly inaccurate) line.

On topic - well done GW and well deserved GW staff!

I know the guy who runs my local GW spends a large portion of his paycheck on plastic crack. It's always much better for the store when the guy running it is very into the hobby

I'm pleased as punch. This sort of bonus invigorates your workforce and enables retention of talent, as well as boosting morale. GW really do seem to be turning around magnificently from the Wayland Yutani of miniature wargaming (as I used to refer to them a few years back) to a company that treats it's employees well, invests in them, invests in the community and has opened it's doors to us in a way that I haven't seen since... well, perhaps the 80s and even then I don't know that the lines of communication really existed to the extent you could make that argument.

It really drives home to me what a difference in culture a company can experience with a change in just a couple of senior positions. Chair and IP Director...

Genestealer Cults, Mechanicus, Sisters are on the way, Necromunda's back, Blood Bowl's back, Titanicus is on the way, I have a free warhammer tv channel I can watch with my amazon prime account, I've built two armies from the days of the Horus Heresy, I actually bought and enjoyed a White Dwarf the other day...

We pine for the days of the LotR bubble, I say these days are better. With the single exception of missing Warhammer Fantasy like crazy, I'd say we've never had it so good.

Assuming the bonus is evenly split (which is not certain), that is just under £3k per person. Nice but not exactly life changing. I wouldn't be surprised if the management got a bigger cut of the bonus. Still it is good for morale.

Iracundus wrote:
Assuming the bonus is evenly split (which is not certain), that is just under £3k per person. Nice but not exactly life changing. I wouldn't be surprised if the management got a bigger cut of the bonus. Still it is good for morale.

I'd be pretty damn stoked if I got a $300 bonus

But damn seriously that much extra profit over last year, which was already a big uptick from the Kirby days irrc, I really hope (and with the new leadership this isn't nearly as unthinkable as it was a few years ago) that means GW now have a ton of money left over even after everyone's bonuses to pump straight into designing and tooling more stuff.

That’s 2 months pay for me...

 Nostromodamus wrote:
That’s 2 months pay for me...

Exactly, I was speaking to the same guy last year about GW, and he mentioned he gets paid a little over 20k a year, and it would be slightly less if he lived outside London. I'm sure 3k is a lot for most GW employees outside of Central management.

£3K "would" ... most definitely ... change my life!

Hell yes it would. 3k is like enough to buy pretty much all miniatures I want.
I wish someone gave me 3k.

Arbitrator wrote:Proof that if you practise a basic social media presence and tell people "no, no, we're totally listening" you don't have to change anything else and people will buy it hook, line and sinker.

What exactly has GW changed from before the Kirby era?

Hulksmash wrote:
-Launched regular free FAQ's/Errata's multiple times a year to try to maintain a fun and balanced playing environment (in both systems)
-Restarted non-gw playtesting
-Regular discount boxes for starting or expanding
-Brought back Specialist Gamges
-Created an entire new game and system that's actually pretty awesome (shadespire)

They've responded and actually listened and shown they have multiple times. Just cause they didn't do what you want doesn't mean there haven't been pretty solid changes.

To which I will add:

- The paying of an equally split bonus to all employees (in contrast with no raises or bonuses ever under Kirby). The very subject of this thread.*
- Sicking their lawyers on no one. They asked one site to remove an army building software that used their images (the guy running it agreed it was a copyright violation).
- A redesign of 40k so it works much much better for smaller games so new people can have a fun experience right away. If anyone doubts this, they should actually play the scenarios in First Strike and Storm of Sigmar (the two tiny warhammer starter sets).
- Conducting a survey to make sure they know exactly what their customers want and think
- Actually accepting and supporting multiple ways to play instead of just claiming their games are only for narrative players (of which I am one)
- Not threatening employee's jobs in their financial reports anymore. Kirby used to remark that they had replacements lined up for store employees that didn't perform.
- Way better treatment of independent stores. Including slashing of minimum orders and mandatory products.
- Not splitting rules into multiple supplements like Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus so you had to buy multiple books to get all the rules for your army
- Not charging you more for bundles than the products were individually (yes, some of their larger bundles during the Kirby years actually cost more than the sum of their parts).

* It's actually kind of amazing that someone could ask "have they really changed?" directly in the face of this news alone.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Iracundus wrote:
Assuming the bonus is evenly split (which is not certain), that is just under £3k per person. Nice but not exactly life changing. I wouldn't be surprised if the management got a bigger cut of the bonus. Still it is good for morale.

Their investor relations website confirms it was equally split.

And yes, it is life changing in that if any of their employees were living paycheque to paycheque, they now have a couple cheques worth of money to get them out of that situation. This will make a massive difference to their lowest paid employees.

And the effect on morale and job satisfaction will be incredible compared to telling them they'll never get a raise beyond cost of living increases and that the company already has a replacement lined up if they don't meet their sales targets.

 Mymearan wrote:

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
Spoiler: All the bonuses are actually in GW credit. Only redeemable on their products.

Another spoiler: No one would probably complain.

Actual spoiler: from what I heard, most people took the bonus, turned right around and gave the money back to their employer in exchange for more plastic crack not unexpected but still funny.

It was 2k before tax, it was a profitshare, everyone got the same amount, from the guy who cleans the bog to the chairman.

Whilst everyone was free to do whatever they liked with it, I am told several Warlords were sold from FW...