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Dear, GW

In reguards to the recent price hike I would like to express that I acknowledge that being a bigger company requires more overhead and therefore more expensive products. However, with the recent price hikes it seems like you have abandoned your average gamer in favor of higher returns. This bussiness model you feel will net you more income as even with less players, you will recieve more money. However I would like to stop you for a minute and show you, that you are not a monopoly, that more and more gamers are turning to other game systems that do not abuse their customers with higher than inflation price increases every six months. If you will note here in this article by one of the pillars of the community Belloflostsouls.com, even warmachine and hoards has you beat on an army per army basis.

"Its that time of year again. Lets look at some sample armies from the popular gamesystems and see what wargaming costs these days.



Warhammer 40,000

First up is a pair of sample 1500 armies, one smaller and elite, the other more on the horde side of things. Lets see what Games Workshop is running these days:


Grey Knight Army - 1500 pts

HQ: Grand Master, Master Crafted Psycannon, Master Crafter Nemesis Force Sword, Blind Grenades, Psykotroke Grenades
Elites: Purifiers X 10, Halberds X 5, Daemon Hammer X 2, Psycannon X 2, Incinerator X 1, Rhino Troops: Grey Knight Strike Squad X 10, Psycannon X 2, Psybolt Ammunition, Rhino
Troops: Grey Knight Terminators X 5, Psycannon, Halberds X 4, Daemon Hammer X 1
FA: Storm Raven Gunship, TWL Lascannons, TWL Multi-Melta, Extra Armor
Heavy: Dreadknight, Personal Teleporter

Cost to build
Grey Knight Strike Squad Box X 4 = $132.00
Grey Knight Terminator Box X 2 = $100.00
Storm Raven = $66.00
Dreadknight = $53.75
Rhinos Kits X 2 = $70.00

Total cost = $421.75

The extra Terminator kit is so you can make your Grand Master and have enough guns. They do not make a Grand Master with a Pyscannon at this time. Plus it also gives you more options for your regular guys with Halberds and other choices.

Ork Horde - 1500pts

HQ: Warboss, Power Klaw, Attack Squig, Eavy Armor, Cybork Body, Bosspole
HQ: Big Mek, Kustom Force Field
Elites: Lootas X 15
Troops: Nobz X 5, Painboy, Power Klaw X 3, Big Choppa X 1, Eavy Armor X 5, Cybork Body X 5, Waagh Banner, Bosspole, Battle Wagon, Big Shoota X 2, Deff Rolla, Grot Riggas
Troops: Boyz X 20, Big Shoota X 2, Shootas X 17, Nob, Power Klaw, Bosspole
Troops: Boyz X 12, Nob, Power Klaw, Bosspole, Trukk, Reinforced Ram
Troops: Boyz X 12, Nob, Power Klaw, Bosspole, Trukk, Reinforced Ram
FA: Warbuggies X 3, TWL Rokkits X 3
Heavy: Battle Wagon, Big Shoota X 2, Deff Rolla, Grot Riggas

Cost to Build
Warboss - Black Reach - $10.00
Big Mek - $20.00
Loota Box X 3 - $75.00
Nobz X 1 - $25.00
Boyz X 5 - $145.00
Trukk X 2 - $66.00
Warbuggies X 3 - $75.00
Battle Wagon X 2 - $132.00

Total = $548.00

WARMACHINE/HORDES

Next up is a pair of standard sized armies - one elite and one more horde-ish as well.

Khador - 35pts

Khador Battlebox
pButcher
Great Bears
Greylord Ternion
Kovnik Joe
Winterguard (full sized)
Winterguard UA
2x Rocketeers
Widowmakers

Cost to Build
$237

Legion - 35pts

Lylyth
Carnivean
2x Shredders
Teraph
10x Swordsmen
10x Hex Hunters
Bayal
Strider Deathstalker

Cost to Build
$193 "



as you can see GW, you have gotten to level where comprable armies of other systems are less expensive. While your current bussiness model is one that will undoubtedly bring you a short term net gain in profit, do note that if this trend continues or even if you do not relax your prices, you are going to start to loose your old customers. I know what you are about to say, and it's that new customers are more important because they bring in more revenue, and you are correct about this. However with the comprable cost of building an army being twice or more that of a comprable warmachine or hordes army, you have already began loosing out bussiness to the other game. And they aren't the only ones. Even Flames of war is cheaper.

GW, if you continue down the short term profits path of increasing revenue by increasing prices, you are going to strangle your own lifeblood. Old players are moving to other games, and fewer new players who would be warhammer players are now playing warmachine. You may not see this because of the expansion of the the hobby itself but warmachine and flames of war are growing, and once they reach a level of acceptance in the community that is as respected for volume of players as you are (the are already respected because of price, model quality, and customer care) then your game will be up, and GW will wither into nothing. You have reached an impass where you have turned your back on the players that made you great in return for short term profits. While I recognize that this is necessary in the corporate world to prevent stock losses, there are other options. Invest in technology that will make the production cheaper, and integrate vertically would be my suggestions. But you need to reduce prices, and obviously the old price was not enough. Higher volume sales from lower prices obviously won't be enough, but simply increasing prices is a stop gap measure at best. I know you can do better than this. Please don't let my hobby strangle to death.

If you are a Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, or Lord of the rings player who would like GW to treat it's customers fairly, Copy this message and send it to GW.

This letter is rambling and whiny. You need to reword it and make it more concise if you want anyone (other than yourself) to take you seriously.

It's not rambling and whiny it's jut calling GW out for thinking they are immune to competition when they are not.

All you did was copy paste a BoLS article and complain that they raised prices. Do you think this is going to all the sudden cause GW to lower their prices. The GW marketing team are not idiots, they know exactly how much they can charge and still make a profit.

When it comes down to it, this is a hobby and it is still cheaper than many other hobbies. It is also not fair to compare 40k to Warmachine because they are different scales. Since Warmachine is skirmish based, the armies are going to be smaller and therefore cheaper. I believe that the 40k armies listed have almost twice the amount of models as the Warmachine lists, so the Warhammer lists will cost more money.

He isnt saying there idiots, all he is saying why is there any need for a price increase considering it is cheaper to produce resin models than metal. While last year alone they made a £13000000 Profit i doubt they are what you call a struggling company. While ok they are bringing out a new product "finecast" so they can price as they like but they are also planning on increasing every product within there range, i fail see any requirement to do this other than the need for greed.

Yay! This thread again.

Signature wrote:He isnt saying there idiots, all he is saying why is there any need for a price increase considering it is cheaper to produce resin models than metal. While last year alone they made a £13000000 Profit i doubt they are what you call a struggling company. While ok they are bringing out a new product "finecast" so they can price as they like but they are also planning on increasing every product within there range, i fail see any requirement to do this other than the need for greed.

They are a business, therefore they want to make money. They are taking steps to make more money by increasing the cost of their products. I am not defending GW, I wish they would not increase prices, but I see why they would.

As much as people don't like it, GW does not care if their customers are happy with their business practices, they only care that their customers give them money.

Which tells us they suck for being such a self centered company i hope it bites them in the ass and screws them over....

Signature wrote:Which tells us they suck for being such a self centered company i hope it bites them in the ass and screws them over....

If you really hate GW that much, stop playing their games.

There's somewhere between 6 and 12 other threads that this could have been attached to.

Yours is nothing new or special.

Time for this post in this thread again! Yay!

Hating GW =/= hating 40k.


From where I'm looking, while expensive those prices aren't that bad. Letter will get some crappy copy paste reply, but if they get enough they might finally do something about it. Not likely, but also not completely 100% certain to do nothing.

Signature wrote:While last year alone they made a £13000000 Profit i doubt they are what you call a struggling company.

Actually a lot of that was probably made up of price increase and making most stores run by only one person.

Both myself and my son wrote letters to gw informing them of our intention to stop buying for the forseeable future.I doubt i will get a response from them but i felt it was worth doing.

Why should i have to stop buying there product i enjoy the game and painting them i shouldnt have to pay extra for my models though when its not needed i imagine it wont do them any good people will stop collecting them, as they will raise the price admittidly a small proportion and then the raised price will stop new people from buying any and it will just die out.

Savist wrote:

Signature wrote:He isnt saying there idiots, all he is saying why is there any need for a price increase considering it is cheaper to produce resin models than metal. While last year alone they made a £13000000 Profit i doubt they are what you call a struggling company. While ok they are bringing out a new product "finecast" so they can price as they like but they are also planning on increasing every product within there range, i fail see any requirement to do this other than the need for greed.

They are a business, therefore they want to make money. They are taking steps to make more money by increasing the cost of their products. I am not defending GW, I wish they would not increase prices, but I see why they would.

As much as people don't like it, GW does not care if their customers are happy with their business practices, they only care that their customers give them money.

see that's the thing. Short sighted business plans like that strangle you. GW is a company that has to grow it's player base, it instead is strangling it's growth comparatively. They'r seeing sales dip slightly and think "oh we need to raise prices because these dumb feths will keep buying" what they don't see is that sales are dipping because people are moving to other games.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

coolyo294 wrote:

Signature wrote:Which tells us they suck for being such a self centered company i hope it bites them in the ass and screws them over....

If you really hate GW that much, stop playing their games.

that's a piss poor argument, if water was suddenly $20 a bottle and it was made illegal to collect it, would you just stop using it. and before you start in with the age old "well you don't need a game" All corporations have to be held to the same damn standards.

oh and about $20 bottles of watter, just ask the bolivians what it's like to be arrested for collecting water when your daily supply costs half your dailiy wage.

It's kinda sad that you are comparing a miniature hobby to water. Your argument is rather piss poor, they are nothing alike, people do not need warhammer, they just want it. Water is also a one time use thing, you constantly need it to survive. Once you buy a bw army you are set you do not need to but a new army in a day.

Ho hum...

Its a price raise, just like the many before and the more to come.

In other news, I can't buy a loaf of bread for a nickel anymore.

The only real way to affect price changes would be to spend less money on GW products or stop buying them all together. Realistically that's not going to happen on a wide enough scale to have any effect.

I sympathize with what you're trying to do, and I can respect you for trying, but honestly I don't feel like it's a worth my time to try to affect change this area.

...I don't get it.

Your argument is that because Warmachine is a game that requires fewer models to play with, GW is being selfish if they don't take a huge financial hit to subsidise their models so that the end cost to a user is comparible to a skirmish game that requires fewer models?


"Dear GW,
I field an equilivent 1500pt army in Malifaux for £30. Sort yourselves out."

Personaly, I think if you want to collect 40k, grit your teeth and save for the prices. They have to make money, and like it or not, (believe me, I think they're a rip of to) collect over priced 40k if you love it enough, or walk over, please, to warmahordes

I really don't see anything new or new thread worthy. Plus if its a letter to GW. Send it to them? I otherwise agree with alot of the other posters. If you don't like it. Stop playing their games. Thats the only way you will make them listen. They don't care about anything other than profits.

Signature wrote:i fail see any requirement to do this other than the need for greed.

You live in the USA and you have never heard of Capitalism?

gendoikari87 wrote:as you can see GW, you have gotten to level where comprable armies of other systems are less expensive.

How, exactly are those armies comparable? Have you actually looked at the number of models in the warmachines armies?

What's better value - $548 for 80 infantry and 7 vehicles or $193 for 26 infantry and 1 vehicle?

The only way that 40K and WM will be anywhere near comparable is if 40K becomes a skirmish game or if WM becomes a battle game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

gendoikari87 wrote:It's not rambling and whiny

It is. You need to make your point in a much more succinct way. Removing the essentially irrelevant BoLS copy-paste would do for a start.

Spell check the letter.
Make it more succinct

tbh I am tired and stopped reading it.
GW staff won't want to wade through yet another letter if it rambles on.

Doubt if they will bother with the comparisons

Sometimes less really is more.
hth