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As title says,
Hobby Center Kashiwa
Hobby Center Kichizyouzi
Hobby Center Ikebukuro
Hobby Center Oomiya
Hobby Center Machida
will be closed in Aug./Sep.
Those are official shop in Japan.

There is two more left.
Hobby Center Zinboucho(Headquarter)
Hobby Center Nakano
will not be closed.

Too many shops for too small(amount) people.
And if we buy at hobby center,we must pay double.Unreasonable. I always buy from UK.

But Hobby center Machida was first place I learn miniature game.
Bit sad. But We'll going on. There are other places to play games.

And at hobby center,I cant play Warmachine/Hordes/Malifaux/Infinity/Freebooter's Fate.......
So,other place is better. I know.

Maybe most of folks who are reading this is unaffected.
Anyway,this is most recent news from GW Japan.

Saw this one coming a mile away. There were just way too many shops all over and the local pricing have been giving GW a bad image for quite some time.

There is two more left.
Hobby Center Zinboucho(Headquarter)
Hobby Center Nakano
will not be closed.

At least the one I played around in will still be there. Makes me wonder if China's new branches will follow suit after a few years...

Wow, this is bad news.

Jimbocho and Nakano are the only shops I've been too. To be honest, I love Games Workshop products and systems but I hate the way the company is run. What I would really love to find is a shop that sells miniatures but is not connected with GW in any way. My hope of seeing the hobby spread in this country is pretty much ruined with this news.

Sir Motor, do you know any non-GW shops that have gaming tables in the Tokyo area?

It was a given, when I came to this country I was happy to learn that I could still use my beloved toys. But then learning the prices I lost interest buying local and started ordering on-line. Almost double the price it´s too much, I prefer to pay for the venue when I play (a couple times a year) rather than suffer the huge mark up.

M.

This is sad. The people who worked there were really nice and ran great events.

Kichijouji was right next to my girlfriend's house. Stopped by often.

When I return to Japan I wonder if they'l be any 40k going on still?

It seems that GW's strategy to choke off international internet sales and compel local players to go the the official shop and buy at highly inflated prices is a failure, then.

How will Japanese based players get models?

Sixtus wrote:Saw this one coming a mile away. There were just way too many shops all over and the local pricing have been giving GW a bad image for quite some time.

Indeed. Local pricing are very very bad thing.

AesSedai wrote:Wow, this is bad news.

Jimbocho and Nakano are the only shops I've been too. To be honest, I love Games Workshop products and systems but I hate the way the company is run. What I would really love to find is a shop that sells miniatures but is not connected with GW in any way. My hope of seeing the hobby spread in this country is pretty much ruined with this news.

Sir Motor, do you know any non-GW shops that have gaming tables in the Tokyo area?

Sad news indeed.

And I know some place non-GW shop which have gaming Tables in Tokyo area.

Yellow Submarine Akihabara TRPG shop
http://www.yellowsubmarine.co.jp/shop/shop-059.htm
Also have GW-Products.
I play there almost monthly. Not best but playable.

HobbySpace Mr.Field
http://ameblo.jp/hobbyspacemrfield/entry-10921035726.html
Never been there. But I heard there is good place.

B2F Games
http://b2fgames.com/index.php?topic=shop
For NON-GW game.
I play warmachine/hordes there weekly. Nice place.
Well stocked Privateer Press Products. Some Malifaux/Anima/Freebooter's Fate.

I hope see you guys around.

Five stores closed is a bad thing... it means that the entire market is not working with the prices they have.

When will they understand that they have to decrease the costs !?!?

I'm sorry for you guys :(

Shigate ga nai.

It was to be expected from GW, but still sad news.

Sir Motor, could you please add those stores to the dakka Store Finder. Just follow that link and click 'add a new store'. That way, anyone who wants to find a hobby shop in Japan when they are on vacation there will be able to do so.

GW has a long history of opening stores and then closing them. However, I am surprised about these closings because employees in the US were told the Japanese shops were very successful. They had only a small amount of space and limited stock, but did gang-buster business. Also the sheer scale of the closings is surprising.

Last year GW tried to make its business appear to be more successful by cutting lots of staff. I guess the only thing left to do is close stores.

I got to be honest. I did not know they War gamed in Japan at all. It's nice to hear, but sad your centers are closeing down.

I visited Yellow Submarine once or twice; I have to admit the biggest reason for me to go to Akiba was for GoGo Curry, miss that place. :(

Asia was one of GW strongest-growing markets in the last years, Black Dragon.
Japan seems to be sucked dry, time to move to the next country.

Seems like the new GW strategy is showing results

That's too bad. I've been to the Machida store a couple of times. I didn't want it to close, but the last few months it was looking pretty dire.

Hey, Sir Motor, you mentioned Infinity. Do you know anyone in Japan who plays?

It's interesting that just at a time when GW has made draconian policy changes to its previews and new release shipping in order to drive as many people as possible to their stores, they decide to close a bunch more stores.

And of course, not coincidentally, GW just activated a Japanese language website a couple weeks ago. I guess they figure they can save money by getting most of their Japanese customers to buy from the GW website and save rent on all those stores. But how do they plan to recruit new customers when their shops are their best advertising? Are there a lot of independent shops that carry GW product there as there are in many other countries or did GW just shoot themselves in the foot again?

KOS wrote:When will they understand that they have to decrease the costs !?!?

When it's way too late to make a difference.

BrassScorpion wrote:But how do they plan to recruit new customers when their shops are their best advertising?

Doesn't matter how good at advertising they are when they're advertising insane prices like the OP suggested. People aren't going to shop in stores no matter how much GW tries to force you to when you're being asked to pay twice what the rest of the world does.

Someone else said the store are always packed in Japan, so while I understand the usual negativity here, just bashing GW over their prices doesn't really add to the conversation. Clearly if the stores are always packed in Japan, someone there is buying GW product.

but apparently not enough product, since they had to close almost every store in the country...

It's interesting that just at a time when GW has made draconian policy changes to its previews and new release shipping in order to drive as many people as possible to their stores, they decide to close a bunch more stores.

I believe it is called joined up thinking.

Sorry for you guys in Japan.

Can't help thinking GW should just get out of retail and let others sell their wares.

Uh oh, sales are down! What do we do?

Step 1: Raise prices
Step 2: Close Hobby Centres (in this case it's especially strange as it seems like Japanese Hobby Centres were actually rather successful)
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Growth for the GW Hobby (TM)!

*sigh* I want to like GW. I really do. But I just don't understand them at all. What are they going to do when there are no hobby centers left to close, a single box of Space Marines costs $100 (which means, of course, it'll cost $170 AUD or more, because Australians are apparently rolling in dough and make twice as much money as everyone else in the Western world, am I right??), and their sales are still decreasing?


Actually, I know what they'll do. Raise the price of a box of Space Marines to $110.

Frankly, if the Hobby Centres are so expensive to run (as Mark Well's letter about Australia indicate), they ought to just shut down all of the US ones at the very least, since I don't know a single person who plays at a GW store regularly. Of course, that means that the six people who do play at them might set foot in an independent store and discover that other games exist. Can't have that, now, can we?

1.) Close all internet marketing.
2.) Close all internet sales to the South.
3.) Make local stores the only source for products and information.
4.) Then close the stores 4 weeks later.

Someone in the GW management must really hate his company
Seriously, this is worse than anyone could have made up a revenge campaign.
GW must have kicked Mark Well's kitten when he was a child.

Once again, I cannot stop laughing how native some people are. GW products are scheduled to failue in Asia countries no matter. It is a matter of time. Why? Physical space is essential especailly in Japan. it is hard to have an area os 4x6. Storage is always a problem, especially at home. The Japanese anime figures are far more exciting and interesting that these GW gothic junks. There is still no toy to match to those Bandai or Yamoto Macross figures in this WORLD! People in Far East look at these miniatures as joys, not as collections. Most will not play more than $1 per figure. Only those hardcore GW fanboys with no knowledge of what are games are availabe still love them.

Once again, I cannot stop laughing how native some people are.

Care to re-read this sentence?

One thing to keep in mind is the stores in japan are generally closer due to their train system and geographic setup, than it would be in the US.

It's hard to gain a foothold in japan for various reasons, but it seems the GW product is spreading, it's just unfortunate they didn't think long term when placing shops.

Machida to Ikebukuro to Akihabara is roughly a couple of hours by train and costs about 1,000 yen. So yes, the shops are fairly close together.

OTOH, the gap between them covers half the greater Tokyo megalopolis with a population of 31 million people. Perhaps the two shops left will get even more crowded than before.

Avatar 720 wrote:

Once again, I cannot stop laughing how native some people are.

Care to re-read this sentence?

Maybe the entire paragraph.... with a spell checker.

Lordhat wrote:

Avatar 720 wrote:

Once again, I cannot stop laughing how native some people are.

Care to re-read this sentence?

Maybe the entire paragraph.... with a spell checker.

I didn't actually read past the sentence I quoted, but yeah, that's a good idea.

BrassScorpion wrote:Someone else said the store are always packed in Japan, so while I understand the usual negativity here, just bashing GW over their prices doesn't really add to the conversation. Clearly if the stores are always packed in Japan, someone there is buying GW product.

Uh... Machida was always dead. Even on weekends. Not all GW stores are packed.

wilder wrote:Once again, I cannot stop laughing how native some people are. GW products are scheduled to failue in Asia countries no matter. It is a matter of time. Why? Physical space is essential especailly in Japan. it is hard to have an area os 4x6. Storage is always a problem, especially at home. The Japanese anime figures are far more exciting and interesting that these GW gothic junks. There is still no toy to match to those Bandai or Yamoto Macross figures in this WORLD! People in Far East look at these miniatures as joys, not as collections. Most will not play more than $1 per figure. Only those hardcore GW fanboys with no knowledge of what are games are availabe still love them.

Why would you laugh at how native someone is?

This isn't a really accurate assessment though. Yes, storage space is a big problem in Japan. Yes, Japanese model kits are usually very good. But finding a 4x6 space is not impossible, and I met plenty of Japanese people who liked GW's models. The issue is more likely to be finding a variety of people to play with when GW's models in Japan are so expensive. They're expensive compared to other miniatures, they're expensive compared to GW's miniatures in other countries, and they're expensive compared to other entertainment options available in Japan. But Japanese people will happily pay more than $1 per figure- I'm sure some people's figurine/gunpla collections would be astounding.

But when I can buy a fully articulated and detailed Master Grade Gundam kit in a Yodobashi camera for 3500 yen and a static, monopose Wraithlord costs 6100 yen, it's hard to see the appeal.