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I've hear of GW bad habits, and that they keep worsening with time (at least, up until now). Do you think GW will eventually change for the better after realising it, or they will keep up like that. And if the latter is true, how long will they be able to continue like that until they bankrupt ? I give them 50 years.

When the money stops coming in due to their decisions, things will change.

Well you'd certainly like to think that there has to be a ceiling as far as pricing goes, which will be reached at a certain point, or at least for individual kits.

It's very possible though that if, for example, they now lose a lot of Stormraven sales because of it's rediculous new price, they will just try to make up for those losses by raising other items bit by bit, and so keep an eternal juggling of prices going on.

Nope. They're losing money already and they will continue on. They're banking on the Hobbit to help them.

Doesn't help that the CEo sees the company as his personal piggybank

I would love to see it acquired by another company that cares about the customers (and then brought to heel, with all the races equal in power, equally supported and with great fluff and awesome, yet well balanced, rules.

Wishlisting to the max!

It'll probably crash and burn within a decade, and the IP be snapped up by someone else.

It will falter and hopefully someone will pick up the IP, but that will probably just lead us all to disappointment with prepainted soft plastic kits.

What needs to happen is some multimillionaire decides to buy a bunch of stock who actually likes the hobby (and not the hhhoby) and tells Kirby, Ward, and a few others to feth off.

Khornate25 wrote:I've hear of GW bad habits, and that they keep worsening with time (at least, up until now). Do you think GW will eventually change for the better after realising it, or they will keep up like that. And if the latter is true, how long will they be able to continue like that until they bankrupt ? I give them 50 years.

If you really think they're as bad as all that then you should be predicting closure/buy-out a hell of a lot sooner than that....

Look at TSR, FASA, even WotC are now a subsidiary of Hasbro and will get canned the instant sales falter.

sparkywtf wrote:What needs to happen is some multimillionaire decides to buy a bunch of stock who actually likes the hobby (and not the hhhoby) and tells Kirby, Ward, and a few others to feth off.

There isn't enough stock options out there last I knew to be able to buy any kind of significant interest in the company.

They will eventually crash, and when they do, the riots will begin.

everything comes to an end, but i predict warhammer and WH40k to live for about 5 years after GW closes shop...maybe less, but if GW got new management that actually knew what they were doing (they know what they are doing, but they seem to not have long term goals for the company, which they sorely need) i can see GW around for another 25 years, maybe more if they supported their existing customers better and focused less on single sale customers, people who will never actually play the game but drop $115 once...but since GW is a traded company, consumer support is not a primary aspect of their business plan, its solely about making as much money as possible with spending as little as possible. If GW was privately owned then maybe the company would be doing a little better.

Scott-S6 wrote:

Khornate25 wrote:I've hear of GW bad habits, and that they keep worsening with time (at least, up until now). Do you think GW will eventually change for the better after realising it, or they will keep up like that. And if the latter is true, how long will they be able to continue like that until they bankrupt ? I give them 50 years.

If you really think they're as bad as all that then you should be predicting closure/buy-out a hell of a lot sooner than that....

Look at TSR, FASA, even WotC are now a subsidiary of Hasbro and will get canned the instant sales falter.

Well, TSR was in money trouble when it got bought out by WOTC. Fasa is gone. Wizkids came out of the death of FASA, was bought by upperdeck, dumped, picked up by NECA and running at a fraction of what it was. WOTC was doing so incredibly well that when Hasbro bought them out anyone with stock was instantly rich and retired. So some vast differences between the three. WOTC has never had much trouble producing money hand orver fist.

Yeh FASA is gone and their IP's (Battletech and Shadowrun) were taken up by WizKids.

They did a crap job and are now owned by Topps. They handed BT and SR to Catalyst Game Labs to handle and they have done a stupendous job. Many CGL employees are former FASA Employees. I just wish CGL owned the IP and not WK.

I think eventually GW will have to rethink its market strategies. Maybe in the past when GW was the only dog on the block then they could get away with what they do but now there is so many quality systems out now done by companies that love their product and their customers. While older GW fans I doubt will abandon the hobby all together I think GW will (and is by the numbers we've seen) have an increasingly difficult time bringing new people into the hobby.

Ascalam wrote:Doesn't help that the CEo sees the company as his personal piggybank

I would love to see it acquired by another company that cares about the customers (and then brought to heel, with all the races equal in power, equally supported and with great fluff and awesome, yet well balanced.

First, be careful making statements like this without some sort of evidence.

Second, if this happened, the perfect game would be conceived and no one would play any other game... in other words, no one will ever release a game encompassing all of this. Compromise and moderation are the secrets to sanity.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

sparkywtf wrote:It will falter and hopefully someone will pick up the IP, but that will probably just lead us all to disappointment with prepainted soft plastic kits.

What needs to happen is some multimillionaire decides to buy a bunch of stock who actually likes the hobby (and not the hhhoby) and tells Kirby, Ward, and a few others to feth off.

And third, quit with this crap. If you can do a better job, why aren't you? The Kirby/Ward/anyone else rants weren't funny months ago, and like cheese, they don't get better with age...

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:

Ascalam wrote:Doesn't help that the CEo sees the company as his personal piggybank

I would love to see it acquired by another company that cares about the customers (and then brought to heel, with all the races equal in power, equally supported and with great fluff and awesome, yet well balanced.

First, be careful making statements like this without some sort of evidence.

Second, if this happened, the perfect game would be conceived and no one would play any other game... in other words, no one will ever release a game encompassing all of this. Compromise and moderation are the secrets to sanity.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

sparkywtf wrote:It will falter and hopefully someone will pick up the IP, but that will probably just lead us all to disappointment with prepainted soft plastic kits.

What needs to happen is some multimillionaire decides to buy a bunch of stock who actually likes the hobby (and not the hhhoby) and tells Kirby, Ward, and a few others to feth off.

And third, quit with this crap. If you can do a better job, why aren't you? The Kirby/Ward/anyone else rants weren't funny months ago, and like cheese, they don't get better with age...

1) Kirby is the largest single person shareholder in GW with 6.9% of the stock IIRC. His dividend payments are in the millions.

2) Not really sure what you're trying to get at here. People always proclaim the balance of starcraft, yet other RTS are still made and are played. A better balance in 40k would be nice. Having 3-4 codexes consistently dominate all others is very very poor balance.

3)a. Starting up a business or getting into one such as GW is quite hard. From what I've seen, gaming companies build around their core development. Even if he got hired, it's doubtful he would ever have as much sway as say Jeremy Vetock.

b. People have opinions on public people. Mat Ward's name appears on codexes that people have problems with for various reasons. Kirby is the CEO and people arn't happy with the direction the company is going.

Isn't this a duplicate?
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/451765.page

Sure looks like it!

Heard over to that thread if you want to continue the discussion...