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Ok, I didn't want to clutter up the News and Rumours thread, but there's something that's been bugging me for a little while. People keep using the assumed New Line deal for the Hobbit as the reason that GW now give us zero advance notice of things. However controlled, authorised, releases of information are not leaks!

I can fully understand why New Line would want GW to get there house in order, as they don't want any spoilers from tie-in products getting out. I'm actually fine with that; I like to be surprised and thrilled with a new film. The thing is if GW actually had a decent news/marketing policy then they'd have an even easier time of demonstrating security; by giving us advanced official information it would override any of the rumours we're currently getting, particularly as their clamp down has worked and we're only really getting decent rumours about a fortnight in advance for the most part!

To sum up, if GW told us things officially about a month in advance there wouldn't be time for any rumours to start circulating and they could hold there heads high to New Line and demonstrate they are in control

/rant

Edit for spelling

Well they are free to do that with their own stuff, however when it comes to New Line they would be restricted by whatever deal they made. It'd make sense if they didn't want GW to "leak" anything about the movie; even though there wouldn't be much considering how old the book it is based on is. But, it isn't just the NL stuff, even before the Hobbit they seemed to give at most two weeks notice to thinks. Then there was the fun of Space Hulk.

I agree though if they bothered to and had and gave out advance information on releases they might actually be able to gather a few extra sales.

I think the reason they don't give out official schedules on their products is so they can have more freedom with their releases. They can make an internal schedule, but if they don't keep it, their customers won't be angry because they don't know any better.

As for the New Line thing: I feel it's less for spoilers of the movie, and more for design reasons. Anybody can either pick up The Hobbit or go to the Wikipedia Page and read up on everything. What they can't do, however, is access the creature, character, and costume designs for the film before they can actually see it. The story is inconsequential to GW as a modelmaking company; the designs are not.

The reason for GW's rumor control policy right now is that they figure people will spend more impulsively when something new and shiny comes out, as opposed to saving up money in advance for something later. Kind of a fast nickel slow dime setup I guess. I have no clue how well it's working, but we all know how grumpy many of us are about it.

I find it humourous that you assume that GW even has a marketing strategy.

@ Brother SRM, that's exactly what I meant. The design for Smaug, for example, will be hugely important and they won't want it getting out.

@ Fafnir; I concede the thread to you Good sir!

Edit: Whoop! 100th post!