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Begging forgiveness for my ignorance, but are Forge World and Games Workshop the same company? Based on everything I've seen it seems like they are, but I don't understand why Forge World stuff isn't sold on the GW site (or their stores apparently?) but yet their models can be used in 40K. It's just really confusing to a person who only started playing last edition and hasn't even seen a Forge World model in real life. Ultimately, I guess my real question is, why doesn't GW officially fold FW into 40K?

Forge World is a subsidiary of GW. GW owns forgeworld, but forgeworld is its own separate line from regular GW merchandise that is compatible with GW merchandise. Also if they sold FW in stores directly, it could affect GW's main profits. There is also the issue of FW things being much more expensive than standard GW. FW keeps a smaller stock of items than regular GW because of this. You wouldn't expect to see a Manta or Thunderhawk sold in your GW store after all, as manufacturing such expensive kits for retail store sale wouldn't be profitable (not very many would consider buying one, let alone many).

This isn't saying they wont integrate it into GW in the future, but for now GW feels its in their best interest to maintain the status quo.

FW is part of GW, it's a subdivision of people working at main GW HQ. They're part of the same company, but do things that aren't necessarily profitable or possible to do in large scale plastic or that just don't fit into the main publication/product lines, but that are interesting enough for some people to want and pay for.

It's not profitable for GW to make a plastic titan if they're only going to sell maybe 800 a year, particularly when the plastic mold for the huge number of sprues would probably run them several hundred thousand dollars. However, they can delegate that to Forgeworld, who can make a Resin mold for a fraction of the cost and get in some detail that doesn't translate well to plastic (like undercuts) in the process, and then they can sell 800 a year and make money doing it, and they get the side benefit of such huge models serving to excite and inspire hype and enthusiasm amongst the gaming populace and fill a demand of the market without having to sell tons of them to make their money back or invest huge amounts of money themselves.

It's also an outlet where they can explore smaller lines that the core studio has created. For instance, the Badab war isn't really something that's ever going to get its own major core studio campaign book, because it relatively limited in what factions it applies to and its scale as well, and is slightly earlier than the current timeline. But Forgeworld can explore it and give it a great amount of detail for those that desire it. The Death Korps are another thing. GW created them way back in like 2000 or 2001, IIRC originally as an IG faction fighting on Armageddon and converted from Steel Legion models. Well, they generated some interest, but weren't really something that the main studio was going to do, so Forgeworld took them and created the incredible DKoK line that we see today.

They're not really sold in GW stores precisely because they're a specialist product that's not part of the main product line that the stores are there to sell. They aren't the product the stores are there to push and don't count towards their sales goals. A lot of FW products also don't really move quickly, like Astral Claws space marine shoulder pads, and many of the kits are cast to order.

They also used to be much more expensive than basic 40k stuff, though that's rapidly no longer true, with many GW plastic kits coming out at prices equal to or exceeding that of FW kits.

TL;DR they're a GW subdepartment that explores and portrays the parts of the 40k universe that aren't worth the time for the main GW studio and manufacturing to do themselves and that super-enthusiasts can get into.

sweetbacon wrote: Ultimately, I guess my real question is, why doesn't GW officially fold FW into 40K?

Well, they do.

Fliers, superheavies, lords of war, allies and detachments, unbound, all those new things we've gotten since 6th ed dropped all started out as forgeworld rules. Now they're all in 40k.

The only reason they don't just roll FW stuff straight away for 40k is because there are a few people left who value their sanity enough to not make it financially worthwhile.

sweetbacon wrote:
Ultimately, I guess my real question is, why doesn't GW officially fold FW into 40K?

Brand recognition, the same reason GW doesn't fold the Citadel brand into 40k/WHFB, and the same reason they quietly killed off the finecast brand after it failed so badly. If you see the "Forge World" name and logo on something you know it's a high-end resin kit or a high-end campaign/fluff book.

I don't understand why Forge World stuff isn't sold on the GW site (or their stores apparently?)

FW stuff is sold on the GW website. http://www.forgeworld.co.uk is part of the GW website, hosted on GW servers, etc. The link to it isn't as obvious as some of the other products on GW's main website (probably so that some poor kid doesn't accidentally get a Thunderhawk for christmas), but it's still there. And the reason FW stuff isn't sold in GW stores is simple: sales volume. FW kits don't sell frequently to justify keeping a full inventory of them in every store, which would be a waste of valuable shelf space and manufacturing time. It's the same reason why things like special character models are direct-only.

GW = Duplo boat
FW = limited edition Lego sailing ships


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I mean it's been Matt Ward vs Alan Bligh. What else is there to know?

PS: yes I know Ward is gone now.

(Whoops, replied to wrong thread)

The only place I ever seen FW and GW stoke in the same store is the head office/factory store in Warhammer World, Nottingham Uk. I think they try to kepp FW stuff out of stores due its cost etc. They wouldn't want to scare people off the hobby.

But they are the same, just look at them as different departments of the same company.

When you walk in and see a range of 90 pound tanks, 3-400 pound titans and 30k sqauds costing what they do.

Not so many sales and abit intimidating

 jhe90 wrote:
When you walk in and see a range of 90 pound tanks, 3-400 pound titans and 30k sqauds costing what they do.

Not so many sales and abit intimidating

Unless you're in places like Australia where I belive Forge World stuff is actually cheaper there than GW proper.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. So, please correct me if have this wrong, but GW and FW are the same company, but FW is kind of like a niche, high-end subsidiary, almost like an upscale boutique, which produces products in smaller runs that would not be profitable for GW to mass produce?

sweetbacon wrote:
Thanks for the replies, everyone. So, please correct me if have this wrong, but GW and FW are the same company, but FW is kind of like a niche, high-end subsidiary, almost like an upscale boutique, which produces products in smaller runs that would not be profitable for GW to mass produce?

That's exactly it.

FW is part of GW, just like Black Library is GW. They're all linked from the main GW site, along with legal and investors links.
It's probably like Lexus is part of Toyota.

You may have seen FW models, since a lot of them are almost identical to GW, but resin. I got the Falcon conversion kit for my Eldar skimmer, and all it does it make it look a bit different.

I've seen FW books in GW stores here, but it's not normal or common.

Thinkn that's a excellent way of putting it.

Not exactly sure what it was but someone said said a sprue sized plastic mould for the machines is thousands to create?

 ImAGeek wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:
When you walk in and see a range of 90 pound tanks, 3-400 pound titans and 30k sqauds costing what they do.

Not so many sales and abit intimidating

Unless you're in places like Australia where I belive Forge World stuff is actually cheaper there than GW proper.

It used to be that way ~ 6 months ago, but now with the recent (global) currency corrections, FW is about 5 - 20% more than the GW equivalent these days. I don't believe there's a single FW thing that cheaper than its GW equivalent now.

Now you're looking at about $83 AUD for a GW predator vs about $90 AUD for a FW pred. If memory serves, Kriegers come out to be about 20% more for a basic infantry squad, same for a FW Russ vs a GW Russ. Squads of 30k marines in your favourite flavour of armour also runs a 20-30% premium compared to the latest and greatest GW version. Other stuff vaies quite wildly, for example a Tau piranah is about 5% difference while an alternate Crisis model is almost a 50% hike IIRC.