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How do!

And here it is

In a complete surprise to no-one, they remain very profitable, with sales up once again.

Royalties increased significantly, from £8.7m to £20.1m

There are also comments about their plans going forward.

AoS launch last year was apparently their best Fantasy launch to date.

And I’m gonna quote this bit, as it seems a reversal on fan fiction stuff.

Community continued
Our customers really enjoy user-generated content, and as such we are committed to supporting fans as they create their own Warhammer-related events, videos, articles, podcasts etc. To this end, we are in the process of creating a community outreach team, to work with and support creators and prominent community members who champion the Warhammer hobby outside of our own pages and spaces.

I’ll leave it to other to pick the other bones out

Over the same period, we have also rewarded staff with a discretionary payment and group profit share payments of £35 million, equating to c. £15,000 per staff member on top of their base pay.

Blimey! A £15k bonus is good in anyone’s book!

North America -

The £5 million of back orders at the end of November 2021 will be cleared by early January, hurray!

That's one hell of a backlog!

I wouldn't kick 15k oot of bed like.

Interested to see where they go with the community outreach team, because I believe they did have one back in the day.. Seems that must have been kicked down the wayside some years back.

Brexit
In the period, we have continued to use the new working arrangements adopted following the UK’s exit from the
European Union in January 2021. This has resulted in additional shipping and freight costs of £2 million in the six months
to 28 November 2021 and is included as part of the £5.6 million increase in input and carriage cost increases discussed
earlier in gross margin. In addition, from a cash flow perspective, there are delays in the repayment of VAT from some
European tax authorities

I mean that is fething shocking, the amount of price increase for this colossal balls up.

A few interesting tidbits in there:

In terms of media and entertainment, progress continues and we are delighted to have signed up a major LA based
agency to help us. Eisenhorn is in development and the subject of discussions with potential distribution partners. We
have made some solid progress in our writers’ room and have a number of further exciting live action and animated
projects in development. We remain ambitious and patient

and

Our epic Horus Heresy novel series is drawing close to its galaxy changing conclusion. Currently standing at over 7.5
million words, we aren’t aware of a more detailed and in-depth story in any fantasy or science fiction IP.

7.5 million, feel sorry for the guy who had to count them!

That is a freaking awesome staff bonus!
I'm really glad to hear about fantasy doing so well; and sales and profits being up makes sense. I do think that we will likely see that ease off a touch at some stage; and I think the stock market already shows that investors don't see GW as having any big profit gains coming up (and might even have a dip). However this is all well within high profit regions for GW


Also the community angle I think is in keeping with their current attitude. The trick for them is that the online fan scene has changed in the last 20 years or so. At one time fan content was purely fan content and free; no profits or anything

Today its much easier to profit from them with things like patreon and the line can be blurry because they "aren't buying the video/book/art" they are "supporting the artist buying a coffee" kind of thing. So people don't "think" its the same as buying a product or such.



I think GW's approach sounds like they are trying to take the reins a bit on that side of things and promote it whilst at the same time prevent people from slipping into profiting which then twists GW's arm to having to send out "nasty takedown letters".

GW taking a controlling/guiding hand means avoiding some of those pitfalls; it also means GW can have a more aware state of things and high talent people and might then be able to poach them for their own ends.

The £15k bonus is across 5 years. Still decent but not exceptional. The best thing about is that everyone got the same bonus, so it helps the lowest paid staff the most.

 Overread wrote:
That is a freaking awesome staff bonus!
I'm really glad to hear about fantasy doing so well; and sales and profits being up makes sense. I do think that we will likely see that ease off a touch at some stage; and I think the stock market already shows that investors don't see GW as having any big profit gains coming up (and might even have a dip). However this is all well within high profit regions for GW


Also the community angle I think is in keeping with their current attitude. The trick for them is that the online fan scene has changed in the last 20 years or so. At one time fan content was purely fan content and free; no profits or anything

Today its much easier to profit from them with things like patreon and the line can be blurry because they "aren't buying the video/book/art" they are "supporting the artist buying a coffee" kind of thing. So people don't "think" its the same as buying a product or such.



I think GW's approach sounds like they are trying to take the reins a bit on that side of things and promote it whilst at the same time prevent people from slipping into profiting which then twists GW's arm to having to send out "nasty takedown letters".

GW taking a controlling/guiding hand means avoiding some of those pitfalls; it also means GW can have a more aware state of things and high talent people and might then be able to poach them for their own ends.

They also mention they’ve a team ensuring consistency of their own media output. Ensuring it’s inkeeping with the desired tone. One suspects the Community thing might be seeking to extend that. I mean, you can do a lot with their stuff, but as ever some media can go well beyond the pale.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


And I’m gonna quote this bit, as it seems a reversal on fan fiction stuff.

Community continued
Our customers really enjoy user-generated content, and as such we are committed to supporting fans as they create their own Warhammer-related events, videos, articles, podcasts etc. To this end, we are in the process of creating a community outreach team, to work with and support creators and prominent community members who champion the Warhammer hobby outside of our own pages and spaces.

I mean, that tracks, the gakky handling of creators during the warhammer+ launch would suggest they didn't have a team to really deal with that side of things so defaulted to "feth it, lets' just be finks about it"

In addition, from a cash flow perspective, there are delays in the repayment of VAT from some
European tax authorities

This is super disingenuous. GW basically does fuckall regarding VAT and hopes customers will eat a double charge. Every direct order my group has made all year was the same - GW either does not pay VAT or does not mark it paid anywhere on the packaging or invoice, in fact displays fraudulent costs on the invoice (value sans VAT despite charging VAT at checkout) that make it a pain to get anything through customs. Then a 14 day back and forth with GW customer support to get the VAT they pocketed for no reason refunded.

 Drakheart wrote:

7.5 million, feel sorry for the guy who had to count them!

Probably that guy is called computer ;-)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 lord_blackfang wrote:

In addition, from a cash flow perspective, there are delays in the repayment of VAT from some
European tax authorities

This is super disingenuous. GW basically does fuckall regarding VAT and hopes customers will eat a double charge. Every direct order my group has made all year was the same - GW either does not pay VAT or does not mark it paid anywhere on the packaging or invoice, in fact displays fraudulent costs on the invoice (value sans VAT despite charging VAT at checkout) that make it a pain to get anything through customs. Then a 14 day back and forth with GW customer support to get the VAT they pocketed for no reason refunded.

Well you are first one I have seen claiming they had to pay anything extra. None of orders I have done or people I know had to pay. You order from GW, pay what GW shows price, it comes to you and nothing extra paid.

GW handles that for you.

Sales up, profits, bonuses etc

All good news in GW empire then? Congrats are due.

Wonder what more good surprises does this year brings.

tneva82 wrote:
Well you are first one I have seen claiming they had to pay anything extra. None of orders I have done or people I know had to pay. You order from GW, pay what GW shows price, it comes to you and nothing extra paid.

GW handles that for you.

Same for me. But we are both in the EU. The cited text is linked to Brexit, so likely only applies to their EU sales.

TheGoodGerman wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Well you are first one I have seen claiming they had to pay anything extra. None of orders I have done or people I know had to pay. You order from GW, pay what GW shows price, it comes to you and nothing extra paid.

GW handles that for you.

Same for me. But we are both in the EU. The cited text is linked to Brexit, so likely only applies to their EU sales.

Which applies to that poster seeing he lives(or at least seems to) in EU country.

So we have him saying GW is lying. While others have experience saying otherwise.

That is a very generous staff bonus, a far cry from how the company was when I worked for GW back in the 00's.

tneva82 wrote:

TheGoodGerman wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Well you are first one I have seen claiming they had to pay anything extra. None of orders I have done or people I know had to pay. You order from GW, pay what GW shows price, it comes to you and nothing extra paid.

GW handles that for you.

Same for me. But we are both in the EU. The cited text is linked to Brexit, so likely only applies to their EU sales.

Which applies to that poster seeing he lives(or at least seems to) in EU country.

So we have him saying GW is lying. While others have experience saying otherwise.

Oh, my bad. Got confused by the tinyness of the flag on my mobile.

But as far as I‘ve seen, they fulfilled an order last year from France, so customs etc really shouldn‘t be an issue. Maybe they still haven‘t lined up some countries for this.

Valrak spun the "community outreach team" as GW listening to customers (like that survey we did a bit back). I can't help but be cynical and see it as them attempting to save face over the animators debacle and just being a team who finds ways to use creative people to act as more blatant free advertising.

Games Workshop wrote:Our epic Horus Heresy novel series is drawing close to its galaxy changing conclusion...

I don't believe them.

 NAVARRO wrote:
Wonder what more good surprises does this year brings.

More incremental price increases, no doubt.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I can't help but be cynical and see it as them attempting to save face over the animators debacle and just being a team who finds ways to use creative people to act as more blatant free advertising.

This is very obviously what it will be. As others have said, the rise of patreon has resulted in people making side-gig to full-gig incomes off of their hobby output. This can be through the production of art, videos, etc. GW would want both to protect the ownership of their brands and also enforce their exclusive right to profit from them.

Frankly, I think we are probably gearing up to another Chapterhouse court case some time in the next few years. They've been going after 3D modellers on patreon and kickstarter, sometimes for things that a lawyer would probably see as a bit of overreach. Eventually someone will call their bluff.

We can only hope that the hobby evolves through the change. In the example of 3D printers, it's an amazing time to be in the hobby as it really opens up a huge amount of choice for custom pieces and vehicles.

Chikout wrote:
The £15k bonus is across 5 years. Still decent but not exceptional. The best thing about is that everyone got the same bonus, so it helps the lowest paid staff the most.

Just to signal boost this, because it seems like everybody's acting like the 15k comes immediately to everyone. 15k over 5 years is not something I'd turn my nose up at... but you have to stay there the 5 years. And is that going to give GW justification for not paying out larger bonuses in the future? I wouldn't be surprised. Still, good for them.

 jojo_monkey_boy wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I can't help but be cynical and see it as them attempting to save face over the animators debacle and just being a team who finds ways to use creative people to act as more blatant free advertising.

This is very obviously what it will be. As others have said, the rise of patreon has resulted in people making side-gig to full-gig incomes off of their hobby output. This can be through the production of art, videos, etc. GW would want both to protect the ownership of their brands and also enforce their exclusive right to profit from them.

Frankly, I think we are probably gearing up to another Chapterhouse court case some time in the next few years. They've been going after 3D modellers on patreon and kickstarter, sometimes for things that a lawyer would probably see as a bit of overreach. Eventually someone will call their bluff.

We can only hope that the hobby evolves through the change. In the example of 3D printers, it's an amazing time to be in the hobby as it really opens up a huge amount of choice for custom pieces and vehicles.

Given the terrible "no models, no rules" policy that came from that, I'm very afraid to see how GW will overreact if they get another Chapterhouse level case where they inevitably feth up and not only lose further goodwill among the playerbase but also how they'll overcorrect based on the results of the case. Let's hope they don't do something dumb like tie their model/SKU molds to NFT's or something lol.

No Models No Rules isn't a bad policy.


It's a policy GW has because of their unique position in the market whereby they are the biggest, but also the most copied/proxied as a result. If they can't copyright everything at the conceptual level and stop people making and selling proxies then they really don't want to put rules into books for models that they aren't going to sell very soon or currently. Otherwise they are leaving money on the table.

Heck with 3D printing now a thing someone can get a model designed and made in a few days and released to the market; a few more days for supports and merchants to pick them up and inside a 2 week period (1 week if you pushed it) you've got 3rd party proxies coming out.




It also, I think, stopped GW from their old style of codex updates where there were ideas for models in them which never game. Tyranids had at least 2 Codex with new hero style models and weapons for gaunts which never appeared from GW. The only way to play was converting/proxying; and every time GW released new Tyranid models it was marred by the fact that "Oh that's cool, but where's my Spike riles or Parasite of Mortaux"




That said Chapterhouse was also when GW found out that their IP legal guy wasn't actually a legal guy. I would hope they learned from that at least. What I've seen of them going after 3D printing is thatin most cases its sensible.

The only ones I see that get confused are merchants who get shut down because they sell a design which isn't IP infringing, under a GW copyright name (or marked as such on the page).
The actual design infringements so far have been pretty specific in what GW goes after; symbols, icons, specific shapes of armour or sculpt.

Chikout wrote:
The £15k bonus is across 5 years. Still decent but not exceptional. The best thing about is that everyone got the same bonus, so it helps the lowest paid staff the most.

That still works out to 3k GBP/yr. For comparison, my gf works for one of GWs "competitors", her annual bonus was $400 and her "big promotion in recognition of her outstanding work and leadership over the past year" amounted to a 3% raise, which in reality is a pay cut because its less than the rate of inflation, despite the dramatic increase in responsibility she was given.

we are in the process of creating a community outreach team, to work with and support creators and prominent community members who champion the Warhammer hobby outside of our own pages and spaces.

Let us introduce this new team of 10 well paid lawyers and 5 hobby experts to seek out all the hobby content on Youtube, Patreon, FB and other social media platforms to make sure they get the attention they deserve

When I read, "...equates to [GBP]15,000..." I see it as the average payment, not one that everybody gets. I mean, I can't imagine them giving the executives the same bonus as the guy that puts sprues in boxes.

Good for them, good for us.

But I sorely miss any form of sustainability strategy other than the four lines of lip service at the end.

 Overread wrote:
It's a policy GW has because of their unique position in the market whereby they are the biggest, but also the most copied/proxied as a result. If they can't copyright everything at the conceptual level and stop people making and selling proxies then they really don't want to put rules into books for models that they aren't going to sell very soon or currently. Otherwise they are leaving money on the table.

Heck with 3D printing now a thing someone can get a model designed and made in a few days and released to the market; a few more days for supports and merchants to pick them up and inside a 2 week period (1 week if you pushed it) you've got 3rd party proxies coming out.

It's a policy because GW refuses to compete on price and would rather remain a luxury brand. They also don't seem to want to compete on quality, which in a lot of cases, they have over the stuff that's pushed out in a couple of weeks. They essentially do not want to compete, which is why they are heavy-handed with lawyers.

 Overread wrote:
The only ones I see that get confused are merchants who get shut down because they sell a design which isn't IP infringing, under a GW copyright name (or marked as such on the page).
The actual design infringements so far have been pretty specific in what GW goes after; symbols, icons, specific shapes of armour or sculpt.

Which, without being a lawyer myself, is where some of the overreach comes in. By all means, they can enforce their trademark names, but some of the aesthetic targets are probably a lot more muddy than GW could reasonably defend. But again, I am not a lawyer and would be happy to be corrected by someone who is.

All of the above is quite ironic given GW's origins as a business that built their IP by copying basically everyone else and creating models for other games.

The joke of the Chapterhouse case was always a line from the original AvP movie: "Whoever wins, we lose."

 Overread wrote:
No Models No Rules isn't a bad policy.

There is no "Dakka Dakka Award for Excellence in GW Apologetics", y'know?

"No Models/No Rule" suffers in the same way that most things GW create suffer: Great idea, terrible execution. "No Models/No Rule" should be an expansive thing, something that brought more into the game. Instead it only resulted in contraction, as suddenly things that did not have models were ripped out of the game. It has also led to this utter nonsense. It's why we get so many stupid quadruple-barreled Adjective Nounverb names for units, why Orcs are now Orruks, why Ogres are now Ogors, why Slayers are Fyrslyrs and Elves have extra vowels were once there were none. And it's why the overwhelming majority the model kits are now near-optionless jigsaw puzzles rather than more modular releases.

In the case of that latter one it seems that, finally, 5 years after we went from kits like these two to kits like these two, GW has realised that we want options, both in game and from a modelling perspective, and so hopefully the new Primaris Characters, new Autarch, Guardians and even the Kill Team expansion sprues are examples of a new way forward. Of course, GW are seasoned experts at changing horses mid-race, and there's every chance they'll go even further down the rabbit how they've dug themselves into, so you'll forgive me if I don't hold my breath with this one.

In summary: "No Models/No Rule" would be a good if GW had nothing to do with it.

 jojo_monkey_boy wrote:


All of the above is quite ironic given GW's origins as a business that built their IP by copying basically everyone else and creating models for other games.

In some cases Its more Ironic than you think. Now that they have their own games some of us are actually moving away from Gw rulesets spam and buy GW minis to play other games

Rules with no models used to be fun.

I think I went through three different interpretations of Captain Invictus and his plasma blaster, two different versions of Ancient Helveticus and Rogue Trader metal IG were my first gang of Last Chancers.

I had a good stab at a St Praxedes as well.

the community outreach team isn't a suprise. the events of last summer likely exposed to GW the problems inherant in not having a dedicated team to dealing with these kinds of things.

It's easy to forget (and absolutely flabberghasting) that GW is actually pretty far behind on the 8 ball compared to many large companies in terms of internet presence

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
The joke of the Chapterhouse case was always a line from the original AvP movie: "Whoever wins, we lose."

 Overread wrote:
No Models No Rules isn't a bad policy.

There is no "Dakka Dakka Award for Excellence in GW Apologetics", y'know?

I mean you did notice that my example was from the perspective of GW adding models to the rules and never actually making the models in the first place?
Rather than about changes to GW's practice of including or not including optional parts in kits which, whilst related (eg gaunts lost several guns through no models-no-rules) isn't exactly the same thing. That's FAR more to do with how GW designs models and parts for models; how they approach multiple weapon options and other aspects of kit design.


I do agree that in the wake of the court case and the end days of Kirby GW did make "odd" and "consumer unfriendly" choices. Like how Primaris almost certainly went from the next generation of Marine kits into a side by side release with current marines; or how push-fit adjusted how GW sculpted some designs and resulted in less optional weapon/pose kits being released (although that also goes hand in hand with regular assembly, but dynamic pose kits as well). Or how in Age of Sigmar GW went with (and has stuck too) the odd choice to make banners and musicians a "1 per X number of models" instead of "1 per unit" even though "champions" remained the same 1 per unit. Leading to some units (eg Slaanesh Seeker riders) which have more command units in a full unit than actual troopers (they have musician, banner, icon, champion, of which 3 are "per 5 models" and the full unit itself is 15. Ergo 1 champion, 9 command and 5 actual "trooper" models)