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Tastyfish wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
When there is a sufficiently critical mass of 3d printer users, i forsee generic digital dolly software requiring minimal 3d modelling skills to click andndrag around a few key anatomical points to allow the usernto create any pose they like. Similar to Anvil's Regiments system one can then choose how one wishes to dress ones dolly and which family of weapons to arm them with. Shouldnt take too long to whomp up a few nice poses and then sendnthem to your printer.

Given that Thingiverse already basically provides a fully free to use object library it can only be a short jump to software that pullsmit all together.

Pretty what Heroforge is for D&D characters, though they then print them off for you.

Heroforge is a good example of why it is not yet a concern to GW. Heroforge minis are really quite expensive for what you get - more expensive than GW if you want a decent quality print. And people still buy them.

 Stux wrote:

Heroforge is a good example of why it is not yet a concern to GW. Heroforge minis are really quite expensive for what you get - more expensive than GW if you want a decent quality print. And people still buy them.

Its not yet a concern to GW. Heroforge is a company who wants to make money. Its expensive because a 3d printer that can deliver the quality they do is very expensive right now. Once print quality improves, and prices come down, heroforge will also come down in price. I can buy the file from them for $9.99 and print at home, once i have a printer that delivers the same quality for an affordable price.

Chap I worked with a while back used a laser sintering 3d printer at BAE Systems to make a 6mm army with every model being unique.

No layer lines or anything like that, and everything made of metal...

Of course that is out of reach for most hobbyists

 Stux wrote:

Tastyfish wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
When there is a sufficiently critical mass of 3d printer users, i forsee generic digital dolly software requiring minimal 3d modelling skills to click andndrag around a few key anatomical points to allow the usernto create any pose they like. Similar to Anvil's Regiments system one can then choose how one wishes to dress ones dolly and which family of weapons to arm them with. Shouldnt take too long to whomp up a few nice poses and then sendnthem to your printer.

Given that Thingiverse already basically provides a fully free to use object library it can only be a short jump to software that pullsmit all together.

Pretty what Heroforge is for D&D characters, though they then print them off for you.

Heroforge is a good example of why it is not yet a concern to GW. Heroforge minis are really quite expensive for what you get - more expensive than GW if you want a decent quality print. And people still buy them.

You are not factoring in that a big part of cost is time. Heroforge prints 1 model at a time (or at least sells them based on that assumption). The time it takes to print 1 marine is the exact same time it takes to print 10 with the right sized build area. The cost per model drops drastically under those conditions.

You can see it on shapeways. Items made as single pieces are prohibitively expensive. Kits made to snap off a sprue and alligned well to reduce wasted space are quite economic. Look at the cost of buying 1 shoulder pad vs the well laied out sets of 20.

3D printing, absolutely, will kill GW's sales, unless they dramatically cheapen their prices. All it takes is one high quality 3D printer and accurate downloadable prints.

 _SeeD_ wrote:
3D printing, absolutely, will kill GW's sales, unless they dramatically cheapen their prices. All it takes is one high quality 3D printer and accurate downloadable prints.

Yes but its not quite that simple. For it to kill GW's sales that high quality 3D printer has to be owned and operated by every customer or at least every other customer or so. So to kill GW's sales every gamer has to go out and buy a 3D printer that costs probably as much as buying a full army from GW anyway. Only instead of spreading it out over a year or three its got to be paid up front in one lump cost. The other option is someone at a club or store having a bank of 3D printers to create things. At which point you're mostly just moving around production.

Also its important to realise that the money we pay for a model is only partly paid in the cost of its raw materials and production. GW's overheads get rolled into that cost so there's rent on stores, wages on staff, wages on multiple layers of staff who write lore, produce concept art, produce the models, part the models, produce sprue, design the box art, take the photos, produce white dwarf, run all the multi-media marketing they currently do, tax, rents, whatever sundries, work on new games, work on the rules, manage the company, produce the coffee etc...

Basically if we want GW to be GW then there's going to be a bare minimum price threshold for their product to support the company. 3D printers won't kick all that out unless we want to lose a LOT of it. So sure we can have our 20p box of marines from the 3D printer, but in sacrifice we'd probably lose the lore, rules, central development, artwork, magazines, podcasts, probably future products in many ways etc...


Remember cheaper products only works so far and so long as the market continually expands and grows. Once you hit a threshold point and once the existing market is satisfied with what they've bought you can hit a ceiling point by which your existing customers don't want more and there are fewer and fewer new customers to reach. It's a very attractive idea to have cheaper and cheaper product and I won't deny there might well (esp with overseas currancy conversions) be regions where GW can reduce their costs to their customers, but not dramatic ones. I think such dramatic losses would likely result in a very short window of massive sales, followed by a massive reduction. Heck we already have gamers who have wardrobes full of unbuilt models on the current prices - if prices got insanely cheap chances are that would explode out and we could see hobby burn out on many more.



As I've said before I can't see GW or PP or Reaper or any of the current big names embracing 3D printing to the level of cheapness that many seem to want without downsizing themselves into basically garage-run operation companies. Plus I don't think gamers even want that really. We like our garage operations don't get me wrong, but they can rarely service all the gamers hobby needs and interests. I've yet to see any one-man-band companies put out the lore, artwork, media, hype and buzz and models that GW or PP or Infinity can produce. Heck even middleweights can't even touch on the lore content in the same volume.