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GW, soaring to new heights of greed and stupidity.

I have to admit, that picture of all the LoTD models together made me giddy.... the price made me queasy.

How is this a bad decision at all? It probably took one guy one hour to set this up, if each one sells even one copy that it wouldn't otherwise GW will profit on it.

I know hating GW is popular, but use some common sense here guys.

Nothing new here tbh. This has sadly been GW s policy for bundles for ages. Even in store when you buy the starter box, a case and all the other gumpf they reccomend you buy totalling hundreds of pounds they dont offer a standard discount like getting your glue free. I remember the days when GW WOULD offer you a saving when buying multiples. Seems so so long ago. At least we have the battleforces and army boxes (although they are all too few)

They even used to have sale days for new shops opening and anniversaries and the like. Those were the days....

 SickSix wrote:
I have to admit, that picture of all the LoTD models together made me giddy.... the price made me queasy.

Pity they're no longer metal, hey?

 Kingsley wrote:
How is this a bad decision at all? It probably took one guy one hour to set this up, if each one sells even one copy that it wouldn't otherwise GW will profit on it.

I know hating GW is popular, but use some common sense here guys.

Its a bad decision because it serves only to highlight GWs money grabbing ways in a very obvious way. I'd wager that the amount of bad feeling that these frankly ridiculous bundles generate
will offset any profit earned. Seriously, these bundles are just bizarre.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 SickSix wrote:
I have to admit, that picture of all the LoTD models together made me giddy.... the price made me queasy.

Pity they're no longer metal, hey?

Glad we got ours while we could!

The Drop Pod bundle had me happy for a moment until I saw there was no saving. I would buy 6 of these things if they had had even a 10-15% saving.

 DiabolicAl wrote:

 Kingsley wrote:
How is this a bad decision at all? It probably took one guy one hour to set this up, if each one sells even one copy that it wouldn't otherwise GW will profit on it.

I know hating GW is popular, but use some common sense here guys.

Its a bad decision because it serves only to highlight GWs money grabbing ways in a very obvious way. I'd wager that the amount of bad feeling that these frankly ridiculous bundles generate
will offset any profit earned. Seriously, these bundles are just bizarre.

It "highlights their money grabbing ways..." to make it more convenient for players to buy models that go together at normal prices?

The "amount of bad feeling" that these generate is probably zero outside a certain group of Internet people who likely are not buying a huge amount of GW product anyway. If the expected value from this is in any way negative I would be beyond shocked.

According to Natfka's blog and supposedly taken from an internal GW newsletter, this is GW's reasoning behind these "save a click" bundles:
http://natfka.blogspot.de/2013/01/games-workshop-information-change-in.html

Natfka wrote:This bit of info comes from a weekly newsletter from Games Workshop. While there is not much that is interesting for us, and a lot that is internal stuff that we don't need to post, there are some interesting bits to check out.

Global Web Promotion
Web exclusive collections for existing range products

On Saturday 12th January Global Web will be introducing a new series of web exclusive collections
to games-workshop.com.

So what is it exactly?
• Every month we will release six collections of themed products that have been put together from existing ranges of miniatures to allow our customers to purchase multiple, related products in one convenient click.
• These collections are put together as exciting opportunities for our customers to collect more miniatures. For example, a Space Marine Tactical Squad and Drop Pod is a simple one-click purchase that is nicely themed.

What’s the promotion plan?
• When the month’s advance orders move into the new release section, we will also add the web exclusive collections. At this point we won’t promote them, they will just be additional products that in most cases will be related to the month’s new products. In
January we will be selling Space Marine collections alongside the Dark Angels new releases.
• The week after new releases go on sale we will promote the web collections on the front of the web site, via newsletters, Facebook, Twitter and the blog. You won’t be able to miss them.

Im glad they did these bundles, its so much trouble to click ten or so times just to order stuff !

Your mouse only has so many clicks in it. GW is thinking ahead.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Your mouse only has so many clicks in it. GW is thinking ahead.

It shows how much they care.

Shouldn't Amazon be suing GW at this point? They do (unless it was overturned) have a patent on "one click" ordering after all...

But, seriously... These are, "exciting opportunities for our customers to collect more miniatures"!!?!? Really? Wow...

Valete,

JohnS

It doesn't bug me that they would offer theme bundles at MSRP, they're just a suggested purchase. But it does highlight the savings I get by buying elsewhere

(Interestingly, I was recently told that GW doesn't track what "independant stockists" are charging. I thought that was a bit of willful blindness.)

Sounds like a decent marketing testing strategy. You know discounted bundles will sell, so try undiscounted ones. See what the purchase rate is. Check the delta and see if you make more in the end. If they only so an incremental few more than maybe its not worth it. But if they generate enough sales ... as a business, why wouldn't you continue that strategy?

Somebody is obviously buying from them online, whether its people new to the game or grandma buying for the grand kiddies, someone is buying. So bundling is good for them short term. Now, how do those people feel when they realize they could have gotten the same deal for 20% off. Well that's the sound of future purchases lost. If GW would do a 5-10% discount then I think their online traffick would be so much more. But I am more than willing to still buy from Vik at thewarstore.com so I can get everything in one place for less.

I miss the old mail order troll days when we could order specific parts from GW, or like when I ordered an adept us arbiters army 120 metal figures and the troll gave me 30% off.

I'm at an honest loss as to how anyone can spend that much money on the Legion of the Damned. Don't get me wrong, I love those minaitures, I really do .SOme of my favorite space Marines they have ever produced, and I love their backstory. They would be perfect for me, but at 104 pounds? No thanks.

The problem with the LoD pack, is that no-one is going to use all of the models, are they?
And, that about the majority of the unit being basic, and needing more basic models than specials?

Yeah, there's just no point in these bundles at all. Most of the time a player won't even want everything in a bundle, especially the "Heroes Of The Imperium" one. This, added to the fact that they're no cheaper than buying everything in the bundle separately definitely shows the extent of GW's stupidity.

Remember when Apocalypse first came out, and a bundle meant you'd actually save some money? Yeah, that.

 WaaaaghLord wrote:
Yeah, there's just no point in these bundles at all. Most of the time a player won't even want everything in a bundle, especially the "Heroes Of The Imperium" one. This, added to the fact that they're no cheaper than buying everything in the bundle separately definitely shows the extent of GW's stupidity.

Remember when Apocalypse first came out, and a bundle meant you'd actually save some money? Yeah, that.

From a game play standpoint, 4/6 of the bundles aren't that bad.

Hero's of Rynn's world: This is a solid core for a Crimson Fist army.
LoTD: OK, this one blows.
Warrior Ancients: While you might not field all 3 in every list, you can swap arms between them and get a lot of options. One of each dread kit is not a bad thing.
Rapid Response: I like this one. You have CC or bolter scouts in the LSS, snipers at home, and bikes zipping around. It might not be hyper-competitive, but scouts are fun.
Heroes of the Space Marines: Do you need all these guys? Nope. Bad bundle.
Drop pod assault: Do space marine armies need pods and guys in PA? Yup.

While the no-discount bundle thing is irritating, new players can get some milage out of these. For existing players who already have all the basic bolter marines then need, the number of useful ones goes down to 2/6. How you feel about dreads and scouts will determine weather those last ones are of any use to you.

I think that the thematic groupings might make people consider expansions to their list they otherwise wouldn't have thought of- when I saw that Rapid Response grouping, I immediately though of how cool they would be on the tabletop. Then I remembered there's no incentive to buy now. I think a discount- even one as small as 5%- would really feed into the impulse buy mindset they're going for. Still, I suspect these will sell enough to justify the hour it takes to photoshop those pictures together and add the entry to the store.

 Nevelon wrote:

 WaaaaghLord wrote:
Yeah, there's just no point in these bundles at all. Most of the time a player won't even want everything in a bundle, especially the "Heroes Of The Imperium" one. This, added to the fact that they're no cheaper than buying everything in the bundle separately definitely shows the extent of GW's stupidity.

Remember when Apocalypse first came out, and a bundle meant you'd actually save some money? Yeah, that.

From a game play standpoint, 4/6 of the bundles aren't that bad.

Hero's of Rynn's world: This is a solid core for a Crimson Fist army.
LoTD: OK, this one blows.
Warrior Ancients: While you might not field all 3 in every list, you can swap arms between them and get a lot of options. One of each dread kit is not a bad thing.
Rapid Response: I like this one. You have CC or bolter scouts in the LSS, snipers at home, and bikes zipping around. It might not be hyper-competitive, but scouts are fun.
Heroes of the Space Marines: Do you need all these guys? Nope. Bad bundle.
Drop pod assault: Do space marine armies need pods and guys in PA? Yup.

While the no-discount bundle thing is irritating, new players can get some milage out of these. For existing players who already have all the basic bolter marines then need, the number of useful ones goes down to 2/6. How you feel about dreads and scouts will determine weather those last ones are of any use to you.

I would argue that the Drop Pod assault is a failed buy as well. Like I pointed out earlier, the Space Wolves Battleforce is a far better buy, and there are enough generic space marine stuff to not have "wolves" on everything.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 SickSix wrote:
I have to admit, that picture of all the LoTD models together made me giddy.... the price made me queasy.

Pity they're no longer metal, hey?

Got a bunch of metal miniatures last week, and it made me immediately wish they were available in Finecast... :/

 Alfndrate wrote:

I would argue that the Drop Pod assault is a failed buy as well. Like I pointed out earlier, the Space Wolves Battleforce is a far better buy, and there are enough generic space marine stuff to not have "wolves" on everything.

No arguments on the "better buy" or value side. A lot of the battleforce boxes are useful stuff + garbage - discount = still more then you'd pay for the useful stuff. You do get some marginal stuff for cheap, and it helps the bits box. But they are only really good if you want everything in there. With the Drop pod assault bundle, you are paying full price, but you don't have to buy stuff you may or may not want, that just bumps the price point up.

When judging the quality of a bundle, you need to ask yourself "are all the components worthwhile" With the DPA, the answer is "yes" Both pods and Tac squads are solid choices for anyone building a marine army. The SW battleforce is a lower quality bundle, as you probably don't want everything in there. I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that both the scouts and blood claws are regarded as sub-par.

When you talk about the value of a bundle, you need to ask "Is buying these things together worth it, over buying them individually, a/o just picking the things I actually want out of it" Here the DPA obviously falls down. There is no incentive to buy it. The Wolves is a high value buy. It's got enough quality stuff in there, and while you are buying stuff you might not ordinarily get, the discount makes it worth while. And they aren't completely useless.

For 4/6 of those bundles, if someone were to give it to me, I'd paint it up and add it to my army. The parts of the bundles are fine, useful stuff. To me that makes a "quality" bundle. The other two, I'd return to the store and get something else. They are not quality products. With the Heros, you just don't need them all. You are only going to be using one or two of the set, the rest are chaff. LotD is massively overpriced for a marginal unit. I probably wouldn't field even if I had the minis.

Nobody is claiming the value is good, but the contents of most of them are fine. Which is the point I was trying to make.

I'm confused as to what about the Space Wolves Bundle is not useful?

You want tac squads? Okay, here are 2 of them (the Grey Hunter and Blood Claw "sprues" are the same), you want Drop Pod? here ya go! How about the ever useful Space Marine Scout Squad? Here's 1 squad we sprinkled in for you. Which makes it a far better value because Scouts are useful, even if you don't use them all the time. And not just in a Space Wolves Army, my scout squad in LSS usually makes it into 70% of my Space Marine lists.

But other than that, I agree that the bundles are useful, but it's no different than clicking add to cart on each of them so *shrugs* I guess you save yourself a few clicks.

Didn't they have a bundled box last year with a Drop Pod and a Tactical Squad that WAS cheaper bought together? That's the one that really rubs me the wrong way...

The bundles looks amazing, cant wait to get my hands on one- said no one ever.

Good god this is terrible terrible failure.

Yeah not sure who would order the "Heroes of the Imperium". Not very useful for army-building or even just building a themed army for non-player hobbyists.

 Harriticus wrote:
Yeah not sure who would order the "Heroes of the Imperium". Not very useful for army-building or even just building a themed army for non-player hobbyists.

Painters. I come to the hobby as a wargamer who does enjoy the modeling/painting side of the hobby. But all the work I put in on that side has the goal of delivering effective units to the tabletop. But there are people who only vaguely care about the rules or army lists. They just like the painting side. For them I could see the Heros bundle. It is a collection of detailed, nice looking, minis.