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silent25 wrote:

 Adam LongWalker wrote:

I have to agree with Mean Green Stompa with his assessment. I'll say this once again. Wells was only taking orders from Kirby. He should not be the scapegoat for the current business model of the revenue streaming process that has been going on since 2010. Kirby is the man calling the shots. Independent retailers are eventually going to be less and less be out of the equation for GW's future ways of receiving their revenue.

If Kirby is the only one calling the shots and dictating this mentality, Mikhaila would have never started to praise GW back in the day because GW would have never offered those benefits. Kirby has been in charge of GW since 1991. The change in GW's approach to stores in this country and cost cutting reflects the time Wells was CEO. He clearly had an influence on the running of GW and was not some rubber stamp that people think. He left his mark on the company and changed the mentality of company. Will Kirby change things back though? I don't think so.

I spoke to Mikhaila about this in January 2010, that's when he was entirely enthused about GW and explained how much GW USA did for him and why he loved their reliability and support for the indy store.

What else happened in 2010?

Kirby comes to America. He starts dealing out the beheadings, senior management in North America is clear out. GW North America was given a great deal of autonomy up until that time. It's mindset and support system was very different to the UK model's evolution. Kirby came over to bring it to heel.

Listen to what Mikhaila has said, there is noone left in the company that he's known for the 20 years he's been dealing with it, It's been 'purged' or whatever 'imperium' speak the weirdos in GW's management training would say (perhaps 'management exterminatus'...).

No more tourney support, no more mutual relationship with retailers, no more trust or reliability. This man has been trading directly with GW for 20 years of reliable business and now they are lying to him, removing the support he's enjoyed for that time and moving from a mutually beneficial relationship to a hostile and 'patronizing' one. I've said it before, if Mike has lost faith in GW, we should all be worried about the state of the company, because that is the ravens leaving the tower.

Wells was a plate spinner, he kept things ticking over to Kirby's instruction at home whilst Kirby was in NA, reshaping it to maximize profit. For one reason, his personal profit and retirement. A Chairman or CEO should be expected to be a shareholder, but I am not convinced of the wisdom of the head of the company being among the top five shareholders, it leads to a greatly skewed performance geared to share payout over long term health for the company, especially when that board leader is so close to retirement.

Can one of our British friends tell me if there is a difference between GBP and GBp (the p being what I'm interested in).

 Alfndrate wrote:
Can one of our British friends tell me if there is a difference between GBP and GBp (the p being what I'm interested in).

Pounds and pence usually.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 Alfndrate wrote:
Can one of our British friends tell me if there is a difference between GBP and GBp (the p being what I'm interested in).

Pounds and pence usually.

My original post was about boyd saying he bought a hundred shares for about a hundred dollars... because if the London Stock Exchange goes off of Pounds, then a single share of GW is worth 989 USD and I was gonna call complete and utter bs, but if this site is correct: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=GAW:LN and it says GBp, then that means a share is only worth about 10 dollars...

might be worth it to pick up some...

Didn't mean for this to go OT, just wanted some clarification, thanks MGS

Now back to the debates!

Might be time to create a 40k investment group, get everyone to pick up a few shares and start steering GW back on course... LOL

Power of the people and all... ;-)

For the price of 1 Tactical Squad, you too can own 4 shares of Games Workshop!

 Alfndrate wrote:
For the price of 1 Tactical Squad, you too can own 4 shares of Games Workshop!

655.20 USD a share? I might be a finance noob but isn't GAW.L their stock ID?

Edit: Disregaurd the info I pulled aparently is displayed in GBp

We should start a kickstarter to buy up a major share of GW stock.

 Goat wrote:

 Alfndrate wrote:
For the price of 1 Tactical Squad, you too can own 4 shares of Games Workshop!

655.20 USD a share? I might be a finance noob but isn't GAW.L their stock ID?

Edit: Disregaurd the info I pulled aparently is displayed in GBp

This is why I asked a few posts ago if there was a difference between GBP and GBp because I wanted to make sure that a share of GAW.L was $9.89 USD and not 989 USD

rpricew wrote:
Might be time to create a 40k investment group, get everyone to pick up a few shares and start steering GW back on course... LOL

Power of the people and all... ;-)

I don't trust any of you to run said investment group.

 kronk wrote:

rpricew wrote:
Might be time to create a 40k investment group, get everyone to pick up a few shares and start steering GW back on course... LOL

Power of the people and all... ;-)

I don't trust any of you to run said investment group.

I trust you Kronk >_>

 SickSix wrote:
We should start a kickstarter to buy up a major share of GW stock.

Someone is already doing it. ~14% of GW stock has recently been purchased in two different bunches since Wells left, maybe the numbers are a bit different, but I am not going to dig too deeply into the numbers. A, the community can't compete with that amount of cash investment, and B, some entity is likely already angling in to take over GW. Things are probably going to change pretty drastically pretty soon.

So, who wants to buy GW? Disney? Hasbro? Milton Bradley?

 SickSix wrote:
So, who wants to buy GW? Disney? Hasbro? Milton Bradley?

My money would be on Hasbro, if I were a betting man.

Free GW shares with every Thunderhawk and Manta purchase!

weeble1000 wrote:

 SickSix wrote:
So, who wants to buy GW? Disney? Hasbro? Milton Bradley?

My money would be on Hasbro, if I were a betting man.

Same, but at the same time I don't see them picking up GW... simply because wargames are still too niche... But that IP is worth a hell of a lot, especially if someone actively promotes it and gets it into the public... I mean I know they own WoTC, but at the same time, that company had so many different games under their name that it was probably enticing to Hasbro beyond DnD and Magic, though I apparently don't remember this and I'll have to check my old cards, but apparently Wizards owned the Pokemon TCG, which probably helped them even more...

Who knows

Though considering the price that Hasbro paid for Wizards, they could sneeze roughly a 3rd of that at Games Workshop at buy them up... The problem would be to get enough voting members on the board to approve such a sale.

According to this site: http://companycheck.co.uk/company/01467092
Games workshop is worth roughly 121,015,500 USD (79,815,000 GBP)

The Warhammer IP is way too big to just die but other than Hasbro I can't really think of anyone who would be overly interested in it.

Yeah, the problem becomes, who is large enough to pay for GW and everything they own... You're basically down to just Hasbro, Mattel, and Disney... While all three of those companies have the revenue and cash to buy GW, you then have to think... Who would benefit the most, and who would most likely be the company to pick it up... Disney owns Marvel, but I think that's mostly for the movie revenue, and Mattel could do it, but I don't think they're known for that type of property... Though they could probably do it as a direct competitor with Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast...


BUT we're getting off topic, I'm sorry mods

 Pacific wrote:

 Xzerios wrote:
Revelation just hit me...

GW runs themselves much like the Emporium of Mankind... shunning technology and all.

There was a pretty good article I read on this that says the same thing... http://thefrontlinegamer.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/is-imperium-metaphor-for-games-workshop.html

It's just a company, folks, and hardly the most evil one out there. Although Kirby is a bit of a corpse-god at this point.

 jonolikespie wrote:
Kirby made a statement in the last financial report about wanting to open 800 more shops in the US because for some reason they seem to think the UK business model will work there. They want all FLGS in the US that are selling GW products to be GW stores as that way they can control every every step of the process from manufacturing the models to selling them direct to you, and therefore that entire $50 note you hand them for a model that costs $3 to produce, pack and ship is going strait in their pocket and they don't have to share with other stores. [/rant]

I think he's blowing some smoke in that case, though. If they really wanted 800 more stores of their own in the country, they'd have more than one store in Philadelphia (nation's 5th largest city) and its wealthy suburban counties.

 Pacific wrote:
I'm not sure if it was in this thread, or again another one like, but someone was asking whether Privateer Press will go the same way as GW. In a sense perhaps they are already (and you could make an argument that such is the fate of all companies once they reach a certain size), but I think while that company is still privately owned, and doesn't have to concentrate solely on shareholder dividends, then there will still ultimately be a gulf between those companies in terms of company policy and therefore customer perception.

At some point, PP will need to go public if they intend to keep growing. It all depends on the vision and greed of the owner(s).

I'd also be careful about rooting for GW to be acquired.

Back in 2nd edition, or thereabouts, the store that sold me the game in the first place stopped stocking GW stuff. Supposedly it was because they were enraged at their treatment by Games Workshop, though I don't remember the precise trigger - maybe it was them opening the retail stores? Not sure if that was it as there certainly wasn't one near that particular shop.

Kirby made a statement in the last financial report about wanting to open 800 more shops in the US

I would love to see that, but considering the rate at which they close and open shops it will be the 41st millennium before that happens. They constantly close shops as soon as the rent goes up a little or the sales go down a little, even very successful shops that have had a single bad year have been closed sometimes. I've seen them close shops that were mostly very successful surprisingly quickly after one bad season or one annoying rent increase.

I'm already concerned about possibly losing our Battle Bunker in Bowie, MD (https://www.facebook.com/GWBowie). Since they no longer can sell Forge World they've lost thousands of dollars in monthly income yet GW still apparently expects them to make the same sales numbers they did when they were selling Forge World a year ago. It's daft.

Not to mention that the Bowie GW lost a large portion of its playerbase to an independant retailer who opened up shop in their old location in Glen Burnie.

 gorgon wrote:
At some point, PP will need to go public if they intend to keep growing. It all depends on the vision and greed of the owner(s).

I don't know anything about their business practices, but why do you feel that way? It seems many companies who go public swell in the short term and die in the long term. Valve has remained private, though I admit they're a bit of an oddball with Steam and all.

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/09/03/valve-software%E2%80%99s-philosophy-becoming-publicly-traded-company#.USzzwlchJa8

All [companies that float] end up getting their customers changed," Valve's Erik Johnson told the latest issue of PC Gamer.

"Any bad decision I ever see out there is because somebody created this different customer that was whoever funds them, and not the consumer of the product."

"You end up with a totally different set of decisions, and the person who's trying to design the experience is like' Okay, I guess we'll put Christopher Walken in our game."

 BrassScorpion wrote:

Kirby made a statement in the last financial report about wanting to open 800 more shops in the US

I would love to see that, but considering the rate at which they close and open shops it will be the 41st millennium before that happens. They constantly close shops as soon as the rent goes up a little or the sales go down a little, even very successful shops that have had a single bad year have been closed sometimes. I've seen them close shops that were mostly very successful surprisingly quickly after one bad season or one annoying rent increase.

I'm already concerned about possibly losing our Battle Bunker in Bowie, MD (https://www.facebook.com/GWBowie). Since they no longer can sell Forge World they've lost thousands of dollars in monthly income yet GW still apparently expects them to make the same sales numbers they did when they were selling Forge World a year ago. It's daft.

All the bunkers are going to be closed, LA and Seattle already shut down and replaced with one man demo stores. Im sure they will kill off the rest in short order. What I want to know is what they intend to do with all the tables and glass cabinets, those suckers are a $1000 a piece. I know the Toronto bunker has the 20+ cabinets from the old HQ in the basement, it would be a terrible shame for them to get Dreadfleeted.

Whilst the core GW studio might be fumbling a little bit (seriously it's one book that will be obsolete within a year) I can't see the GW ship sinking for at least 5 years and probably not even then. You see as much as GW might look awkward and clumsy Black Library are a major success with the Horus Heresy and Forgeworld are now ding a good trade in the corresponding figures and supplements. Those two alone could support GW but the thing we don't know is how big the hobby is outside of the minority who post on internet forums. I mean even in this thread there are what 200 unique posters max? That's a tiny proportion of the player base.

As for the shops. Most people I hear from hardly ever go into a GW store and buy stuff everyone buys online. High street shopping is going through a big upheaval. Even here in the UK, the supposed powerhouse of GW retail I think GW will close half of it's stores in the next five years. I just don't see the need for these tiny shops. They need to consolidate and have one bigger store in each county with more better trained staff. As for the US I wouldn't be surprised if GW went to one store per state or just went mail order and FLGS only.

Bloodwin wrote:
Whilst the core GW studio might be fumbling a little bit (seriously it's one book that will be obsolete within a year) I can't see the GW ship sinking for at least 5 years and probably not even then. You see as much as GW might look awkward and clumsy Black Library are a major success with the Horus Heresy and Forgeworld are now ding a good trade in the corresponding figures and supplements. Those two alone could support GW but the thing we don't know is how big the hobby is outside of the minority who post on internet forums. I mean even in this thread there are what 200 unique posters max? That's a tiny proportion of the player base.

As for the shops. Most people I hear from hardly ever go into a GW store and buy stuff everyone buys online. High street shopping is going through a big upheaval. Even here in the UK, the supposed powerhouse of GW retail I think GW will close half of it's stores in the next five years. I just don't see the need for these tiny shops. They need to consolidate and have one bigger store in each county with more better trained staff. As for the US I wouldn't be surprised if GW went to one store per state or just went mail order and FLGS only.

I absolutely cannot see the point of having one store in every state. What would be the point unless they were all like Warhammer World or something?

Bloodwin wrote:
WhilAs for the US I wouldn't be surprised if GW went to one store per state or just went mail order and FLGS only.

I can see this, too. The thing is that GW has discovered that they (as a company) get more money via their stores and direct sales than they do through FLGS. I don't see them moving to embrace FLGS again until their bottom line is impacted in a way they can't recover from through a different means.

I'm in Atlanta, GA and there is only one GW store in 100 miles of me. It's one of the small one man shops that's focused on getting people started in the hobby.

Most everyone else plays at the FLGS around the city, since they are the only ones who have space to play. Most of them support the store that they play at as well.

I don't understand why GW can't recognize the loyalty that providing a place to play endears. Sure, some folks go online and buy things, but most of the Pre-Orders, New Releases and spontaneous buys are done on the spot, in the store when the games are finished.

 SickSix wrote:
So, who wants to buy GW? Disney? Hasbro? Milton Bradley?

Most likely just some investment group.

 Breotan wrote:

Bloodwin wrote:
WhilAs for the US I wouldn't be surprised if GW went to one store per state or just went mail order and FLGS only.

I can see this, too. The thing is that GW has discovered that they (as a company) get more money via their stores and direct sales than they do through FLGS. I don't see them moving to embrace FLGS again until their bottom line is impacted in a way they can't recover from through a different means.

Mistreating and imposing rules on the FLGSs is only going to spread discontent if anything, alot of GW is word of mouth, piss enough people off and suddenly they'll have no one holding them up.