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Possibly it's a better way to tie into the Warhammer: Eternal Crusade computer game, FFG or other upcoming games?
That cross marketing can be worth big bucks, just look at lotr.

It's an interesting idea with some logic to it. I think it's good that they're testing it.

You know your company is fethed when you're taking plays out of the oil industry PR playbook.

Because oil companies don't make much money?

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
Because oil companies don't make much money?

I think he means that oil companies have an endemic PR problem, and that if a company feels it has to pull PR shenanigans along the lines of an oil company it must be having a serious PR problem.

And come on, seriously, Games Workshop doesn't sell a substance that the bulk of the world requires in order to maintain it's infrastructures and living standards.

Made out of the same stuff though...

How are people new to gaming, new to GW and new to miniatures supposed to know what they sell in a shop called 'Warhammer'? Are they likely to walk in and try and find out or more likely to not bother at all? More importantly, how are parents of said kids supposed to know? I mean, a fair proportion of GW's customers are parents buying stuff for their kids - they see Games Workshop, they are intrigued, walk in and get the sales pitch and leave with a bunch of stuff for young Timmy. I can't help thinking this rebranding is going to damage some of that foot traffic that doesn't have the assumed knowledge of what 'Warhammer' is.

So the new owners won't have to change signs from "Games Workshop?"

 filbert wrote:
How are people new to gaming, new to GW and new to miniatures supposed to know what they sell in a shop called 'Warhammer'? Are they likely to walk in and try and find out or more likely to not bother at all? More importantly, how are parents of said kids supposed to know? I mean, a fair proportion of GW's customers are parents buying stuff for their kids - they see Games Workshop, they are intrigued, walk in and get the sales pitch and leave with a bunch of stuff for young Timmy. I can't help thinking this rebranding is going to damage some of that foot traffic that doesn't have the assumed knowledge of what 'Warhammer' is.

Maybe that's it. It's Kirby's plan to get rid of brick and mortar altogether. Think of the savings!

 filbert wrote:
How are people new to gaming, new to GW and new to miniatures supposed to know what they sell in a shop called 'Warhammer'? Are they likely to walk in and try and find out or more likely to not bother at all? More importantly, how are parents of said kids supposed to know? I mean, a fair proportion of GW's customers are parents buying stuff for their kids - they see Games Workshop, they are intrigued, walk in and get the sales pitch and leave with a bunch of stuff for young Timmy. I can't help thinking this rebranding is going to damage some of that foot traffic that doesn't have the assumed knowledge of what 'Warhammer' is.

I'm not sure I fully see your point here. If you are walking past the shop, you can see what is in the window. I could see it being a problem for a new store opening up down some cheap to rent side street.

A sign saying "Warhammer" may be more appealing to a little Timmy, especially if said Timmy is a blood thirsty little sod!

Certainly if I have any sort of discussion with any friends who are 'normals' they seem to be more aware of Warhammer than Games Workshop.

I still think it's an attempt to distance themselves from what could now be considered a tainted image, certainly in the broader media, but if this is just one thing to try and move themselves forward, with more, and more substantial, change to come, then it could be a positive move.

alphaecho wrote:

 filbert wrote:
How are people new to gaming, new to GW and new to miniatures supposed to know what they sell in a shop called 'Warhammer'? Are they likely to walk in and try and find out or more likely to not bother at all? More importantly, how are parents of said kids supposed to know? I mean, a fair proportion of GW's customers are parents buying stuff for their kids - they see Games Workshop, they are intrigued, walk in and get the sales pitch and leave with a bunch of stuff for young Timmy. I can't help thinking this rebranding is going to damage some of that foot traffic that doesn't have the assumed knowledge of what 'Warhammer' is.

I'm not sure I fully see your point here. If you are walking past the shop, you can see what is in the window. I could see it being a problem for a new store opening up down some cheap to rent side street.

A sign saying "Warhammer" may be more appealing to a little Timmy, especially if said Timmy is a blood thirsty little sod!

Because a lot of GW's sales are not to little Timmy but to little Timmy's parents who see the shop apropos of nothing, see the 'Games' bit, think that might be a good idea for said little Timmy (quite often they think video games) but then the key point; they walk in the shop and are pitched/sold to. What concerns me is how many parents will see Warhammer, have no idea what it is and what it does and simply discard/discount/forget about it without even bothering to look in the window (notwithstanding those parents who will be put off by the word Warhammer or connotations of 'war' in a store title). The other factor is that many GW stores are in little side streets and not on the main street. They have less footfall already and need to maximise what they get, not further baffle potential walk-ins even more than they need to.

Yeah, that's the irony for me.

Back in 1996-1997, I had never heard of Games Workshop, or Warhammer, or anything of the sort.

I went into the store in Queens Street Glasgow for the first time, looking to buy a new computer game.

Needless to say, from 1997 to 2013, I bought rather a large amount of toy soldiers from Games Workshop as a result of that mistake.

 filbert wrote:

alphaecho wrote:

 filbert wrote:
How are people new to gaming, new to GW and new to miniatures supposed to know what they sell in a shop called 'Warhammer'? Are they likely to walk in and try and find out or more likely to not bother at all? More importantly, how are parents of said kids supposed to know? I mean, a fair proportion of GW's customers are parents buying stuff for their kids - they see Games Workshop, they are intrigued, walk in and get the sales pitch and leave with a bunch of stuff for young Timmy. I can't help thinking this rebranding is going to damage some of that foot traffic that doesn't have the assumed knowledge of what 'Warhammer' is.

I'm not sure I fully see your point here. If you are walking past the shop, you can see what is in the window. I could see it being a problem for a new store opening up down some cheap to rent side street.

A sign saying "Warhammer" may be more appealing to a little Timmy, especially if said Timmy is a blood thirsty little sod!

Because a lot of GW's sales are not to little Timmy but to little Timmy's parents who see the shop apropos of nothing, see the 'Games' bit, think that might be a good idea for said little Timmy (quite often they think video games) but then the key point; they walk in the shop and are pitched/sold to. What concerns me is how many parents will see Warhammer, have no idea what it is and what it does and simply discard/discount/forget about it without even bothering to look in the window (notwithstanding those parents who will be put off by the word Warhammer or connotations of 'war' in a store title). The other factor is that many GW stores are in little side streets and not on the main street. They have less footfall already and need to maximise what they get, not further baffle potential walk-ins even more than they need to.

Got to agree with Filbert here. Most stores are off on side streets or away from major areas of footfall. Likely the name change will not hamper existing customers or those who come by word of mouth except existing customers are already declining. walk ins will probably stay away. Unless, you know GW cross promote and advertise.

But such concerns are otiose in a niche.

No. Just no. They may not want to admit it but they currently have THREE(not two) games that are not one offs like incredible spess hulk.
Warhammer.
Warhammer 40k.
And THE HOBBIT STRATEGY BATTLE GAME.
This is only going to lessen the sales:when you hear warhammer you think its selling medival reenacment stuff.
When you hear gw you think its video games.which gets people to walk in. Also as Stewie Griffin once said:"I dont like change!"

Sure the rebranding could be suitably expensive, especially if they use their own range of paints to do it with.

Does suggest that warhammer as a game is probably going nowhere, wonder why they didn't go for a more sci-fi look to fit in with the WHW rebranding?

 Azreal13 wrote:
Certainly if I have any sort of discussion with any friends who are 'normals' they seem to be more aware of Warhammer than Games Workshop.

I agree that some of this goes on. People not in the hobby probably don't know Games Workshop from Fantasy Flight Games, but they might have heard of Warhammer.

"Games Workshop" is a legacy name that goes back to when they owned retail game stores selling other companies' products. But now that they're only selling their own stuff -- and primarily two products with "Warhammer" in the name -- why not put the name of the product on the stores?

You go to the Coach store to buy a Coach handbag. Coach doesn't call their company stores "Handbag Shops," that'd be nuts. GW (and their consultant) is guessing that people will more easily make the connection between the store and the product this way. Sure, maybe the occasional person mistakes a GW store for a video game store and becomes a new customer. But I think it's more likely that said person will immediately turn around and leave, and in fact that seemed to be what I witnessed more often in GW stores.

It's fairly obviously not about "bad PR" as it is about a better brand for their retail stores. It's a solid idea IMO, and sounds worthy of some testing. They might be wrong. But that's why you test it.

Warhammer doesn't mean anything to a general modern audience. Even for enthusiasts the brand is 40K.

Games Workshop has immense heritage and an easily recognisable name. OTOH GW have spent the past five years pissing all over it.

Someone ought to go down to Chiswick High Road to check it out. I might go next week if I can find the time.

Meanwhile in a GW meeting room, somewhere near Nottingham..

"Well, we've gone and done it. We've finally pissed off enough gamers that it's actually beginning to hurt us financially. We're here today to discuss implementing a new studio system as well as re-thinking our company culture to become more inclusive and cultivate a better relationship with our customers and players. It's been a wonderful ride, but I'm afraid I can't see any way forward but to roll up our sleeves and start making the quality product our customers are crying out for.."

"Hang on Mr Kirby, there might be another way..."

"Go on..."

"Well, we all know that all of our customers are mindless, mouth breathing simpletons, and that ultimately we're doing them a favour by taking their money before they spend it on something really pointless, so, we could...we could....change the name of all the shops? That would mean all the negative nonsense we've pulled since forever will be instantly forgotten!"

"Genius! Here, have some money!"

*Kirby throws a roll of twenty pound notes at minion, hitting them in the face*

I normally role my eyes at this sort of comment but I have to admit ... I actually laughed out loud. Well played.

Dammit! Where is GW Fulchester when you need it?!

The Auld Grump

In a strange way this sort of makes sense. GW haven't made a variety of different games in years. They now only make 2 games, both called Warhammer.

Lots of people already refer to GW as 'the Warhammer store' or something similar so this is the logical thing to do I suppose.

 Riquende wrote:

I for one am proud to call this store my home and for it to represent a shining new future for the company and hobby I hold so dear.

So now the minions are using communist propaganda phrasing? When will the wall be coming down or is it in the process of falling down now?

Black and white sign on a dreary gray UK streets? Ugh!
Go from friendly, cheerful red and yellow to stark black and white is not going to be kid or parent friendly. Very, very strange...

As Sean says:

Honestly...likely trying to build a wall and moat for the UK (in terms of IP).

As was pointed out by the CHS legal team...most of GW's copyright claims would be invalid under UK design laws. The purpose of play being the main issue. If they work to rebrand their figures as collectibles - then a different set of rules apply.

Interesting times indeed.

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
Fun fact, currently on ebay there are 125,795 Warhammers and only 11,731 Games Workshops.
A google search shows 21,300,000 Warhammers and 4,9200,000 Games Workshops.
Maybe they are just going with what seems to be the stronger brand.

War Barbies only gets 100 ebays and 472,000 googles.

Edit: It does kinda go against the whole renaming AM thing, if they'd really wanted to be exclusive they'd have made up a fresh name and copywritten/TMd it into exclusive oblivion.
Double Edit: I think it was Legoburner who had a thread around the time of the AM/IG name swap, he ran a google analysis graph program thingy it'd be good if someone could do that with this please!

TBH those search numbers might have a small reason to the name change.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
Honestly...likely trying to build a wall and moat for the UK (in terms of IP).

As was pointed out by the CHS legal team...most of GW's copyright claims would be invalid under UK design laws. The purpose of play being the main issue.

If they work to rebrand their figures as collectibles - then a different set of rules apply. Right now, with a company name like Games Workshop...they wouldn't have much luck trying to claim that they sell collectibles as opposed to games. Switching their retail arm to "Warhammer" as well as recent public statements by people like Jervis claiming most their customers don't play at all (an interesting tidbit of information for them to know considering they also claim to do no market research) is laying the groundwork to file lawsuits in the UK and EU

That's an interesting point Sean. They have been subtly pushing the collectibles narrative for a while now, but I had not thought about how a rebranding might impact that. I'll have to go through the CHS trial transcript at some point and see if any GW witnesses shot the company in the foot on this issue.

I honestly don't think GW has the institutional willpower to file another lawsuit. At least not for a good while, and especially not with a costly appeal still hanging over its head.

Whatever GW's plans are with this, I think that it is fair to say that the company was spooked by the CHS case. GW's reactions, however, have not been terribly productive or beneficial for the company, at least not so far as I can see. Alienating customers and carving out product value to make life harder for third party companies has got to have done vastly more harm than good.

Of course the irony is that GW's decline has caused a lot of these companies to develop more robust, standalone product lines that are competing much more directly with GW for market share...and succeeding.

 LuciusAR wrote:
. GW haven't made a variety of different games in years. They now only make 2 games, both called Warhammer.

The.Fething.Hobbit.

It makes sense to me. Warhammer is the name everyone knows in the UK over Games Workshop.

 Da krimson barun wrote:

 LuciusAR wrote:
. GW haven't made a variety of different games in years. They now only make 2 games, both called Warhammer.

The.Fething.Hobbit.

Heh. GW might make more than two games, but GW barely sells more than one game.

 Da krimson barun wrote:

 LuciusAR wrote:
. GW haven't made a variety of different games in years. They now only make 2 games, both called Warhammer.

The.Fething.Hobbit.

A dead game that is almost certain to be dropped once the last movie is done and GW's license for the IP expires.

 Da krimson barun wrote:

 LuciusAR wrote:
. GW haven't made a variety of different games in years. They now only make 2 games, both called Warhammer.

The.Fething.Hobbit.

Why does know one care about the hobbit? It is a GAME MADE BY GAMES WORKSHOP or "Warhammer" as its now known.