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It's never nice when something you grew up with changes names, think Snickers/Marathon or Opal Fruits/Starbursts. Really, Games Workshop as a name made more sense back when they could be arsed to support a nice range of games, now it's just Warhammer Warhammer Warhammer why not just call the shop Warhammer and be done with it?

 OldSkoolGoff wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:


I take it I don't need to explain why those people not coming in anymore is actually a BAD thing?

Sure. Explain away. Explain how a 60 year old woman walking into the store asking where CoD is because it's her grandson's birthday tomorrow and then sighing and walking back out the door helps GW in any way whatsoever.

Yes, because those were the only types of randoms that walked in...

 OldSkoolGoff wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:


I take it I don't need to explain why those people not coming in anymore is actually a BAD thing?

Sure. Explain away. Explain how a 60 year old woman walking into the store asking where CoD is because it's her grandson's birthday tomorrow and then sighing and walking back out the door helps GW in any way whatsoever.

She may not walk out, she might buy an alternate gift and on occasion, people looking for other stuff is where future custom comes from, you would be surprised how many of us started the hobby by walking into a GW expecting something totally different.

 Rayvon wrote:

 OldSkoolGoff wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:


I take it I don't need to explain why those people not coming in anymore is actually a BAD thing?

Sure. Explain away. Explain how a 60 year old woman walking into the store asking where CoD is because it's her grandson's birthday tomorrow and then sighing and walking back out the door helps GW in any way whatsoever.

She may not walk out, she might buy an alternate gift and on occasion, people looking for other stuff is where future custom comes from, you would be surprised how many of us started the hobby by walking into a GW expecting something totally different.

Yup. Started this full bore after myself and my brother walked into a GW looking for Havok miniatures.

My nan was looking for the Ninja Turtles RPG

Changing the name from Games Workshop makes sense if you have no interest in selling a range of games to potential walk-in customers.

Changing it to Warhammer makes sense if you assume that all of your customers already know what Warhammer is, and won't be put off by losing the Games Workshop brand name.

 Grimtuff wrote:

Yup. Started this full bore after myself and my brother walked into a GW looking for Havok miniatures.

Man, Havok!! Such nostalgia. I'd literally forgotten that existed.

The're finally admitting that they are not making games anymore and not a Workshop of new systems?

So now they only sell Warhammer

GW will not be changing the sign of their store at Tomball Crossing, Tomball, TX.

Instead, they are going to close it on the 2nd of November.

jamesk1973 wrote:
GW will not be changing the sign of their store at Tomball Crossing, Tomball, TX.

Instead, they are going to close it on the 2nd of November.

It's probably cheaper to close it than get a new sign made.

 ekwatts wrote:
I doubt any of this is to do with "negative" PR. They haven't ever really had negative PR. In fact, the company is of a pretty good standing.

I mean, it gets dragged through the mud on internet message boards and stuff but in the real world none of that actually matters.

'Spots the Space Marine' got a fair amount of coverage outside the industry, news items on it and of course the writers/publishers community flocked down on it to condemn GW's claims.

The dip in profits also got some mention in financial press, think there was mention of it in the Financial Times etc.

You're right though, extremely unlikely that this would be anything to do with negative perceptions. The only time something like that would happen is if there was some massive problem or issue that got press outside of the industry (some kind of child abuse story going on at one of the stores or something like that).

Back in the old days, Games Workshop was a place where you could model scenery and terrain as well as paint miniatures i.e. it was literally a "Workshop".

As this no longer applies and the business is geared towards selling Warhammer plastic kits and rulebooks, the change in brand makes sense...

...which is a shame.

Mixed feelings here. On one hand, no problem it makes sense and is a good idea based on reinforcing identity with their core ( only) product.

On the other hand, a 30+ year old company changing their name is a HUGE deal. Not saying it hasn't been done before, ( Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC for one easy example ) but it isn't something that is done lightly.

As an aside, I laugh until my sides hurt when I see folks saying "oh the noes, if they change the name they won't get customers who wander in looking for xboxes!". Guys those people were never customers anyways. Yes on some rare occasions, they might buy something but to even slightly consider them in a business sense as a source of revenue is laughable. If a board member were to even contemplate it, it would display almost a criminal level of incompetence at running the company.

 ekwatts wrote:
I doubt any of this is to do with "negative" PR. They haven't ever really had negative PR. In fact, the company is of a pretty good standing.

I mean, it gets dragged through the mud on internet message boards and stuff but in the real world none of that actually matters.

O really? Well, let's just scrape the cream off of the top, shall we.

Winston and Strawn Defeats Hundreds of Trademark and Copyright Infringement Claims

Trademark Bully Thwarted

Games Workshop trademark bullying goes thermonuclear

EFF Helps Return 'Space Marine' Book to Amazon After ‘Trademark Bullying’ Takedown

Fantasy figures: Games Workshop’s CEO takes alternative view of 'good'

Games Workshop, makers of Warhammer and 40K, performs corporate suicide

The Iron Fist: How Games Workshop Put A Stranglehold On The Australian Market

And that's just some top stories from mainstream news. GW's brand problem isn't even confined to its little niche market.

I'm pretty sure that Winston and Strawn's website, Escapist Magazine, and Kotaku aren't really "mainstream news" Weeble.

You're absolutely right that it isn't confirmed to just rumor sites or the gaming community though. I just wouldn't call those sites mainstream news.

 Kanluwen wrote:
I'm pretty sure that Winston and Strawn's website, Escapist Magazine, and Kotaku aren't really "mainstream news" Weeble.

You're absolutely right that it isn't confirmed to just rumor sites or the gaming community though. I just wouldn't call those sites mainstream news.

They're decidedly more mainstream than DakkaDakk, Bell of Lost Souls, Blood of Kittens, Warseer, Frothers, etc. They absolutely go beyond the niche market of table top wargaming.

Note that the Winston and Strawn press release is actually really mainstream in terms of litigation, and in particular IP litigation. In fact, the press release was cited by a Law 360 article about the GW v CHS case, and the GW v CHS case was cited by name in the Law 500 journal.

Of course, some of these stories have been covered in The Guardian.

Fair enough. When I think of "mainstream news" though I think of it as things like The Guardian.

 Kanluwen wrote:
I'm pretty sure that Winston and Strawn's website, Escapist Magazine, and Kotaku aren't really "mainstream news" Weeble.

You're absolutely right that it isn't confirmed to just rumor sites or the gaming community though. I just wouldn't call those sites mainstream news.

uummmm. Here is a fun fact:

According to alexa, Kotaku.com ranks only two places behind cbc.ca, the national news agency of Canada.
(At the time of posting this kotaku is rank 1027, and CBC is ranked 1025)

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/kotaku.com
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/cbc.ca


Kotaku ranks MUCH higher then all of these canadian news networks.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/globalnews.ca
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ctvnews.ca


Sure then are not big enough to compete with the likes of american media conglomerates, like CNN.com, foxnews.com, cbsnews.com, ect. But it's big enough rank above most Canadian news networks and many other countries. Kotaku has quite a bit of weight behind it at this point, witch is one of the reasons why the video gaming community blew up so much when kotaku was involved in a scandal recently.

Quote on the GW Chiswick page

Games Workshop: Chiswick Is to be believe guys and gals this is a trial that only 3 Games Workshops in the world are participating in ( Bath and Edinburgh being the others). I think the brand Warhammer is a lot more recognisable than Games Workshop and I think Jonathan Taylor-Yorke has hit the nail on the head.

 Fifty wrote:
Quote on the GW Chiswick page

Games Workshop: Chiswick Is to be believe guys and gals this is a trial that only 3 Games Workshops in the world are participating in ( Bath and Edinburgh being the others). I think the brand Warhammer is a lot more recognisable than Games Workshop and I think Jonathan Taylor-Yorke has hit the nail on the head.

Yah, I agree GW has realized the GW brand is starting to get toxic, thus want people to focus on warhammer. (Let's face it. the worlds and games that have actully made us care so much about this stuff in the 1st place)

Maybe the goal was to give an impression of a change in the hopes people will think it's going to change for the better (and who knows, maybe it will, maybe it won't, but anyway) On the other hand, their choice of logo in my opinion at least in the OP does look kind of bland and more corporate than the more energetic yellow and red of the old brand.

Not really, in the Uk if said to a random mother of a 12-13 year old boy Wargaming you would get a blank face, not so much when you say Warhammer. My Mrs has put up with my nonsense for nearly a decade, when I leave for the club cluching an X Wing box she will swear blind I'm off to the Warhammer club!

I.e. It's a brand at this point. This is an interesting experiment but even if it went world wide it would intrinsically make no difference in GW beyond a bill for new stationary.

 Phobos wrote:

As an aside, I laugh until my sides hurt when I see folks saying "oh the noes, if they change the name they won't get customers who wander in looking for xboxes!". Guys those people were never customers anyways. Yes on some rare occasions, they might buy something but to even slightly consider them in a business sense as a source of revenue is laughable. If a board member were to even contemplate it, it would display almost a criminal level of incompetence at running the company.

That sort of attitude won't get you very far in any sort of sales career.

The shop front exists entirely to entice people in off the street and get them in front of your salespeople, who, if they're any good, can then use that opportunity to generate a sale. We would frequently run offers which weren't very good, because they looked good on a poster and brought customers in - once a dialogue was entered into, one could explain that the offer wasn't great, and then offer them something which was better, and looked even better than that in comparison to what they initially enquired after.

To say "they were never customers anyway" demonstrates a very short sighted and negative attitude. Will a high percentage of those who came in looking for video games end up buying? Probably unlikely, I'd speculate at less than 5%, if that, if you're sales staff are half competent. Sales is just a numbers game at it's heart though, so if one person in twenty that wonders in off the street buys something then that ends up as a not insignificant amount of revenue across all sites each year.

By effectively heading these customers off at the pass, they're essentially flipping a coin (because they don't do customer research remember?) as to whether the more obvious Warhammer branding will increase awareness amongst those who know the IP but don't connect it with GW will generate more cash than those who wander in looking for something else but ultimately are persuaded to purchase currently do.

EDIT
Huh, so I DID have to explain it....

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
The're finally admitting that they are not making games anymore and not a Workshop of new systems?

So now they only sell Warhammer

There can be only Wahammer!

T

It does have a sort of MTV re-branding thing going on. I guess it's recognition that the old name is no longer applicant.

 Lockark wrote:


Yah, I agree GW has realized the GW brand is starting to get toxic, thus want people to focus on warhammer. (Let's face it. the worlds and games that have actully made us care so much about this stuff in the 1st place)

I doubt it has anything to do with 'GW brand' - after all, the whole GW brand is basically two Warhammer games. I don't think a few IP feud news have given them a 'toxic' brand that they'd need to get rid of, either. It's probably just an attempt to streamline the brand, in order to gain some sales.

It's a bit unfortunate that they are going at it the wrong way. Instead of focusing on their two core games, they should be trying to grab a share of the expanding miniature/boardgame market with a larger lineup. They have a ton of high street stores, so why expand to other brands? Just putting in a shelf for their licensing buddy FFG would probably rack a ton of income from X-Wing and 40k RPGs, and they could work with FFG to revive some of the old Specialist Games while at it.

 notprop wrote:
Not really, in the Uk if said to a random mother of a 12-13 year old boy Wargaming you would get a blank face, not so much when you say Warhammer. My Mrs has put up with my nonsense for nearly a decade, when I leave for the club cluching an X Wing box she will swear blind I'm off to the Warhammer club!

I.e. It's a brand at this point. This is an interesting experiment but even if it went world wide it would intrinsically make no difference in GW beyond a bill for new stationary.

That's not a brand, it's at risk of becoming a generic term like a Hoover. If war hammer is commonly accepted to mean war games, I.e. I've I'm playing black powder war baker tonight, then they risk losing the trademark altogether.

But they would be the only company that can produce Warhammer models that look like the Warhammer range in a wargaming context.......so no change then really. Risk=0


It is a brand and one that they protect by trademarking individual elements. A Warhammer Shop won't change that either.

"look like the Warhammer range" is a slippery concept and I'd defy anyone to nail that down sufficiently to be legally enforceable.

 Azreal13 wrote:
"look like the Warhammer range" is a slippery concept and I'd defy anyone to nail that down sufficiently to be legally enforceable.

Maybe that's why they are using so many skulls - to make their range stands out.

"Only Warhammer can have minis that are composed of over 90% skulls!"