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Where does this leave the whole "I don't support GW, I give my money to FW" "you know its the same company?" stuff that was going on elsewhere?
It doesn't affect it. The money will still report to FW.
My take-away from the whole thing is that they seem to be doing alright. "Reported sales fell by 3.5% to £119.1 million for the year" isn't great, and indicates a reduction in buyers, especially in the indy space (6.x% decline). The report makes mention that they've been bad at recruiting and aim to do something about it, but their entire approach seems to be to open more stores and give the managers huge targets.
Also interesting to note that the stock is managed automatically from Nottingham, so store managers don't even deal with stock, and that there are ~7000 indy traders worldwide. It'll be interesting to track how that changed.
Also; rolling the none-core stuff into the core sales really hides what's going on.
0.1m increase in licensing revenue, despite all that work isn't great either.
Where does this leave the whole "I don't support GW, I give my money to FW" "you know its the same company?" stuff that was going on elsewhere?
I think that was more along the line of rewarding good behaviour with hard cash. I know that's what I think either way - FW put out some quality products in my view - the books and models together. So I spend my cash there. GW rarely tempts these days, so my cash doesn't follow. If FW get integrated with the main site but still put out a quality product then I will continue to reward good behaviour.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/28 08:13:01
As I write the world is tumbling in chaos around us. Pundits discover they cannot predict elections, the Americans ride to the rescue of world football (thank you, Uncle Sam), Sunderland escape relegation, again, the UK will split up into its consistent parts, it will leave Europe; and yet we struggle on. Babies get born, the rain falls the sun shines and the plants grow, our chickens keep laying, and Games Workshop still employs over 1,500 people, supporting 1,500 families all over the globe, making the best miniatures money can buy, providing one of the best investments in our owners' portfolios, and having a great deal of fun doing it.
Interesting that he admits to failing with growth, and that a lot of indies have dropped them, though he blames it on disruption from the changes:
One bit of the GMP remains stubbornly unrealised – sales growth. We knew that the huge infrastructure changes we have been making these last few years (and are still making, we have just signed off on a new ERP system) would be disruptive, so we are not surprised that many trade accounts across Europe no longer trade with us.
Forge World mail order store. To protect our sales we are building a new Forge World mail order store on the same platform
and hosting environment as our Citadel mail order store and migrating all products and imagery. It is on track with a
scheduled go live date in the summer of 2015. It will cost £1.1 million.
Consolidating everything into one place makes store orders more likely
I also notice the investment into the studio and new tooling is pretty big (27.7 million).
That's a lot of investment in new products, apparently the reason for the 3% price rise, so I'm wondering exactly what they are doing.
The mention of an overhaul of their product range makes me wonder if we will see not only everything in plastic from now on but also could be hinting at an entire replacement of the Warhammer fantasy line of minis.
Or possibly more Heresy plastic than we thought? FW going onto the main website / in store would tie in nicely with that.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/28 08:28:46
ahzek wrote: Forge World mail order store. To protect our sales we are building a new Forge World mail order store on the same platform
and hosting environment as our Citadel mail order store and migrating all products and imagery. It is on track with a
scheduled go live date in the summer of 2015. It will cost £1.1 million.
So.. . Not actually combining onto the main store .. Just using the same gakky webcart software and hosting on the same server .
"Secondly, I will review our product range. We believe this is long overdue: it is time for a resetting of the ranges. Not tweaking here and
there but a top down reassessment. I expect to update you further at the half year. We will aim to continue to deliver outstanding
product and customer service, maintain our Group gross margin and continue to improve our Group stock turn. To be absolutely clear I
will not be reducing the RRP of our products: they are premium priced for their premium quality. I will, however, be looking to offer a
broader range of price points. This is exciting and is for the long term, so I'm not promising when you will see a change. We have
already started the brainstorming in our monthly strategic product meetings. It is early days, but I can already foresee some busy times
ahead."
Baragash wrote:
Hope you don't play a niche or under-performing 40k army like Sisters or Dark Eldar................or Slaanesh.
In context, he seems to be saying that he will consider releasing cheaper options for some models. and possibly some more expensive ones. Does not look like dropping 40k factions is hinted at.
In the dropping-support sense they have already reviewed the hel out of their range (epic, BFG, WFB).
Of course, how we interpret "resetting of the ranges" is entirely a matter of opinion. As someone with about 10 years of experience of range planning I know what my money is on though And actually, from a professional point of view, I do think that they have range bloat, though I think that is an ill-considered side effect of a poor overall product strategy (that is, basically cutting everything back and relying on 40k).
(Yes, technically I did just make an appeal to authority )
Ex-Mantic Rules Committees: Kings of War, Warpath
"The Emperor is obviously not a dictator, he's a couch." Starbuck: "Why can't we use the starboard launch bays?"
Engineer: "Because it's a gift shop!"
Fenrir Kitsune wrote: "In July 2015, we relaunched Warhammer Fantasy to broad acclaim ‘Warhammer: Age of Sigmar’."
Broad acclaim? Wouldn't have called it that.
GW local had more people in on launch day than I've seen for ages, and they were buying. Lot of people at my club have bought Age of Sigmar that have not bought GW for years. Local FLGS has been selling it and the new products well. Your personal experience may be different but don't make the mistake of assuming that the super small niche of haters on the internet are actually and kind of real world representation. I expect GW's 15-16 to look a lot better, and if plastic Heresy happens then Q3/4 will get a super boost, same with Forgeworld going easier to order with less postage charge.
Pricing, I still honestly do not think they are overpriced. I'd like them to be cheaper (who wouldn't) but they are actually broadly similar to what you get say in a malifaux box (or more in many cases) with more customisation. Mantic are not actually much cheaper and I personally think their models are rubbish quality and rubbish design in of themselves. Took me about 2 hours to clean up my AoS starter, it took longer to do my now gone Deadzone faction starter as it was junk.
I honestly think GW have laid some good foundations for their future buisness, they now need to do likewise to 40K rapidly, or do it using Heresy. There will always be a market for a premium product.
To be here next year we have to do what all our customers want, not just a noisy few, and find a way of making money doing it.
So they have heard the feedback from the forums but thats just whiny naysayers. It'll be interesting if they actually start doing market research or if they still assume that they know best what the majority actually wants.
£1.1 million budget to roll on a new product line into the website is a huge spend. It theory you could get away with creating a new container and batch creating the products from the exising descriptions & phots, then giving access to the FW team to the backend same as the GW mail order trolls, should take a couple of interins a week at most with some testing at the end. Sounds like they are completely revamping the backend of FW and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see regional pricing added in as well.
Fenrir Kitsune wrote: "In July 2015, we relaunched Warhammer Fantasy to broad acclaim ‘Warhammer: Age of Sigmar’."
Broad acclaim? Wouldn't have called it that.
GW local had more people in on launch day than I've seen for ages, and they were buying. Lot of people at my club have bought Age of Sigmar that have not bought GW for years. Local FLGS has been selling it and the new products well. Your personal experience may be different but don't make the mistake of assuming that the super small niche of haters on the internet are actually and kind of real world representation.
As long as you don't make the mistake of calling people who are making valid criticisms of a product "haturz"...
Games Workshop Delenda Est.
Users on ignore- 53.
If you break apart my or anyone else's posts line by line I will not read them.
TwilightSparkles wrote: Mantic are not actually much cheaper and I personally think their models are rubbish quality and rubbish design in of themselves. Took me about 2 hours to clean up my AoS starter, it took longer to do my now gone Deadzone faction starter as it was junk.
You had me up to here. Can you find any example where Mantic isn't much cheaper than GW?
At a skim of wayland games, 5 new AoS infantry mini's cost £30, but I get can 15 Palladin cavalry for the same money.
And that's discounting the £30 Dwarf starter army set, because it's ancient.
Sure, GW figures tend to be nicer than Mantics, but the price differential is enormous.
To be here next year we have to do what all our customers want, not just a noisy few, and find a way of making money doing it.
So they have heard the feedback from the forums but thats just whiny naysayers. It'll be interesting if they actually start doing market research or if they still assume that they know best what the majority actually wants.
£1.1 million budget to roll on a new product line into the website is a huge spend. It theory you could get away with creating a new container and batch creating the products from the exising descriptions & phots, then giving access to the FW team to the backend same as the GW mail order trolls, should take a couple of interins a week at most with some testing at the end. Sounds like they are completely revamping the backend of FW and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see regional pricing added in as well.
The pricing of the website stuff always sounds mental until you realise that Kirby's wife (qualified private trainer) is in charge of it. With a salary of about £120k/year.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/28 08:41:56
TwilightSparkles wrote: GW local had more people in on launch day than I've seen for ages, and they were buying.
My friend's local GW was empty the day of release and the gamestore right next to it was packed to the brim selling the new Magic expansion all day long.
The point I'm making is that anecdotal evidence isn't.
The preamble is still the most amazing part of all this. But GW seem to be doing alright from the figures.
I do worry that "reorganisation of our ranges" means "completely scrapping LOTR/The Hobbit" though. They are the miniatures from GW I really appreciate.
LOTR is getting scrapped anyway. Seemingly to be replaced by plastic H/H stuff. It was dead from the start - the Goblin Town LE box still hasn't sold out, and you can buy all 3 films on DVD now.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/28 08:45:36
H.B.M.C. wrote: I don't think 40K is getting Age of Sigmar'd.
Horus Heresy on the other hand...
One of the most trusted rumors guys has said 40k is basically getting sigmar'ed. Now we have a financial report that says they are revaluating their range.
It's over. Done. Pack it in. That's polite corporate bs talk.
They'll gak out as much codices and anything else they possibly can before they go the sigmar route just to milk the old fans one last time. Then kick them out on their way to their new fanbase. That simple really.
H.B.M.C. wrote: I don't think 40K is getting Age of Sigmar'd.
Horus Heresy on the other hand...
One of the most trusted rumors guys has said 40k is basically getting sigmar'ed. Now we have a financial report that says they are revaluating their range.
It's over. Done. Pack it in. That's polite corporate bs talk.
They'll gak out as much codices and anything else they possibly can before they go the sigmar route just to milk the old fans one last time. Then kick them out on their way to their new fanbase. That simple really.
IIRC Hasting (or Harry) didn't said that, only that codex would be a thing of the past within the next 2 years. While I think that GW might have plans to sigmarify 40k, i'm pretty sure that these plans will only be enacted if the sales for AoS are way better than what the sales of fantasy were. Another reason to hope that AOS turns into the biggest financial failure in the miniature world since age of ragnarok (weirdly enough, both of these abominations have pretty much the same name)
lost and damned log
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/519978.page#6525039
GW have been only making minor changes to the WH40K rules for 2 decades and it still outperforms any other tabletop wargame by a factor of 10. I just can't see them changing that.
Baby and bath water come to mind.
I take a consolidation of their ranges to be more pocket money type products and less duplication. By that I mean no more tactical and assault boxes for each and every SM Chapter and more accessory sprues.
The only change I can see in WH40K is they might biggerise certain ranges (say SM/Orks) to differentiate then from others products. But that's a guess.
How do you promote your Hobby? - Legoburner "I run some crappy wargaming website "
notprop wrote: GW have been only making minor changes to the WH40K rules for 2 decades and it still outperforms any other tabletop wargame by a factor of 10. I just can't see them changing that.
Baby and bath water come to mind.
They'd only been making minor changes to WFB for decades too.
notprop wrote: GW have been only making minor changes to the WH40K rules for 2 decades and it still outperforms any other tabletop wargame by a factor of 10. I just can't see them changing that.
Baby and bath water come to mind.
They'd only been making minor changes to WFB for decades too.
Yeah but that wasn't selling. Since its release WH40K has always been far more popular than WHFB.
And anyway how do you Sigmarise WH40K? Sigmarisation seems to be the introduction of a Space Marine archetype to Fantasy, they already did this when they made the game!
How do you promote your Hobby? - Legoburner "I run some crappy wargaming website "
I'm skeptical that they will do to 40K what they did to Fantasy battle. To do that would mean having the entire universe over-run by chaos and "reset", new factions introduced and made central to the background while old central players were erased, and a scale/basing change.
The only thing I could possibly see them introducing is a Warscroll type approach to rules and perhaps the removal of points, but I think they'd be wise to see how that went down profits wise before doing anything of the sort. Warscrolls for 40K could be pretty decent IF they are pointed appropriately.
The Horus Heresy line might be a savior for GW though- they'll be wondering why the hell they didn't do it sooner.
"Secondly, I will review our product range. We believe this is long overdue: it is time for a resetting of the ranges. Not tweaking here and
there but a top down reassessment. I expect to update you further at the half year.
Sounds like a reference to dropping Hobbit/LotR in favor of HH.
And actually, from a professional point of view, I do think that they have range bloat, though I think that is an ill-considered side effect of a poor overall product strategy (that is, basically cutting everything back and relying on 
)
Legion: Dark Angels