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An Actual Englishman wrote: You bring up a really interesting point in terms of the type of market these products are designed for and in some ways their function.
Bloodbowl, Necromunda, Adeptus Titanicus are all re-imaginings or re-releases of older, tried and tested games. They generally appeal to an older audience who may fondly remember the "good old days" but didn't have a chance to purchase the models at the time or has missed playing these games since they became unsupported. Which might explain the price point and fact that some of the ranges are resin.
Shadespire is a relatively unique offer for GW. It appeals more to competitive gamers with its focus on balance and the minis that use coloured plastics and are easy to build. The individual sets are also pretty inexpensive compared to other products GW sells. There is also the element of collectibles in there with the cards. It works exceptionally well as an introduction to the hobby and AOS in particular as a setting. Great crossover potential.
Speed Freeks is a re-imagining of Gorka Morka by the looks of things but has the added bonus of including new models. New models that will undoubtedly be released later at additional cost that most Ork players will want their greasy mits on as quick as possible. So it's a relatively safe bet in one regard but it appeals to a niche market which contains some risk. It'll be interesting to see how GW price the item, whether they offer savings for the product. I suspect it'll sell like hot cakes but I'm not sold on the longevity of Speed Freeks as a standalone game.
Kill Team is one of the most intelligent things GW has done for some time. I've not invested myself personally (because I've set a self imposed 'no purchase 'till Ork stuff' limit) but I know many people that have. It's great for not only bringing new players into 40k (because they don't need an entire army right away) and it's great for enticing existing players to buy models from other armies that they've always been interested in but didn't have quite the funds to buy an entire army. It also helps shift some old stock in the terrain and has an element of collectibles with the cards. Truly ingenious, probably best only by Shadespire. I think the Commanders expansion has arrived too early though. I know many people who are still completing their Kill Team and haven't really had a chance to play properly. Not to mention us salty, salty Ork players.
Blackstone Fortress looks again to be a re-imagining of Silver Tower but set in 40k. Rumour has it there'll be new models for one of the most beloved factions in the game. If this is true it'll fly off the shelves too. Particularly when we consider the effect of Kill Team and the cross over there. It suits new and existing hobbyists alike and will probably be an excellent Christmas seller.
They're not stupid and these releases show that there is a clear strategy with them. Necromunda, Adeptus Titanicus and Bloodbowl are probably the "riskiest" in terms of investment and probably offer the least in terms of actual profit. Their effect on those jaded players and most importantly the perception of GW as a business can't be overstated though. The other games, in my eyes, are extremely clever and low risk. I think the box sets (such as Wake the Dead, Tooth and Claw etc) have been too frequent but are again likely to be low risk.
I will challenge your evaluation of GW's intelligence. They are now making good business decisions, but in terms of well-designed games and creativity, they aren't smart. KT in particular could have played differently, deeper than 40k, especially as a story game, but ti doesn't. GW is " intelligent" in knowing their player base, and that cool models and enthusiastic, humorous videos and posts make up for average-to-mediocre rulesets and absurd prices. As your emphasis on the models demonstrates.
Blastaar wrote: I will challenge your evaluation of GW's intelligence. They are now making good business decisions, but in terms of well-designed games and creativity, they aren't smart. KT in particular could have played differently, deeper than 40k, especially as a story game, but ti doesn't. GW is " intelligent" in knowing their player base, and that cool models and enthusiastic, humorous videos and posts make up for average-to-mediocre rulesets and absurd prices. As your emphasis on the models demonstrates.
In the less than 5 months that you have been a member of Dakkadakka, you have made an average of 1.41 post a day. Looking through a sizable chunk of your posts, I see no post about games that you actually play, models you have actually painted or built. You have made one post in the Painting & Modelling section, where you even manage to weave in a negative comment about GW prices. All the rest of your posts seems to be gak-on-GW-posts in the 40k General section, the News and Dakka General section.
Why do not just keep away from GW games and hobby and concentrate your time, and posts on the forum, on something you like? Because it seems from your posting history, that your hobby isnt really tabletop gaming but simply spreading negativity about GW.
Let’s be honest here. No two gamers are alike. Different tastes, different budgets, different levels of free time.
Now, I really do like AoS and 40k. But I’m cash rich and time poor, so I don’t get to play as often as I’d like, and certainly not enough to justify starting a new army. That’s where Kill Team and Underworlds both come in. They’re quick to play, and are pretty cheap to get going with.
This is also of appeal to new gamers, in particular those that always wanted to get involved, but couldn’t justify the prices. Underworlds? £40, and that’s you. Full rules. Game board. Sufficient dice. Two forces at your disposal. And should you want to add variety? Extra forces are complete for just £17.50. Or £14 if I haul my fat arse to a Darksphere. Don’t need anything else with those purchases.
Look at it this way. To get a ‘fully functioning’ army for AoS or 40k, I’m looking at what, £300 give or take. Underworlds?
Well, there’s currently the compulsory Core Set at £40, and no less than 9 additional Warbands at £17.50 a pop. Or £152.50 for the lot. £35 for all the currently available additional boards. Then £10 for the ‘Leaders’ cards. That everything of strict gaming value for around £240. Everything. And unlike a given army, easily broken down into small, cheap purchases over a year (no £100 investment for big kits). And each purchase is self contained, and beyond the Core Set, none are particularly required to enjoy the game (though I suspect most will have multiple warbands at their disposal, just for the variety and challenge).
AT? Well, sticker shock at first. And perhaps the game did suffer a bit from that. As I said before, they really needed to show clear ‘for scale’ piccies of the Warlord. That thing is waaaaay bigger than you think. But you only really need one. Readers and Warhounds have much more palatable price tags, and Knights are dirt cheap.
AT is a very different game. When they get on with it and give us the other weapons, that’s when you’ll really see it shine. Volcano Cannon are all well and good, but less punchy Weapons have other advantages (including turning enemy Titans. Bit of luck, and you’ve just shafted their LoS!). That’s not really competing with 40k, because it’s so different.
The randomly released 40k ‘sort of starters’? Just a discount packaging to tempt peeps to start new armies. Very little investment in those. Some boards now and again, pamphlets etc. The models are either out now, or will be released in due course.
Quest? Well that’s Quest, innit. Just needs a full Bestiary or range of Bestiaries and it’s pretty much golden. From there, themesd dungeon add on packs, a revisit to the role playing book and it’s back to where it was. Oh, and treasure cards. Lots of those.
So, yeah. It’s a product diversification, not saturation. Lots of niches within the Hobby, and GW want to get their thumb into each of those pies.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
So, yeah. It’s a product diversification, not saturation. Lots of niches within the Hobby, and GW want to get their thumb into each of those pies.
Think Doc nailed it here, I think GW are finally waking up to the idea that if people aren't buying into 40k/AOS they are usually committing the heresy of buying non-GW products
By providing a range of cash / time / commitment variable products it hopefully keeps customers inside the GW bubble
Now wheres my BFG
"AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED."
Over saturation does not mean quality or value for money.
So for me the constant stream of uninspiring releases have no affect on me positively or negatively.
Except I now have more models tanks than ever since I can spend money elsewhere.
I would definitely agree that GW have upped the pace of their releases and are releasing a much wider variety of product.
For instance the Shadespire: NightVault is a complete edition with card expansions, dice, play mats, bespoke carry cases and warbands. So not just a book and some minis as it used to be.
And my wallet is feeling it.
I had stopped regularly buying stuff from GW as I already have a huge backlog of "stuff" and AoS didn't interest me and 40K releases were sporadic.
However I am now consistently dropping an average of £200 per month on GW releases.
This has been primarily Kill Team and 40K but also Titanicus, Necromunda and Shadespire here and there.
So whatever they are doing it's working although I am starting to feel a little bit of fatigue if only from the point of view of finding time to paint and play all the new stuff I have.
But even though I am spending a lot more than I had been for the first time in a long time I actually feel as though I am getting value for money.
My average £200 per month is spent via online retailers rather than GW direct which nets me an average 20-25% discount and the GW products I have been buying already had an inbuilt discount (Kill Team for example).
And I feel the quality of product has improved. For example I love the little Kill Team carry case - it's simple and effective, reasonably priced and is of good quality.
Inquisitor Gideon wrote: So just out of curiosity, what would you consider an "inspiring" release?
Ask someone who has and would potentially play guard I'll use them as an example for my "inspiring" releases. First a box of 15 infantry models. (3 sprues of 5 models) These would be a command box. These would be in great coats with legs and torso as one piece. Armour would be cadian pattern The shoulders could be bare but come with the option for braiding or cadian pads It would come with heads for Valhallans. Mordians. Praetorians. Cadians and one "other" generic set. It would have enough options to make 15 models with lasguns or Autoguns. Enough for say 10 models with laspistol and CCW. Accessories such as pouches etc. It would have parts to make 3 models Officers. Standards. Medics. Voxmen. Commissars. Psykers. Priests etc. And 3 of every special weapon. This box would cost £20
Second a box of 30 infantry models. (6 sprues of 5 models) These would be an infantry box. These would be in great coats with legs and torso as one piece. Armour would be cadian pattern The shoulders could be bare but come with the option for braiding or cadian pads It would come with heads for Valhallans. Mordians. Praetorians. Cadians and one "other" generic set. It would have enough options to make 30 models with lasguns or Autoguns. Enough for say 3 models with laspistol and CCW. Accessories such as pouches etc. It would have parts to make 3 models sergeants and Voxmen. And 3 of every special weapon. This box would cost £30
Third a box of 12 infantry models. (2 sprues of 6 models) These would be a Heavy weapon box. These would be in great coats with legs and torso as one piece. Armour would be cadian pattern The shoulders could be bare but come with the option for braiding or cadian pads It would come with heads for Valhallans. Mordians. Praetorians. Cadians and one "other" generic set. It would have enough options to make 12 models with lasguns or Autoguns. And 6 of every heavy weapon. This box would cost £20
Fourth a box of 10 cavalry models. (2 sprues of 5 models plus 2 sprues of 5 horses) These would be a rough rider box. These would be in great coats with legs and torso as one piece. Armour would be cadian pattern The shoulders could be bare but come with the option for braiding or cadian pads It would come with heads for Valhallans. Mordians. Praetorians. Cadians and one "other" generic set. The horses would have regular heads. Gas mask heads and horse xeno alternative heads (with tail) It would have enough options to make 10 models with lasguns or Autoguns or lances. Enough for say 2 models with laspistol and CCW. Accessories such as pouches etc. It would have parts to make 2 models sergeants and Voxmen. This box would cost £20
Fifth a box of 10 infantry models. (2 sprues of 5 models) These would be an infantry box. These would be in great coats with legs and torso as one piece. Armour would be cadian kasrkin pattern The shoulders could be bare but come with the option for braiding or cadian pads It would come with heads for Valhallans. Mordians. Praetorians. Cadians and one "other" generic set. It would have enough options to make 10 models with hellguns. Enough for say 2 models with hellpistol and CCW. Accessories such as pouches etc. It would have parts to make 2 models sergeants and Voxmen. And 2 of every special weapon. This box would cost £20
Then release a crew sprue online for similar looking models to use in the tanks and sentinels. And yes you can throw in bolt pistols. Plasma pistols etc etc Other companies can do 30-60 multipart plastics for £25...so catch up GW. You're falling behind the rest of the market.
So by inspiring you meant: "it must catter to my very specific demands, be to my taste and be under the pricing I want?"
-edited by insaniak-
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/10/09 12:01:40
What GW needs to do NOW with the ramp up in availability and options in its model range is to advertise in more mainstream outlets. They NEED to get out of the boutique niche and try to dive headfirst into the common market. I've railed time and again that it wouldn't take THAT much of an investment to pay to have the Big Bang nerds playing 40K on the show, and you'd have MORE than enough attention just from that. Follow it with dedicated market material, and you potentially quadruple your customer base. Right know, they depend on legacy nerds bringing in a few new nerds who will either churn and burn out or become legacy nerds themselves. It's too niche for GW to survive long term, ESPECIALLY if inflation drives up costs anymore. How many people have left because of being priced out? How many people state they don't come IN because of being priced out? A larger customer base and more units moved allows for those production costs to be spread out over more units, lowering prices and allowing for MORE customers to buy your stuff.
ValentineGames wrote: Over saturation does not mean quality or value for money.
So for me the constant stream of uninspiring releases have no affect on me positively or negatively.
Except I now have more models tanks than ever since I can spend money elsewhere.
As a necromunda, genestealer cult and killteam fan, have fun with your tanks. I'm kinda buried in things I haven't finished over here.
As for your inspiring release, even the full genestealer cult release we had doesn't match up to that, and probably won't after the next codex even with all the new models. Your standards are a bit high.
Afraid to say their recent financials don't really support your post.
52% growth isn't existing nerds drip feeding new nerds in. Or a particular sign of people being put off by prices.
KT and Underworlds both largely address the price issue. They're pretty contained, with a definite maximum spend. With those strings, no need to worry about reducing the cost/scale of 40k or AoS, because that's all catered to now.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
I think it depends on how long the games are available and supported for. I'm not gaming at the moment but on my return I'll be looking for contained(ish) skirmish games that are done in an hour or so. The big risk with GW games is that despite all of the claims of support there's a very "one shot" nature to them, which means if you don't buy in on release you may struggle to get all the bits you require. That panic buying used to be an active part of GW's sales model - make some LE items and remind customers to buy it whilst they can.
That said, some of them are decent enough in self contained form, or can be easily proxied, so I (as a super casual player - I get my serious gaming fix elsewhere) am not too bothered about not being able to get components later.
If you're a completionist, and feel pressured to buy whilst it's available (a large chunk of GW's big spenders), then it's very much saturation.
Do you actually mean 52% growth? That's phenomenal.
Whilst there's a lot of new players coming in, how much of it are from the 'whales' who are buying a bit of everything as it comes out, and dropping £200+/month regularly?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/10/09 12:48:29
Why do not just keep away from GW games and hobby and concentrate your time, and posts on the forum, on something you like? Because it seems from your posting history, that your hobby isnt really tabletop gaming but simply spreading negativity about GW.
In all seriousness, I think complaining about [hobby] is really its own dedicated sub-hobby these days, especially on the internet. Substitute sports team(s), or videogame consoles, or music, or whatever. It's right up there with being outraged by everything on facebook or Twitter trolling or YouTube commentating.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Inquisitor Gideon wrote: So, Guard then? When they release that's nice for you and anyone interested in them, but not particularly inspiring for anyone not interested in them.
Not just Guard, but a very, very specific wishlisting of a variety of kits. To the extent that it's clearly not ever going to happen, so he has the benefit of never having to be satisfied because his very specific criteria down to the types of clothing, numbers of model per boxed set and pricing.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just Tony wrote: What GW needs to do NOW with the ramp up in availability and options in its model range is to advertise in more mainstream outlets. They NEED to get out of the boutique niche and try to dive headfirst into the common market. I've railed time and again that it wouldn't take THAT much of an investment to pay to have the Big Bang nerds playing 40K on the show, and you'd have MORE than enough attention just from that. Follow it with dedicated market material, and you potentially quadruple your customer base. Right know, they depend on legacy nerds bringing in a few new nerds who will either churn and burn out or become legacy nerds themselves. It's too niche for GW to survive long term, ESPECIALLY if inflation drives up costs anymore. How many people have left because of being priced out? How many people state they don't come IN because of being priced out? A larger customer base and more units moved allows for those production costs to be spread out over more units, lowering prices and allowing for MORE customers to buy your stuff.
I think you're dramatically underestimating the costs of product placement on a show like BBT and dramatically overestimating the potential outcome. Potentially quadruple the customer base? Uh.. no. No Chance In Hell. Things like the current "Conquest" partwork series going into additional global regions and some sort of "HeroQuest/Space Crusade" partnership with a company like (but not necessarily) Hasbro with worldwide toy retail reach and distribution would do them wonders.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/10/09 13:02:58
I'm not sure it'd fit into the show in any way that wasn't either awkward or be too short to be meaningful.
The show features a few sections of MtG or D&D because they are pretty commonly understood and you can guage what's happening in the 30 second clip with them sat at a table. I'm not sure you could do that with 40K/AoS in a way that anyone would recognize enough to go and look for it.
It'd be much better to get the starter sets stocked in somewhere like Walmart again.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/10/09 14:20:10
Herzlos wrote:Do you actually mean 52% growth? That's phenomenal
An interesting point someone made in another thread is that if you ascribe GW modest linear growth through all the Kirby years, you kind of end up where they are now. So on one hand it is remarkable, on the other it's simply a correction for all the clumsy handling over the last however many years.
Either way, it's going to get exponentially harder to maintain and I suspect a massive plateau in the next 3 years or so.
We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those who don't. - Frank Howard Clark
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Just Tony wrote: What GW needs to do NOW with the ramp up in availability and options in its model range is to advertise in more mainstream outlets. They NEED to get out of the boutique niche and try to dive headfirst into the common market. I've railed time and again that it wouldn't take THAT much of an investment to pay to have the Big Bang nerds playing 40K on the show, and you'd have MORE than enough attention just from that. Follow it with dedicated market material, and you potentially quadruple your customer base. Right know, they depend on legacy nerds bringing in a few new nerds who will either churn and burn out or become legacy nerds themselves. It's too niche for GW to survive long term, ESPECIALLY if inflation drives up costs anymore. How many people have left because of being priced out? How many people state they don't come IN because of being priced out? A larger customer base and more units moved allows for those production costs to be spread out over more units, lowering prices and allowing for MORE customers to buy your stuff.
Firstly, just speaking as someone actually in an MBA marketing class. . . Marketing is fething expensive. At least at the size of company, and the potential "breaking in" to markets that GW needs to get in to (I happen to agree that GW needs to get to/cross the line of being a niche thing. I wouldn't necessarily say they need to be as mainstream as say, Call of Duty, but they do need more exposure than now). I think that, without changing their entire approach (that is, they prefer word of mouth marketing), they ought to get onto the Con circuit, have tables and presence there to draw in more customers. Most Cons that I've seen are in/near cities that have a GW shop, so it would make sense.
Additionally, GW has quite clearly taken the Louis Vuitton pricing scheme to heart. They will NEVER lower prices "just" to draw in more customers. They might hold prices where they are (doubtful) and thus "lower" them due to inflation rising, but their pricing schemes are what they are. . . Now, they have hired some logistics experts to fix their MFG and warehousing processes, and they have fairly recently bought another press so that they've increased their capacity to create models, but they still have major bottlenecks in other areas of the company.
In terms of "oversaturation". . . For me, it was quite simply this: they hype all things the same, and its impossible to maintain any level of excitement for a sustained period of time. Its gone from "Yay new stuff!!" all the way down to "well, lets see what they're doing this week, like I actually care". To be somewhat fair to the guys who are still excited for many releases, for me its that after 5 years, with 2 of them being relatively rocky at my local GW (in terms of holding on to managers, due to gakky corporate policy), I've hit near total hobby burn out. Since I've stopped heading to my local shop week in and week out, I've basically entirely put away my GW stuff and only been working, at glacial pace, on some static display/scale models I've had for years.
Well the oversaturation has got my gaming group back into table top war gaming and away from the board games that had been favored for the last number of years. So GW has pulled in funds from an older group that has been playing since Rogue Trader.
Spartacus wrote: One reason to saturate the market when you already hold the majority of the market share is to own your competitors business.
This! The lack of Specialist Games gave space for competition to lay down roots. Now with GW resurgent in all categories and sizes of game they are doing better than ever. This is no coincidence. It was a strategic mistake that lost them market share to retreat from the Specialist Games in the first place.
Soon a gamer can get everything they need game style wise without leaving the GW fold again.
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despite the fact that stuff I want is coming out far faster than I can afford it (and that's far faster than I could actually make use of it too)
I like the diversity coming back,
I like specialist games being a thing again (we shall see how they juggle them over time)
Shadespire is something genuinely different to do with the GW IP and ideas about gameplay and despite not liking the game itself it's clearly more balanced than GW has managed in the past and is actually bringing in a different demographic from the card playing community who would never have looked at 40K etc (& me minis to paint). If they manage to get rotation in there in a season or two they'll have another consistent money spinner
Spartacus wrote: One reason to saturate the market when you already hold the majority of the market share is to own your competitors business.
This! The lack of Specialist Games gave space for competition to lay down roots. Now with GW resurgent in all categories and sizes of game they are doing better than ever. This is no coincidence. It was a strategic mistake that lost them market share to retreat from the Specialist Games in the first place.
Soon a gamer can get everything they need game style wise without leaving the GW fold again.
Pretty much this,
I like to crudely equate to a pair of late 90’s Boy Bands in the U.K. charts. Take That and Boyzone.
See, Take That were the old guard. And shock horror, actually had a songwriter amongst them. Boyzone at that point were cheap knock-off also-ranks.
Take That then split. Boyzone took over the reins. Not because they were necessarily a better group (they’re both predictably dire), but because the competition went away.
Now, with no judgement on the relevant merits of specific game systems, much the same happens when GW gradually wound down SG, before pulling the plug entirely in late 2012. The market was still there, but The Big Fish That opened it up to other companies. Those that did well were those best able to understand what had previously worked for GW, and replicated it in their own way.
Gw are of course back in that market. And actually benefitting from the competition. Bloodbowl is a definite classic, and for a long time the only game of its type. They’ve come out swinging with all new models, ongoing support - but a familiar game system (if it ain’t broke).
They could’ve just re-released the previous edition yet again. But they’ve gone all in. The teams are for the most part brilliant, modern sculpts. The same with AT.
Currently, I dare say they’re still riding the nostalgia wave. And that’s a powerful nerd based meteorological phenomena. The true test will be when the reworked SG have reached where their predecessors left off. Beyond that, they really need to prove themselves in terms of sheer staying power.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: [
Currently, I dare say they’re still riding the nostalgia wave. And that’s a powerful nerd based meteorological phenomena. The true test will be when the reworked SG have reached where their predecessors left off. Beyond that, they really need to prove themselves in terms of sheer staying power.
While they absolutely are, they do seem to be planning to take the specialist games beyond what they once were, they're just staggering how they get there. I'm curious to see what happens with necromunda after delaque and (I assume) the first compiled gang war comes out. They're going to have to impress me to get me to go into it beyond the original six gangs, I was never a massive fan of outlanders beyond the scenarios. The guilder models even existing seem to be a good hint they're intending to go a cool direction with it.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: KT and Underworlds both largely address the price issue. They're pretty contained, with a definite maximum spend. With those strings, no need to worry about reducing the cost/scale of 40k or AoS, because that's all catered to now.
This is a very important point, because it was something GW had once, then didn't, and now they do again. I no longer play 40k, and never played AoS beyond Skirmish (and that needs updating badly) because I do not have the time to devote to assembling and painting the forces. KT and Shadespire got me buying again.
I think at some point management accepted that pricing was keeping some people out of their brand, and rather than reduce prices for the main games, they thought about what they could do with the same properties with a lower cost of entry, and came up with these things.
Shadespire is a lot more like a Fantasy Flight game than a traditional GW miniatures game, and that is also going to appeal to some people as being more than just a small scale AoS.
I think at some point management accepted that pricing was keeping some people out of their brand, and rather than reduce prices for the main games, they thought about what they could do with the same properties with a lower cost of entry, and came up with these things.
Shadespire is a lot more like a Fantasy Flight game than a traditional GW miniatures game, and that is also going to appeal to some people as being more than just a small scale AoS.
The question I ask is where GW goes from here? When it comes to early saturation of the market would be of concern to myself. Yes they have been successful and brought back games that people wanted, but they have picked the low hanging fruit:-
For example we have had (excluding 40K/30K and WFB/AoS)
Adeptus Mechanicus (former game reimagined)
Space Hulk (former game reimagined)
Warhammer Quest (former game reimagined)
Necromunda (former game reimagined)
Kill Team (former game reimagined or 40k lite or Necromunda with other armies)
Blood Bowl (former game reimagined)
New Gorkamorka (former game reimagined)
LoTR (former game reimagined/updated)
40K Space Crusade (former game reimagined)
The only truly original game is Underworlds which to some extent is catch up on board games others have produced.
So what is left? Potentially an AoS Kill Team equivalent (but again not particularly original)
Xwing knock off?
BFG?
Warmaster?
Gorkamorka (jetbike style)?
Epic/Space Marine?
Specialist Games will have the same problem that it had previously. Eventually people will drift away; it happened before and will happen again. GW needs knew games to keep people interested once these games have filled the niche. So most recent games all have a base somewhere else. Now they have to start designing things from scratch this is going to be much harder to do and these will not have the same level 'misty eyed' loyalty given to them from former times. This is going to be much harder to do to keep trying to oversaturate the market in the same way.
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I suspect they'll simply revert to what they did through the 90s and once all the old titles are out we'll hit the new edition treadmill, which won't feel too egregious given the volume of titles in production, and every few years each title will get updated with a few more models and revisions, all the while with the white noise of 40K/AOS updates in the background.
There's no need to reinvent the wheel, their stable of existing games covers most common niches, and if inspiration strikes a designer one day and they create something new and engaging, then they'll have the resources on hand to develop it.
We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those who don't. - Frank Howard Clark
The wise man doubts often, and changes his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubts not; he knows all things but his own ignorance.
The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense!” Professor Brian Cox
Blastaar wrote: I will challenge your evaluation of GW's intelligence. They are now making good business decisions, but in terms of well-designed games and creativity, they aren't smart. KT in particular could have played differently, deeper than 40k, especially as a story game, but ti doesn't. GW is " intelligent" in knowing their player base, and that cool models and enthusiastic, humorous videos and posts make up for average-to-mediocre rulesets and absurd prices. As your emphasis on the models demonstrates.
In the less than 5 months that you have been a member of Dakkadakka, you have made an average of 1.41 post a day. Looking through a sizable chunk of your posts, I see no post about games that you actually play, models you have actually painted or built. You have made one post in the Painting & Modelling section, where you even manage to weave in a negative comment about GW prices. All the rest of your posts seems to be gak-on-GW-posts in the 40k General section, the News and Dakka General section.
Why do not just keep away from GW games and hobby and concentrate your time, and posts on the forum, on something you like? Because it seems from your posting history, that your hobby isnt really tabletop gaming but simply spreading negativity about GW.
For starters, I did play 40k, from the tail end of 5th to a few months before the announcement of 8th. 7th made me quit, 8th keeps me away. I still have my Dark Angels, WIP Eldar, and other GW minis I picked up for various reasons, whether to paint or for in-store events, and would very much like to play with them again someday, if 40k ever becomes a game I would enjoy again. And you know what? I have had a lot of lousy games of 40k. Silly noob me thought he would build his army in a way that represents how they work in the fluff; a couple tac squads, some scouts, devs, a few termies and bikes for support, acquired and painted very slowly over the years. Then he learned that was a stupid thing to do, if he wanted to enjoy playing. Not even winning, but having great games and a shot at winning. But being a student, he was (and is) strapped for cash, so he couldn't and can't afford to replace an existing army because he "built it wrong," nor does he think he should have to, just to enjoy the game. I pay attention with the slim hope that, maybe, I will see signs moving in that direction. Yes, I criticize GW. There is an awful lot that they do worth criticizing, many things they could do better if they chose to, and ignoring that doesn't contribute to improving the game. I understand the desire to talk about the thing you like and enjoy it. That's why I'm here, too. If I didn't like 40k in some way I wouldn't have bothered making an account. But if you want the good, the bad needs to be acknowledged, too. Better games that are fun to play is what we all want, isn't it?
There's more, much more, to war gaming than 40K. More than GW even.
Games like you talk about exist, it's just GW don't really make many of them, so go out and explore rather than sit and wait.
We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those who don't. - Frank Howard Clark
The wise man doubts often, and changes his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubts not; he knows all things but his own ignorance.
The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense!” Professor Brian Cox
Finished Forge World Elysian Army 
Finished Tau Sept Cadre 
Finished Ork Waaagh | 
Alaitoc Eldar Warhost 
Finished Order of Our Martyred Lady - Sisters of Battle 
Finished Necromundian Imperial Guard Regiment 
