Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

"We are terribly saddened by the horrific events taking place in Ukraine. Our heartfelt thoughts go out to all those affected by Russia’s actions.

In light of this, Games Workshop is suspending all sales of Warhammer products into Russia.

We didn’t take this decision lightly. We know that there are many Russian hobbyists who don’t condone the war. Yet, we must stand with those suffering."


Automatically Appended Next Post:


English is not my first language but " Dont Condone" Is not the opposite what they tried to say????

Right decision I believe.

Prayers for all suffering from these horrible events.

You may be confusing condone with condemn

 NAVARRO wrote:

English is not my first language but " Dont Condone" Is not the opposite what they tried to say????

No, that works in context.

It is a reasonable statement, but ultimately after two weeks it does read rather of "no Russian distributor can actually pay us with money we can repatriate, and the currency risks make trading in Russia unworkable even if we could" than an actual principled stand.

(I don't really think there's anything unreasonable about "we can't really sell in Russia because you can't pay us" as a position either tbh but it's obviously more of a factor than this statement lets on.)

 NAVARRO wrote:

"We are terribly saddened by the horrific events taking place in Ukraine. Our heartfelt thoughts go out to all those affected by Russia’s actions.

In light of this, Games Workshop is suspending all sales of Warhammer products into Russia.

We didn’t take this decision lightly. We know that there are many Russian hobbyists who don’t condone the war. Yet, we must stand with those suffering."


Automatically Appended Next Post:


English is not my first language but " Dont Condone" Is not the opposite what they tried to say????

Not really, "condone" means "to accept or allow behaviour that is wrong".

But yeah, kinda feels like they dragged their feet about it until it was done de facto.

I do think this is more because GW can't sell to Russia rather than they don't want to.
I believe a couple of days ago the UK gov announced greater sanctions to include luxury goods.

The statement itself is also written very softly. "Don't condone" as opposed to "actively condemn" for example.

I'm not saying it's a bad move on their part, but i don't think they're doing it to take a moral stand.
They're doing it because they have to, and they're phrasing as a moral stand (albeit in soft terms so as not to alienate Russian customers more than they need to).

 kirotheavenger wrote:
I do think this is more because GW can't sell to Russia rather than they don't want to.
I believe a couple of days ago the UK gov announced greater sanctions to include luxury goods.

The statement itself is also written very softly. "Don't condone" as opposed to "actively condemn" for example.

I'm not saying it's a bad move on their part, but i don't think they're doing it to take a moral stand.
They're doing it because they have to, and they're phrasing as a moral stand (albeit in soft terms so as not to alienate Russian customers more than they need to).

Likely just a easy "go with the flow" scenario for them; they'd love to sell to anyone but as they've been told they can't it's not like the statement is going to cost them anything at this point.

However, in the language cited they're speaking about their customers in Russia for whom "actively condemn" is a much riskier proposition.

Just like with the "nazi-gate" of few months ago, GW doesn't actually care as a company about the political context, their game is about fanatical and authoritarian factions constantly fighting each others after all, but they'll leverage such opportunities for free PR after the fact.

 kirotheavenger wrote:
I do think this is more because GW can't sell to Russia rather than they don't want to.
I believe a couple of days ago the UK gov announced greater sanctions to include luxury goods.

I don't think the luxury goods sanction should touch GW (as much as they would probably like it to, ha) but as I say, the existing currency sanctions just render it virtually impossible for any British or American company to meaningfully trade in Russia currently if they want to make any money from it.

If you've got a large operating arm in China it's possible (but... not free of legal risk) to move Russian money there into Yuan in the hopes of repatriating it at a later date but GW doesn't really have that, and you're still at risk of massive fx fluctuations. It's just not worth it.

Virtue signaling at its finest, garner mainstream support with a meaningless act that doesn't affect you in the slightest (as said above, there's no way for Russians to currently pay for GW product anyway) while not taking the same stance against the same sort of transgressions when perpetrated by your main customer base.

Thanks, learning every day here

GW statement is a bit late and I already had thought about it and why there was no official statement regarding it.
Better late than never I guess.

Well, not condemning authoritarian regimes until it's too late, does go hand in hand with being British.

Internet brownie point collection activated after they realised that there is no more cash in it for them in russia for the forseable future.

And to think they just put the prices up in Russia.

And the Ukraine...

UK's imposing harsher sanctions on Russia, so it's likely no longer viable/profitable to sell there.

It's some fluffy corporate speak to make it sound like it's a consciously moral decision rather than a financial one.

Plus it gives the white knights a "makeup for loss of sales from Russia" excuse when prices inevitably go up next time.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And to think they just put the prices up in Russia.

And the Ukraine...

FYI, adding the the in front of Ukraine is antiquated.

GW was sanctioning Russians long before anyone else; have you seen those prices?

GW is damned if they do, damned if they don't.

GW doesn't make statement, people will critique. They will, same people will complain about that too.

Some people just want to complain.

 Arbitrator wrote:
UK's imposing harsher sanctions on Russia, so it's likely no longer viable/profitable to sell there.

It's some fluffy corporate speak to make it sound like it's a consciously moral decision rather than a financial one.

Plus it gives the white knights a "makeup for loss of sales from Russia" excuse when prices inevitably go up next time.

They literally can't sell there unless customers are paying in cash or by cheque I believe, so yeah, whilst I don't personally disagree with economic sanctions against the nation of Russia (though I'm not fully informed on the war situation) this is an utterly worthless virtue signal. Some people still gonna eat it up though no doubt.

tneva82 wrote:
GW is damned if they do, damned if they don't.

GW doesn't make statement, people will critique. They will, same people will complain about that too.

Some people just want to complain.

We are at what, almost the end of week three of Russian's invasion of Ukraine? Major sanctions have been in place for a while.

What has taken GW this long?

Either they're massively incompetent or they waited until they could balance being forced into it with attempting to curry public support for the "decision."

 jojo_monkey_boy wrote:

We are at what, almost the end of week three of Russian's invasion of Ukraine? Major sanctions have been in place for a while.

What has taken GW this long?

Either they're massively incompetent or they waited until they could balance being forced into it with attempting to curry public support for the "decision."

There are many many many miniature companies (both big and small) that have made no comment on the situation. So yes, ya'll trippin.

Oh God, that's so cringe... Speak about double standards. So the West can bomb Serbia and Iraq and go away with it but poor Russian hobbyists who can't even choose their president got this ? Nice.

Oh, come on. It’s not as if GW was supplying Russia with real weapons, was it?

Those are plastic tanks. All GW would be doing by selling there was taking money out of the country anyway…

As others have pointed out, if this was a genuine principled stand by GW then they'd have (1) done it 3 weeks ago and (2) stopped selling stuff to several other countries long before that.

TheGoodGerman wrote:
Oh, come on. It’s not as if GW was supplying Russia with real weapons, was it?

Those are plastic tanks. All GW would be doing by selling there was taking money out of the country anyway…

I don't know man, those metal Dreadnoughts of Yestercentury were quite heavy.

TheGoodGerman wrote:
Oh, come on. It’s not as if GW was supplying Russia with real weapons, was it?

Those are plastic tanks.

But you dont understand. Russia was about to use those tanks, as they have learned that GW polystyrene tanks are far more durable than the material they have been making their tanks from for the past 30+ years. The GW tanks are also better enigineered.

GW have just made a harsh blow against the russian fascist warmachine by this embargo. Slava Ukraini.

 godardc wrote:
Oh God, that's so cringe... Speak about double standards. So the West can bomb Serbia and Iraq and go away with it but poor Russian hobbyists who can't even choose their president got this ? Nice.

Nice whataboutism.

US doing stupid gak doesn't preclude other criticism.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Duskweaver wrote:
As others have pointed out, if this was a genuine principled stand by GW then they'd have (1) done it 3 weeks ago and (2) stopped selling stuff to several other countries long before that.

Sure. Now can we castigate all the other companies who have yet to put out a statement or are we just here for the snacks?

How long until the mods nuke this thread from orbit.

Like I said, weird its late but no one knows the real reasons behind the delay.

So better late than never and leave it at that.

I sure am glad that Corporation has a foreign policy now.