Xander:
Ya, a Canadian Games Day would have been nice this year.
The only nice side effect of only one Games Day in North America, means that our Chaos Dwarfs should get a lot more exposure since everyone who normally goes to a closer Games Day, might make the trek out to this One-And-Only US Games Day.
With any luck, our table should be quite popular.
Khaosbeardling:
Signed up my cell phone to receive the tweets, I’ll be getting them as I move into my dorm room for the year.
Xander:
Awesome! Receiving text message tweets is the best!
Thommy H:
As GW defines its regional activities, there's not much difference between North America, Northern Europe and Continental Europe.Fair enough - although that means that, combined, the European market is still more than twice the size of the North American market. Plus there's another reason it makes sense to keep multiple European Games Days: language. French people aren't going to get a lot out of the German or UK Games Day because they won't understand anything that's going on. Plus it means foreign travel, which is always more difficult, no matter the distances involved (obviously this point won't wash with our Canadian friends, but I think it's still broadly valid).
Sales in millions, from 2010 annual report
Northern Europe £36 ish
Continental Europe £35 ish
North America £31 ish
Emerging Markets £3
GRNDL:
I have to laugh at you considering the US to all speak the same language. Hehehhe. Also, travel across the world's longest undefended border - US/Canada - isn't quite as easy as it used to be. Its really not worth the hassle, IMO, although that's coming from an ex-pat Brit. Not to mention the massive amount of driving for a peeps at the edges.
Fair enough - although that means that, combined, the European market is still more than twice the size of the North American market. Plus there's another reason it makes sense to keep multiple European Games Days: language. French people aren't going to get a lot out of the German or UK Games Day because they won't understand anything that's going on. Plus it means foreign travel, which is always more difficult, no matter the distances involved (obviously this point won't wash with our Canadian friends, but I think it's still broadly valid).
So yes, while it would make sense to nurture the American market, you have to acknowledge that if you're going to cut any Games Days, it makes the most sense to cut the ones that all take place in the same country, in which everyone speaks the same language. Forcing Americans to travel coast-to-coast sucks, but not as much as it would suck to make Spanish people have to book an international flight and brush up on their Latvian.
Thommy H
Thommy H:
Yes, in fairness it was actually AGPO who brought up the European comparison.
AGPO:
But that's not the comparison I was making. The whole European market is one thing, but whether it makes more economic sense for GW to host a Gamesday in France or a second in North America is fairly indisputable. The majority of that European market surely comes from the UK, where GW has a massive highstreet presence. If anyone has the attendance figures for US and European Gamesdays last year I'd be very curious. I daresay there's far greater interest in Warhammer in the Western United States than there is in Spain or France for example
As GW defines its regional activities, there's not much difference between North America, Northern Europe and Continental Europe.
Sales in millions, from 2010 annual report
Northern Europe £36 ish
Continental Europe £35 ish
North America £31 ish
Emerging Markets £3
Fair enough - although that means that, combined, the European market is still more than twice the size of the North American market. Plus there's another reason it makes sense to keep multiple European Games Days: language. French people aren't going to get a lot out of the German or UK Games Day because they won't understand anything that's going on. Plus it means foreign travel, which is always more difficult, no matter the distances involved (obviously this point won't wash with our Canadian friends, but I think it's still broadly valid).
So yes, while it would make sense to nurture the American market, you have to acknowledge that if you're going to cut any Games Days, it makes the most sense to cut the ones that all take place in the same country, in which everyone speaks the same language. Forcing Americans to travel coast-to-coast sucks, but not as much as it would suck to make Spanish people have to book an international flight and brush up on their Latvian.
Thommy H
Thommy H:
The majority of that European market surely comes from the UK,I don't know which of the two European markets the UK is counted as, but I would assume Northern Europe, so Continental Europe (which is worth more to GW than the whole of North America, according to the numbers) is Europe minus the UK.
I daresay there's far greater interest in Warhammer in the Western United States than there is in Spain or France for exampleThat's not a bet I would take.
I'd be curious to know how good the Latvian (or Spanish for that matter) is of most of the Studio staff...Not that good, but they have international teams to handle that. So Games Day Spain is all in Spanish, and handled by the GW Spain team. But all of the North American Games Days could be handled by the North American team, and even the main studio if necessary. It's easy to shove them all together into one event because you're not going to alienate people by making them travel internationally and have to learn another language. I'm not saying amalgamating all the American Games Days was a good idea, just that if they're going to amalgamate any Games Days, it's best to do it in North America, where everyone speaks the same language. You couldn't put GD France and Spain together so easily.
zobo1942:
I’d be curious about the number of retailers of GW stuff in North America. The games store in the town where I live stopped carrying GW products quite a while ago - because the minimum monthly order they were required to make was $3000. Doesn’t sound like much, but in a smaller community it absolutely is. I wonder how many smaller retailers stopped carrying GW products.
In my opinion, Games Days are not about playing games - they should be about showcasing products and building interest. The only way I learned about GW was walking into a games store twenty years ago to buy D&D prodcuts and thinking that ‘Adeptus Titanicus’ was cool. They a better way to attract customers than that, I think.