[Archive] why games workshop WHY?

superfella:

what you say is true, of course, but as ex-staff i find it hard to support them as a business, possibly due to leaving on bad terms, possibly not.

but in fairness, GW staff got 80% discount in my day. yet they still made a profit from staff sales. even now, staff stll get 50% discount.

essentially, my point is that they are making in excess of 5 times the cost of the materials back from what they sell, which i think is a bit OTT. however, people will continue to pay, therefore, prices will continue to rise.

so regardless of whether im interested in the lastest army they have released or not, i dislike how expensive their products are, as once you have paid 11p per space marine and still paid more than it costs the company to make it (or 11p per sprue of 10, as one cock up resulted in… superfella 1, GW 0), I understandibly feel begrudged at paying £18 for 10.

which, to my reckoning, is about 16 times more expensive.

Godbob and his jolly rogers:

4. White dwarf, whilst degenerating into a glorified catalogue, is still GWs way of letting us know what's going on in their world. Looking at the circulating figures, and printing costs mentioned in a thread similar to this, GW does not make money from WD and most probably runs it at a loss. Is that a faceless, uncaring mercinary company?
The trouble is, it's easy to lash out at GW when the miniatures/rules they release aren't to your liking but just remember, you were that 'first time' buyer once, and all of this was aimed at you.

Hammerhand
by god he on to some thing about us being frist time buyer and i remeber when i first started i didn't like being left behide so i bought the new minis and i though WD was there company if not who are they?
so regardless of whether im interested in the lastest army they have released or not, i dislike how expensive their products are, as once you have paid 11p per space marine and still paid more than it costs the company to make it (or 11p per sprue of 10, as one cock up resulted in.. superfella 1, GW 0), I understandibly feel begrudged at paying £18 for 10.
which, to my reckoning, is about 16 times more expensive.

superfella
your on to something to a lot of my friend suse to play but they thought it was to expensise so GW you have just lost 4 constmars :D

Geckilian:

On the bright side, when little Timmy gets bored with his new toys he sells them on eBay and then veterans get to pick up stuff cheaper.

wallacer
Ah yes, a fantastic aspect of the hobby, heh. I don't really begrudge GW from raising prices or catering to the quick customer. I still like everyone at my FLGS, and I can always buy GW stuff cheaper elsewhere, so it's never really been a problem for me.

Hashut’s Blessing:

but this fan base of nine years are constanly leaving because of the price and geeky image

zorn sabretooth
As I said, they get a new customer, but they do not seem to want to KEEP these customers. People are limited in number, even if we do reproduce. It's best to get new ones and keep more than a handful per thousand (more than likely an exaggeration, but you get the point).
3. Everybody talks of declining sales and this confuses me the most. Having looked at the figures and charts, GWs sales have declined since LotR has passed into memory, which was to be expected. However, sales are still higher than pre-LotR sales and are steadily evening out, projecting future growth. {SNIPPED}

4. White dwarf, whilst degenerating into a glorified catalogue, is still GWs way of letting us know what's going on in their world. Looking at the circulating figures, and printing costs mentioned in a thread similar to this, GW does not make money from WD and most probably runs it at a loss. Is that a faceless, uncaring mercinary company?

Hammerhand
Yes, it may be the case that they are still revenue-up from pre-LotR and I have known this with every post in this thread. However, it doesn't deny the fact that they are beginning to lose sales elsewhere as well because they are trying to bump up the costs and keep the same number of units sold to make up for the LotR loss...

As for WD, I'm not sure that £4 for a magazine is making a loss, let alone breaking even, when there are magazines that sell for less than half the price and they have to send people out instead of just telling you what they themselves are doing...

However, I do accept your points of numbers 1 and 2.

Willmark:

4 color glossy and that page count… there is no way that GW is making a profit. WD is a loss leader… and a bad one at that.

Hammerhand:

4 color glossy and that page count... there is no way that GW is making a profit. WD is a loss leader... and a bad one at that.

Willmark
I don't know about anywhere else, but the UK edition of White Dwarf is printed in Italy?????

{and the award for most useless fact goes to........}:o

Kera foehunter:

#1 all the stores that sell gw around me don’t push gw hard they say no one buying this stuff. so every 6 month they sell off the stuff that not moving

the same store has some one from reaper to the store GIVES OUT FREE FIGURES!! has free painting contest with reaper figures and stuff if you win

G w gives you nothing but high pricesand price increaces

#2 any one with a ink pen can number crunching. mostly they relay on made up number than having product that will make them proffet or buy out there competator

#3 the decline is from all of us since the Storm of chaos!!!

they keep changing rules !!! they just want you to buy more

and promising rule books

#4 wd only have stuff when they push new product.

Now back with what about there failed run campains like the nemis crown

they put out new dwarf minners made a big hype!!! But if it was not for all the online sites that would stunk !! so we all new that the dwarfs would win it back.

Was it All just to get you to buy there new dwarf minners. Gw did care or gave thanks to all the sites (they read all the site stuff too)

Godbob and his jolly rogers:

the nenise crown was a disater they wanted a campange and they buggered it up but still no one has answered my question (well they prible did but i’m not listnen) i know about the 9 year olds taken over but if GW wants more money why don’t they keep both buyers or are they lazy :mad

Lord Darkash:

I expect complainants are minimal as far as they are concerned. The veterans are the ones who attend GTs etc and as the turnout for these is always sold out really fast i expect they do not see issue with lots of Vets leaving. Therefore its a case of using the advertising to bring in fresh meat and once they have them hooked they will keep themselves updated on new developements and as such do not require targeted marketing

Hashut’s Blessing:

Godbob, I keep saying, it’s because they’re concentrating more on the business aspect and less on the hobby side. Ultimately, they need to do a lot more on the hobby side for the business aspect to become useful. Essentially, by concentrating on finance, they are losing it… They need to strike a balance, which I have little faith in them doing. In terms of business plan, I have no belief in GWs competency and it’s just how I feel. People may point facts out and my head may agree, but my heart says they are doing most things wrongly.

Kera foehunter:

  • Kera stands up and starts clapping* that is so true H.B. Number don’t add up to nothing and they never will . number are here to tell us how much time where wasting!!!

Hashut’s Blessing:

Thank you, Kera. Gotta say how I feel…

zorn sabretooth:

well done h.b:hat off gw’s probelm is their addicted to brain crack!!!

i really should release a new cd book or skaven book or some decent plastics for my loyal veterans but i need to make more space nazis for my fickle but gullible fanbase of nine year olds who have lots of money space nazis it is then

PhilCollinsCarnifex:

How do you mean they don't listen? About CDs, or just in general?

Theres likely to be a big difference between what we, the seasoned gamers, want, and what makes them the most money. Kids and their parents are what make them the most money, not veteran hobbyists. So, the days when gamer's concerns were at the fore are over, as far as sales are concerned. The recent, awful models are the most obvious sign of this, although I feel their rules writing gets better and better.

Baggronor
thats so true
I do all I can to avoid buying new models lol
I like the older ones (eg Kislev)

Uzkul Werit:

Do they keep changing rules though, Keira? Since I’ve been playing (seven years, I think) most armies have only had the one army book. Only Empire etc etc have had two.

TheVoice:

Are you sure? I’m pretty certain that Vampire Counts have had a fair few revisions (were they still Undead 7 years ago?)

Uzkul Werit:

I think they were Undead back in 1998. But as a whole, none of the armies have changed that much. Every now and then yes, but none of this constant rules changes that most people go on about.