Warhammer
- Thread starter Sinny
- Start date
Problem is they're now on a dwindling spiral downwards. As the prices rise, less people start playing or get into the hobby past a couple of models, which means they can't afford their shops which means they put their prices up. As their retail presence fades, GW will probably get taken over at some point in the future for the Intellectual Property rights to the GW universe.
Associate
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- 24 Aug 2004
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I don't belive it's purely down to price rises alone, there are many other complicating factors, not least the fact the Tabletop wargaming is a very very niche market. Also factor in a downturn in the economy etc etc and it makes life tricky. I agree they may get bought out, but not just purely for the IP, GW is the biggest name in the market and any potential buyer knows that.
It wasn't a niche market in the mid 90's though, I don't think you can consider it a niche market when they have/had so many retail stores in practically every decent size town centre. With the stores packed out solid during special events and during school holidays.
Associate
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Compared to video games, and the like, it's a tiny tiny market, and painting toy soldiers and playing other people on a table is'nt common, so i'd say it's fairly niche. I fact i beleive the CEO Mr Kirby has said the same in financial reports.
Soldato
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- 19 Oct 2004
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It wasn't that long ago when 35 gw shops actually closed. Unfortunatley the chairman and everyone else seems to be insane, you see things on the interim report like "the company is on target" while share prices fall yet another 10%, if he means on target to bankrupcy then he is right.
Personally, if I saw my company shares going that way, alarm bells would be ringing! Whats unbelieveable is that shares actually dropped at christmas. I'm no expert by far, but just going by those figures you can tell the company is doomed.
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Associate
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- 24 Aug 2004
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- 207
i beleive that the interim report is due out shortly, i suspect depending what is in that and the end of year in june, will determine if the company is sold on/closed down.
The "less than one space marine per planet" stuff certainly is a grim depiction of mankind journeying into the stars...
Seems they upped all their prices in April 05 after a Gaming and Events Centre opened in Sheffield.
I love the fact that there's 40,000 years of history of mankind, all the wars, the unification under the terran imperium, the discovery of the warp and the gods of chaos, the heresy of the 9 legions. It's all good stuff.
I love the fact that there's 40,000 years of history of mankind, all the wars, the unification under the terran imperium, the discovery of the warp and the gods of chaos, the heresy of the 9 legions. It's all good stuff.
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Seems they upped all their prices in April 05 after a Gaming and Events Centre opened in Sheffield.
I love the fact that there's 40,000 years of history of mankind, all the wars, the unification under the terran imperium, the discovery of the warp and the gods of chaos, the heresy of the 9 legions. It's all good stuff.
The sheer depth of the story is incredible imo.
Even if the shops go under I can't see the IP dying.
There has certainly been a down-turn in the amount of people playing these games.
When I was working for the company we weren't just busy - many times we were too busy.
Saturday's and "Games Night" (where the store stayed open until 8:00pm) were always very busy times.
We always had at least two games going on in the store and the painting tables were usually filled too.
It was essential to have games running in the store whenever possible as it meant people could come in, play the game for a while and then buy stuff.
When I was Saturday staff the job really wasn't too bad as my main task was to GM the games and to also make sure everyone got to join in.
Although the games in store were usually played with "veteran" players and those that came in weekly, we had a deal with them that if they wanted to use our tables for the games they had to let anyone join in who wanted to.
It meant we always had vast armies on the tables and plenty for people to do.
The thing is, and not wanting to stereo-type, I'm sure a lot of the loss in trade isn't just to pricing - kids have more money these days than they did when I was at GW and they survived OK then.
It's more to do with the current social aspects of the "current generation".
I don't come from a time when we didn't have computers or computer games - I've owned computers since the ZX80 and I've "gamed" on the Spectrums and then later via Sega Master Systems and the like.
However we also "went out", we played football and we enjoyed meeting up at GW stores and socialising.
These days it's wake up, switch on Xbox, PS3, Wii, etc and spend all weekend playing games.
If some of these people actually got out now and again I think a lot of them would enjoy table-top gaming.
It can be a lot of fun and what's more is it is actually challenging.
I do miss the gaming aspect, but now I'm married I just wouldn't have the time to go back to it.
When I was working for the company we weren't just busy - many times we were too busy.
Saturday's and "Games Night" (where the store stayed open until 8:00pm) were always very busy times.
We always had at least two games going on in the store and the painting tables were usually filled too.
It was essential to have games running in the store whenever possible as it meant people could come in, play the game for a while and then buy stuff.
When I was Saturday staff the job really wasn't too bad as my main task was to GM the games and to also make sure everyone got to join in.
Although the games in store were usually played with "veteran" players and those that came in weekly, we had a deal with them that if they wanted to use our tables for the games they had to let anyone join in who wanted to.
It meant we always had vast armies on the tables and plenty for people to do.
The thing is, and not wanting to stereo-type, I'm sure a lot of the loss in trade isn't just to pricing - kids have more money these days than they did when I was at GW and they survived OK then.
It's more to do with the current social aspects of the "current generation".
I don't come from a time when we didn't have computers or computer games - I've owned computers since the ZX80 and I've "gamed" on the Spectrums and then later via Sega Master Systems and the like.
However we also "went out", we played football and we enjoyed meeting up at GW stores and socialising.
These days it's wake up, switch on Xbox, PS3, Wii, etc and spend all weekend playing games.
If some of these people actually got out now and again I think a lot of them would enjoy table-top gaming.
It can be a lot of fun and what's more is it is actually challenging.
I do miss the gaming aspect, but now I'm married I just wouldn't have the time to go back to it.
When i was 11, i was one of the GD young bloods runners up. I was (or still am) rather geeky and enjoyed the playing of the games... as long as it was with mates, not those fools in GW.. If ever anyone thinks they are becoming too geeky, pop down to you local GW, you'll soon see that you are far from it.
Currently in the process of selling off all of my stuff, must have spent an absolute fortune on the things, i have a whole bunch of armies from a variety of different games that were released.
Must admit though, my fav games were the ones which required less models, Gorkamorka, mordheim, bloodbowl, that kind of thing. You could also play campaigns etc, and gain attributes from each match, which was pretty cool.
I used painting as a way to relax, and also got quite heavily into the modding side of things. I would love to start up again, but i wouldn;t have anyone to play with, and it'd cost WAY too much.
Currently in the process of selling off all of my stuff, must have spent an absolute fortune on the things, i have a whole bunch of armies from a variety of different games that were released.
Must admit though, my fav games were the ones which required less models, Gorkamorka, mordheim, bloodbowl, that kind of thing. You could also play campaigns etc, and gain attributes from each match, which was pretty cool.
I used painting as a way to relax, and also got quite heavily into the modding side of things. I would love to start up again, but i wouldn;t have anyone to play with, and it'd cost WAY too much.
One thing GW have been doing for some time now to increase is releasing the new versions of the various armies... and making the particular army for that month very powerful (more powerful than last month's army 
). Which will last until the next month, when the new army out is even stronger than the last.
). Which will last until the next month, when the new army out is even stronger than the last.
Associate
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- 26 Mar 2003
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- 1,820
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- North Wales
Games workshop are the cause of there own demise..
They killed warhammer after they completely took out the need of magic and Characters. Though this was sorted with 40k then they go and change the rules so much that half the armys in that became obsolete. This is the sort of rubbish that pushed all there die hard fans away!
blood bowl is still my fav board game of all time
They killed warhammer after they completely took out the need of magic and Characters. Though this was sorted with 40k then they go and change the rules so much that half the armys in that became obsolete. This is the sort of rubbish that pushed all there die hard fans away!
blood bowl is still my fav board game of all time
Played WH4K for a few years then they changed the scale and we where all told in the shop we had to rebuy the armies or leave the shop...
we left and went to a local shop which had just started to sell Battletech... man, cheaper, easier, less painting, about the same indeth history and cheaper...
Never looekd back, although i do miss the painting, i dont miss the 100+ 6-10 year olds trying to pick up my figures to have a closer look!
As long as you enjoy it, keeps you out of trouble, what more can you ask, still bloody costly though!
ColiN
we left and went to a local shop which had just started to sell Battletech... man, cheaper, easier, less painting, about the same indeth history and cheaper...
Never looekd back, although i do miss the painting, i dont miss the 100+ 6-10 year olds trying to pick up my figures to have a closer look!
As long as you enjoy it, keeps you out of trouble, what more can you ask, still bloody costly though!
ColiN
Here we go, just dug out a few examples of some of my work...
Crappy camera, crappy compression, and all unfinished and covered in dust, but here you go:
Gorkamorka mek, bit chipped on his jaw, and is missing an arm
Space Ork nob, mechanic arm modded on by me, again, a bit chipped in places
Epic 40k Eldar super weapon grav tank:
Most of my decent stuff was my epic 40k ork army, but alas, that has been sold on now :\
Not a patch on Vargojones's stuff though
Crappy camera, crappy compression, and all unfinished and covered in dust, but here you go:
Gorkamorka mek, bit chipped on his jaw, and is missing an arm
Space Ork nob, mechanic arm modded on by me, again, a bit chipped in places
Epic 40k Eldar super weapon grav tank:
Most of my decent stuff was my epic 40k ork army, but alas, that has been sold on now :\
Not a patch on Vargojones's stuff though
