GW Doom of Malantai announcement & Chapterhouse

[wittdooley]

I think this is interesting, and I wanted input from others:

With GW's announcement/rumor that they'll be releasing a Doom of Malantai kit, it got me thinking about whether not this was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" when it came to Chapterhouse Studios. Chapterhouse created a model for Doom, used the exact same Doom of Malantai name. The model, though shown finished and painted in December, has not arrived for sale, though it is still listed in their news section.

I'll preface my next statement by admitting I think it's ignorant and a bit arrogant of them to use the actual name from the book, where every other 3rd party miniatures creator seems to have the sense to not, but I think this could have been the tipping point for the lawsuit, particularly now that it seems GW will be producing its own model.

Thoughts, comments, etc?

[Ghost of War]

Sounds like Chapterhouse is playing with fire. Not sure its worth the hassel honestly. GW has the right to protect their copyright, and has to deal harshly with those who infringe or it opens doors for others to do the same.

[theHman]

The real question is "Why on earth did it take GW over a year and a half to get the Doom model out????"

And why would anyone even bother to buy one now?

GW is just baffling in their product line launches and company policy.

They should have had all the new units and upgrades ready and available for the release of the (half-assed) nid dex LAST January. They would have sold a ton more stuff than they did. I alone would have bought 2 tervigons, 2 tfex's, the doom, harpy's and more.

Now? Foggetaboutit!
Not gonna waste my money.

[DarkLink]

Yeah, I can't find much sympathy for Chapterhouse. They brought this upon themselves.

[BuFFo]

Another chapter house thread?

Yeah, they are stubborn idiots.

+1

[Denzark]

Please not another thread. That weeble will re-surface and get preachy.

[wittdooley]

I stated where I sood on CHS simply so I was transparent. I was more curious if people think, despite their inclinations towards Chapterhouse, if this could have been the catalyst.

We can lock it if need be, I just wanted to have some discussion about that, as it makes that "ambigious IP protection" a bit more tangible with directly competing models.

[wittdooley]

The real question is "Why on earth did it take GW over a year and a half to get the Doom model out????"

And why would anyone even bother to buy one now?

GW is just baffling in their product line launches and company policy.

They should have had all the new units and upgrades ready and available for the release of the (half-assed) nid dex LAST January. They would have sold a ton more stuff than they did. I alone would have bought 2 tervigons, 2 tfex's, the doom, harpy's and more.

Now? Foggetaboutit!
Not gonna waste my money.

So... You're not going to buy a single one of the new releases? Really......

[DarkLink]

People like to blame GW for making poor business choices, but frankly I don't think they know what they're talking about usually. GW may have not had the available resources to produce all those new models at the time. Maybe past history shows that, despite what one might think, forcing people to convert tervigons and the like and releasing the actual model later can actually make GW more money overall. Calling a judgement on GW's decisions is often very poor logic, because you are almost certainly uninformed. There are almost certainly a number of unknown factors that heavily influence their decisions that we don't have access to.

Plus, as I understand it, spreading out the profits of a codex release is better for GW than clumping them up. It's better for GW to have a steady income via monthly releases than it is for them to make a bunch of money in one month, but then have very little profits for three or four months because they have no new releases then.


So, I'm not necessarily saying that GW always makes the best choice. I'm just saying that not many of us are in a position where we can actually make an informed judgement on whether GW's business decisions are good or not. The fact that there are a lot of arm-chair business majors out there doesn't help, either.

[sangrail777]

Well said Darklink