confused why do people think nids and BE are coming befor DE

[Dosadi]

Dosadi: Honestly sometimes, I wonder why I even bother. Did you actually read my post? I'm honestly curious, because from reading yours it seems like you didn't, and you responded after looking at the first couple of words instead.

Clearly.

And no, most businesses with intelligent leaders would HATE to have a single product have fifty percent of their revenue. This means if that product tanks suddenly for some reason, their company tanks with it. For example, if a car company was dealing in only SUVs, it would have found itself with greatly reduced sales once gas prices went up. And then in the past, a car company focusing entirelly on compact economy cars would find themselves in a bind during the heyday of the SUV and sports car when gas was cheap.

How does this relate to plastic toy soldiers?
Space marines are not a commodity. I don’t see the bottom falling out of the Space Marine market because the price of petroleum went up. If that was the case, GW would have gone out of business in 1996 and again in 1998 and 1999 and…well, you get the picture.

We are dealing with a luxury item in a niche market, you example holds no basis for comparison.

Anyway, this thread had swerved way off topic so that's the last I'm going to say here. Feel free to start a marine bashing thread and I’ll gladly jump in the ring to defend my precious astartes.


Dosadi

[Melissia]

Cars are also a luxury item. They may be useful, yes, but they're still luxuries. In many places owning a car is completely unnecessary-- the Untied States is actually quite unique in how we view the automobile and how we treat it. And even in the US, owning a car is still optional for many people. You can just as easilly ride a bike, a motorcycle, a train, a tram, a subway, a bus, and so on, depending on your location.

But hey, whatever floats your boat dude.

[twistinthunder]

1: And that means the rest of the armies earn the rest of the money. But only Marines receive this insane level of support, most of the others barely get any attention in comparison. To use the most important aspect, fluff backing... what about Ork centered novels, where Orks are the main characters? Eldar centered novels, Tau centered novels? I can understand the lack of Necron or Tyranid centered novels due to the relative lack of personality of both of those armies (in regards to the individual members), but what I can't understand is why 90% + novels are Marine-centric. And then there's WD, which is essentially Marines, Marines, and more Marines.

They spend so much effort and money advertising Marines and yet they ONLY get that level of profits? I can't claim to be an expert, but it doesn't seem like it's paying off.

2: The most highly supported 50% of GW's codices supposedly earn just over 50% of GW's profits. This is not entirelly impressive given the level of support and attention Marines get.

this is most of the reason i dislike 40k (yet i still play it because i try to ignore it) i mean look at the starter boxes: all space marines + siomething else.

warhammer fantasy battle doesn't have a "poster army"

[Archonate]

All the Space Marine hatred is really juvenile and old. We all know that GW supports that Space Marines more than any other two races combined. We all know that the bloody Dark Eldar haven't been updated in ages. We know that Inquisition players aren't happy and are suffering. Stop complaining about it in every News/Rumors thread, for heaven's sake.

Why? So GW will continue to be oblivious to the fact that so many of it's fans (including many sm players) are sick and tired of space marines? Forget it. I don't care about SMs, why should I shut up and be happy about them receiving more praise and glory than they're worth? I intend to be vocal about my disappointment in GW for grossly neglecting several far more interesting armies. Otherwise they'll never get the message.

How does this relate to plastic toy soldiers?

I believe the conversation was about business ethics, not plastic toy soldiers.

GW exercises very poor judgment in regard to business revenue maximization. The appeal of 40k is not space marines, it is the diversity of the game. SM players get in thinking of all the fun they're going to have fighting aliens, only to find that they really only fight other SMs. GW does themselves an injustice by only advertising to one tiny dimension of that universe. They seem to think SM fans would all drop the game if they were to advertise a greater diversity of miniature lines.

The fact is, ALL the armies have appeal. To many people, that appeal is exclusive to one army. GW has gotten no money from me in over 5 years because they keep dragging their feet on the only army I'm interested in. I'd wager there are tens of thousands of Necron, Tau, Sisters of Battle and DE fans with that same disposition. Each willing to give at least a thousand dollars to GW, if only GW wanted their money... But no, GW would rather pander to a crowd which it's already going to get money from...

[Vepr]

GW is making what they believe is the best decisions for their company in regards to releases. Ask yourselves this and be honest about it. At your local gaming stores what armies make up the majority of those being played? It is almost always some flavor of marines. People like marines. I am a Tyranid player but my secondary army is vanilla marines. This is not because of GW offering marines more support. People like the armies and fluff, marines are cool at least to a majority of players. If everyone was clamoring for dark eldar GW would work harder to get them out but the truth is DE has a loyal following but it is a small following compared to other armies like eldar, nids, orks and especially marines.

I know it sucks for loyal DE players but that is just the reality of it. Marines are more popular than DE or any other army for that matter and GW would be insane to ignore that fact.

[Cthulhu]

GW is making what they believe is the best decisions for their company in regards to releases. Ask yourselves this and be honest about it. At your local gaming stores what armies make up the majority of those being played? It is almost always some flavor of marines. People like marines. I am a Tyranid player but my secondary army is vanilla marines. This is not because of GW offering marines more support. People like the armies and fluff, marines are cool at least to a majority of players. If everyone was clamoring for dark eldar GW would work harder to get them out but the truth is DE has a loyal following but it is a small following compared to other armies like eldar, nids, orks and especially marines.

I know it sucks for loyal DE players but that is just the reality of it. Marines are more popular than DE or any other army for that matter and GW would be insane to ignore that fact.

QFT, this is part of the reason I play Nids and Chaos, not only because I like their fluff more than other armies, but because I know that they are popular enough to enjoy favored army status at GW.

[Katie Drake]

Why? So GW will continue to be oblivious to the fact that so many of it's fans (including many sm players) are sick and tired of space marines? Forget it. I don't care about SMs, why should I shut up and be happy about them receiving more praise and glory than they're worth? I intend to be vocal about my disappointment in GW for grossly neglecting several far more interesting armies. Otherwise they'll never get the message.

Well, for one because it's annoying as hell. The other reason is that GW knows that the whining Dark Eldar players are unhappy with their book. I don't think GW is the world's best company or anything, but it isn't like they're unaware of the state that some armies are in. Jes Goodwin is already half done the Dark Eldar range - he said as much in one of Games Workshop's podcasts. The Inquisition is admittedly still a long ways off, but *****ing and moaning about it in every rumors thread (even those that don't have bloody anything to do with the Inquisition) is just lame. The Dark Angels got screwed. We know. So does GW. So, to those Dark Angel players that are unhappy with their book, we know, please stop.

I don't intend to "aim" this post at any particular members here. This is just a message in general to those that vent about the state of their armies.

[MajorSoB]

Just to help shed some light on this topic I will let you in on a conversation I had last weekend, Game 5 of our tournament.

I was playing a former GW employee from Canada. He used to be in charge of running the Canadian GT circuit but has been working elsewhere since GW has discontinued corporate supported tournaments. I asked him point blank why Dark Eldar get no love. He told me it was quite simple, it all comes down to dollars and cents and Dark Eldar was by far the worst selling 40K army every produced. While GW is aware that some fans still exist and are waiting not so patiently, they have no plans on releasing this army until they are certain they can produce it well and make it popular. This means a complete rework of the army which Jes Goodwin is in the process of. Like most companies this project is not a priority and GW has focused it resources on its more profitable armies. That does not mean that Dark Eldar are dead but they will only resurface when they are updated correctly, new models and new rules. As far as this person knew they are not in the near future of releases, like I have said before Nids are next, with most likely a Blood Angels redo afterwards, followed possibly by Necrons sometime in the following year.

[Lanparth]

You know what Melissa, and others, I've gotta be honest. This is just an observation but...

Why do you play?

Clearly, honestly, you hate Games-Workshop, you hate the product plan they have, every post I see is generally "Well screw you GW, screw your space marines too!"

You know what? If they did plastic sisters with a huge, interesting codex... I still wouldn't play them! :O

I've played literally every single army in Warhammer 40,000 over 15 years save Squads, Dark Eldar, Necrons, and Sisters of Battle.

I have had 2 Eldar Armies. (Sold)
I've had a Space Marine Army.
Space Wolves Army.
Thousand Sons Army
Word Bearers Army (My biggest army, 6,000 points)
Orks (old codex and new. Like new more obviously. 4,500 points)
Tau Army (Sold)
Tyranids Army (Sold)
Grey Knights (Sold)
Imperial Guard (sold)

And you know what? It was a combination of factors which had me play each one. RIght now, I've got a Blood Ravens army I'm building. I'm unlikely to sell it, just as I am unlikely to sell my Chaos Forces or Orks.

But I would play an army for 3 reasons. Style, minatures, and backstory.fluffiness. The final one is the most important.

Space Marines are more popular, and will be more popular than MANY armies. This is the truth. Bluntly, this is what reality is.

GW is supporting that product, and honestly? Late the Xeno/non marine updates have been more common! Eldar, Orks, Imperial Guard, all done within a pretty short peroid as far as codexes go. I remember before it was ONLY marines, Black Templars, Wolves, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Chaos Marines, all in a row almost. All Marines all the Time.

Now they are doing even Tyranids for god's sakes. and people all still CRY over it, and blame GW and ect.

Well you know what? If you don't like the game, or the product release schedule, coming onto a forum and whining about it all the time, or how much marines suck because they get more attention, then really, its time to find another hobby. GW in the last few years has offered more support for Xeno armies than i saw in literally 6-10 years when I was younger. So personally? I'm pretty happy with their direction.

And this isn't just over Melissa, its for EVERYONE who wants to sit there and blame GW for trying to make money, even when they ARE supporting races that AREN'T Space Marines.

[A HUGE BLUNT]

A bunch of rage about forum posts

What is is your argument here? If you don't like it get out? Either get on the GW bandwagon or move on to another hobby? If the people complaining on these places hated GW as you like to infer they wouldn't waste their time making a fuss over it, they would simply move on to something else. Which, by the way, a lot of people have been doing for a number of year.