State of WFB Rundown by Harry

[Bigred]

Harry did an [URL="http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?386475-No-9th-Edition-in-2014/page7"]end of the year rundown[/URL] on Warseer of what he know's about WFB and it's pretty chock full of good information:

I will try and pluck some information from the dark forgotten corners of my brain .... memory is shot to pieces. ...so some of this may be complete bobbins ... and well out of date but I seem to remember Fantasy being in the 20 something %'s (this is a few years ago ... it may well have fallen below 20% now ... I have heard it is not doing so well).
I seem to remember the biggest fantasy army (can't remember if it was Empire or Orcs and Goblins) was making about 5% (Maybe even 7%)
The smallest fatasy army was making as little as 1%
Now when you consider they make over 10 Million in profit it still seems 1% of that is still worth having ... except when the plastic moulds cost as much as they do it is hard to make much profit out of a wood elf mould. Where as a space marine mould ... will make twenty times as much from the same costs.

makes it a bit easier to understand the release schedule?

EDIT: I heard they did experiments to try to discover if it was the price of the kits .... they released the Dark Elf Cold One Knights and the Chaos Knights at a lower price point to see if everyone bought twice as many as is so often stated ... They didn't. The same people bought exactly the same number of boxes as they do at the higher price point.
(I am not saying this is what happened ... or that they concluded they might as well continue to charge more for their kits to make a greater return ... I am just saying that is what I heard).

About shelving 9th edition ... I did hear that they had discussed shelving fantasy FULL STOP! (Not sure how long that discussion was but that's what I heard).
I heard they discussed loosing some of the least popular armies.
I heard they discussed condensing the army books into less volumes. (So the less popular armies could survive).
I heard one Warhammer armies book ... I heard two books?
I have no idea where the dust settled on these discussions except that they decided to do something .... and that it would have to be radical.

As far as I know I am the only person to have predicted 2014 for 9th edition ... because I assumed it must be around the corner based on the timescales I usually hear stuff. But hastings posted almost immediately to say he had heard it was 2015
I always assume he is correct and I am incorrect ... (hastings =Jedi Master Harry=Young apprentice).
I don't think 9th edition has been pushed back or shelved. I think when I posted to say it was coming in 2014 ... I was wrong.

In defence of this guy:

Quote Originally Posted by MiyamatoMusashi

So... there is never any source other than official GW statements which is not "speculation"?

Every rumour, ever, has been speculation and nothing more?

The beancounters at GW are deeply dissatisfied with the money WHF makes. That's not in their official annual report. But it's not speculation either. Whether you choose to believe it is up to you. But I'm not speculating that that's the case, I know it to be the case. Doubt me if you like, call me a liar if you feel so inclined, but even if you conclude I must be merely speculating, at least accept the possibility that SOMEONE may be in a position to hear things that don't appear in the annual statement.

There is a very basic difference between "speculation" and "unconfirmed" and "not from an official source". Was Hastings just speculating for all those years of consistently providing accurate information of what was coming? Or was he simply reporting what had not yet been officially announced?

Quote Originally Posted by pjklan

ok.
so, would you kindly share with us what you know about 9th edition?
thank you.

He heard pretty much the same things I did ... from completely different sources a few months after I did.
So that is two and a half years out (if 9th comes in summer 2015) ... making him well connected.
I first heard about all this in the June/July 2011
He did post about it at the time .... more than once ... but no one took any notice of him.

Quote Originally Posted by Tancred II von Quenelles

To sum up WFB 9th is hitting in 2015 with some unpredicted and radical changes - am I correct?

That is about the size of it.
My understanding was they were scraping everything and starting again. So pretty difficult to predict what the changes might be.
Having said that we have heard about radical changes before the last several, slightly tweaked, editions.
So don't hold your breath.

[angrybear]

Thanks for sharing, an interesting read. Curious to see where GW takes warhammer fantasy.

[spaceman91]

Sounds 'interesting'

[Chronowraith]

always interesting to see what harry and hastings have to say. I'm a little disappointed to hear that Fantasy is doing so bad. I've always wondered if this was due to marketing or perceived ease of entry for 40k.

I really don't like the idea of army "compendiums" but I'll give anything Fantasy a shot at least once.

Glad to hear that GW has another year most likely to come out with the remaining 8th edition books before 9th edition hits. I'd love to add a hardback Skaven book to my pile.

[Bigred]

With a 9th Edition now slated for 2015, and only 5 army books left for WFB - it wouldn't surprise me if they are intending to wrap up the full 8th edition hardback set of army books before they "take the plunge" into 9th Edition and whatever it will hold for the game.

It kind of sounds like 8th and its hardcover army books may be the last "grand edition" of the game before they embark on whatever measures they need to let the game survive with a smaller footprint moving forward compared to the 40K juggernaut.

Which worries me greatly. I can't think of the last time a game that was so big shrank over time since Battletech, which dominated gaming in the 80s then fell to nothing.

[MMM]

...

[eldargal]

Seems like 8th edition was a very large nail in the WHFB coffin.

Sad to see my entry point of the tabletophobby vanishes within a few years.

Shame on you GW!

We don't know that, 8th was a drastic revamp because 7th failed, we don't have enough information to say whether 8th is doing worse or just isn't doing as well as GW want.

[Wildeybeast]

All is is assuming that the bean counters have direct control over what they design team do. Whilst there will obviously be some accountability, they are controlling everything they do. The guys in the studio love Warhammer and would fight tooth and nail for it. I don't see them allowing it to be reduced or sidelined and I'm not sure they can risk massive changes as they simply don't know how they will go down. Harry specifically says that it is making money, just not as much has they would like. I'm. I don't think We have anything to worry about for the future of Warhammer. After all, if they are still flogging The Lord of the rings horse, Warhammer still has plenty of life left in it.

[MMM]

...

[eldargal]

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.