The Great GW Pricing Poll

[DarkLink]

Dropping the prices on these "horde" armies for instance would go a long way to letting players start the armies they want to.

So... GW should just start giving away minis for free? You do understand that it physically costs roughly the same to produce a single plastic mini of a given size regardless of how many points it costs in-game, right?

[dorstein]

Speaking only for myself of course:

I have a reasonable amount of disposable income. Take home of about 3k per month and don't spend money on much else besides food and rent. (Live in Canada)

For troop boxes: I'm okay with their prices for the 10 troops per box type. ($35ish dollars)
For vehicles/special heavy infantry, such as the leman russ and terminators as an example at $60, I'd be okay with $50, preferably $45
For the bigger models in the $80 to $100 (Landraider, Valkyrie, etc) I need a LAAARGE price cut, at least 25%. The price increases have actively thwarted my impulse to buy from the store and instead opt for only discounters.
For something like, say the Centurion Squad priced at $94: 35-50% price cut. I mean really, come on. I could afford to go skydiving for one box with three iddy bitty minis.

So many nifty things that I, as a casual gamer, would have liked to have gotten (Forgefiend, wing-o-valkyries, etc) that I'd like to get but are just, way too damned expensive.

[clively]

The poll is a bit difficult. I don't think an across the board price cut is what's needed. Instead I think it needs to be more targeted. For example a standard 10 man troop squad should be about $29, a 5 man elite about the same. A vehicle around $35 and a flyer about $50. I think $60 should be the absolute top end for even a baneblade.

[clively]

So... GW should just start giving away minis for free? You do understand that it physically costs roughly the same to produce a single plastic mini of a given size regardless of how many points it costs in-game, right?

You do understand that production costs have almost nothing to do with the price they charge, right?

[psychoweenie]

I'd like a Tyranid army which in Australia would set me back about $1500 at the least. For me to actually consider starting the new Army I'd like prices to drop by 30% here in OZ (At the very least).

The otehr game that interests me is warmahordes, Legion specifically and to get teh army I want it would set me back $200 or so maybe 250 if I went with the Archangel.

[DarkLink]

You do understand that production costs have almost nothing to do with the price they charge, right?

Yes. That's frankly irrelevant. GW's not going to produce one army with a profit margin that gives them, say, a return of $1 for every dollar they spend, then produce another army that only give them a return of ten cents.

[Space Wolf Paco]

I just had this conversation with my War gaming buddies and one of my local stores. General belief, if the cost were more in line with what their true production cost were, we would all definitely invest more money. As it is in our present economy, the amount of additional income anyone has for gaming is severely limited. So we are reduced to bidding on eBay or working out trade deals to try and get what we are looking for. Some are even looking into Gray market items to support their GW addition. LOL! easy way to think about it, you want to pay $25+ for a single model or $33+ for a box set. I love the fact that GW has gone to providing many variations in a single box set, keeps me coming back.

[Rift Knight]

I haven't bought a 40k model in over 2 years. When 5 Termies went over $50 USD, Land Raiders were almost $70 USD, and Leman Russ's were also almost $70 USD I just cound not justify buying anything else new. It's one thing to spend $25 USD on a new codex you hope you will get at least 4-5 years use out of, but $75 USD just because it's hard bound. I don't think so. I just can't do it. I have so much stuff to paint anyway and as an adult I don't get to play like I used to. And these days kids are used to spending more time with electronic items. If GW wants to entice teenagers away from that stuff they need to make it cheaper than buying a new computer, X-Box, IPhone, ect. Cost of entry is ridiculous. Just went on GW website a very basic about 1500-2000pt Space Marine force (don't have current codex so gestimation on points): 40k Rulebook,
Codex: Space Marine
SM Strike Force
Raven Guard Paint set (cheapest under army essentionals)
Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer
Aslt Termie Sqd
Reg Termie Sqd

$639.50 USD Before TAX!

Just too expensive for entry. Should be $150-$200 To get started with a 1500pt force. Heck the SM Strike Force is $225 before tax. With the current economy here in the US most people just don't have as much disposible income as they did 5-6 years ago. For almost $700 USD (about what it would be where I live in US with tax) I should be able to field almost 3000pt force with lots of tactical options. One of my old bosses in food service magt use to say when we would put out best burger on sale "More nickles, less quarters" i.e. we would make more overall profit by selling with lower unit prices through much larger sales volume. I know I won't be buying any 40k stuff at retail. If I do it will probly be off Ebay for from discount stores online. And that is still a big if. I really think a price reduction of about 35% would be what it would take to get me buying again. That would put the Land Raider back to about $50 USD. Yes it's a nice toy model, but it's not "that" nice and it is still really a toy. My feelings for what it's worth.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

OK here's my take, for what it's worth.
GW need to restructure prices, these % figures don't really cover it, but they do.
They had issues a few years ago where certain moderately popular releases still weren't actually making any money (I'm looking at you Chaos Knights) because they simply priced them (drum-roll please) TOO LOW. I know this because I was working there at the time, and it came up in a big way at the staff AGM following their release. They went £12, £15, £18 pretty damn fast. And the objective was for them to reach £20 where they'd start paying for themselves. Now the Baneblade came out at £60, and was EXTREMELY popular, so much so that it had paid for itself in very short order.
SO we know (due to my entirely unsubstantiated anecdotal evidence, it's not like they gave us handouts) that cheaper prices for GW CAN work to their advantage but DON'T always. It it deeply circumstantial and if they release too low it gets them no-where. This is where the flawed logic has crept in I think, the logic that goes like this "If we price too low bad things happen, nothing bad has ever evidently happened due to high pricing, so let's release the product at a higher price.
I know, I know, customer loyalty and blah blah blah but look at their numbers and you can see why they wouldn't see that price increases would hurt them, because for over a decade they DIDN'T.
Then finecast, oh finecast, yes they COULD produce amazing models in finecast (I even own some) but it had flaws and the initial release had the quality control issues and the list goes on. And they looked at the release and said "we should avoid another chaos knights fiasco." Whoops.
Then plastic single-pose characters, which are lovely models btw, and again they said "Better make sure they pay for themselves."
Well I think we can see how it goes.
There needs to be serious thought along 4 lines, addressed as a statement to GW;
1. It now costs £107.80 to get into the hobby. Still 1/4 the price of a new games console, but no longer less than a tablet computer or a kindle or a serious bundle of lego or a dozen other things that a parent would buy their kid. That needs fixing.
2. Books cost too much. Period. Look at the other games companies, look at RPG companies, look at everyone else. You are charging TOO MUCH. Yes we understand that you have made wonderful books. You know who else makes wonderful books (based on your IP, using your artwork, full of rules, your fluff and in hardback) Fantasy Flight. They know where the sweet spot is on book pricing (still expensive i'll grant you, but you feel like you get what you paid for), learn from them.
3. You are right, you are not a gaming company, you make models. Fine, no issues there. Let the community help. Release free playtest rules (it never hurt forgeworld), don't charge silly money for dataslates and digital codecies(this would of course be fine in parity if you LOWERED BOOK PRICES), bring back forums where YOU moderate and allow frank discussion. The internet is NOT your enemy. Talk openly about your motivations and decisions and watch people AGREE WITH YOU. The only thing that's gained from radio silence and seemingly random C&Ds is that you look like jerks and detractors get to label you the badguy.
4. ADMIT YOU MAKE MISTAKES. Zaphod (a fellow business brain) talks about this a lot in his frankly very sensible blog analysis of the last few years, it's the business term "Black Snow". You are doing, and have done, things wrong. But you refuse to acknowledge when you do. And then you KEEP ON DOING THEM. I've been to staff AGMs where a member of staff (not me, I drank the kool-aid[or whatever we drank in england]) would stand up and say "We can see this is obviously going to fail, our customers would never put up with this" and the response would always be "get 'better' customers" (not in those exact words, but you understand). When customers stop being customers there is only ever one group of people to blame, the people up the top.
That's me.
Badrukk rolls a natural 1 to avoid ranty wall of text.

[Baoh]

I've long considered GW prices to be out of whack.

I can get a Master Grade Gundam model kit that is molded in various colors, posable down to the fingers, and has swappable weaponsfor $35 - $50. Why then does a static plastic model like the Tau Riptide cost $85 then?
Check out the price for a Tamiya tank model kit. I can get a 1/35 Panzer IV from Tamiya for $25-$30. That kit will include rolling wheels, rubber tracks, and rotating turret. Why is a box of a tank (The Land Raider) going for $74.25? They really need to check and see how the Japanese companies can make these kits that are more detailed and contain way more parts for half of what they cost. I have not even begun to discuss the quality difference between what GW offers versus Bandai and Tamiya.