GW Annual Financial Report dropping this week

[Wolfshade]

And people say he is out of touch with gamers:

On The Lord of the Rings (January 2007):
Quote Personally I preferred the book. But I suppose I shouldn't say that.

[Psychosplodge]

First sensible thing I've seen him say...

[MarneusCalgar]

Well, they have 42% less profit this year, yes, ok, it´s bad...

But they still have profit.

So don´t bury GW yet

[Mr Mystery]

Well, they have 42% less profit this year, yes, ok, it´s bad...

But they still have profit.

So don´t bury GW yet

Indeed. Says something about the effectiveness of their cost cutting overall.

And again, interesting that no profit warning was issued - I'm under the impression that such things have to be done if profits are well under expectation? There was certainly one with the LOTR bubble burst.

[Caitsidhe]

Well, they have 42% less profit this year, yes, ok, it´s bad...

But they still have profit.

So don´t bury GW yet

The real problem, which nobody is talking about, is that they remained in the black only by gutting their entire operation. They don't have anything left to cut. Unless they can create real turnaround, the next report wil be harder to offset.

[Psychosplodge]

I'm not sure they've cut enough for that to be the only reason they're in the black, it might have affected the final figure, but I can't imagine to that extent.

[Mr Mystery]

Indeed.

There's also quite a lot of 'possible cause myopia' at play here. Without figures on their competitors, who knows what shape the general wargaming hobby is in? All we've got is a collection of loose anecdotes about who seems to be playing what, based entirely on tournament and in store gaming, which misses the home market.

Is it all GW's fault? Are there things beyond the control of a single company at play? Frankly, none of us have anything like enough knowledge or info to draw any kind of conclusion.

All we know is that profits are down, but still there, and they have been working on their infrastructure to ensure they run as efficiently as possible.

[eldargal]

Seems to be cultural - "we know what the customer wants, so lets not bother listening to them when they cry out and tell us that we're doing something stupid."

Yes, we have a cultural aversion to toxic bull**** which encourages the bullying of retail workers by customers who know they will get away with it because the company values the pittance they will spend over the welfare of their workers.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Plus there's the fact that The Customer Is Always Right just results in them buying whatever crappy device they think will be great, then spending the next couple of years convincing themselves it's top of the line to save pride. People who listen to salespeople that know the products and deal with them day-in, day-out will get an actually good product into the bargain.

Skullcandies spring to mind as a brand everyone is convinced is great but are actually terrible.

[Mr Mystery]

Plus there's the fact that The Customer Is Always Right just results in them buying whatever crappy device they think will be great, then spending the next couple of years convincing themselves it's top of the line to save pride. People who listen to salespeople that know the products and deal with them day-in, day-out will get an actually good product into the bargain.

Skullcandies spring to mind as a brand everyone is convinced is great but are actually terrible.

I quite like my pair. Not too expensive, decent enough quality - important for me, as I just seem to destroy headphones!