GW EOY 2014 Investor Statements

[Charon]

I would also argue that the Game itself and the Black Library drive sales a lot. Without a Game or without the Background books there is no reason to stick to sci-fi minis that are not any merchandise.
Kromlech for example does beautiful Ork minis. They do not produce a game. In a world where no wargames exist, Kromlech could not exist as the niche of people buying small minis just for display is even smaller than the wargaming niche.
I also think that rules drive sales A LOT. I would not be surprised if Serpents and Knights are in high demand while Raptors are sitting on the shelves.

[Eldar_Atog]

Why do we continue to focus on the model vs game company thing? It's business speak and has no real meaning. It should carry about as much weight as the word of a politician.

[Denzark]

Because some people point to the fact that the company name means the company should automatically be required to do better at the game side, ie rules.

Whilst I sympathise with the latter point the former does not make it so.

[daboarder]

Because some people point to the fact that the company name means the company should automatically be required to do better at the game side, ie rules.

Whilst I sympathise with the latter point the former does not make it so.

the self identification as "game designers" however sorta does.

[40kGamer]

Why do we continue to focus on the model vs game company thing? It's business speak and has no real meaning. It should carry about as much weight as the word of a politician.

It may be business speak but business speak has a way of permeating the corporate culture. So them thinking of themselves as a model company means they don't put a lot of effort into the rules. It's really a chicken/egg debate as to whether the game drives the model sales or model sales drive the game. A lot, if not most of us old timers got into the game first and followed it to the models so we find models driving the game a dubious claim at best. Although Tamiya obviously works as a model only company, I'm just not sure how that 'style' fits GW.

[Caitsidhe]

How about equal energy into both? After all, they are charging for those rules as if they are the second coming. I mean seriously, if they aren't a game company and the rules are just thrown in there for us to have something to do with all these models, why not just give them to us for free with a download? How's that taste? Given that they have produced more books of than models of late, and the selling point of those books of regurgitated pictures is really just 2-3 pages of additional RULES, I think there might be some substance to this game theory after all.

[Erik Setzer]

Kromlech for example does beautiful Ork minis. They do not produce a game. In a world where no wargames exist, Kromlech could not exist as the niche of people buying small minis just for display is even smaller than the wargaming niche.

To be honest... Kromlech exists to fill an artistic niche with GW's Ork race, particularly. I love their style and would love to run a lot of their stuff as a Blood Axes army, but by that point, too much of my army wouldn't be GW models, so I couldn't play in a GW store. Kromlech's Ork range exists because of 40K. Heck, their bitz are designed specifically to be attached to 40K Orks.

On a side note, Kromlech also showed how you can make models and parts for use in 40K and keep GW's legal eagles off of you.

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Because some people point to the fact that the company name means the company should automatically be required to do better at the game side, ie rules.

Whilst I sympathise with the latter point the former does not make it so.

Well, their own investor site mentions the fact that better games lead to better sales of miniatures. So even GW recognizes the need to be better at the game side. It's nice that they'll admit, to their investors at least, that the games drive the miniatures, people don't actually buy the games to have something to do with figures they bought in a vacuum.

[Mr Mystery]

There's games out there with good rules, which aren't fun to play, so there's a lot more to a game being good than the rulebook, particularly when it comes to semi-collectible affairs like Wargames. You can have the tightest rules set possible, but if your models are bloody awful, you're not going to sell as much.

The models remain one of the things that really puts me off Warmahordes. I really don't like Steampunk, and the Hordes models are pretty meh in my book. I can appreciate the rules set though - but it's just not enough to engage me in the game.

[Caitsidhe]

Well... the report is out. Not that any of us were surprised, but their sales are down significantly. I won't go into taking the report apart section by section yet, but I will comment on this little gem:

"For this reason, the principal risks and uncertainties for the balance of the year lie in the ability of the sales channel managers to deliver sales growth and for the product and supply chain to maintain gross margin."

This is code for us blaming it all on the middle managers. Their loss of sales has NOTHING to do with the product according to them. The weight is entirely on those managers (whom they later say they are having a hard time finding and training properly) to deal with.

[Mr Mystery]

There's a thread about that below.

And I wouldn't call a 1.7% drop in constant currency terms significant by any stretch of the imagination.