GW 2014-2015 Half Year Results

[Path Walker]

Sisters, with the right treatment should be a great army that sells as well as any other non-space marine army, but, since their intro, they've not had the right treatment.

I think we've seen with skitarii that they can do robes well in plastic now, so I can't imagine that can really on that excuse any more now they have that down. A smaller release would suit them well, a mini codex like Skitarii, Cult Mech and Harlies. Hopefully we'll see something like that in the next few years.

[Mr Mystery]

Yep.

Though I suspect that as with Dark Eldar, the range is very much Jes' baby, and thus open to the same 'EVERYTHING WILL BE GORGEOUS' wants and expectations of both designer and collectors.

[grimmas]

I'm not sure it's just a case of make them plastic and they'll sell (look at the squats). They didn't
seem to do as well as others when metal models were the norm. That said being metal at the moment is very much stopping big sales so I agree they need plastics to have chance. The design team need to have a think about the theme and stop trying to shoe horn too much in for the sake of it and go for the Mini dex. Keep to a theme rather than a mash up of Ecclesiasty units.

Still I'm not sure that this is what they were referring to when "reviewing their product range" as they have got to be doing that continually and this refers to things on a bigger scale than just individual factions.

[daboarder]

Sisters, with the right treatment should be a great army that sells as well as any other non-space marine army, but, since their intro, they've not had the right treatment.

this is pretty much widely acknowledged by the community. I've never met a player that didnt find the sisters one of the most interesting factions in warhammer 40k. I mean they are after all the millitant arm of the Ecclesiarchy, and one of the biggest story points in 40k is faith in the god emperor.

[Alaric]

You would think that Gdub would put more emphasis on the ladies (actual women not the sisters) as its another source of money for em.

[daboarder]

You would think that Gdub would put more emphasis on the ladies (actual women not the sisters) as its another source of money for em.

There was a point were they were including mor female characters. But they didnt have models though and then the IP hammer hit

[Alaric]

There was a point were they were including mor female characters. But they didnt have models though and then the IP hammer hit

IP hammer? What, they couldnt copyright shaped boobs on the armor? :P

Really tho u got me, im curious as to their reasoning. Looking at comics as one example, your money doubles when u include both sexes..

[daboarder]

IP hammer? What, they couldnt copyright shaped boobs on the armor? :P

Really tho u got me, im curious as to their reasoning. Looking at comics as one example, your money doubles when u include both sexes..

not quite what I was referring to,

GW botched their case and kinda ruined it a bit for the whole industry (not entirely their fault the judge was apparently smokin something as well according to other companies). Basically concept art and renders of a while in production model no longer give control of that image in physical form.

What this means is that until GW (or any model company) is actually producing and selling a physical model other companies can take the concept art or render, rush a nock off into production and claim they are not plagiarizing IP.

After this happened most characters that did not have a model (including the large number of female characters) were dropped from subsequent codexes as GW could not guarantee control of the IP.

This ruling has obviously had an effect on other miniature companies as well. Here is the a responce from Antenocitis workshop about what it meant for them.

Note: Due to recent rulings (in the US especially) concerning the use of concept art and IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) we will no longer be showing concept art or WIPs for many items.... for which we are a tad sad... but we have to be cautious now concerning all concept art copyright issues.

Well, in brief... there was a ruling in the US that concept art, whilst copyrighted for its medium, did not, by default, mean that it was copyright for all other mediums, particularly if the concept art only existed in the one medium.



Please bear in mind that this is a judges ruling and thus subject to any future ruling that may be of a different stance, however what it essentially means is that if you produce concept art then you are protected if other people copy/use that concept art in that medium, or in a related medium... so digital art would be protected for any copied drawings, digital 2d images and so forth...



However nothing says that it would mean that the deisgn within that art was copyrighted for production in another medium: so if you took the concept and produced a 3d model from the 2d image, then, under certain circumstances, that would not be a breach of IPR... particularly if the owners of the 2D art did not have any competitive product or *item* in that 3D medium.

So by showing 2d art, another party *might be able to* copy it into a 3d medium and sell that 3d medium item without infringing copyright.



Until the issue is resolved at a higher court or with additional cases, its now prudent to withhold concept art until you are ready to also produce it in the 3d medium i.e. as a physical product...otherwise a possibility exists that others could use it without infringement by *beating you to market* with their own version of it.

Now we can protect our Designs™ under UK Law, that also covers us in the EU, but not under any other jurisdictions... especially the US where this judgement took place.

Thus, until it is resolved *unequivocally* we're going to have to be more careful in what images we release of 2d concept art or WIPs of models... especially given that our development time frame is quite lengthy.

It may all come to nothing, and be a lot of smoke with no fire.... but we've been advised to be more cautious. /em shrugs





TLDR: a judge made a weird ruling thats gotten everybodys knickers in a twist.

[Alaric]

Ohh so this is the take away from the Chapterhouse dealy.

Thanks dude. Didn't know that little bit aboot it.

[Lexington]

I think Kirby pretended to take the back seat and just sit on the council to placate the growing agitation of others who are considerable stockholders.

Didn't Kirby step down because, legally, he couldn't be "Interim Chairman" any longer? Overall, though, I agree that the company is still directed by his philosophy, which seems to be a mildly crazy one.

We're told Specialist Games weren't particularly profitable - but they're still sales. With the boat seemingly steadied, and most markets emerging from the financial whoopsie of 2008, now could be the time that they feel confident enough to push them again

This would be great, but I really doubt it's something we'll see beyond boxed games like 'Execution Force' (and if they keep selling like 'Execution Force,' we won't see any of them at all). Where we differ is that I don't think the boat's been steadied, really - it's not out-and-out sinking anymore, necessarily, but there's still plenty of leaks. Sales volumes have dropped something on the order of 15 - 20% over the last two years, and continue to decline overall, corporate has put a salary freeze on the company for the rest of the year (while still paying dividends, which must be great for internal morale), and several sources have them lined up to pull the same shenanigans on 40K as have just been pulled on WHFB - a change that seems to have been met with all the same good feelings elicited by a wet fart. I wouldn't say GW's future is bright, just not immediately catastrophic.