Did the Summer of Sigmar kill interest in 40k?

[Cutter]

Of course if we are to go by postings on here then I'd suggest that Malifaux and Mantic are the ones really in trouble.

Indeed, never paid much attention to Malifaux, I've never played it, but I am keen on KoW as a quick and dirty Whamster cohort.

I assume it's fans don't bother with forums like this because, unlike GW's fans, they have a dedicated forum on Mantic's own website as well has facebookery.

All said unlike the hear say and propaganda we get on the other companies GW will be releasing their first half figures so we'll know how it's all gone.

Much anticipated.

[Caitsidhe]

They have already started to lower expectations... again. According to the recent releases, they claim things are on track of company expectations but continue to blame currency exchange for a reduction in sales. In short, you can expect something about the same as last time, i.e. a drop of 3-5% in sales, excuses which blame everything except the company's current direction, and additional cuts (dying by inches) to remain in the black.

[Cutter]

They have already started to lower expectations... again. According to the recent releases, they claim things are on track of company expectations but continue to blame currency exchange for a reduction in sales. In short, you can expect something about the same as last time, i.e. a drop of 3-5% in sales, excuses which blame everything except the company's current direction, and additional cuts (dying by inches) to remain in the black.

What's the forum for this lowering of expectations?

[Caitsidhe]

What's the forum for this lowering of expectations?

[url]http://www.ifamagazine.com/company-news/games-workshop-first-half-trading-in-line-with-expectations-327149[/url]

They don't lower expectations for us (the consumer). They don't care what we think. They lower expectations for stockholders via press releases.

[grimmas]

It's on their investor relations website accessed from the main site. Same thing as last year sales went up most places but a strong pound cancels that out. From a consumer point meaningless really but investors might be interested. Handy for us Brits going on holiday though.

[Caitsidhe]

More to the point... for the last year... 'winter was coming' and now 'WINTER IS HERE.' By all accounts the best thing that could happen to Games Workshop would have been for the new Star Wars movie to flop. It isn't going to flop. It is going to be huge. The target audience (at least the one Games Workshop claims buys their product) is going to be utterly fixated on Star Wars products for the immediate future. Every dollar spent on that type of fandom takes away from the dollars available elsewhere. The 3-5% drop you will see this report is nothing next to the one which will follow that will reflect the impact of the opening of the film. Let alone the fact that there is going to be one film a year for the next ten years. Winter has come.

[Erik Setzer]

I'm certain GW has felt the pain of AoS behind the scenes, regardless of the public face they are putting out. Not one retailer talked about it in positive terms with us.

It's really the biggest blunder I can remember seeing from a gaming company, even more than the much-maligned D&D 4th Edition. It's not even that AoS is a terrible game (oh, it needs some serious work, to be sure). Games Workshop took a 30-year-old game and a setting that is still popular enough to have a ton of licensed products out there and still coming, and blew them up, to replace them with an idea that, from the rules to the background, were clearly only half-formed. But to add on top of that, they didn't spot the real issues, that they were pricing the game way out of hand. So now we get Sigmarines at $50 for five (at best), characters that are $33-$40 for guys on foot, and so many >$100 models and those $100-for-three Chaos Knights (ignoring the whole deal that Blood Knights never sold at $100 for five, so why the heck would they think this works?). Sure, there's some beautiful models. But the pricing is aimed at such a tiny niche it's ridiculous. The whole strategy seems aimed to alienate their existing base with the goal of trying to attract a new group of customers that just don't exist. The gambit backfired spectacularly, but they would have realized it would if they'd been paying attention.

At this point, the only hope is that they fire the replacement CEO and bring in someone who *is* willing to do price reductions. The current line needs to be repriced for what the market will accept, and then they also need to look at the game. Want to keep AoS going? Cool. Take what exists, and rewrite it to include points or something of that sort, to have balance. Or, heck, here's a concept: Bring WFB back with a 9th edition, run it alongside AoS, find an excuse for it in the background (I can think of many), and pack models with round and square bases. It doesn't cost that much extra, and allows you to hit two different markets. (Heck, if they had the square bases still, they could be making money off of people buying the models to use with Kings of War.)

I want to believe they'll do better... but I think the fantasy side of things might be a goner soon. It could explain why they've been doing mostly Chaos releases, because even the Warriors and such can be converted over to 40K with a "Daemon Worlds" codex and then the production costs aren't lost. (Heck, there are probably a bunch of people who would pounce all over that.)

[Cutter]

[url]http://www.ifamagazine.com/company-news/games-workshop-first-half-trading-in-line-with-expectations-327149[/url]

They don't lower expectations for us (the consumer). They don't care what we think. They lower expectations for stockholders via press releases.

Cheers, I guess I'll just wait for Jan 12, it'll be like a slightly late birthday present I guess. The noise it generates is always entertaining.

- - - Updated - - -

More to the point... for the last year... 'winter was coming' and now 'WINTER IS HERE.' By all accounts the best thing that could happen to Games Workshop would have been for the new Star Wars movie to flop. It isn't going to flop. It is going to be huge. The target audience (at least the one Games Workshop claims buys their product) is going to be utterly fixated on Star Wars products for the immediate future. Every dollar spent on that type of fandom takes away from the dollars available elsewhere. The 3-5% drop you will see this report is nothing next to the one which will follow that will reflect the impact of the opening of the film. Let alone the fact that there is going to be one film a year for the next ten years. Winter has come.

So you think the sixth months to 29th Nov are going to be relatively good compared to the next 6 months? You could be right, it's not like SW is going to be doing them any favours.

- - - Updated - - -

(Heck, if they had the square bases still, they could be making money off of people buying the models to use with Kings of War.)

Especially since Uncharted Empires seems to provide army lists (with points! GASP!) for all of the Whamster armies not catered for in KoW 2nd Edition.

[Erik Setzer]

Especially since Uncharted Empires seems to provide army lists (with points! GASP!) for all of the Whamster armies not catered for in KoW 2nd Edition.

Yep. They did that quite on purpose. Since they're not even selling AoS rules, does it really matter if people buy Warhammer models to play KoW or anything else? They're still making the money on the model sales.

[Cutter]

Yep. They did that quite on purpose. Since they're not even selling AoS rules, does it really matter if people buy Warhammer models to play KoW or anything else? They're still making the money on the model sales.

Indeed. As a company focused on models rather than games, they do seem strangely reluctant to cater for those (crazy, crazy) people that might want to use their miniatures to play other games. My compact but bijou collection of fantasy miniatures covers several companies, spanning as it does over 30 years, and one of the joys of KoW for me is that I can use pretty much all of them some where or other.

It seems perverse that the GW miniatures among that collection feel more welcome and at home among the forces of Mantica than in the Realmgate Wars.