You may have noticed, if you have two eyes and a brain, that the sentiment for GW has shifted to largely negative in recent years. Constant price hikes on products that have not largely increased in production costs and were being sold at quadruple digit percent profit margins. Rattlecans filled with more propellant than paint and glue bottles cutting in size but increasing in price and a massive shift to turning their products into simplified, competitive games.This had the diehard heavy user enthusiast upset for a few years now but in the last year even their light user who would splurge on fomo big box releases but little else every other year have soured. To the degree for the first time since covid the stocks for GW are being shorted and losing value rather than growing.Internally this has been expected for a while and in the last quarter there has been a massive internal shift around products. Necromunda rpg for example was shut down not because of some Cursed City style printing issues but because leadership asked why print another Necromunda product line when they already have on they can put that time and resources into.The recent Space Marine cull was symptom of this internal shift. Seen as a painful but necessary step to rework away from the "T-Sports strategy" that has alienated existing customers and not brought in the competitive tabletop game in the numbers it was intended to.After Christmas and starting largely in 2027 we are going to see a massive shift in GW to try and rebrand Warhammer as a whole back to a hobby and livestyle product over competitive toy lines. Wether this will move the needle is anybodies guess as players are leaving in not insignificant numbers for newer games like Starcraft or Gundam Assemble.
>>98867906All they need is to stop treating their store owners like feudal subjects.The core advantage Geedubs has is having brick and mortar locations and they're pissing that away for no reason at a time where people are starving for places to be at.
>>98867906and where have you conjured this knowledge from?Necromunda specifically would be interesting to read because thats next level retarded. with the licensing issue rumor at least making some sense
Where in the Lead Belt are you getting this conjecture from?I was chatting with [redacted] the other day and we had a different story on the Necromunda thing.
>>98867934People from the Warhammer RPG company confirmed its not a licensing deal and they were "excited to play it".
Someone who knows numbers, is this bad bad?Like I know GAW shares were worth pennies in 2016 so anyone who had them then is now rich, but might shareholders who bought in when they started rising in COVID now be getting jittery that the rise has gone?
>>98867906Gw has been having an internal mishap for years now, and the only thing keeping them afloat are the paypigs, but even they are being priced out now. There is a delusional belief that they can keep inflating prices and stupidifying the rules with an endless cycle of updates to keep the squealing hordes buying. Reality is, u fear, starting to prove otherwise.
>>98867906>Necromunda rpg for example was shut down not because of some Cursed City style printing issues but because leadership asked why print another Necromunda product line when they already have on they can put that time and resources into.Why did the suits allow it to be announced then the only reason 99.99% of poeple are aware of it is due to that announcement>>98867951Here pic for reference
>>98867906>the recent space marine cullYou don't think this has more to do with them largely being ~15 year old kits with their replacements being around for almost a decade?
>>98867906>that the sentiment for GW has shifted to largely negative in recent yearsHas it? GW has not gotten any of my money since at least 2007. But to me it seems like people are far less hostile towards it and more accepting of its policies than they were even a decade ago.Of course some people still complain about prices. But you also see a lot more people justifying everything GW does than you used to see before.This is just my impression based on nothing more what I read (and don't read) online on forums.
>>98867970The covid boom is over and its returning to normal, which for public trading is catastrophic.
>>98868014on social media its pretty rancid. even their paypig shills that used to defend every choice are posting pictures of glue bottles next to the ones from like two months ago that were cheaper and twice the size and going "GW what the fuck is this bullshit?". Its not been on thing but a prolonged "we are too big to fail now" death by a thousand cuts like in the tail end of the 2000's with the old CEO that got pushed out all over again.
>>98868008If the replacement kits were actual marines then yes, it would be a simple kit cycle. The 'replacements' are completely different fanfic tier stuff. Meanwhile the Mk7 (and 6/8) marines, the models that carried gw, and all their ancillary units, are gone.
Nothing said to me GW was in trouble like them announcing a Legion of the Damned return. Thats a real red flag glass breaking moment that tells you they are worried about something.
>>98868054not related, but sometimes I truly wish for a complete collapse of the world economy.Something that would send us back to the the 1600's, economically.We're destroying our planet for the sake of an economy and a lifestyle that demands nothing but constant consumption
>>98867996GW has been running on fumes since about 2005.All the guys that knew how to make models and games left, meanwhile the few old guard that stay clearly needed the other guys to wrangle their idiotic takes
>>98868060>n-no that doesn't countRegardless of your personal feelings, gw has been bringing out nothing but these 'fanfic marines' for like 8 years now.
>>98867951>>98867996legit what the fuckso some exec didnt bother looking at all the money going into development, and just pulled the plug literally after everything was done? what is this retarded shit? tax fraud?
>>98868230The latest editions of Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 have both been commercial flops, customer sentiment is at an all time low, there are more affordable competitors than ever and stock is losing value. They are scrambling.
>>98868255i hate the move is to double down on space marines. instead of making making cool boxes at reasonable prices. necro rpg felt like it had a lot of great sentiment online. but i guess it doesnt sell 30 boxes of gangers so its not worth it
>>98868276It can be mostly explain by GW seeing the numbers during covid and basing their entire investor strategy in a fluke.As a result they expect ever growing profits with a model that was a self evident an anomaly.Instead of focusing in a more reasonable steady income of old players and easier access to new players they are repeating the same mistake that killed Warhammer fantasy, but now at a company level.
>>98868207Back to /pol/ with you.
>>98868322>>98867906I'm surprised they are not doing the rpg as a specialist thing to reinforce that hobby niche and portray themselves as the whole, "we still respect the old ways." Cancelling a product that literally was finished seems retarded beyond all measure. It generated a lot of buzz everywhere and good will.
>>98867921>All they need is to stop treating their store owners like feudal subjects.That's as likely as Russia democratizing itself without outside enforcement.
>>98868381But how does it sell Space Marine models??
>>98867906>rebrand Warhammer as a whole back to a hobby and livestyle product over competitive toy lines>step 1 is cancelling the ttrpg release that would be maximally hobby/lifestyle oriented and the furthest thing from competitive
I did see a HUGE red flag with this new nostalgia pandering 40k edition, then with the new-old space marines, the Legion of the Damned.I like the direction but it comes 10 years too late. Shitmaris should've never happened and the damage is done forever.Its interesting because currently GW probably makes the best model ranges that everyone likes, btw, but there's no hype anymore .. like 0 hype.My buddies all play dead games like Mordheim, older editions... anything GW puts out you just know it'll appear in .stl form or for cheap in the second hand market.I dont think they will die but I just struggle to see how can they keep growing.Their media empire is dogshit, Warhammer + is a massive rancid flop. Their toys are shit McDonald's quality, and so is the merchandise
>>98868532Friend you are thinking of the utopian ideal. This is modern GW. It was going to be a vector for fomo model sculpts, poor balancing and support and end up shutting down in a few years with a niche fanbase running a "fixed version" pdf instead.I know it, you know it. Every nigga in this thread knows it.
>>98868616If you went back 3 years and told me the healthiest GW game would be fucking Old World i would have called you a dirty liar.
>>98868793ntaI think they're just pointing out OP says some shit that directly contradicts itself in obvious ways that highlight how retarded OP is even though their dad works at nintendo. GW does dumb shit, but OP's assessment is also dumb shit.
Test
>>98868833Nope still banned lancerfag.
>>98868255>more affordable competitors than everI always dragged my feet getting into Warhammer because I didn't want to spend insane money for what may be temporary units since my LGS doesn't run legends. I eventually found a nearby hobby store that runs Battletech and was in shock that I could buy an entire lance for $30 and run it straight out the box.
>>98868532Tbqh an RPG is the last thing that necromunda as a product needed. Not that it wouldn't be cool, but people playing it would buy even less models than someone just playing necromunda.If they wanted to sell more necromunda models, the thing to do would have been to not release the new edition they just released that ground everything to a screeching halt by deleting the gang rules for all gangs but 2.
>>98867906How does their new paint line tie into all this?
They made big bucks on the licensing for Space Marine 2. The 40k Total War is also going to sell in big numbers, regardless of if its good or not
>>98867970>is this bad?it all depends on when you boughtt. About 190k in the market right now
>>98869865Contrast was a massive hit so why not see if lightning will strike twice
>>98869865I can't say anything about the quality, but the way it's being marketed and labeled is clearly geared towards people new to painting. Either that, or geared toward people who need shades labeled 1-5 because they're too stupid to pick a range of individual colors out of a table, but I'm trying to be nice.
>>98867944spill
People are exhausted by the constant edition churn. They rush development, it takes half the edition to fix the flaws and then they start all over again. Not mention having your Codex that might only be relevant for months. The transition from 3rd to 4th edition was especially devastating for AoS, all because of - three year cycle lol. Also GW models are now very hit or miss. It's no longer a guarantee your models getting "refreshed" is a good thing - which again probably comes down to churn.
>>98870722>Not mention having your Codex that might only be relevant for months.This is what killed it for me. I spent something like $300 more or less on the FEC armybox with the new book included and it was useless in less than 6 months. Then a completely new armybox came out with a new book! Fuck that shit.
>>98867906I don't understand the preoccupation many gamers have with industry shop talk. You need to broaden your inerests outside of tabletop if you're debating GW's fiscal position in your off time.If GW sinks or swims, who really cares? All the shit about lore, squatting, price rises and edition churn was happening in 1999. The GW model is to get you into wargaming and sell you a starter set, a paint set, a codex. Maybe you come back for some paints or a character. But it has always been about churning new starters. I don't think they really can do that with current prices so they will leverage the IP more. All these people who sunk everything into Gw and never moved onto another game, era, scale, setting... GW has only ever fed you just enough to keep you coming backSo many cheap options in 15mm and 10mm metalSo many more people realising you buy your rules and minis from different places and none of this bullshit ever touches you again
>>98869904>190kNo one is stupid enough
>>98870722Just be thankful we aren't entering another early 2000's where great sculpts are being replaced for the sake of replacement and the new ones are worse than the old
>>98868385let me guess you have real democracy and freedom?
>>98867921>people are starving for places to be at.No they're not. Check the local park. The local pub. The local social club. The bowling alley. We're a society of paranoid shutins who hate each other.
>>98871280Nta but>Check the local park.A park isn't a good spot. But I can see pubs and social clubs working. Not sure about bowling alleys.>social of paranoid shutins who hate each other.That hit me hard. I need to break free.
>>98867906Good. That's what you get when blackrock gets involved.
>>98868221Hey bud, if the mere passage of time is enough for your weak ass mind to begin enjoying slop, have fun. Some of us have actual taste.
>>98867906>>98868255>>98868322>>98868616This is all delusional idiotic fanboy wishful thinking.Like it or not, GW is earning more money than ever. Their profits are like 15x than they were a decade ago.And no, the recent stocks dip doesn't mean anything. That was just a group of investors trying to short their stock. But GW leadership doesn't seem to be interested in playing those kind of games, so it went nowhere.Hate nuGW, their products, and the people that buy them. But their economic success is undeniable. They're a public company and all the numbers are in their corporate website for all to see.They just have a lot more customers since 2017 that like what they do, and older fans are a rounding error despite all the nostagia pandering.t.stated with Space Crusade as a kid
>>98868322You know what, if The Great Businessman, Most Holy Foreseer of Profits, PBUH Rowntree Lord of Nottingham turns out to just have been Kirby 2.0 with the covid boom subbing in for the LotR bubble, you'll be able to hear my belly laugh across the entire country.
>>98868322>>98871587Covid helped GW... in 2021. Since 2017 their revenue and profits had already experienced a boom. It's just false, like the importance of licensing or that they're trying to be bough by Hasbro or whatever. Terminally online fanboy speculation that doesn't fit the facts.
>>98871594>gluk gluk gluk
>>98871280Our pubs are all packed
>>98871280Sounds like an suburban american problem. People in the EU are crazy for all kinds of social activity, even antisocial nerds>>98871596If you weren't drunk you could see reality as it is and not like you wish it was.
>>98871584This isn't adjusted for inflation, though.
>>98871619inflation didn't rise 15x since 2017
>>98867906Necromunda box is 1/3 filled, big giant EMPTY BOX, filled mostly with paper. and need moAr books, and moAr books, aka paper....Horus Heresy box does not contain army lists to actually play, need moAr rule books, aka paperGW is a rules company, not a miniatures companysad really
>>98868221>you must like new thingHow about no and instead you go get some taste.
>>9887162636.5 percent.
>>98871612And if you weren't rimming James Workshop so hard he thinks you're french kissing him, you'd grasp that there's a difference between recognising the company's flaws and potential pitfalls they face, and the vapid Hurr Durr GW Gonna Die Next Month retardation.
>>98872401there's nothing genuine in this thread about "recognising the company's flaws", there's no real arguments or discussion about GW real issues,.you butthurt dipshit. Only nonsense and samefagging by the OP, which is probably you shitposting the same made up bullshit that never happened.Stay mad and retarded.
>>98870722I have several friends who collected LotR minis when we were kids and they're interested in Warhammer but the constant edition churn has turned it into something I just couldn't encourage them to get into in good conscience.The squatwave at the start of 4th edition AoS where they got rid of all the Stormcast that had been been in the 2nd ed starter set and had also made up half of that subscription magazine that ran over 2nd edition really bothered me a lot more than thought it would have. It had been less than three years since those models were being pushed as the recommended way to get into AoS and all I found myself thinking: 'If I'd encouraged my friends to get into Warhammer and one of them lost a bunch of models to this, how would I explain it to them?' and I just couldn't come up with a good answer, I felt really stupid and pathetic for having this dumb hobby. It was the last straw for me since while the End Times and Primaris were extremely shitty they were also done out of desperation while GW was in a bad financial situation. This was just GW nakedly declaring that they'd mistakenly let a bunch of casuals buy into a game too cheaply a year after they'd made record profits.
>>98871581>>98872104Very poor reading comprehension
>>98869007>>98871206What is it with retards that do this?>Oh, anon, theres TONS of competitors that you can go to for cheaper! See, theres US army games and napoleon games and ww2 nazis vs us army guys games and so on and so forth!What dont you people get? I got into warhammer because I LOVED THE SETTING, ARMIES, CHARACTERS AND THE FUCKING LORE. NO, playing battlemech/tech/fucking speck is NOT the same fucking thing. Trench crusade is NOT a decent fucking replacement. You people are fucking BOOMER TIER with that shit, this is what you sound like:>OH, anon, you like super mario brothers? Well here, heres the legend of zelda, its a video game like the other one, so you should like this too, right?Or, for the normies out there:>OH, you love football? Well, heres hockey, I bet youll love it all the same, its just a sport after all, no different, right?I never got into warhammer for the fucking game side of things, or the rules. I loved the lore, LOVED building/CONVERTING and painting. Now, the only thing anyone even cares about is building generic out of the box slop, barely doing ANY customization (in fact, its very heavily discouraged nowadays, ive noticed, so glad ive stayed out of the greater "community") and playing the game ONLY to fucking WIN. I want my split torso marines back, damn it. 5 generic poses and all. Buying ten boxes of those, plus 5-10 boxes of random shit from fantasy/necromunda/even other companies shit and making something unique was my everything.....Fuck GW, those fucking KIKES, but at the same time, fuck the "fans" who allowed shit to get this bad.
>>98868796It's because we don't have WAACfag esports losers, and never will because you need a special kind of autism to build paint and play with 20-30 model squares of units.
>>98871261Is this a joke? Every model nuGW does lacks sovl compared to stuff from the 2000s.
>>98873987Now now let's not go overboard
>>98873998The "biggest" Old World tournaments are capped at 40 players and only ever sell half those tickets because the sub-community filters out everyone else by adding on layers of fanmade "comp" rulesets that change the game entirely and make it unplayable unless you're committed to learning them. The Old World design team doesn't listen to shit the competitive segment says, unlike in 40k, because the WAACfags just make their own rules. It's great.
They lost me when the cancelled fantasy battle. Never felt the need to purchase another product,
>>98874008Same, but Old World is genuinely good and fun. I shit on GW all day still, and would prefer to play older WFB or 40k editions, but at least Old World existing gives those "I only play SUPPORTED games" people an excuse to play.
>>98867921>The core advantage Geedubs has is having brick and mortar locationsCongrats on waking up from your coma anon. Retail space is extortionate and brick and mortar stores have been dying for 20 years. They've had to downsize store space for that very reason.
>You may have noticed, if you have two eyes and a brain, that the sentiment for GW has shifted to largely negative in recent years.People always bitch about GW. The kids love it; it gives them a common enemy to bond over, soothes their butthurt about not being able to afford all the Shit They Want™ right this instant, and plays up their desire to be there when something big happens (the longing that underpins FOMO).>Constant price hikes on products that have not largely increased in production costs Case in point, I've seen people bitch about this since the nineties.>as players are leaving in not insignificant numbers for newer games like Starcraft or Gundam Assemble.Remember the days of Warmahcine Mk.1?
>>98871263Yeah
>>98867921Their own stores are only a fraction of their income nowadays. Their recent financial report had their retail income stagnating, while trade (i.e. sales to third party stores) was absolutely booming.
>>98868014This.From our perspective they broke into the US and general casual market in a big way by moving the games towards a much more competitive "pick up" style. They've went far more PG and accessible with a bigger fanbase to back it up.There's several groups now consistently buying their trash and they will continue to do so.>>98868059It's all hot air though, these retards will still buy GW products because there's no alternative and they are separate to the wider hobby market. There's always companies cloning the GW strategy and they all fail because GW had a massive leg up in talent and a solid foundation in the hobby.
>>98869007Dude, even Battletech isn't that cheap in comparison to other options. You can buy two armies for 30 for some games.
>>98868255>affordableyes>competitorsnot really, they don't compete in the same space
They already made it clear Horus will return, so expect that in the future to save sales. Or crash them with no survivors.
>>98867906Maybe I'm a schizo but the pre-painted terrain feels like a precursor to just selling pre-assembled and painted models.
>>98874086>From our perspective they broke into the US andGW has been bigger in the US than the UK since the 2000s lmao.
>>98874995Nice reading comprehension>UKwat
All I do is paint Tau and wait for the game to become fun
>>98875337At least please source your minis on the second hand market and buy your tools from competitors like Vallejo/Army Painter/AK Interactiv/P3 Paints etc. Don't reward James for doing the minimum.
>>98875337Nice army, especially all the auxiliaries. Why so few battlesuits? Not happy with the current ones based on the 2001 release?
>>98874906Marines? Probably. Everyone else? Aw hell naw
>>98868008NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!
>>98874906It for sure is.
>>98874006Have you ever checked recent tournaments? There were two with around 100+ players last month.
>>98875847LVO, the most prestigious yearly tournament, was only 38/64 players and I don't care about what happens in the UK because they're bad at games and have a shitty wargaming community.
>>98875860We had the Spain Tournament and will have Prague GT/Poland GT soon.
>>98867906Nah, everyone hated GW back in 5th. I left in 6th came back in 10th everything seems the same, just a different set of rules.This whole thread just reeks of cope.
>>98873993Nah.Like the new Warboss kit is easily the best warboss kit GW has ever released.And the 5th edition DE stuff is all bettet than the 3rd edition stuff.
>>98873918If you got into warhammer because of muhh epic horus heresy lore you are a literal child and probably watch superhero movies too.
>>98874906The pre-painted terrain is for events; it's not meant for the normal hobbyist.All those images of events with L-shaped unpainted FDM terrain gave 40k a bad name
