Games Workshop’s Profits On The Up
January 10, 2017 by brennon
The Telegraph posted today that Games Workshop has battled back from its slump of the past few years and is now seeing much-improved figures. All these changes from the company seem to be paying off!
From The Telegraph...
"The Nottingham-based company, which is known for its model figures, saw profit before tax leap to £13.8m in the six months to November 27, compared to £6.3m for the same period in 2015.
Games Workshop also saw revenues jump 28.2pc from £55.3m to £70.9m, with chief executive Kevin Rountree saying the business and the hobby is in “good shape”."
It would appear that changes in where they place their stores and the opening of new stores with better training are paying off but there is, of course, the new social media presence of the company and a turnaround in philosophy which seems to be winning people over.
Selling their intellectual property to video game companies also seems to be hitting the right chord and while there have been a few flops some big successes like Blood Bowl, Battlefleet Gothic, Mordheim: City of the Damned and Vermintide have made for a good year.
Hopefully, we'll see the trend continue as Games Workshop try new things and delve more into board games AND of course a new edition of Warhammer 40,000 which must be around the corner.
What do you think of the news?
"Hopefully, we'll see the trend continue as Games Workshop try new things..."
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Not just on the up but almost doubled. Great news.
You likely already know this having posted on the thread, but for those who don’t, around half the increase in profitse is due to the post-Brexit exchange. They’ve also changed how they estimate costs. Once those are factored in the increase in profit is a still healthy £3 million-ish.
Of the £15.6 million increase in revenue, £8.2 million is from the exchange rate and £1.8 million is from increased royalties. Of the remainder, £2.2 million is from non-core sales. That leaves a little over £3 million, increase which is presumably from core sales (40K, AoS, Hobbit).
I know that they’re much higher than they should be because of the current exchange rate. But still, it’s great news for GW.
Do they not say that ‘profit after currency evaluations’?
While I’m at it, brexit was a necessary and good thing. Britain’s a trading nation. We were strangled under the EU.
Ever talked to someone who actually runs a UK business selling stuff outside the UK?
Brexit was good for some things (or at least it might be good for some things in the future). But TRADE is certainly not on that list, even if short term currency fluctuations helped GW this time while still being part of that borderless market.
Brexit isn’t as much a problem as the trend it represents (the US has elected a president who has promised to extinguish trade relations).
The swing away from global economics has happened before. Historically, it really didn’t look pretty for most people.
“Do they not say that ‘profit after currency evaluations’?”
They give both figures in the financial report. The news item here only gives the figure before currency fluctuations are accounted for.
Whoa- am I reading your right?
Did a 3 million pound increase become a 13 million pound increase due to exchange rates?
That’s absurd- I had no idea that the pound had taken such a beating.
Wait- I jumped the gun a bit. It is a 6 million pound increase that would be a 3 mil increase if it weren’t for the weakened pound.
Which still means the pound is hurting.
As is my bank account whenever I buy a game by an American company now 🙁
Kevin Rountree has been a breath of fresh air for GW.
Love the direction GW is taking and so it seems do the customers.
I agree. The changes this year have been pretty stark, and it seems like GW is starting to pull its management out of the groupthink that got them into that slump.
Moreover, the growth that they’re currently having looks sustainable- which is very different from the most recent era of profit growth for them..
Yes Kevin Rountree has been a breath of fresh air. But, I’ve been saying for the past year that GW are on the way up again, shame it’s taken a while for people on BoW to notice and not go down the anti hate.
The profits do look positive and only olds well for the year. With this year being the release of the new 40k rules let’s hope they have learned the lessons from Age of Sigmar.
If you’re referring to the BoW team, I think you’re being unfair… There’s a difference between hatemongering and simply not being a fanatic. I have seen NO hate whatsoever in any BoW content on GW. The whole team has never stopped reviewing and even playing their games or buying their miniatures, and BoW has been publishing GW-produced content (miniature painting tutorials among them… and I’m glad we did, in spite of thefact that they’re in direct competition to my own, and clearly on the same filming format). BoW has been on top of those news as soon as they appeared,… Read more »
@elromanozo Ahh we’d had our fair share of gurning over the years lol you are right of course nothing like what you see elsewhere, but still it’s nice to see it slipping away and folk just enjoying, or letting others enjoy 🙂
Wait to the Cadians get wiped out though lol 😉
I really hope they don’t go that way…
🙁
Brother G
I’m sure the Crimson Fists will be there to support the Cadians in forming a strong Resistance and fighting many heroic Last Stands. 😉
I think he just meant patrons rather than the actual BoW team. The last 12 months I think BoW (as a company) has been very positive towards GW something helped by the fact that GW have in fact been behaving more positively. Opinions on the other hand I’m not sure he is “out of line”. There’s a small number of members who do routinely hate on GW, even when there’s no need to.
I think there have been a very small number of posters who are negative about GW. I also think that legitimate discussion and criticism is wrongly branded as negative too.
@redben problem is, half of it isn’t legitimate discussion, a lot of it is directed at the people that play the game. As soon as it starts getting personal, then its just trolling.
I’m inclined to agree with @deaddave most of the negativity is trolling. The legitimate debate I don’t consider to be negativity. The Trolls are few in number but significant in volume – which is just tge reality of the Internet.
I think there are very few people who just troll. If you expression any form of negative opinion you can be branded as a GW hater. I speak from experience.
@redben you’re right, there’s a small number of people who Troll accounting for a disproportionate amount of “noise”. Like I said, it’s a quirk of the internet.
I think chaingun may be talking about the community not the team. Yes the community may be embittered with how GW treated them but I have seen many people say they do see a much more open, transparent, interactive and inclusive company with the community. I have seen people that have had grudges openly say that GW is improving and I call that a compliment considering it comes from people that are adamantly against GW.
So no I don’t see BoW being all haters against GW, just seeing a lot of cautious optimism.
I say thank goodness GW started listening to the haters because if it had carried on just listening to the fanbois things would have carried on going downhill.
I think they listened to their numbers, then listened to some outside consultants. I don’t believe haters or fanboys ever entered the equation 😉
haha well either way it seems the critics were right 😉
The past few years have stunk of groupthink, and the change under Roundtree has been massive.
Someone did some market research and reported it to them, because they’re doing a lot of things that ‘haters’ have wanted to see for a long time.
In truth I see “haters” as fanboys as well. What other reason should adults be so emotional about a company unless they care about it? It’s almost like the haters are people that see a loved one become an addict. You need to make a stand in order for them to get out of the addiction. The hate was many peoples way of trying to get GW to kick it’s self destructive ways. Personally I find removing my cash from there games and into other ventures a better tool to teach any company, GW included how to behave. It seemed… Read more »
Age of Sigmar is a large reason *why* the profits are up.
Something I do miss from BoW is the week long ‘events’ when you’d talk about a codex and create army lists, special characters, elites, rules changes and so on. I suppose the faster schedule put paid to that and, frankly, Workshop were total herberts over the collaboration with Wayland Games.
However, the coverge of other game systems has been amazing, getting me into Flames of War – which was a bit tricky for me, then Team Yankee and now Dropfleet.
When workshop decide they would like to do some cool stuff with us we are here and eager to have some craic with them.
But have to make that choice 🙂 (and they know we are and have been open to it for years)
“Age of Sigmar is a large reason *why* the profits are up.”
Do you have any figures for that? Geniune question 🙂
I don’t think you’ll find any figures but one of the podcast i listen to ‘Signals from the frontline’ which is part of Frontline gaming actually spoke about AoS towards the end of last year and said sales from AoS way outsold Warhammer fantasy battles. I think Reece even said they sold more AoS stock in a week than Warhammer use to move in 6 months. Now I know this is just one shop but they do also run the largest gaming tournament the LVO which this year I think has 400 40K players and 100 AoS players. Other AoS… Read more »
To the end of the last financial year, AoS was selling a little better than WFB had been selling the previous few years, but not as well as GW had expected. Bear in mind the previous few years of WFB had been really bad. Overall sales for that year were down as well. If this £3 million core sales increase comes from AoS, then it had to spike from June last year onwards. I at least expect some of the £3 million to be from AoS, as there isn’t much else it can be from. Given The Hobbit had very… Read more »
@redben I think you’re right about sales leading up to June. The ‘Generals Handbook’ has had a lot to do with the increased sales in AoS which was released around that time so it will be interesting to see sales figures at the end of June 2017.
GW are also really pushing the Tournament scene now too which must be helping sales. If they release a simplified version of 40K this year (not AoS simple) I think they will be onto a winner.
warzan – I’ve never understood why companies turn down promotion to their own customers. Maybe that will change? Importantly we’ve (the gaming community) have got to get over our own egos – companies don’t exist to fulfil our individual wishes!
It was Nam Week that got me into Historical Wargaming and Beasts of War!
I’m inclined to agree with @chaingun its certainly nothing out of line as some of the shit I’ve got on this site in the past for being a GW fan… Nothing from the team of course… But their is a little core group of trolls who love nothing more than winding up others on here. Just got to look further down this thread to see some of them in action.
Of course the profits are up – take a look at the prices! “There’s one born every minute”, according to the wonderful P.T.Barnum and wacoshop use that as their business strategy. You keep buying and they’ll keep making a profit.
Some of their latest box bundles have been pretty exceptional value – even when compared to any other manufacturer.
Anyway @unclejimmy it’s clear you have moved on from GW some time ago, so how about just passing by the articles on them and enjoying what you enjoy, and leave others to enjoy what they enjoy – without being told their are one of the ‘ones born every minute’ – as I don’t think they are, and if they were, I don’t think they would care – I know I don’t 😉
I wish GW nothing but the best, but as a Hobbit Gamer I have been effectively priced out of the market. I like the new models from Forge World but I am not going to pay £40 for a model of Dain Foot and mounted, or £300 for a starter army of 60 figures that requires further purchases of around £100 to make it game legal. Generally G.W. has made massive improvements restoring what we liked about the company, such as releasing stand alone games with miniatures that we can use in their other games, but unfortunately as a Hobbit… Read more »
how did you get that crown? i want one. will it happen if i say something cleaver and interesting.
I think it happens when you hit a certain number of likes. Maybe 12? I had one on a post last year and I’m sure it appeared around the 12 likes mark
Workshop are comparable to industry. Often better value. Look at what Privateer charge for a 6 man unit of Trollkin champions: 2 duplicates and the leader sculpt, from PVC, for $45.
Workshop charge $60 for 5 poseable, entirely unique sculpts.
Exactly the point I was about to make! Some of GW’s sets are still pricey, but there are now many, many excellent values deals available.
I picked up Blood Bowl (£55 from my flgs) along with the Skaven team (another £18). I can’t see many people moaning about those prices.
I for one am loving the new direction GW has taken and can’t wait to see the new direction for 40k maybe taking..
As you said @elromanozo it’s only my opinion based on my observations of BoW and the community as a whole. GW has been like marmite over the years to people.
I do agree with h @warzan that some of the box sets have been very good value for money which again is a step in the right direction.
@chaingun its the usual one rule for me and another rule for everyone else… You can only have an opinion about things and be vocal about it if they agree with it.
Too true @deaddave it’s a shame social media has to be that way mate, but at least you know where I was coming from.
I was only pointing out that the statement was good news for our hobby, again something that I’ve been saying for some time in various threads. I by no means a GW fanboy and I have agreed with many about their previous antics, but I still like their models (mostly).
I alpaud @redben for putting the statement into his thread and I’ve always respected him for showing us the facts and figures, long may he continue.
I still disagree with their prices but I am very positive about a lot of their choices.
I still love the settings. Still occassionally buy some of their product but the prices keep me from doing anythign ‘grand’ on their end.
Nonetheless… they deserve the rise in profits. As long as they keep evolving as they do atm… good on them!!!
great to see some fight in the old dog yet long may it continue.
Regardless of how you feel about them, a healthy GW is good for the industry so this is very positive news! It means more confidence, more innovation, and generally more things happening.
Maybe this will show that GW that new direction that they took is working and is worth keeping up while maybe expanding it to work with sites like BoW as well as taking more and more part into 3rd party conventions.
I suspect that the major take home for G.W. is the value of their I.P. They have done very well out of a low pound, but that’s luck not judgement. Too me the company looks ideal as a purchase to be taken over, however the retail chain is a burden.
But it does say that even without Licensing fees, sales profits are up. And even when you factor all things in, the increase is £2m-£3m pounds. It’s still a good set of half year results.
I bet that at some point GW reaches out to BoW. I don’t think it will be for at least a year though. Some time in 2018 you might actually see GW interacting with BoW. At first it will be an experiment with one or two interviews. Assuming they continue with what they’ve been doing in the last year or so.
think the best move they have done in 15 was creation of low cost(compared to everything else they sell) get started bokses for both 40k and aos.
ofc the moust important thing would be to find out what sells the moust on a global scale:, hobbiten, aos or 40k.
I’m surprised Warhammer: Total War wasn’t mentioned. Steam spy says there are around 1,314,637 owners. At $59.99 base price (no DLC) that is a lot of money.
Amen, so far as I can tell there are alot of Total war player having an absolute blast playing into this world because of that game, how many make the transition to the miniatures side of it remains to be seen but with those good value boxed sets they may be a few, I’m sure GW will be really happy with how that game has gone down 😀
The royatlies have increased from £1.5 million to £3.3 million, or £2.8 million at constant currency. That is a fair jump and Total War likely is a major contributor to it.
Results are a positive for GW and a positive for the community a healthy GW is good for the industry and it also positively reinforces the steps forward. Still not fully where I would like to see them as a market leader but gradual and steady steps are being made. Although a local store owner did make an interesting observation, which is why they are moving more GW stock its not GW pulling in the newer players to the miniature market. That in itself is quite interesting and I still think GW has some work to do in that area.… Read more »
I’m glad that GW has stayed strong after a little up and down time. Now let’s see what this year brings, I’m still not too happy with the fall of Cadia, I understand with the moving of the story line, but damn….. EoT type of deal like AoS? I don’t think that’s the answer to fix all the rules nor streamlining the rules like they want to do. I’ve been playing 40k since Rogue Trader and I’ve seen lots of changes done to the game, and I can say that GW really killed 40k when they started catering for the… Read more »
It also simplifies all the lore and background. Pressing the reset button isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think they will move to a post Imperium setting based on “grand alliances” like AoS does allowing people more freedom to include whatever models they like. I also think they will use a warscrolls equivalent that contains all the rules for each unit. Basically they will take all the stuff from AoS that worked and not take stuff that didn’t. I predict : A Grand Alliance system where armies are grouped into larger factions and you can choose freely within those factions.… Read more »
Personally I do hope that they don’t trash lore because it’s big part of what keeps me interested in 40k and it was also big part of my love towards Oldhammer. Lore that AoS has does not draw me in at all as I don’t find it interesting at all. Besides of that I do hope that they don’t go AoS route with 40k rules but instead find middle ground that makes rules more streamlined without going with 4 page rules like AoS started with because that’s far too simple to my taste.
Warhammer Fantasy wasn’t selling; something big had to be done for things to turn around. Personal opinion, but the revamped rules I think has been healthy, but lorewise, I didn’t think it needed to go the route it did. 40k meanwhile, is still nice and healthy and is probably selling the most for GW. So I expect the story to progress a bit, and there to be a new edition that hopefully steamlines / simplifies things (the current 40k rules are a bit of a mess; I wouldn’t mind a strong set of core rules that don’t “breakdown” when a… Read more »
They won’t do a total Age of Sigmar and have the universe utterly destroyed and then rebuily but the new, post Imperium universe won’t be the same. In order to do the same Grand Alliances some things have to change and I think that means some kind of schism in the Imperium to split some the Imperial armies into different factions, maybe even driving them into alliances with xeno races like Eldar or Tau or maybe even Orks and Necrons (at a push). I also think the rules will be slightly more complex than 4 pages because I think a… Read more »
I’m also excited to see a new version of 40k. They look to be moving the story along but you should expect Abaddon’s 13th crusade to last many years. This won’t be finish any time soon.
I think the current 40K rules only need a bit of simplifying it’s mainly all the special rules and formations that need to be condensed. Some armies need to have 3 books just to work out all the rules.
I saw something on Facebook about leaked Cadia rules. Can remember where though
I meant Can’t sorry
same old same old.
What do you mean? What are you referring to?
Baby steps. They’ve got a long way to go to, not only bring back the people that abandoned them, but also to get their models back on par in terms of quality and price, with what other manufacturers are putting on the market.
All they ever needed to do was listen and talk to their consumers. Thankfully they seem to be more open to that now. The icing on the cake would be them making an appearance on here. Nice to see a British company doing well and hopefully on the up.
Well, it is certainly positive news for GW that profits are one more on the rise. My personal view of GW stems from the early 90’s, GW was the company that switched me from RPG’s to Mini based Games. I got into WFB from playing WFRP. I then discovered BloodBowl in a big way. I lost my love of WFB because of the way I was treated in a GW store once by the Manger of the said store. So I stopped playing WFB and have never returned. Bloodbowl however is a game I love and will always love. However,… Read more »
I think part of the assessment people make about GW is polarized by positive and negative for I think broadly (not entirely) the following 2 reasons: For many it was the first love of miniature wargaming and sticking with it provides that instant nostalgia hit. Secondly those who grew discontented with the constant army revisions with each new edition and the hiking prices of the products becoming rather bitter about that barrier to enjoying there game. Despite claims to the contrary I rather feel that the anti-gw bias does seem rather sour grapes. As a substantial number of the haters… Read more »
I think it is good to read good things, yes things could be better even now, however it is still an open forum and there has to be room for both types of comment within certain bounds (and that does not mean just the ones I agree with reading on here). It is a good thing that people can be enthusiastic, but it must be a level playing field. I do think some people do go too far on the negative end sometimes overboard and sometimes people go to town and see every or any negative as some sort of… Read more »