Is NewGW returning to old ways?

[torros 23816xp 0]

Just from what I’ve seen on Facebook and Twitter and the comments of people whose painted figures are used GW do still seem to ask permission before using the photos

[limburger 21707xp 0]

@hobbyhub people showing off their (painted) products on social media has been a source of ‘unofficial’ promotion since social media were invented.
And it even says something like ‘use this hashtag if you want to be featured on our website’ …
Mantic do the same thing.

@horus500 yep makes perfect sense. Maximum effect for minimal investment.
So one customer consistently buying all of the stuff instead of two (or more) that might buy the same amongst themselves is definitely preferable. It does suck for the hobby as a lot of that is going to end up somewhere in storage with practically zero chance of it being used in a game … but that is something that companies never really care about.
I’d even argue that companies are probably very happy with that sort of thing, because people who don’t play also don’t ask awkward questions about rules …

(it gets really depressing if you compare what is best for a company like GW and what is best for the hobby and notice that those things don’t match anywhere except on the ‘buy stuff’ bit)

[warhammergrimace 13766xp 0]

I think they’ve a rod for their own? backs in the amount of releases they’ve been out putting in the last 2-3 years. I don’t think it’s sustainable long term, problem is the customer base now expects monthly releases, so they’ve got to keep up demand. So I’m not surprised items like terrain are repackaged slightly differently on previous releases.

[onlyonepinman 18061xp 1]

@horus500 I am not going to get into an argument about whether GW wilfully misled customers – we cannot know that for certain and this could just as easily be completely unintentional on GW’s part.   Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by accident, as they say.

It sucks that people might have ordered something based on an inaccurate photograph that was posted on their blog with the announcement. I am not disputing that at all.  However “False Advertising” is a very specific offense of which I don’t think GW are guilty.

[onlyonepinman 18061xp 0]

@warhammergrimace what isn’t sustainable? I would say that their release schedule probably is sustainable for a while at least, the business is most definitely sustainable, what isn’t sustainable is the current level of growth.  Whether you like them or not, GW is currently a very well managed business who have cultivated a large, dedicated following.  Whilst some of their decisions and prices might be driving some people away, it would seem they are currently recruiting at a higher rate. I am sure they will be fully aware of the situation they find themselves in and the drivers behind their current success and will likely be planning accordingly and all of that work will be being undertaken by business managers, accountants and project managers who will not be making those plans and decisions based on their love of the hobby.

I would say that GW’s profit growth may slow down in the medium to long term, I don’t think it will shrink so much. Thus I think that their current operating model doesn’t need to be sustainable indefinitely and at such time as its sustainability seems to be in decline, GW will inevitably change it.

[limburger 21707xp 0]

I’m not sure how aware GW is … but I doubt they are all-knowing 😉
They definitely do seem to be better compared to the dark ages that were the before times.

I think part of GW’s problem is that they are so big that people have to make a real effort to avoid them.
That makes judging the impact of anything they do tricky.

And another thing … if GW makes a mistake … only the shops take the actual hit because they’re dealing with dead stock.
In theory this could allow GW to take big risks, but I doubt that the shareholders would agree as stability is more important.

[onlyonepinman 18061xp 1]

@limburger GW will be fully aware that a big reason for their huge spike in profits was lockdown. They will know that they may well see a reduction in profits after lockdown as some people may drift away from the hobby. That’s the kind of awareness that I am talking about and I guarantee you that not only will they know that but they will also know other information that we won’t have even considered. Because that’s what successful businesses do and GW are nothing if not successful.

It’s not just stores that take a hit from bad sellers – GW themselves do as they generate a lot of their sales, probably the majority of them in fact, directly via either their website or through their own stores.  They will be just as affected by a product that doesn’t sell (i.e. Dreadfleet) as the 3rd parties.

[limburger 21707xp 0]

I think that if a company like GW didn’t notice increased sales as a result of the lockdown then they didn’t deserve to be a company to begin with.

I just wish they’d pay a bit more attention to the factions that have been neglected for more than a few years (I’d say decades even), so they either must know something we don’t or they are ignorant/blinded by the success of the things they did do.

The hit for GW is still an order of magnitude smaller than the one that (especially the small) 3rd parties take though.

[onlyonepinman 18061xp 0]

To be honest, I don’t really play GW games anymore. I still like looking at their miniatures and I really like what they’re doing but I just sort of drifted away.  I like what they’re doing but I probably won’t go back now, I am too invested in other games

[holly 12044xp 1]

I’ve been following this thread with some interest and a little bemusement. It’s interesting that so many people take the actions of a company (actions that will have been taken at different times by different employees) so personally.

To be clear – I mostly like what GW produce and I buy something GW (even if just paint) every month. I’m invested in Warhammer Underworlds, WarCry. I’ll be getting the new Warhammer Quest game when it’s released. I buy and read some of the fiction – some if it’s great, some of its terrible!

However, I’ve also been able to (largely thanks to Beasts of War) be exposed to the huge range of other games and indie manufacturers out there. So I buy a huge amount from other companies too. I’d say that these days ~30% of my hobby spend is GW, the rest is other manufacturers.

Whether I’m getting a box of Malifaux minis, some terrain from Miniature Scenery or getting more boxes of Star Wars legion arriving – I’m never in any doubt that I’m dealing with a company who exists to provide goods in exchange for cash. But I think it’s disingenuous to hold the view that GW employees and creators are soulless while all the other “little guys” have the passion.

In the case of some of the above examples I’ve cited, I could make “misleading the customer” against all of them – but they’d be a stretch, which I feel the OP’s post is also.

• Wyrd misled me because there was no indication (and they don’t provide sprue images) how hard it was to make the models, and the box only has renders of the completed models. I’m an experienced model maker, but Wyrd kits have left me in tears!
• Miniature Scenery misled me because the free to download instructions for the Tramp Steamer didn’t quite match the kit when it arrived. I had to work around it and make holes and cuts the instructions said should have been there!

In both of those examples, I could say the company misled or falsely advertised the product as delivered – especially where it’s a standard part of their packaging – but it’s a massive stretch and really doesn’t stack up.

I’m not here to defend or attack any company or person. I think it’s weird to feel the need to defend or attack a company for simply making its own business decisions based on its own data and processes.

I guess I’m just saying that sometimes mistakes get made, and sometimes they get caught before release – sometimes they don’t.

[limburger 21707xp 0]

@carlospictor the ‘problem’ is that GW knows better and has been better at informing people of the contents of their products.

Small companies won’t have the resources to bring their kits even close to the level that GW is doing (with their near perfect instructions), because writing good instructions is hard. As such I have lower expectations when dealing with those companies.

That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try or that I won’t mark them down for being difficult to assemble as a result.

[rastamannParticipant 2735xp 0]

I don’t believe the lockdown was the reason, not the main reason, at least. I say that because I went through their annual reports since 2014 (Rountree replaced Kirby sometime in 2015, August I believe). These are some graphics I built based on that information:

Their reveneue has been in constant growth almost since he did a full year running the compan, and was slowing down slightly in the last annual report, which was produced right when the pandemic’s first wave was in full swing.

The year to year variation in growth rate was down in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020, most likely due to the fact that it had soared 2 years running, more than doubling what it was with Kirby. This was in pre-pandemic times.

Their pre-royalties received profit was soaring as well, and following a similar trend.

I took a look at the last 6-month report (late November 2020). That showed and increase in sales and profit compared to the corresponding report published in late October 2019 (also a 6-month report), about a 26% increase in revenue and a 71% increase in operating profit – one such huge increase in profit in a similar 6-month report had occurred prior, in November 2017 report, where they had increased profits 3-fold!!!

So while I do agree that the lockdowns all over the place have had some effects in their revenue, they most definitely are not the whole story.

[rastamannParticipant 2735xp 0]

@carlospictor I don’t mind mistakes so much as I mind stealth-modifying things. That is what I think is in bad faith and reflects poorly on them. If they hadn’t provided any images prior to the release that would most likely have been better and not misleading.

I’m aware that the reason for a company to exist is to make money. I’ve got no problem with that and don’t take it personally at all. But, like @limburger said, they have been better at showing their products than other companies, and should in fact be better, and this is a mistep.

[rastamannParticipant 2735xp 1]

Apparently I was not the only one to have felt grossly misled – the Killzones book is a simple collection of the material that came out in cardstock in the previous killzones, so you now can’t even do their matched play killzones if you buy the current sector munitorum and sector mechanicum killzones.

This guy has made a video about it – I linked it to that specific section:

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