...aaaand another GW fail

[me_in_japan]

Those of you who care probably know this already, but hey ho. I'll just leave this here...

http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2014/01/ ... s.html?m=1

[The Other Dave]

Yeah, when it gets to the point that there are rumors from reasonably-respected-when-it-comes-to-this-kind-of-thing sources that GW is thinking of axing WHFB, of all things, you know things ain't good.

[Lovejoy]

I think breaking points were reached for many some time ago, especially for us in Japan. In recent times I only bought stuff when I was over in the UK, and then at some kind of discount (even so it was bleedin' expensive) The prices IMO could never be justified by arguments of rising costs or materials, absolute nonsense. The prices now are just taking the you-know-what. I haven't studied business or economics, so I used to suspect that someone more business minded at GW must know what they're doing by chiselling in such a way. Now I wonder if they weren't all just snorting too much coke in board meetings or something.
The WFB news is disturbing too..and the thought that Beastmen or Brets might be canned, if the rumours are to be believed. I guess they are just that, rumours.

[The Underdweller]

When I was in Canada, I heard that 2 GW stores had closed down in downtown Toronto, and in Ottawa I heard that they had gotten kicked out of a shopping mall. I know that brick and mortar stores aren't everything, but it certainly didn't sound like they were doing all that well.

Also I have talked to several people over the last year who have switched to or only played Warmachine because they felt GW didn't seem to care about their game or their customers. Again,that's only circumstantial evidence, but when there are tons of other great games out there that are cheaper, it seems like GW can't stay on top forever.

[Miguelsan]

I haven't studied business or economics, so I used to suspect that someone more business minded at GW must know what they're doing by chiselling in such a way.

Well, from a former student of bussiness management I can tell you that economists don't have an idea of what they are doing most of the time. They just look at past trends and try to guess the future with the same guarantee of sucess than a regular person that bothers to think about the same bussiness problem.
The only thing they do ways better than the "Common man on the street" is to justify why their prior predictions did not work as expected.

M.

[Primarch]

Meh, can't say as I am surprised.

[Colonel Voss]

Meh, can't say as I am surprised.

nor can I. Just look at how the community has fractured into other games over the past few years on this board and how some of those games have really taken off in the past year or so.

[Colonel Voss]

http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2014/01/ ... part9.html

and it keeps coming.......

[The Other Dave]

http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2014/01/ ... part9.html

and it keeps coming.......

Really, the weirdest thing about that blog post is how upset the guy seems about the news. I'm (and judging from the general excitement level of responses to this thread, I don't think I'm alone) having a lot of trouble getting very excited at all, one way or another, about these developments. I might have ten or fifteen years ago when GW was pretty much the only kid on the block, but now we're really spoiled for choice when it comes to gaming.

[me_in_japan]

The guy that writes the blogs (who is actually a naghammer member, btw, altho he presumably only joined to post about his blog. Which is fair enough. but anyway, i digress...) is a self-confessed GW fanboi. He seems to like everything about 40k that I do, and what bugs him is the sheer it-doesn't-need-to-be-like-this nature of GW's downfall. As he says in blog post 9, if GW HQ would only pull their heads out of their fundaments they'd be able to negotiate a clear path out of this and make a lot of money. They do seem hell bent on running a great IP into the ground, shafting the players as deep as they can, then taking the money and running off into a nice retirement fund, leaving the bleeding corpse of a once-great gaming community lying dead in their wake. That bothers him, and it bothers me, too. I consider myself pretty detached from the GW situation, but I do still have a number of 40k armies (er...4) and I enjoy the community attached to the game. Diversity in gaming is a good thing, but fracturing of groups is not. If there are 20 gamers in a group and they play 20 different games, that may sound fine and varied, but in reality what it means is NO games being played, cos no-one can find an opponent.

If 40k dies, then what game will become the "standard" that we know we can gather everybody together and play? I appreciate that in fact not everyone plays 40k (ToD being a case in point) but is there any other game that comes close to the popularity of it?

Personally I'm hoping like hell that Rick P's new venture (GofA) is a tight ruleset that is sufficiently well written that it allows me to use my eldar/D eldar/CSM as different armies within their game setting. It would be a tricky thing to pull off, but if they manage it they may just be in a position to be ready and waiting to soak up all the players that 40k's fall would leave behind in a few years time. Here's hoping...