lets start with some more pictures of the Prussians that I've been working my way through, I've 90% finished the dreadnought, just need to order some decals from Doms decals namely the German Maltese cross so that I can slap them on various bits and bobs...
but if they did a really big version for the airships then I'd be sorted but I'm going to try and not screw up the attempt at freehand so we'll see what happens on that one!
so after trying to get my grubby hands on some khador bits and having no joy what so ever I spotted this from privateer press...
privateerpress.com
which depending how you look at it could be a good thing with the amount of people getting into warmachine and hordes so in theory more people to play against, a better torney scene, increased profits for privateer enabling better casting/sculpting techniques for there models and expansion of ranges. But if your a lead/plastic resin mountain junkie then this is no good for you as availability of low priority models could be frustrating if your having to wait a while to get your hands on something, but that's the nature of the beast eh....
Now if you tie the sudden increase in privateer press goods with...
www.tabletopgamingnews.com
now normally I don't really give a toss about who's made what and all that mumbo jumbo, and I've only really looked at the "overview" as I've no experience in this level of management, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the reduction in sales for the UK, US & Oz doesn't bode well,
I use my local area as an example,
I popped into my local GW to pick up some paint on a bank holiday and the shop was empty, one demo game going on at that back of the shop and that was it... I used to work for the "evil empire" back in the day when necromunda, epic and 40K were at the height of gaming experience. For the shop to be empty on a bank holiday never happened! no big game no painting clinic's??
Then I get an email from the manager of GW Leicester wanting to know if the Phat cats would be interested in taking part in a local torney sending one champion from each of the local clubs, so how that pans out should be interesting as we don't tend to play GW systems that much and this tells me that the new chap is attempting to bring the "old school" players back into the shop?
but when I popped into my local independent store that sells just about everything under the sun on a midweek evening and it was rammed!! you had 40K kill team, warmachine and some magic the gathering thingy (never understood it as where's the models??)
Personally I prefer to goto my independent as I don't get bugged by the sales staff , I can pick up just about what ever I want and hell even play with unpainted miniatures.
Are GW going the way of the dinosaur??
No chance they are that big that nothing can topple them from there position, but with gamers branching out and going "heretic" they need to look at the other gaming companies and learn from there successes..
What are your thoughts on this?
1. I envy you..still haven't got my hands on a Prussian dread.
ReplyDelete2. Regarding the GW stuff:
I don't think they are going down the drain (the IP is too valuable) but I don't think they are gaining market shares right now.
Let's take my city for example: 600k people, home of GW HQ for Germany, Austria and imho Swiss.
Biggest GW-Store in Germany including a Gaming Area to host our national TOS tournament.
On top of that we have ~3 additional stores that stock GW models.
- a small comic store a corner away from GW HQ. I started 40k back in ed3 buying my stuff there (that was before GW moved and increased their store). Right now they make most of their money with comics, mangas, trading cards and some roleplaying books.
- a bigger store that stocks TTGs, boardgames, action miniatures and TCGs. Small shelf for GW stuff, the gaming area in the back is crowded with guys playing card games, so I guess that one doesn't make that much GW sells too.
- the third store also sits right around the corner of the HQ. He shares the space with a comic store and since I visit that store a lot I know what kind of games are played there. WHF is more or less dead in terms of sales, the local dedicated 40k club moved out of the store roughly one year ago. There are no 40k nights, but a weekly gaming night filled with WM/H and trading-card games players.
And I can't say the GW store is overflowing with customers too, so at least for my hometown I can say that a lot of the older players started moving away from 40k. Just this week we had a WM/H introduction night with 4 new players attending.
In the CEO's Commentary, he makes quite a big deal over revitalizing the Hobby Centres in order to spread the "word". The GW stores are obviously a still a major part of their plans.
ReplyDeleteI don't live anywhere near a Hobby Centre, so I have no idea how they work, but they don't sound like the kind of place I would choose to hang out.