Games Workshop says sales performing ‘strongly’

>Try and help
>Autist spergs the fuck out bringing up an inane argument

Gee golly gosh why am I even surprised?

>Gotta subscribe or register to read

Nah.

All the details are in the OP post anyway, it's a very short article. Also, see

>They justify it on the basis that the stores are where they recruit new players, but it would only take a small drop for them to all start costing the company money.
Well, sure, but spending money to make money is a thing.

>need hard numbers on how much of this is model sales vs licensing though

Insecure Fantashits strike again.

>Warhammer Total War must be the carry! No way GW could be doing well without Fantasy.

It's kinda sad that Primaris Marines are this popular considering how dumb they are, but I'm glad GW isn't dying. If they die, their products can never be good again.

Oh no, I'm sure the endless marine releases are what's driving sales. I just don't give a shit about 40k any more, and fantasy getting killed off means they'll do the same to whatever other game isn't selling enough. I'm perfectly fine just watching from the sidelines after the assblasting end times gave me and the ridiculous number of other hobbies I have. I just wonder how long they can keep this shit up. First it was apocalypse, then it was giant robots, and now its primaris shit.

Same. I was planning to get into Fantasy when I had a steady income, but yeah... fuck you GW.

>If the company stops making money they'll stop making money
No shit, Sherlock

The 12 year olds are buying this shit in tons

>Never bought anything from Games Workshop
>wish them well.

Figures

What was wrong with apocalypse and what do you mean by giant robots?
You mean titans?
Titans are one of the coolest things ever, if you manage to ignore the price tag.

>Trying to help
>mentions Age of Skubmar
get your bait elsewhere

>Titans are one of the coolest things ever, if you manage to ignore the price tag.

>make miniatures game
>make super duper giant thing which might as well be a whole another scale
Titans are just dumb, they are a cool thing in the lore, but they don't really make sense as mdoels.

Why though?
They exist in the lore, they are used in the battlefields of the 41st millenium and models are in-scale.
If your concern is about balance that is another issue.
I have absolutely no problem with anything that is in the lore getting represented in the 40k lore.
Be it a civillian transport or an emperor titan

> fantasy getting killed off means they'll do the same to whatever other game isn't selling enough

I think that was Kirby's last big fuck you to the community. His obsession with squeezing more money out of the players trashed the game, and when sales inevitably dried up he pulled the plug. Under Rountree they've put a lot more effort into specialist games, on the basis that they're much easier to get into, and on lowering the bar for entry into the hobby. That's also why they've made 40k and AoS simpler to pick up. It's a very sound move, but it pisses of grognards who hate change and bemoan the departure of the overcomplicated rule sets.

>I just wonder how long they can keep this shit up

I was very impressed by the business strategy they outlined at the AGM. It's precision engineered to create consistent sales growth across all sectors, and holy fuck is it working. As to whether they can keep it up, GW is literally the fastest growing stock in the country (up more than fourfold in a year), it's unlikely that they can continue to deliver that kind of growth, but what they say in this announcement is very true - their costs are more or less fixed so, for example, a 20% increase in sales is enough to double profits. Not a bad situation to be in.

I still can't help but feel as if they've cucked themselves out of market share with their price point on models though. YES I understand shit costs money, especially when you're faffing it up with kibble to deter recasters. However, it remains they've still got themselves priced as a "Luxury Good" even though the common wisdom that "luxuy goods" are market drop proof has gotten blown the fuck out in the last decade. Furthermore it's preventing them from hitting that new market they obviously want with their new model lines - Grognards will pay fuck huge costs for models, kids and their parents will not.

Gw models are priced fairly well.

It's just people are obsessed with playing 2,000pts or so games.

Yeah, Warhammer Fantasy was far more influential in its field.

One thing I always remember in WD and so is the "Tail of X armies" where they show armies slowly building up from nothing.

You're not expected to buy a 2,000pt army right from the get go and Honestly you shouldn't unless you have the cash.

Like £40 a month net's you an easily growing army you can paint and model in time.

>Like £40 a month net's you an easily growing army you can paint and model in time.

Painting £40 of models a month.

I still have a VC Army from 6th edition WHFB that I'm 70% complete.

Not everyone buys 10,000 Skeletons Steve.

WHFB was very individual model heavy and is one of the reasons it fell out of favour. Which is really a shame cause I liked those big infantry blocks.

If only there was SOME WAY for GW to sell the game that didn't involve hand modling. Some sort of... computer generated simulation.

Seriously though I almost wish they WOULD stop supporting WHFB models for AoS so that they would no longer have any disincentive to make a digital form of WHFB. Have cake, eat the fucking cake too.

An army painter, some sort of TT simulator like... tabletop simulator, and the ability to modify models by having them composed of segments - snip off limbs and heads and shit and swap them around like magnetized bits. It won't be as good as the real thing but nothing ever is.

As an AoS player, this is great news. If the company is happy, then more releases and support for everyone.

I hear they are working on hiring new designers so the same staff isn't used to write both 40k and AoS, which means a quicker release schedule for both. I like this plan because it could bring in some fresh blood on the design team for AoS. I have begun to care less and less lately about 40k, which got me started 15 years ago.

It means more releases and supportfor chad marines, chaos manlets and sigmarines.

It's like says, GW's individual models are priced at about the same levels as other companies producing similar things. Plus, if you look at a lot of their moves over the last couple of years they're aimed at giving people an easier way to get in to the hobby, or start a new game or army. Look at all those start collecting boxes they've brought out offering a hefty discount, or games like Blood Bowl where individual teams are only £20, Shadespire which retails at £40, the Dark Imperium starters ranging from £25 upwards, or even the way that AoS is designed around smaller warbands. It's intended to make it so that customers have something tempting to spend their money on every month, rather than just having to wait for their next codex.

Loved that series "A tale of four gamers". Brilliant concept that tried to bring the mindset of a forgotten era to a new crowd of players.
To bad it never set to tight with today's "I want my fast food now" customers.
I personally believe that the only reason some people think GW is expensive is because of one thing, and one thing only, they are bad at handling money. I know its harsh to get the truth smacked in the face like that, but at least its the honest and most brutal truth out there. Anyone with the sense of getting a simple budget going and having somewhat the idea of what this hobby is about (and how much work it takes!), will know your not right in the head when you get a full 3k army in one go.

Ditching whfb was a great decision it seems.

I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with launching a new game, launching new speciality games, and revamping WH40k with a new edition a new army incredibly overhauled rules and a meta campaign

>Make only marine products
>Haha, told you marines sell well

???

This holy fuck. Once Kirby said fuck you and killed fantasy, Rountree couldn't just damage control and bring it back, he had to turn AoS around, and surprisingly, he actually succeeded and made AoS profitable and the lore good. If you wanna complain about Fantasy being dead though, complain about Kirby being a fucking twat

Killing off Fantasy was very sound from further growth pov. That game had the biggest share of actual detractors of the brand, meaning any growth in that area would be minimal. Killing off WFB means you alienate a shitton of the "grognard" players, largely removing them from the new game's community. Any grog bitching at the new community is seen as sour grapes, and disregarded, unlike WFB when the "old guard" had a position of respect in community.

Overall, even if AoS does not outperform WFB in sales, it refreshed the customer base and driven away the brand detractors, all very positive from POV of a company that largely advertises thru high street presence and word of mouth.

By which I mean I'm fucking sure it was all completely accidental results of Kirby being driven by greed alone.

...

Im no expert but much of what we have seen and heard points towards the idea that AoS is very well outselling the old WHFB by huge numbers.

The idea behind this is not that nether game was superior, but from simple marketing 101. A new customer spends as much as he can during his first 1-3 years in the hobby. Some say (at least when I went to school in subjects pointing to that direction) as much as a veteran of 20+ years spent his next 10 years. Thus ditching the old guys and aiming for a new crowd was a great move from GW. If the customer stays or not after his first years matters not, its a win win for GW, as long as they can keep the new blood flowing.

I'm not saying AoS isn't doing well. I actually don't hate AoS (though I do hate they completly killed the old setting).

I'm saying, there's a lot driving GW's surge.

Also you know no one is going to care unless you've got from the company spelled out sources itemized. I've had fuckers argue with me over the fucking investors info they release. Unless it's an official document from GW that explicitly spells out how much money AoS makes and how much more than WFB that is, detractors will never shut up. "Sources" are not good enough.

Which, because that is not how investor information works, means detractors will never shut up.

At a shareholders meeting they revealed that AoS is doing much better than whfb was, but still under expectations. Of course expectations could be 50% of all profit. But if is true, that would show below those expectations, but a marked improvement.

I think it would be dumb of them to think AoS could do as well or better than 40k, but at this point it would be stupid for them to not support it.

I keep seeing this whole thing about how 'toxic' WHFB was compared to AoS; I've never had a dealing with a Sigmar player that wasn't toxic. So, apparently, this is just another way one group of terrible geeks tells themselves they're better than another group of terrible geeks.

I'm yet to meet an AoS player that bickers about 1/5th of an inch, which was not entirely unusual in WFB times in my experience.

that's because 1/5th an inch was significant in wfbs terrible rules

Anecdotal I know, but in my experience we have 2 ex-whfb players that were really buttmad over the death of their game, despite me having never seen them play it. I'm building an AoS group that is going well. Not huge like 40k, but we get consistent games. And these 2 assholes still take opportunities to make snide comments about the game and heckle us as we play. Fuck, the KoW players are cool dudes and we don't clash with them.

In additiion to the main point was the "grognards" were toxic to GW as they driven new players away from GW, which is something no company needs or wants. Their in-game behavior or personal hygiene were of secondary importance compared to that aspect.

>Below expectations

Maybe if they released something besides those faggot Stormcast, they'd be higher

It's part of why I'm really looking forward to Shadespire - it lets you get a few models for a lot of different factions in small enough numbers that you can try out paint schemes and the like and still use in a game that you can play well inside an hour. Great from a hobby point of view, a lot more appealing than trying to make a single 2000 point army. The added plus side for GW is that it might be a jumping off point into AoS.

I actually agree. And I am a fan of stormcast eternals, but I think they have been pushed way too much lately.

they also need to push the worlds fiction more. Fans keep telling me there's an actual setting there now, but I don't fucking see it.

There is, but it has only really come to be in the past year. But it does need to continue, because there is a lot of potential to explore in it. I am looking forward to the RPG that is supposed to come out sometime next year.

How the fuck do you even buy shares in things.

Stock market?

You don't see it because it's not there. I looked into it when people started claiming the setting was getting better, because I've always wanted a skirmish based WHFB game with continual support - ranked just never did anything for me.

The setting is a patchwork of ideas from elsewhere, in their shallowest possible forms. It's like the design team decided to focus in on specific parts of factions that should serve as characterization for a greater whole, and expand them into full factions that exhibit only the most surface-level, aesthetic traits of those concepts, making them ultimately uninteresting and without any sort of depth or complexity. Fyreslayers and Stormcast are the biggest offenders but basically every faction is like this.

At this rate the setting might be alright in a decade or so, but only if the design team completely change their current ethos.

My friends all say they;d love to play but the prices keep putting them off. I bought about 2000 points in the space of a month, I have about 7000 points now of one army and about 1500 of another (started in Feb). I think the pricing is fine for the hours I put into it and the enjoyment I get from it.

>t. millennial

Not me, all my investments are in things that actually make money without me needing to watch the market like a fucking hawk for the slightest dip

>Stocks are up nearly 10% today, who else among you had the good sense to buy shares?
The best course of action would be a hostile take over to fuck Kirby. Even if he is not the CEO anymore, he must be destroyed.

For Ansell, Priestly and A.Chambers.

8th edition is not the only WHFB that ever existed, kid

Problem is they do not seem to get nor understand why WHFB failed.

The game was fucked up because ward designed it. The game required you to have a SHIT TON of regiments and units and all of those where Incredibly expensive. So any newcomer naturally would get baffled or overwhelmed. This is something that AOS has completely avoided and thus why it's doing better.

Back in 6th edition WHFB didnt have this problems. 6th edition was fucking perfect. Seriously GW needs to bring back their celebrities back like Rick priestly, because their current lore department sucks balls.

you should also blame ward and kirby.

6th edition needed limits to magic and more support to infantry.
The best WHFB ever played, still

Yes, it's true. Still it has been the best WHFB edition ever released. 7th edition was inferior and ward ruined it with his awful army books.

I insist, if they rook a less greedy approach It could had continued to work. Now another problem is that Kirby outright fucked the company from the beggining by having share holders and shit. Also he fucked Bryan ansell with a hostile take over.

>I insist, if they rook a less greedy approach It could had continued to work.
I completely agree. But they went to the opposite direction with big kits and moar magic.
Is unbelievable how mismanaged was that game.

So I'm actually just starting out in investing in stocks, but isn't GW's current share value way too high to be buying in? Yeah it keeps climbing, and by a huge amount like 10% which is abnormal, but this is AFTER like a 500% increase.

Good sense would have been buying the stocks before 8E and Primaris. GW stocks are currently an extreme abnormality, and it seems like you can't use standard investing principles when speculating on it. What happens if they tank again, in a cycle they've done multiple times already?

Correct me if I'm wrong, I am not a good investor at all, but that's just my gut reaction and logical deduction. Should one buy in to GW shares and hope for even more climbing, like they've been doing consistently for the past ~6 months?

>but it pisses of grognards who hate change and bemoan the departure of the overcomplicated rule sets.
This is where is clear you are a redshirt.
Or a brainlet, you tell me

correct. If you haven't bought already, buying in now is the sucker bet.

Getting started can be very overwhelming, specially if they just want to play an army and not paint it. Maybe use second hand models or something like that.

Good for them. Their financial situation is a reasonably accurate way to gauge the health of the hobby overall.

Yeah, all the good gains have happened already. I honestly think it has further to go, but we're not going to see another 400% increase in the share price, much as I might like that to happen. I really made the thread because I'm feeling smug as fuck about buying in when the shares were trading at 500, and now they're over 2200 (and the dividends are amazing). As for an up and down cycle, GW have had their peaks and troughs in the past, but their previous high was at about 800 or something back in the early 2000s, followed by a slow and steady decline. The performance in the last year is something else entirely.

Kirby bought the company out way back in 1991 or something. It was before they had even released 2nd edition 40k. The early days of the company were some of the most creative, but pretty much all of the lore and iconic designs we associate with GW are a product of the Kirby era. It's hard to imagine what the company would have become if he hadn't taken over, it's doubtful it would have managed to grow anything like as large as it is now.

The problem wasn't necessarily Kirby, is was the quest for evermore profits, partially fueled by going public which made increasing profits a REQUIREMENT

Remember, if you're running a public company, it's actually illegal for you to not constantly turn increasing profits, since it's your fiduciary responsibility to increase dividends for the share holders

compared to everyone else they are massively over priced, for the price of a single squad of space marines I can have a ww2 platoon with money to spare.

The plastic character minis really take the piss though.

>ignore fantasy for years
>only time you do anything is increase prices for fewer models and add shit rules trying to force people to buy more of them.
>look how bad this is doing
>better take a shit on it and set it on fire
>welp that didn't work scrap it.
>let try actually releasing stuff and listen to player feedback now
>HOLY SHIT STUFF SELLS WHEN YOU DO THIS WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN?!

Its just disappointing they couldn't have remember this before the flaming shit.

From what I have seen GW are more than happy to hand out the WHFB franchise for video games.

It's just the wargame was basically pointless at that point.

Well we're getting a ton of Death next year.

>Comparing it to Historicals

Historicals are a niche hobby AND usually cheap as piss.

If you compare model per Model GW are not that bad, and like I said, if you play smaller games, it's cheaper than it's alternatives.

Hell, AoS Skirmish scene is massive, and that's like 20-30 models max.

Nah, Kirby was Profits by making production and running costs low.

Roundtree is Profits via investment, as we have already seen because Roundtree is a fucking miracle worker making GW the highest growing company in the UK.

though to be fair, Brexit is also all so subtly helping them.

>Historicals are a niche hobby AND

lol no, never niche and many have moved to ake over the gw vacuum in the past few years.

Per model? depends of the kit but in most cases fuck no, gw is expensive.

>Historicals have moved over to take the GW vacuum.

Nigga what? Historicals are the nichest Wargame ever.

Mostly because the community is fucking cancer save for Flames of War.

All I want is more and wider-variety 40k vidya.

You're a god damn idiot. Nobody gives a fuck about historicals unless you're over 50 in a flannel shirt.

Maybe if you could find the shift key, you'd be competent enough to have a job that can afford to buy you a $50 box of toys each month.

I just want a game with less FAQ than rulebook.

wargames like bolt action are pretty tailored to snap up 40k players, historical have grown in the last few years.

I can afford GW but historical is cheaper.

I can have a couple of skirmish forces for the rice of a single gw monster for example, not to mention blisters are all round cheaper, for the price of a single space marine character in plastic I can have multiple command/hq blisters in metal

Yes, because all those players who don't play IG are going to want generic human miniatures.

Your logic is so stupid it's infuriating. If people wanted historicals, they'd already be playing them. Someone who is playing Tyranids isn't going to want historicals. Why are you picking your hobbies based on which one is cheapest? You should be playing what you want to play the most, within your means. Therefore, if you can afford something, and want to buy it, yet don't and buy some shittier, cheaper option instead, you are either a complete fucking moron, or you're kidding yourself and you can't actually afford it.

>If people wanted historicals, they'd already be playing them.

some are, other are/were intimidated by the ''grognard'' aspect of it, but with releases of for example plastic airborne i'm seeing a lot of 40k guy buying up forces to recreate band of brothers for example.

> Someone who is playing Tyranids isn't going to want historicals.

Wut, I know guys that collect both.

> Why are you picking your hobbies based on which one is cheapest? You should be playing what you want to play the most, within your means.

I like both and both are in my means but its easier and cheaper to get ta bolt action army to the table than an imperial guard one, plus I can use the minis for it for a variety of different games from skirmish/big battle to pulp.

> Therefore, if you can afford something, and want to buy it, yet don't and buy some shittier, cheaper option instead, you are either a complete fucking moron, or you're kidding yourself and you can't actually afford it.

Cheaper isn't necessarily worse, perry is cheaper than gw and the perrys used to sculpt for gw.

I dont get why you are getting so butthurt about things.

Im glad that GW is doing so well, really makes me glad that the chance they took on AoS and Primaris has paid off.

Hopefully they realize the success they had is due to them changing up the formula and trying new things, maybe it will lead to something like a female space marine chapter, which would be huge in drawing in new players to the game

you over-egged that, it was a good troll right up until the female space marines bit.

>product of the Kirby era.
To be frank, that was thanks to the talent team back then, who happened to have history phd's and stuff. They where mavericks unlike the "only attitude, hacks that are on the creative team now a days."

Also Kirby "bought" the company? more like he took a hostile take over, that is a known fact.

remember to thank him when you see him anons.

This. I hate the lore/concept of Primaris Marines but never doubted they wouldn't bring in a boatload of $$$$. Customers are their own worst enemy.

I have 30k Legionaries standing next to 6mm Republican Roman Legionaries on my desk.

He's a GW fanboy, something that should be declared a mental deficiency.
Speaking as someone who used to buy lots of GW stuff back in the day

what the fuck is going on with the proportions on those mantic models? how delusional do you have to be to think that looks alright?