Games Workshop Financial results

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I'm not surprised, especially with WotC's plastic DDMs growing in popularity. It's kinda hard to compete when your product is WAY more expensive and requires a lot more work to get the finished product.

Just the other day I saw a couple kids comparing D&D minis with a box of Warhammer minis and they chose the former simply b/c it was cheaper and they didn't have to spend hours putting them together. Is the quality of the sculpts as good? Probably not. But there's other factors to consider.

Definately not. The one thing I don't like about the D&D minis is they look so crappy next to the painted ones on the table, and since I love GW orcs and use them I find the D&D mini Orcs are too small and the wrong color! I'm thinking of turning my D&D orcs into goblins...or turning the GW orcs into some kind of Super-Orc like in that one fantasy book series. Of course the D&D minis are cheaper, and aren't too bad in terms of quality and I've got a bunch of them for use since I can't paint as much as I want to. I've got a big regiment of Warhammer orcs to paint, but I've got to strip them first due to some crappy primer coming out fuzzy and clumpy.

 

[Rykion]

Part of the reason the price went up here in the US is due to the poor exchange rate for the dollar vs the Euroe the past few years - notice sales hardly went down at all in Continental Europe.

GW is a British company and uses British Pounds to measure cost/profit not Euros. The UK price of GW goods includes a 17.5% sales tax, the VAT(Value Added Tax). The plastic regiments cost 18 pounds in the UK, but are really only about 15.31 pounds without the VAT. That makes the UK regiment price about $27.20 right now. The US price was $30 but recently went up to $35. The US price has gone up much faster than any decline of the dollar. GW has a US factory, meaning that a decline in the dollar also reduces cost of production.

 

[Marchen]

I'm not surprised, especially with WotC's plastic DDMs growing in popularity. It's kinda hard to compete when your product is WAY more expensive and requires a lot more work to get the finished product.

Just the other day I saw a couple kids comparing D&D minis with a box of Warhammer minis and they chose the former simply b/c it was cheaper and they didn't have to spend hours putting them together. Is the quality of the sculpts as good? Probably not. But there's other factors to consider.

I think DDM are great, but I know that I only use them for RPG. The Wargames aspect of DDMs is too "CCG" for my tastes. Warbands don't have any specific flavor. I adore them for easy of use when I'm running a D&D game, but Warhammer will always be a superior wargame for me.

 

[Gundark]

The recent price hike has kept me from starting a new 40k army. I think GW is begining to believe their hype.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I got tired of GW supporting a new line for only an expansion or two (several more for WQ if you count the hard as heck to find character packs) and then cancelling the line. Combine that with the cancelled lines were the only GW games that I really liked, the absurd prices, and some horrible experiences with their mail order department I have completely stopped supporting GW with my gaming dollar. D&D minis are cheaper (I don't buy figs off the secondary market), and Reaper makes better figures overall.

Kane

 

[Ghostwind]

I run at 40k in a flash league at the store where I work and we went through and knocked a bunch of old out of print sets and older boxes down 50% to move it out and also to help make it more affordable for people wantingto play the 500 pt. flash armies. The latest price increase on the core army sets did not help our cause however.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The recent price hike has kept me from starting a new 40k army. I think GW is begining to believe their hype.

It's certainly slowed me down. $10 for a single figure that's not even a new cast? I've been slowly picking up Eldar and wanted another one of the dudes with the swords (Warlock) and it was $10. I couldn't believe it. For that price, I'm buying a Rackham figure or a box of D&D minis.

 

[NewJeffCTHome]

speaking of D&D minis, what are the sales of D&D minis compared to GW? How about Reaper?

 

[AFGNCAAP]

I've had little time or money to seriously invest in any of the GW games, & though I was intereted in the LotR stuff, it was mainly for having a set of LotR minis (since the only other ones I knew of were from a long-gone company whose name I forget ATM--their minis were pre-primed, but the primer wasn't great).

However, the cost & rules changes dissuaded me from the game: I already keep up with D&D as it is, but at least those are books. Books & minis, not to mention basically building & rebuilding armies over & over again really didn't appeal to me, not to mention the redesign of some of the minis. The D&D & Heroclix minis that I buy are just for use in-game & not for the battle games they were made/marketed for.

 

[Desdichado]

And frankly, the quality of their sculpts has diminished, except for their plastics for 40K - which look great, but are too pricey.

I disagree--the minis look better now across the board than they ever have; by a long shot. IMO. With the exception of some of the large plastics like the rat ogres, I suppose.