Games Workshop Gives Staff £5,000 Bonus

While the pandemic has hit many industries hard, the tabletop gaming industry has -- shipping issues aside -- not suffered the way many others have. Nottingham-based Games Workshop is one such company, which says that sales were up 30% year (with Warhammer 40K and the new Cursed City games particularly strong), with pre-tax profits being up 70%.

GW has 2,600 employees, including shop workers, model makers, designers, and support staff, and each of those employees is getting a bonus of £5,000. This comes from a £2.6M profit share (with an extra £10.6M added on top). Senior managers are getting a share of an additional £1.1M pot.

While GW has had to close several of its 523 stores, there are plans to open more in the US, Japan, and China.

Additionally, Games Workshop has given back the financial support it received from the government.

The Guardian has more on the topic.

Hasbro has reported that WotC's revenue from D&D has increased even dramatically over the past year, with the company's net revenues and operating profit increasing by over 100% in Q2 2021.

WotC - Hasbo Praises D&D Revenue Growth

An update on D&D from Wall Street. In the second quarter earnings report, Hasbro called out D&D revenue growth. D&D revenue grew in both analog and digital. ”We take a holistic approach and are pleased with the direction of our digital transformation. For Dungeons & Dragons, which grew in...

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[John R Davis]

The pay is ok, some of the conditions are somewhat poor BUT the bonuses, the share scheme and the staff discounts are very good

 

[MGibster]

I’d be a lot more impressed if he didn’t complain about not being paid by GW for being on online content creator with his own you tube channel. With 12m views I’m sure he gets paid plenty by advertising.

It wasn't a complaint about GW not paying him. The "they don't even talk to me" was a tongue-in-cheek callback to when Midwinter Minis ended their content creator agreement with GW in 2020 (I think it as 2020). Even then GW wasn't paying Midwinter Minis, but content creators who sign the agreement get early access to new products but are beholden to non-disclosure forms and aren't given products far enough in advanced to make a decent video about it. So MWM parted ways with GW in an amicable manner and Guy had nothing but nice things to say about them at the time.

The guy seem very nice but the principle of is argument. People should be paid more… because they should. Supply and demand means there will never be a shortage people willing to come up with rules and write boxed text. There never has been. People don’t have to work there.

You're not just whistling Dixie. We've had other threads recently about the pay for RPG producers and I think most of us were in agreement that pay was so low, in part, because people loved the idea of working on games and were willing to do so for relatively low pay.

 

[Mercador]

You're not just whistling Dixie. We've had other threads recently about the pay for RPG producers and I think most of us were in agreement that pay was so low, in part, because people loved the idea of working on games and were willing to do so for relatively low pay.

Similar issue in videogame industry.

 

[TheSword]

It wasn't a complaint about GW not paying him. The "they don't even talk to me" was a tongue-in-cheek callback to when Midwinter Minis ended their content creator agreement with GW in 2020 (I think it as 2020). Even then GW wasn't paying Midwinter Minis, but content creators who sign the agreement get early access to new products but are beholden to non-disclosure forms and aren't given products far enough in advanced to make a decent video about it. So MWM parted ways with GW in an amicable manner and Guy had nothing but nice things to say about them at the time.


You're not just whistling Dixie. We've had other threads recently about the pay for RPG producers and I think most of us were in agreement that pay was so low, in part, because people loved the idea of working on games and were willing to do so for relatively low pay.

It was quite a complainy video. The guy talked a while about his music shop that made a couple of thousand a year profit… albeit after the owner drew a salary. Businesses like that need to improve or go bust. Then the next music shop in Edinburgh comes up with a better model and makes a success of it. It’s harsh but survival of the fittest is at the core of entrepreneurship. It sounds like that wasn’t the case though they could afford to live. Just not richly. It then comes down to what they want to settle for.

The job is quite a bit over the living wage. Similar to a care workers pay, wiping bottoms and changing pads in the UK. It looks like an entry level job based on the job requirements. It also isn’t a writing job per say. They have writing team actually write the stuff, the designers just come up with it, then they have rule editors to check the stuff. We have no idea what a rules designer’s working conditions are. GW’s release schedule isn’t exactly hectic. For all we know 20 of their 40 hours a week is spent playing Warhammer. In which case really they’re working part time.

This is not the same as the RPG example where experienced writers are getting paid a pittance, producing the meat of the company’s products and they certainly don’t count their games as working time.

I obviously didn’t get the in joke at the end about content producers not getting paid. He makes a ton of money in advertising revenues painting GW miniatures it seems like a symbiotic relationship to me. Threatening to switch to Bolt Action seems like a hollow threat.

It’s also nothing like being serving staff. That isn’t playing it’s damned hard work.

 

[MGibster]

I obviously didn’t get the in joke at the end about content producers not getting paid. He makes a ton of money in advertising revenues painting GW miniatures it seems like a symbiotic relationship to me. Threatening to switch to Bolt Action seems like a hollow threat.

I wouldn't have gotten the joke either were I not a regular viewer. I don't know if it's a hollow threat as a few other channels have announced either their intention to branch out and start covering other miniatures companies in addition to GW while a few others have said they won't cover GW at all. I find GW fandom odd because it's the only one I'm aware of where it seems like so many of their customers hate the company. I have some problems with their pricing at times but overall I don't hate the company. But my interest in miniatures isn't limited to GW products by any means.

Works in progress.

 

[Mercador]

I wouldn't have gotten the joke either were I not a regular viewer. I don't know if it's a hollow threat as a few other channels have announced either their intention to branch out and start covering other miniatures companies in addition to GW while a few others have said they won't cover GW at all. I find GW fandom odd because it's the only one I'm aware of where it seems like so many of their customers hate the company. I have some problems with their pricing at times but overall I don't hate the company. But my interest in miniatures isn't limited to GW products by any means.

If it's similar to game industry, some content providers (youtubers) really dislike how EA, Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft, Nintendo and the like are managing the business but at the same time, they need them to send them stuff to cover on their channel. So it's a bit a catch-22.

 

[GrahamWills]

It's £5k into their share save scheme; and the conditions/ leave etc has worsened

Hmm, I think you may have been confused about the wording. The text of the announcement I read states:

Games Workshop, which sells role-playing miniatures and games such as Warhammer, said in its annual results on Tuesday that it was splitting a £10.6 million discretionary bonus among its 2,600 employees, equal to a £4,000 payment each. The gaming retailer also said it had upped its profit share payment to a total of £2.6 million in 2021, or £1,000 per employee, from £2.4 million in 2020.

So there are actually two bonuses; a 4K "discretionary bonus" and a 1K "profit sharing". Other news sources have reported it and combined the two, so perhaps that was the source of the confusion?

Anyway, unless the discretionary bonus was also paid out in shares, which would be a pretty weird way of doing things, it looks like you GW workers will get 4K as a cash bonus, and 1K as shares, presumably with the usual 3 year vesting limit. I admit though I don't actually know that GW pays discretionary bonuses in cash, so if that also is actually in shares, it would surprise me, but just cite the source in any correction, thanks!

Also of interest, it's not a new bonus of 5k -- the usual profit-sharing seems to have been just a bit shy of 1K anyway, so this is really a 4K bonus each. Still very nice though, and kudos to GW for it!

 

[John R Davis]

They have given cash bonus's in the past, and the share scheme because of the recent rise and rise and yielded £10,000s to those who pay into it over the last 10 years or so