Price Rises, Cost-cutting rip-off and a Trade embargo - the 3 pronged anal rape of GWs customers

[MortiS-the-Lost]

So another senseless Games Workshop price rise is upon us, Citadel will be switching some of their production over to a cheaper (but only for them) material and an embargo has been placed which not only screws over customers outside the EU and US but also screws over good-honest hard-working independent retailers. A lot of people are pissed off and GW are handling this the only way they now how, denial.

You see GW don't really care about what customers think, they don't take the time to ask any more (when was the last time you saw a GW customer survey in WD or with your Mail Order package?) and if they want a gamer's opinion they give it to them and that opinion is 'the new miniatures are so cool and I'm not bothered by the high prices'

Since the last price rise we saw sales of GW products flat line and then drop 4%. Looking at their profit margins the financial wizards at GW decided the reason they weren’t making as much money as they'd like; wasn't that their products have dropped in quality, or that their staff are rude, ignorant and sales driven, or that high prices are making people turn else-where for their hobby … no no no … they've decided that it's that their prices aren’t high enough. This is no way to run a company and is only sustainable in the short term.      

My message as ever is: remember it's not GW's hobby it's your hobby, Carry on using your old rules books, look for alternative models and spend as little on GW products as possible. If your still not convinced, I'll see you the same time next year when the prices go up again and for every year after until GW sees sense and brings prices down or you find it too expensive to carry on playing their games – every gamer has their limit, even you (and if you don't have a limit then you are a fool – why not go and work in GW management)  

[Fenryz]

Oh Mr Mortis, dont hold back ;p

And yeah, they have gone from fun and great gamecompany towards stuffy moneygrubbing giant. And to think they once had the greatest rpg ever under their wing... (Thinking about Warhammer Fantasy Rpg of course, Judge Dredd wasnt bad though ^^ )
Plus side - there are other companies who will really benefit from the priceraising - I mean, shouldnt it be about the gameexperience, instead of focused on using a particular miniature ?

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Fenryz wrote

shouldnt it be about the gameexperience, instead of focused on using a particular miniature ?

That's exactly what The Lost and The Damned forum is about - hobby in the hands of hobbyists!
no one can tell us what makes of miniatures we can and cannot use or what rulesets we play with  

[Apocalypsedreamer]

Groan

A.D

[BobbieTheDamned]

We've been saying this for a long time too. GW haven't listened in a long time. Loosing all of the littler publications for the 'specialist' games was the first sign that GW were going down the wrong route for me and that was a long time ago.

Just to stur the pot a little more:

I've read un-confirmed reports supposedly from an independent retailer that the GW Finecast miniatures (100 available from the initial launch) will be approximately 20% more than metal equivalents so essentially the same price as forgeworld.

[Marchomer]

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

...remember it's not GW's hobby it's your hobby...

You hit it on the nail.

This is an annoying problem. OUR hobby is often introduced like the "Games Workshop Hobby"... A very hateful definition. I know there are some people who are still observant to the GW cult... they are idiots.   By the way, I really don't care about the dirty politics of the GW! I've got my miniatures, I've got my rules, I can even create my own miniatures and my own rules! GW could rise his prices until 1000$ per piece, I don't care! "For me is nothing!".

There are so many producer better than GW if you search on the web!

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Marchomer wrote

 I've got my miniatures, I've got my rules, I can even create my own miniatures and my own rules! GW could rise his prices until 1000$ per piece, I don't care! "For me is nothing!".

Absolutely! now if everyone took up that stance, GW would be forced to keep up their quality and drop their prices and the whole hobby would be better off for it (including GW's precious profit margins)

Marchomer wrote

There are so many producer better than GW if you search on the web!

Exactly! this is what tLatD is all about and what better place to look for (and showcase your own) alternative miniatures than our Miniatures sections!

[meangreenstompa]

I have finally moved from Bristol to the US to be with my wife full time.

She loves the tyranid range and I convinced her to take up 40k and she's been enjoying it. Around us, we found 3 retired players, I started to work on getting them back into the hobby.

They were all ready, all three.

Now this price hike. Now this for my wife who wants a squad of hive guard, a squad of zoanthropes, a hive tyrant, tyrant guard and two venomthropes...

All of which will be greatly increased in price despite the manufacturing costs greatly reducing in the 'metal to resin bait and switch'. And now?!?! The plastics have gone up, a trio of warriors will cost £25?!?

Who can their target audience be now? I cannot fathom that their analysts are still targeting parents money via young kids. If I were a parent, I'd be buying a game system for the spod instead and saving myself hundreds as well as avoiding the stinking creche that is a GW store.

So, understand this, I was going to buy a whole dark eldar army, a big one, an Empire army (a MASSIVE one with forgeworld stuff) and a wood elf army, all within the next year to two. Instead I am going to take up other systems and bring my wife and those retired players along with me.

Not because the price has gone beyond my capacity to afford it but because the price is now far above my perceived worth of the miniatures.

So, a Malifaux force, a Warmachine force and a Hordes force, perhaps infinity as well just because the minis are so beautiful. I'll still save a fortune on what I would have spent on GW stuff, perhaps I'll spend it on a big fishtank for the lounge and keep my bloodpressure down after reading about the price hike antics of GW yet to come...

[MortiS-the-Lost]

if your wife is still set on a Tyranid army and you're looking for cheaper alternatives, I recommend the Kryomek Aliens  available from  Scotia Grendel

[Quicky]

There are a heck of a lot of other good minature sites out there. Jsut use the old rules you have and build an army that way. As long as everyone is happy and having fun that is the main thing. Gw are pricing themselves into extinction. The seem to be trying to outprice the independants shops to force everyone to buy from them. I think it will fail miserably eventually.

They were much better in the old days, very old days when they used to make lots of board games as well and the minature were cheaper. I agree the reason they went to plastic was so they could 'reduce prices to the consumer' instead they have gone through the roof now. it would be interesting to see how the price increases 'improve' there financial status.....