Wednesday 1 June 2016

Impact of Games Workshop's New Direction

Afternoon all,


So I have been thinking about the new direction that GW has been taking recently. Their level of engagement as well as revival of older systems, such as blood bowl, and introduction of many new factions has been excellent. 

As well they are addressing issues with their systems and branching out into additional and relatively affordable extras such as textured bases to match the imperialis boards. 

I am fully behind this and love how they appear to be transforming themselves as a company, and returning to the sort of company I knew and loved in the 1990's. 

However, I just wanted to raise this issue of how this might impact other aspects of the gaming hobby. The lack of GW participation in so many areas allowed a huge amount of companies to fill that void. I think many would not dispute that tabletop gaming is near saturated with many many companies around now doing miniatures, conversion parts, bases, and whole gaming systems, and a lot of these are heavily directed at being for 40k consumption. 

Now that GW is stepping up into these areas I do worry that certain small companies may start to find their profit margins shrink to levels that make them as a business unsustainable. 

I have no evidence for this, but to me, it seems a natural economic impact that GW will have on our hobby life. I dont begrudge GW this but I do think perhaps getting what you want might have repercussion unconsidered. 

Do you have any thoughts on this? 

Peace out,

Rob

4 comments:

  1. I think you're right, it's certainly a shame, and I think there is plenty more that GW could do to improve things (like for example, producing weapons packs for armies to allow conversions etc - I'd love to get my hands on a power weapon sprue like they used to make for Necromunda)

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    1. Yeah it is something I worry about, I would love to see lots of small base and conversion part makers stay afloat and I hope this doesn't stop them from trading well.

      But then if GW do fill that hole a little I won't complain too much! Just feel guilty....

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  2. I have been thinking about this. GWs abandonment of the specialist games and organised play has allowed numerous other companies to thrive. Like you said the market seems saturated. I am wondering if GW have the skills and determination to claw back the market share. Or will the lure of other systems keep players returning to the GW fold. What will GW do if sales and profits don't improve fast enough or at all. Will they double down becoming a player focused company at the expense of profit to improve their position or will they return to the price hikes and abandon everything other than 40K?

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    1. Really good points John, I hope your latter argument doesn't come true, they have made a good amount of progress in a very short time recently. 8th edition 40k or whatever is coming next will be a real acid test I think.

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