Sunday, September 1, 2013

GW Crosses The Rubicon... Or Something

by SandWyrm


Local Ork pointed this craziness out over on YTTH. So I put it in picture form. It's got to be some kind of defining event in GW history.

(EDIT: New Generic Captain comes with 2 heads as well. So no difference there. Picture updated.)

21 comments:

  1. Yeah... GW has been creeping ever closer to FW prices in recent times... some of those things are looking dangerously affordable anymore.

    Granted, you also have international shipping to deal with, and the time-cost of waiting for said shipping.

    And after a quick look on the GW site... are those limited edition or something? Standard HQ's and even special characters are ranging from 19-23 (still not a huge difference from the FW model, but closer to reasonable).

    There are, in fact, two Librarians on sale... one for $30, and one for $16.

    Something is weird here...

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  2. I'll go you one further, the EXISTING space marine commander multi part injection molded plastic model, with a ton of variety of equipment options, several combi weapons, etc etc etc, is 22.50. Why anyone would buy the new characters, I don't know.

    What really perplexes me is the awesome looking lord executioner. With a jump pack. Is 22.50 for a single pose plastic injection molded model. It came out in July!

    I'm not sure what is going on there. I'm definitely looking to forgeworld for more and more of my models. Its only a little bit more to buy the special weapons, bolters, and pre-heresy armor from FW than buying Sternguard.

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  3. You should check the AUS prices. It's $90 for the codex, then $105 extra for a dust jacket. The dust jacket costs more than the codex, the hell?

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  4. To Ian Lodgson. I´m looking to privateer press and corvus belli for my games cause the price hike is ridiculous at this point.

    I think the thing GW is trying to do is make us look FW as regular GW stuff and it isn´t supposed to be, it is supposed to be kind of "elite" stuff, which strange enough is at almost the same price if not cheaper than GW standard stuff...

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    Replies
    1. I'm with you, I have a Yu Jing starter set and 2 of those little tachikoma looking things waiting to assemble (so much pinning) and then a malifaux crew I've base coated, but need to start actually painting. I also have the Striker Dreadball stuff to paint, along with my Relic pieces...40k is less of my budget as a result of the price increases. The RoI on buying Malifaux pieces and getting a whole new faction to play, vs getting a single tank or box of lesser daemons just prices me out of GW.

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  5. Hm, I wonder how hard it would be to resin cast the Marines I already have.

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  6. You all know that they will keep making their shit more and more expensive until people ACTUALLY stop buying their crap right?

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    Replies
    1. People *have* stopped buying their crap.

      GW is just trying to stay ahead of the curve by raising prices even further. Losing customers and milking the ones that are left is all that they know how to do. There's no logic or thought to it anymore, or they'd have re-priced the existing multi-pose marine captain and every Forge World character to match the new price-points.

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    2. not enough ppl are not buying their crap.

      the gw fanbois where i am at are still lapping it up.

      i am sure its the same elsewhere.

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    3. I would wager when they sell the company, they will maintain Forgeworld as their own, and by that time they will have folks already buying FW....a real benefit if the new company drops production values...theya re thinking of somehow locking customers in to forgeworld.

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  7. That price is just out of control. I'm wondering if they're using it to use it to make the other figs look cheap?
    Another option is that they might be intending to bundle it into larger boxed sets and allowing its high price to make the boxed sets look like a greater deal. I can't see them expecting mass sales at that price point.

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  8. I would be really interested in what the sales tactics are for the new captain. For 3 more dollars you can get Master of the Chapter set with 4 different captains. Most of the individual fine cast captain and commanders are 10 to 7.5 cheaper and the multipart plastic one is 7.50. My guess would be talk up the new gravity combi weapon.

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    Replies
    1. The only thing I can think of is that they're trying to appeal to the compulsive collectors. The ones that just MUST buy every little thing released. But how many of those can there be? I know a guy here in town that buys an absolute crap-load of GW stuff every month. But even he is looking at the special editions and going "WTF? NO!".

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  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    Replies
    1. nice promo. If you's like to advertise, or have us endorse a product, just contact us ;)

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  10. With overseas prices what they are, they must be trying to bring the colonies to heel through trade tariffs. XD

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  11. The increased cost is due to the back banner. Everyone knows those things are crazy expensive when they have 24k gold skull finials :P And y'all thought that was paint, dintcha?

    Sales numbers will be very interesting to see. And for those Centurions too. Is the FAQ out yet which gives them a 'win' button?

    So many other miniatures companies are doing all sorts of interesting and innovative things. GW is doing their best to make people take notice of this aren't they. Doubt it's deliberate though.

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    Replies
    1. It's not deliberate, any more than Balmer deliberately wants new Microsoft products to fail. But it's the inevitable result of focusing on (and rewarding employees for) profit numbers to the exclusion of everything else that defines a successful business. While not having any conception of what it takes to make a great product.

      Here's what Jonny Ive (Apple's lead designer) has to say on the subject:

      "Our goal isn’t to make money. Our goal absolutely at Apple is not to make money. This may sound a little flippant, but it’s the truth…Our goal and what gets us excited is to try to make great products. We trust that if we are successful people will like them, and if we are operationally competent we will make revenue, but we are very clear about our goal."

      And it works. Great stuff equals huge sales and equally huge margins. But guys like Balmer and Kirby see that and get insanely jealous. So they copy the 'style' and the 'marketing'. But forget to add the customer-focused innovation.

      They also forget that the mass-market dominant brand cannot also, by definition, be the 'elite' brand. If GW were wise, they'd move everything expensive that they make to Forge World, while doing everything they could to lower the prices of anything released under the Games Workshop brand. Instead of trying to out-elite their own subsidiary, as they are now.

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    2. The plus 1 button is broken, but, I'll keep clicking it!

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  12. GW were wise, they'd move everything expensive that they make to Forge World, while doing everything they could to lower the prices of anything released under the Games Workshop brand. Instead of trying to out-elite their own subsidiary, as they are now.

    THAT is a great observation.

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out dang bot!

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