Had a look over at GW's investor page, and found this unusually informative statement on GW's upcoming financials. Snowmobiled opinions in red.
TRADING UPDATE ON CLOSE OF FINANCIAL YEAR ENDED 31 MAY 2015
Following the close of its 2014/15 financial year Games Workshop provides the following trading highlights:
We expect the Group’s profit for the year to 31 May 2015 to be broadly in line with market expectations.
If the market expects us to keep bleeding sales and cash, that is.
Over the year we have seen modest sales growth, at constant currency, in our core trade and mail order channels.
By resorting to bookkeeping tricks, we've been able to make it look like we're only doing a bit worse than inflation.
We saw a small decline in our own stores due to continued difficult trading in Continental Europe following our restructuring last year.
Which we're still blaming for all our troubles, even if that excuse is wearing a bit thin by now.
We saw expected declines in some non-core activities that are grouped with core activities in our reporting. The effect of these non-core activities and the continuing effects of unfavourable exchange rates mean that our reported sales are likely to show small declines in retail (c.5%) and trade (c.3%). Mail order growth was c.5%.
Even though real businesses need to operate and turn a profit regardless of single-digit exchange rate movements, we'll act as if we shouldn't be expected to operate in that reality. Hopefully then you won't notice that sales are still going down, and the website sales have only recovered 5% this year after plummeting by half(?) last year.
Funny how Apple doesn't have this problem...
We will provide full and detailed information, including the effects of adverse exchange rates, at the time of our results announcement on 28 July 2015.
Really, if it weren't for those damned exchange rates, sales would be up like 400% man! Really!
(sigh...)
Hey, those financials come out the same day as Justice League Gods and Monsters. Two things to look forward to this month.
ReplyDeleteoh man i love your yearly tirades so much, i am greatly looking forward to this :D
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm fast approaching the point of simply not giving a damn anymore. I'd forgotten about the financials coming up until someone mentioned it.
DeleteMy brain has finally rebooted from seeing the sigmarine statue.
ReplyDeleteOk, story time.
I worked at a software company in northern Indiana right out of college. They catered to a niche market, and managed to pretty much sell their software to everyone in that market that could afford it. Problem with that is that now there was no one else to sell the software to.Plus, no new killer-app new version to force people to upgrade.
Management went crazy with trying all kinds of new ideas to expand into markets or to build a new better version, Each of these ideas was hailed by management as the silver bullet that would solve all our problems. If a new idea didn't provide immediate results, it got dropped in favor of something else. Each time this happened the replacement strategy would be unveiled with even more fanfare than the last.
What does it say when GW rebrands their corporate HQ and puts up a big statue of their ill-conceived new product? That's not for us. That's to keep the employees at Nottingham from fleeing the sinking ship. Of course GW is going to make payroll this month, they had the money to put up that statute right?
The statue is the ultimate statement of ignorant hubris. Management thinks Age of Sigmar is going to save Fantasy (and the company). But they're completely incapable of looking at the "game" and making any sort of realistic assessment of its actual quality/value to the new and/or past customers that they would like to gain/regain.
DeleteStill, the number of players (and a local shop owner) who are swallowing the "points aren't needed" Kool-Aid astounds me.
Maybe you should try the game? I haven't bothered with WFB since 6th edition and this has my attention.
DeleteIt's appealing because It doesn't require that much buy-in to play. One of the better aspects of this release. I've never played a game of WFB in my life, but have enough random WFB miniatures around that I could throw down for a game.
DeleteAnd I can appreciate that the rules and a good chunk of the scrolls are passable. But the game is only a few days old. Give it a week and someone will have a 10 model unbeatable list. The NPE's take a little time to uncover. You also have to realize that the most capable game breakers are going to ignore this one right of the bat due to how easily breakable it looks.
Nomeny, I we can all read the rules, right now, and see what to expect. Especially if we've played 40K/WFB before, which I have.
DeleteThere is no balancing mechanism, and it's got tons of LOL-sy half-baked party game concepts thrown in. So fair competitive play is out. Hence it's not a game that will appeal to anyone I know who's left 40K/Fantasy, and even the more casual guys I know who still play are voicing huge concerns with it.
But the models are nice, I'll give you that. Maybe Mantic can give them decent rules.
I disagree that the game-breakers are going to ignore this. A system this bad is their wet dream. They can put anything they want on the field and hide behind some half-baked homebrew fluff as an excuse.