GR has gotten some anonymous tips that Games Workshop will be pulling their products from anyone who sells online, even if they have real-world retail stores as well, as of July 15. GW would probably pull their products from anyone who isn’t them if they thought they could get away with it; they can probably only get away with this because online discounters are so universally loathed. I mean, how long until WizKids does this? However, if the rumor that GW will cite “Intellectual Property” as the reason for this action, then… wow. The term will have officially become meaningless. I can start using it as an excuse to stiff waiters on their tip or something. “Sorry, can’t pay my taxes. Intellectual property. I’m sure you understand.”
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Make sure that is your last visit to that particular restaurant. You might find an extra surprise on your plate on your next dinner reservation. Hehehe. 😉
Looks like this is all over the GW fan sites, and more and more Online retailers are getting their phone calls too. Time for me to start playing some Confrontation and Warmachine 🙂
Is there anyone still making business with GW ?
I am surprised.
I have a big shop and I don’t want to have anything to do with them.Old games, old systems, no respect for customers or retailers….
You can make business with better people, play better games….
Yet despite their poor business and customer relations as of late, their products — WARHAMMER FANTASY and WARHAMMER 40K — remains on the top of the list of miniature mass combat games and product lines. Why is that?
Dai, I really think it is because they have stayed at the top for so darn long. GW has really tried to make it’s own game systems a “subset of the gaming hobby, and a hobby unto itself.” By keeping their hobbiests focused onto their own game ranges, it keeps that money from going elsewhere. While they show up for shows like Gencon, etc…their major endeavors are their own Games Days which have expanded again this year to 3 shows in the US alone.
So, aside from that, why are they still around and on top (with all the venom they seem to get?) Mainly because it is darn expensive to produce miniatures in quantity. An interesting case example of that is to read through the Privateer Press, Warmachine site. They have really been giving you a blow by blow of what it has been taking them to get this game out the door, and now support it.
So, GW really remains on top, IMHO cause they have been around the longest. They are by NO MEANS the best out there. Confrontation’s sculpts are much better. Warmachine has a good set of rules going for it, but GW has a game with years and years worth of minis out there, and infrastructure to support them. If we could get a Miniatures system to actually stick around long enough, and grow up a little, we may finally see some competition. What that may take is people like me who have been playing 40k since the day it hit the states, to divert hard earned cash to other companies. If enough people do that, the GW lock may finally be eroded even a little bit. I don’t think GW is helping it’s already poor image by doing things like this. Their miniatures are by far the most expensive out there in the hobby game marketplace. A single Grey Knight terminator is now $10.00. (You need at least 5 in a squad.) To field and effective army now a days, you are starting to get into the $500 range.
Anyway, I could go on, but that’s my $.02