Is GW going to hell?

 

Is GW going to hell? Not the biblical sense but rather with poor company choices?

Here is how I see it that is going on with GW and what they are doing wrong:

• They are closing all the doors except for Warhammer 40k, Fantasy and Lord of the Rings. Of course the sub companies that are doing well like Black Library, Forge World and Fantasy Flight gets license rights for most other things GW no longer wants to deal with such as Specialist Games and Warhammer Historical.
• GW is closing their doors to more revenue opportunities to me. First they shut the door to the Fanatic game line which to me was a great idea with piss poor execution and management. Why? Many of the games were well written, enjoyable and small skirmish style.  If GW had half a brain they could have used these as a vehicle to recruit players into the larger games instead of just going straight for the big three games.  If GW has been watching the market, skirmish games are on the RISE. More on this later…
• The second dropped ball with GW with Specialist Games was with some revision to the line and the plastics out there this could have been worked in a clever fashion into 40k and Fantasy mainly with Mordheim, Necromunda and Gorkamorka. Let’s see new plastics that work with old kits for fresh new concepts? Would people go for it? We see more bitz companies are growing more than ever and many resin sub-companies that make stuff that just “happens” to fit GW stuff. I can see only things like Orks, Grey Knights, SOB and Imperial Guard getting more sales out of this.
• If GW had half a brain they could sell the rights to the Specialist Games and Historical to Fantasy Flight to revise and release again. Major missed opportunities here in revenue.
• Is GW is pricing themselves into a hole? Yes, things are going up in price all the time and this is a disposable income hobby but it does not have to be silly. The price increases while making more profit is costing them perhaps even more. When people have more money they spend more, take it away their spending power and they spend less. Basic economics boys and girls. All things should go up in cost but not by some of the increases they introduced that are as high as 10-14-16% or more! Really guys….greed kills.  More and more games are growing up and with Kick starter helping tons of new companies you may be on the clock with the dinos for extinction!
• Is GW fostering the community like they have? No, they have cut back on Games Days, closed Ard Boyz (which I am not crying), stopped hosting their own GTs, limited GW stores to be recruiting points instead of support stores and closing up shops in areas that GW could have exploited for better profits but instead took the basic cut-n-run concept to what they did not offer high profits that for the most part with some work would have been VERY lost cost and risk ventures with high profit values. Namely with Specialist games. The Necromunda rules were great, a few plastic boxed sets and they could have opened up doors to many new avenues! GW has also started things in the past like web campaigns and such only to let them fade away instead of keeping them going somehow. They did an amazing job with the 13^th Crusade for example and should be done again.
• GW is missing the bus also on skirmish games in general. With the economy in the crapper people are looking for smaller games with fewer models to stay in the hobby and get the most for their money. If you don’t keep them loyal to your product they will go somewhere else!
• GW is cheating the investors in the company. Yes, you will have great margins (and portfolio) when you inflate your percentages of price increases and cut things out (that could have made you more money) but it only works so far before you start cutting into the company and the quality. While GW has a great looking model line and product technology. Their rules writing has already started to show signs of suffering and their marketing/management structure has taken several severe hits that it no longer can really function as they should. You can keep blowing air into the balloon but after a point it will *POP*. 

What do you think?