"GW's Greatest Error?" Topic

In your opinion, what was Games Workshop's single worst error ever?

5) Allowing itself to be taken over by suits who do not care about gaming, just profits.

4) Codex and battle – manuals galore

3) Banning non GW figures from Tourneys

2) Finecast (!)

1) Stopping the sale of other games made by other manufacturers in their stores!

Not maximizing profits on their products…..

Not lobbying government leaders to ban the sale, or giving away of alternative rules and miniatures by competitors. This one seems rather obvious to me, but thankfully, apparently they haven't thought of it.

Plastic

Plastic? Really?

Their channel strategy. Attempting to freeze out the indy retailers has made them very vulnerable, and between that and their stocking policies they've completely exhausted their goodwill with retailers. We used to teach these tactics to MBAs in the 80's, but more recently they've proven to be short-sighted.

GW is one good alternative from being utterly gutted. The retailers will do everything in their power to cut GW down to size. A company whose stated policy is to bankrupt you and build their own retail store isn't going to get an ounce of help.

None of the above. It's a business.

Plastic is a god send. I dislike metal at 28mm scale. Less creative opportunity.

They did however, just in the last day or so, remove Tau Pathfinders…just as I needed some. I do not want them in Finecast damnit….and people on Ebay have been charging outrageous prices for them for the last year, stating they were "OOP" well, I hate to see what they'll go up to now that they are actually OOP!

Before that, they withdrew Broadsides just as I was about to order three too.

Conspiracy? I think so! Guess I better snag O'shovah before he goes away too.

Requiring minimum huge monthly orders and a large multiple product item order of 3 or 6 each.

Dropping good sellers like Epic or Space hulk.

Changing the system just to sell more such a Epic back in the 1980s.

Finecast.

Killing off the Slann as frogs and turning them in to Lizard Men. peh.

GW seems to have made a lot of good decisions over the years, as is evidenced by the growth of the company despite computer gaming alternatives. They have kept a product that was conceived at a very different time alive and viable when other products, even D&D, have faded from importance in the field.

I think that losing some of the creators behind their product will hurt them in the long run. Rick Preistly in particular was a very dynamic and productive individual who is still churning out rule systems that remain popular with consumers.

I don't know why he left, it may have been because he lost interest in the product and gained more interest in historicals, he had made all the money he really needed or some thing else. It may have been impossible to keep him for all I know but if they could have done so I believe that would have been for their best interest.

The horrible handling of there other games. By constantly canceling games.

Stopping for support for their other games such as Warmaster.

Throughout my experience with GW (1986-2001ish), I always felt their single biggest problem was that never finished what they started. Apparently, that is still the case.

Now, I would have to say that their biggest mistake is one that so many big businesses (yes, relative to the gaming industry) make, and that is going after one customer base like The Terminator, while scoffing at /ignoring all others. I don't get it.

Oh, and their imperious "Word of God, v.12.8" attitude is infuriating. It's like watching the PeeWee Herman "I meant to do that" bicycle crash on perpetual loop.

(But, we'll go with the second one.)

The thing that bothered me the most was discontinuing the individual bitz store, although I can understand why they might have done that. I bet it was a logistical nightmare to run. Of course, Reaper has managed to do it…

I get really tired of reading all the whining about high prices, but I'm starting to get turned off myself. I about had a heart attack when I saw what a plastic dreadnaught costs, and you know something is wrong when Forgeworld starts to be an affordable alternative.

I think they're now charging for digital articles, like the rules for the new Ork flyer. The rules, now obsolete as I understand it, were just in WD two months ago. Why not offer a free download? They're making really bad decisions on the digital front IMO.

Is the company making money, and returning on its shareholders' investment?
Then, it is fulfilling its fiduciary duties, and any other concerns are meaningless.

Complaining about GW's policies is like bitching that Nike doesn't make enough red sneakers. As long as it makes money for its shareholders, it is doing the right thing, and that is all that matters.

MY only complaint is that what they make is not for me, and the 40K universe is just plain silly. But, satisfying old guys is not their business plan.

bad policies keep GW from making more money thus more profit than they have been. The loss of retail stores or sales due to withdrawn products or disgruntled players does hurt ttal sales.

I agree with RudyNelson, far from fulfilling their responsibility to the shareholders to maximize profit and stock value the current GW leadership seems intent on running the company into the ground. Their independent retail policy is a great example of this- short term boost in sales vs. a big long term loss. Not a great choice unless you're planning to just scrap production and turn the company into an intellectual property only house. I actually half-way suspect that IS the plan, and GW will drop out of the business as a direct supplier entirely and license their IP to another company to make games.

-Wil

Plastic Catachans.

OK, maybe it isn't their greatest error. The models do really suck.

Of course, Reaper has managed to do it…

Reaper can also just throw the leftovers back in the pot when they accumulate too many.

Can't do that to plastic unfortunately.

Agreed on the Catachans. Plastics of the other IG regiments would be welcome though. They appeal to a pretty wide gamer base, even non-40K players.

Their foisting of a very amoral (sadistic, xenophobic, brutal, ideology driven) view of the future/war on impressionable youngsters … just to make a buck/pound. The various editions aren't the issue, and I like a lot of the miniatures.

It isn't a mistake, they have gotten quite rich off of their in house games. But I really miss Citadels great little Spacefarers and the D & D monsters I used to get because nobody cast aliens.That was back when Traveller came in a little black book you could have hidden behind Father Johns Baltimore Catechism if you really were a kid again.

They did however, just in the last day or so, remove Tau Pathfinders…just as I needed some. I do not want them in Finecast damnit…

Rumour has it the Tau Pathfinders will be released as plastic.

My biggest peeve is that they make a rule system that changes every month so that no one really knows what the rules are.

Crapcast… even the faithful seem to wish it wasn't so.

Pricing structure! And the self built obsession that people have no alternative but to buy their products! Think again! I'm voting with my wallet! I'm not saying their products arent great, some of their is amazing and I never thought I would see the likes of it in plastic! But I just can't justify the cost, to me personally their products are just not worth what they are asking! The odd treat may still be allowed once in awhile, so there you go! Other than that i'll say what I said before "nothing new can really be said about GW"

Losing the sense of humour that used to be in the fluff.

Put Bryan Ansell in charge so that GW became an extension of Citadel to sell more figures. GW could have been even bigger and much more diverse.

another vote for finecast. my daughter bought a dragon model that melted in normal summer temperatures

Not incorporating the 25+ year old gamer into the business plan/view. Targeting that audience would seem to make sense and I'm uncertain if it would be all that difficult.

Erik

I never understand why people are freaked out by the cost, it's supply and demand after all …

White Dwarf … the change from all round magazine (capable of bringing more people into the hobby) to a GW advertising brochure. *sob*

Selling their souls to Satan.

Changing the epic bases from 20mm squares to those rectangles. It killed Epic, and despite the excellence of the newer Epic rules, the game never recovered.

Oh God, I HATED THOSE THINGS! They looked stupid (are they armed with muskets!?), and warped like hell. Whose bright idea was that?!

Finecast.

Followed closely with the design changes from the older Brettonian and Skaven models. Also ending production of the first metal LOTR orcs.

being s

6) All the above

Making good decisions for the shareholders and running a successful business is admirable to some degree. That does not mean I have to like their business practices or their product. Nor does it mean I have to buy from them.

not letting Blizzard do their MMORPG video game … oh wait they did something similar in the end ..did'nt they?

I'm of the type that says as long as they make a profit, and the shareholders are happy they are doing the right thing. That being said I think the biggest mistake they make is freezing out the older designers like Chambers and Preistly.

Finecast, no question.

Not supporting the secondary games like Space Hulk, Epic, Mighty Empires, Blood Bowl, etc.

I don't like their business model, even though they make money. Codexes don't catch up to new rule releases. I also don't like how they failed to support Mordheim and Necromunda. Gave us a little taste and then stopped supporting it. Makes me very hesitant to take any more hooks they use the same bait with.

Failing to plan for the fall in demand after the 'LoTR movies effect' wore off. There's a case study for a business course.

I don't really understand the idea of these secondary games not being supported.

Look at Lost Wolf's post. He is complaining on the one hand that they update their main games regularly (support them, in other words) and don't update their secondary games (they don't support them, in other words.)

Both Necromunda and Mordheim have new models coming out constantly. Since they are both basically specialist skirmish games of WH40K and WHFB respectively many models that are produced for the latter two will work for the former.

If they did "support" Mordheim and Necromunda they would both be on third editions or so by now and we'd be hearing how they ruined it and were only putting out new editions to make more models.

If they never put out new editions of 40K and fantasy battle we'd have to hear about how they aren't supported any more and they just abandoned the fans.

GW can't win on this one.

Hi, replying to John who talked about keeping the shareholders happy. There has been a new turn with many up and coming Companies recently. They are deciding to keep them private. The thinking is that 'keeping' the shareholders happy in the long term really is not a sustainable business model. Expecting growth for growth's sake doesn't always make sense to a Company. Yeah, you do get access to a lot of cash going public. But you certainly pay a price. How many of those GW games would not have been cut if GW was still a private Company? Of course, the flip of the coin is would those games have ever been made if they hadn't gone public?

Thanks,

John

John Leahy,

Very good point. Being a slave to quarterly profits can really screw you long term.

Poor treatment of independant game shops.

Never quite sure GW never went to D10 so they could use percentages etc A more streamilined combat system would have been nice rtaher than the cumbersome hit/wound/save system

1 and 5 from the list provided by Maddaz111.

Although these were only errors in so far as they disadvantaged me personlly. For GW they were probably exactly the right move – hence their dominance of wargaming. There's GW and then there's everyone else (and everyone else combined probably doesn't add up to GW).

So, looking at what GW has done and has it been good or bad for the company – then they have never made a real mistake.