"Predict the Big Game Companies 5 Years From Now" Topic

Five years from now, which companies will be the Big Players in the miniature wargaming hobby?

I think the companies that survive will be those with both a popular set of rules, and that can sustain themselves financially with rules variants, supplements and a variety of miniatures. They have to be able to sustain cash flow over a period of time.

Battlefront
Warlord Games

Perhaps something new will come out in the next five years.

OFM Enterprises™.

After the mega release of Flames of Liberty, we will be unstoppable.
We will absorb all miniatures manufacturers and allow those whose minis please us to continue.
Look for a return to "true 25mm" British Colonials.
And AWI Continentals without lapels.

Games Workshop.

All I can predict is that I'll be no more interested in their products than I am in the current top 5. They just don't make stuff that interests me.

As long as Irregular, Navwar, Peter Pig, QRF, PSC, Timecast, Kallistra and Zvezda survive, I don't really care.

It depends on thw health of the economy. People must feel good about their financial positions before they invest in thier hobby businesses. There are very few of us that gain a living salary from our businesses. For me, as many, my company is a side business. New figures come along when I can afford to invest in that side business without jeopardizing my lifestyle and that of my family.

Most of my dealings are with the small to medium players, who I hope will carry on jogging along and being available.

But answering the question, GW for certain; they've been able to sustain interest over many years as adherents come and go.

Battlefront, and Warlord Games? Wargaming trends can be very fluid.The big companies seem to thrive on an upsurge of interest in a particular scale or period that drops off after a while to a "normal" level.

I doubt there's enough of a critical mass in this very niche area to sustain very many full time full scale businesses.

I would suggest that it will be companies where the leadership is not directly involved in mould making or sculpting. Instead they will be direct a taem of people whom sculpt and design etc. This sort of company has the ability to hire and fire in order to make the business work, The medium sized players will continue to be those focussed on the sculptor or rule writer as lead.
Of course there are major implosions such as Skytrex where the boss is a criminal!

Just thoughts.

martin

I think Warlord could be bigger than it is today--they have shown the ability both to produce their own lines as well as acquire other lines to fill in gaps or expand. My only caveat with them is that I hope they have not been fueling their expansion on borrowed funds to date, otherwise I like them as the dominant 28mm historical manufacturer in five years.

Who are the big 5 today???

Rather, who are numbers 2 through 4?

Atari, I saw them advertising in Blade Runner, I'm sure is all to do with holo-virtual miniature gaming or something.

This is an easy one. Fantasy Flight will be on top. Just like Disney they will make gajillions on Star Wars games.

Mantic Games.
Just take note of how much funds they get on Kickstarter campaigns.

I believe Warlord is also not doing bad.

I'm not so shure about GW, with the end of WFB. I know there is follow up, but this seems extremely expensive. If their target public still is young teenager boys, I don't know where they should get the money to play Age of Sigmar.

If kick starter campaign is any indicator Hawk Games

I'm thinking that Kickstarters will not be the boon they have been, 5 years from now. Fatigue seems to be setting in at the moment, so those that rely on KS as their business model will have to shift to other marketing methods, which may or may not pan out.

FFG is definitely a top contender, well spotted Private Snafu.

As for everybody else, it's a toss up. Whoever stays on top has to have NEW AND SHINY, and how many new WW2 games and figures can drum up the level of excitement and generate enough profit to do the job, and keep doing it?

The only companies with stability are those which are not one man operations. I would guess Games workshop, Fantasy Flight Games, Spartan Games, and Ral Partha for these reasons.

Companies focused on historical gaming will lose market share since the younger generation do not have the appreciation for WWII that fuels the current interest in games by Battlefront.

Not sure how ancients will fare. One man operations like GZG, Brigade (both companies), and Irregular will fade.

BTW futurists never get it right.

There is one that nobody talks much about on TMP because many of their figures are used in other games and RPGs. That would be Reaper.

In five years, I think it'll look much the same for the big companies.

Warlord will be by far the biggest in the historical sector, growing by acquisition as well as organically. Smaller organisations who specialise in just figures or just rules will die out or will need to partner with the likes of Osprey in the way that North Star does so successfully.

What seems certain is that the hobby will continue to grow in the UK and Europe whilst in the US it will continue to "grey" and decline. The result is likely to be that UK firms will continue to dominate the hobby. The contrast between the exhibition stand quality of trading outlets seen at UK shows these days is in stark contrast to the garage sale look of many US convention trader halls.

Renedra, Shapeways, whoever comes up with an easy-to-use platform that lets digital sculptors easily sell their files to punters with home 3d printers.

Nice to know as a 'one man operation' I'm going to fade away…………
It will be the usual tale of slick marketing, lowest Common denominator over quality……pretty much like the rest of the universe lol
Not that I'm a pessimist or anything…………
L

There never was a "big player" on this hobby in mho. I am a good friend of the manager of the local Sam's Club and that store alone is going to come close to 150 million in sales this year _____ JUST THAT SINGLE STORE !!!! That's serious industry!!!
UK builds soldier companies. ___USA builds aircraft carriers and submarines?
leon, do not be worried __Old Glory has 11 employees and have for years and I am pretty sure they still do not consider us a "player"? Through the years I have seen enough people throwing money around, blowing smoke, moving mirrors, making proclamations and I have seen
many sink < we will see even more of this I think because of the debt load I think many may be piling up? All speculation of mine I might add, but time will
Regards
Russ Dunaway

Hinchliffe, Minifigs, Les Higgins Models, Lamming, Hinton-Hunt. I, for one, look forward to 1978.

Yes, I do believe that defiance games was at one time suppose to be the cats meow of the future, anyway according to some of their spokemen?
Regards
Russ Dunaway

Mexican Jack Squint ,
Ah if only! If I knew then what I know now Id have made a whole lot more good figures :)

Yeah Russ we both seen a heck of a lot of 'fluff' come and go through the years ain't we?
L

I think that the "little guys" who are here now will continue to be around in 5-20 years. The ranges may eventually pass on to someone else, but Hinchcliffe and Minifigs are still available and people are still buying them.

The larger companies have no influence on what I buy as a gamer and not much on my business. It's nice to get some sales on the back of Osprey's Frostgrave but I'm getting as much from Cobalt-1 and the current trend for Rogue Trader reboots…

The bigger the company the more overheads it has and the more likely it is to be affected by downturns in the market…

The move to packaged games is having an influence on the hobby no doubt, but there will always be people who can think "outside the box" (literally in some cases) and buy "non-official" figures.

Mike