"Kirby retires from GW. " Topic

link

Looks like the man who was in charge for a decade or so is leaving the company entirely soon.

He will be missed. By somebody, somewhere.

Sounds like a job opening!

Kirby got a lot of flak in his career, but the fact is he has been part of GW as most of us know it from nearly the beginning. When Kirby rose in the ranks and took over as chief executive in 1991, Rick Priestley (if I recall correctly… correct me if I am wrong, Rick!) complained that he ran the studio too tightly in comparison to the early days when Bryan Ansell ran the show. Nevertheless, Kirby's ruthless branding forged a Golden Era of Games Workshop in my opinion… 1991 to 1998 saw GW release the most aesthetically beautiful, cohesive and consistent opus of games and figures that the company has ever known. These games make up the canonical Games Workshop library to this day, just as the settings and stories told under his leadership still define the foundation for all of the major worlds and myths of GW games today.

Kirby is no doubt a controversial figure, and I would never say that all the things GW got right could be directly attributed to him, but I will say that his retirement is an important moment in the history of Games Workshop.

Kirby got a lot of flak in his career, but the fact is he has been part of GW as most of us know it from nearly the beginning.

His coming coincided with my leaving "The Games Workshop Hobby", and the beginning of his end coincided with my return. So, guess where I stand.

On his watch, the minis got better, but everything else suffered. And we're no counting what passing IP off to Fantasy Flight did for them.

GW did not earn the scorn of so many solely because of it's prices.

…and nothing of value was lost.

His pricing schemes remain though. So there is that.

He will be missed. By somebody, somewhere.

No he won't.

40k before 1992 was a huge mess, and was very inaccessible thanks to the rules being modified by countless white dwarf articles with NOTHING tying it all together beyond irregularly published compendiums such as the aptly titled Compendium. Epic had it even worse. If Kirby was responsible for the push to convert 40k, WFB, and Epic into structured boxed games with defined supplements, then he did something right, even though I disagreed with the substance of the changes.

Golden Era of Games Workshop in my opinion… 1991 to 1998

True, but it what he did after 1998 that really matters.

@Mithmee, that may be… I don't know that history too well. I happily stuck with the 90's games and can report that they are as much fun these days as ever.

Nice to see the cash-in happen in the form of a 12-month consulting contract :-)

He did some good, there's no doubt about that although some of the business decisions he made seemed troubling. In a world where most companies were embracing digital and using social to speak to their customers GW closed down everything and wouldn't allow any communication with the communities.

He was in the position too long and it was overdue a change imo. The company is a very different beast now and it looks to be moving a lot of things in the right direction.

His sin was getting carried away on the profit over market share train, and not recognizing the seriousness of competition in the hobby/wargaming miniatures space. If GW had not secured the LOTR license, they would have faded into just a niche player (far, far more than they currently are), and you can also fault Kirby for not exploiting the LOTR license effectively for the growth of the company--more of those LOTR buyers should have been converted to GW hobbyists, and they weren't.

By some metrics, his tenure was very successful, but I am squarely in the camp of he missed opportunities to do much better, and should be judged accordingly.

I think there were lotr license conflicts. Hence the different scale and basing to war hammer. It not easy to step across to the core games when your existing investment is not compatible.