| Pictors Studio | 31 Jul 2018 10:44 a.m. PST |
It looks like GW has posted profits of 74.5 million quid up from 38.4 million the year before. Total revenues jumped from 158.1 million to 219.8 Despite this share prices fell, although the analyst quoted at the end thinks they are in good shape for continued growth. Perhaps investors are worried that they might be overvalued even though they have been doing well? link |
| Neal Smith | 31 Jul 2018 10:58 a.m. PST |
"Buy on the rumor and sell on the news." most likely. I haven't been buying a ton of the newer 40K stuff, but we are playing it more with this release. |
 Editor in Chief Bill   | 31 Jul 2018 11:16 a.m. PST |
So Age of Sigmar was marketing genius? |
| TheWhiteDog | 31 Jul 2018 11:24 a.m. PST |
I bet the the LOTR rebranding, and moving it from direct-only to retail, will be a big shot in the arm as well. |
| Pictors Studio | 31 Jul 2018 11:30 a.m. PST |
Age of Sigmar was marketing genius. They took a game that had a pretty big player base but was not attracting new players and was losing old ones. One that had been one of the top five non-collectible miniature games but had fallen off of that list and did away with it. Then replaced it with something totally new and fairly different, attracted a ton of new players, refreshed the interest of some old players even though they may have lost some others and brought that game back into the top five hugely boosting sales of the product at the same time to where they are having to find new methods of production to keep up with demand. A release so successful that they then used the system as a template to redo their other, previously more successful system, and had a huge re-launch with that which also brought in new gamers and brought back a ton of old gamers. AoS has to be one of the biggest gaming success stories of the 2010s. |
YogiBearMinis  | 31 Jul 2018 12:33 p.m. PST |
That, and relaunching or rebooting discontinued games, so that gamers have multiple options within the GW greater product catalog. Bringing back Blood Bowl was smart, Necromunda, etc. I heard Gothic is on the horizon, and who knows, maybe even Warmaster. |
| Daithi the Black | 31 Jul 2018 1:49 p.m. PST |
I'm happy for them :) No sarcasm intended, BTW |
 Mister Tibbles | 31 Jul 2018 2:20 p.m. PST |
Miniature sales overall for all companies are up 32% over last year. Good articles to read:
link link |
| Bravo Two Zero | 31 Jul 2018 4:35 p.m. PST |
I am glad to see them doing so well. I never bought into the evil empire feelings that many had. Not to say I was miffed to pay more and I had orcs so I had to drop plenty of cash. As a teen with a car that needed work often, a girlfriend, even lazier friends (some never pitched in on the keg- not once) my money was limited. They pulled me back in with Battle of Calth. Now I am watching the Kill Team YouTube videos as they come out. The vibe they generate is great. You can feel it at the store. When you see kids and the older chaps working on new models just for this kill team release someone is doing something correctly.
Cheers GW. Now I want to see Pictors doing awesome AARs on Kill Team
JH |
| 15mm and 28mm Fanatik | 31 Jul 2018 5:55 p.m. PST |
Since the "corporate shake-up" that saw the much despised Tom Kirby replaced by Kevin Rountree, GW has greatly enhanced its PR image and turned things around, making its games more accessible to a wider audience by taking it from its niche roots to the mainstream. After all, if the perky and effervescent ginger Becca Scott of Geek & Sundry starts to hawk your wares, then you have truly arrived: youtu.be/fGOWPzoNRuQ youtu.be/VYsUv1bbOZo |
| Centurio Prime | 31 Jul 2018 6:19 p.m. PST |
Mithmee, please help us understand this… link |
| The Beast Rampant | 31 Jul 2018 8:14 p.m. PST |
I never bought into the evil empire feelings that many had. Well, there are good emperors, and bad emperors. Hey, did Tom Kirby ever try to make his schnauzer a board member? |
| McWong73 | 03 Aug 2018 6:20 p.m. PST |
Strong dividend payout, make those pension funds happy! |
| The H Man | 07 Aug 2018 7:09 p.m. PST |
"…and did away with it. Then replaced it with something totally new and fairly different…" +1 I would still like to see them bring back fantasy battles. Perhaps as "Warhammer: Old World", or such. Like the other sub games they are re-releasing. Streamline the armies, just start with six (Empire, high elves, orcs, dwarves, undead and mixed chaos) with a regiment sprue for each that could make several types of unit and perhaps a mixed monster, war-machine, commander sprue for each. Late 80-90s style. Would contrast well against AOS and 40k. Boil it all down to a smaller (but expandable buy players and GW), release type of game, if they can't go the whole hog. One day, perhaps…"I'll just wait" (Little Britain style) I do wonder if the goings on in China may upset plastic figures production or costs. They are taking in less world recyclables and changing their own collection and recycling set ups. (Foreign correspondent had one good report last night) Will this change future financial reports for these companies using plastic? |
| Rudysnelson | 09 Aug 2018 7:36 a.m. PST |
When any company launches new ranges and a new system, their profit level for the next few years will be much lower as casting design, mold production and casting production and packaging all takes money and reduces profit levels for that period of time. Once the system is established with casting and packaging support, profit levels will increase. This is common with all companies and does not reflect brilliant marketing or a range failure. |
| HUBCommish | 09 Aug 2018 7:30 p.m. PST |
Perhaps. But the recent marketing, trade dress, and products for Age of Sigmar have been tops. Plus there's GW's 180 degree turnabout with regards to customer engagement and attempting to foster goodwill. Also, it definitely helps that they have recognized that people play the games, not just buy the figures, and have been doing outside playtesting to help fine-tune rules and armies. |
| CaptainSlowhand | 10 Aug 2018 8:58 a.m. PST |
Mithmee, please help us understand this… Somehow I don't think the explanation would be helpful… |
| Pictors Studio | 10 Aug 2018 10:44 p.m. PST |
"When any company launches new ranges and a new system, their profit level for the next few years will be much lower as casting design, mold production and casting production and packaging all takes money and reduces profit levels for that period of time. Once the system is established with casting and packaging support, profit levels will increase. This is common with all companies and does not reflect brilliant marketing or a range failure." Yeah but that isn't what happened. Their profits have been going up since AoS was released. The profits did not lower over "the next few years" it increased. And the rate of increase is increasing. |
| 1905Adventure | 11 Aug 2018 7:54 a.m. PST |
I used to have a huge list of things GW needed to do before I would ever spend my money with them again. They have done them all. And then more that I would have not thought to ask for. From free painting videos on youtube to actually supporting low model count games like Shadespire, Age of Sigmar Skirmish and Killteam to having bundles with actual savings to active community engagement and more direct support of different ways to play the game, there's pretty much nothing the same about current GW compared to the dark years under the previous CEO. They even stopped sicking their lawyers on everyone. They stopped dealing unfairly with their local store trade partners. They are treating their own employees right (the performance bonus was evenly split among all employees rather than just going to the CEO like how the previous CEO did it). They've embraced new online media platforms and social media in a pretty spectacular way. They do stuff like this now: YouTube link |
