The future of Games Days and Games Workshop - Part 9

Well, that escalated quickly!





I know, it's another wall of text. But I believe you really should read this if the miniature and gaming hobby is close to your heart.





I am old and slow. And apparently I have at least one working crystal ball.





Two days ago we simply reported about the dramatic decline of Game's Workshop's value. On a single day, the Company lost 24% of its value. This followed the release of their half-year-report in which they showed -12% lost sales, -30% profits....

It is unlikely you have not heard of it, since our post about this yesterday has become our 2nd most read post ever And it's even just a little over a day old.

Two days ago, I promised that I would release some of the 'rumors' I heard on our blog this weekend. Little did I know that the ones I couldn't believe (or didn't want to believe) seemt to turn out to be true...



DISCLAIMER: I first heard about this 3 days ago. More and more sources report the same story. At the moment I would qualify this as rumors, even though I have no doubt GW is 'clever' enough to do just this. I got all of the following information from sources inside and outside GW.





Oh, and I am going to give it my personal twist, because I'm in denial of reality. Kinda like the GW management really.





Initiating downward spiral. ENGAGE!



Sometimes, when you think to yourself, "Smile and relax, because it can't possibly get any worse" you just lean back, smile and releax. And it get's worse.



And when talking about our glorious leaders at GW Management, I tend to find myself thinking this in shorter and shorter timeframes.



I have a red spot on my forehead caused by excessive facepalming. Ouch!



GW closes down most of their international HQs, fires HQ staff

Apparently Games Workshop has learned from the bankers. What do you do when you frak up and your business goes south? You make less money? No! You kick and scream and fire the people who's fault it ain't.

Too big to fail?



Games Workshop closes down all international HQs. Management of all affected stores will be centralized on the Golden Throne of Terror in Nottingham.

One possible exception could be Germany which is said to remain independent according to at least one source inside GW.

France, Italy, Spain - not really a surprise here. You read the articles on this blog ( part 1 of 9 is here) and with the neglectful death of Games Days pretty much everywhere it's not totally weird for GW to do something like this.





The big surprise is the USA. WOW. If this is true and GW really closes down their US HQ,.... Doublewow. Last year they claimed they can open stores in the US until all eternity. And now they close the US HQ? Yeah, good luck running expansions from the UK. I hope this is not true. Not sure what this looks like from inside the management bubble in the UK, though... [Update Jan-18 - 6:42pm] From (now former) GW HQ staff I got this information: HQ USA will remain intact. HQ Germany will be closed with the possible exception of a skeleton crew.





Firing squad





Apparently, Games Workshop has already terminated the employment with affected employees at the respective HQs. Allegedly some were offered a Job in beautiful Nottingham. How many actually consider moving their families and their lives to Sherwood Forrest, I don't know.

At least all terminations seem to take place fairly and to the letter of the law. Severance Pay and sufficient notice and all.



Of course that leaves some other people hanging, right now.



As of now , for example, the stores in Germany are said to have no contacts. Probably some fun discussions in the stores going on right now. Not.





Assorted facticious rumors





White Dwarf



The weekly 'replacement' of the White Dwarf (4x 3,50€ instead of 1x8€) is already a fact and no longer a rumor. Someone at GW apparently REALLY thinks that people will go to the store to pick up their favorite hobby magazine - and a Space Marine or two while they are there anyways...



Where is the facepalm image, when you need one... Ah there. So management. Much facepalm. Very ouch.



Finecast is dead.



LOL, that one we actually knew months, if not years before the GW management. And they just quietly let it die. No announcement, no sad goodbye. They just stopped production of Finecast.



Finecast just became extinct. And no-one noticed nor cared.



REMEMBER how they let Finecast die, because you'll need this for a glance into the future, below!



Until Death do us part



Games Workshop and Forge World will 'fuse' on an operational and sales level. The Forge World site will be integrated into the GW site and FW product will be available in the GW stores.



This makes sense I guess - as long as GW's management let's the FW do their thing. As soon as they start meddling in design affairs at FW, all bets are off.



An Unexpected Journey



LotR and The Hobbit IP will be handled by Forge World. It's like: "Hey, we messed this up and don't know what to do with it, will you have a look?"



Like that's gonna change anything, lol.



If Forge World is clever, they stop making gaming miniatures for LotR and The Hobbit and start going into busts and stuff - kinda like the poor man's DIY alternative to Sideshow stuff. This idea is free for you, GW! No, no need to thank me. Just don't spend another Pence on the games. If you build them, they will buy. Damn, even I would.





All products are created equal.

Some products are more equal.



I don't know if they had you read Miniature Farm in school, but I seem to remember it vaguely.



30% of all GW product will be available as Web-shop exclusives in the future. So on any release, you will most likely have to go to a store OR conveniently buy everything from the GW site. How nice of them!



I will take a deep look into the crystal ball for this one. And I don't like what I am about to see there. Brace yourself. The future is indeed grim.



This in connection with everything I wrote about independent retailers in future articles might very well be another gigantic blow to the hobby. And increased profitability KPIs for the shareholders.



Mass Extinction of entire Races



Remember the Dinosaurs? A wild comet appears. It uses deep impact. It's super effective!



Remember Warhammer Fantasy Battles? A wild management authorizes one horrible rulebook after another. It invokes mass exodus of gamers. It's super effective!



Games Workshop will not produce, update or support entire WHFB armies. The first to go are allegedly Wood Elves, Bretonnia, Beastmen and Khemri. And IF YOU believe that this will save WHFB, YOU MIGHT JUST be delusional OR a top manager at Games Workshop, likely both.





We are witnessing the first events in a Finecast-esque death of WHFB, people.



I would not be surprised if you can buy the remaining armies at 50% off at some point in the future, following in the glorious death-traps of Bloodbowl, Gothic, Necromunda and Inquisitor.



Yeah, writing good rules would have been much harder than just killing a whole gaming system.



I often think: "What are they smoking?' but more and more I realize they ain't smoking anything at all. They are not even drunk enough to go home. They just used up all the air in their management bubbles and their brains seem to be suffocating.... And the fans are even trying to poke holes in their bubbles to save them... To no avail.



I dont think this particular one is true



Now there are one or two rumors that I don't think are true. At least not yet. I am actually quite convinced that we are looking at something that might happen in a year or two, but not now.



