So GW decides to raise their prices…again.

Just do what I and many others do. Buy your stuff on ebay or from the various stores. At least there you’ll get a discount. Or you could always buy alternate minis like Reaper and such. The Felix Jaegar figure is oop and I found a Reaper mini that works as a good substitute, if you can ignore the Elven ears.

herr schlessenbaumer makes a significant point about the website, it really does need a global team on it, and an enchanced online store.

lets hope the price increase will benefit gamers as a whole eh?

Lee

That’s right, that famous peddler shampoo Mark Wells has been doing an ok job. Sure, the website is still a shambles, and nearly on the level of a debacle, but when it all comes around, say in about two years, to be one worldwide presence, it won’t be bad…

There’s no question that GW has been working on being a better company over the past year – retaking a lot of ground they lost to other miniature games in the process. I am somewhat concerned about the trend towards larger and larger armies as this really increases the barrier to new hobbyists (but this might be a great area of opportunity for your loyalty program idea).

There is a trend away from metal (the alloy used cost a similar amount to silver), Many of the new releases have been multi-option plastic kits. These offer better value to the gamers, have a longer marketing life and far lower production costs (although development costs are higher). GW are also consolidating their range, with single kits having the options to make several different models. This effective increases the stock range on cramped shelves.

GW are also promoting larger armies at every opportunity. Apocalypse is an example of this, where players require twice as many products to play as previous game senarios played instore required. The GW magazine “White Dwarf” has also had a run of articles describing larger and larger battles.

It is also interesting that there’s a big staff recruitment project going on at the moment. Additional staff instore should increase the ’selling’ of the hobby to casual shoppers, and further increase sales.

They even held a feedback day (under a different name) a few months ago, to capture customer comments and ideas.

In short GW has got more professional – cutting production costs, producting products with lower shelf volume and longer lifespans, listening to customers, and promoting the purchase of their product at every opportunity.

What’s next? I suspect a loyalty scheme, that gives access to limited edition items.

David C.