Gee Dub yearly financials and annual statement

[Riavan]

Guys, I would pay many dollars for a AoS style vermintide.

[tjgreenway]

12 hours ago, James McPherson said:

From a world perspective I think Brexit is good news, I've been out in NZ a lot for work and the US and China, in NZ there's a GW in Wellington run by a great team but the prices are just insane. To give you an idea, the AOS starter set costs 250NZD which is about £125 . I paid double what it would cost in the UK for my stuff out there, what with all the import duty and shipping costs and whatnot. Hoping to see global prices go down a bit , and things get cheaper overseas (especially NZ), which will mean sales go up.

Hopefully the increase in exports and sales overseas will offset the loss in currency paid on imports such as raw materials and foreign marketing back home.

Jeez, and I thought we had it bad in Australia at 200 Aussie (about 115 GBP) for the starter, looks like it's even worse for the Kiwi's! GW's distribution centre for this part of the world's in Aus, though, so that would explain a lot with regards prices as wage costs here would be considerably higher than in Europe and the US. That won't change any time soon so I wouldn't hold my breath for much cheaper prices over here.

That said, I work in hospitality, and even when I was on a very basic wage it was more than I ever earned in the UK doing the same job, so it does even out. Would suck if you were over here purely travelling and wanting to continue hobbying at the same time, though.

[James McPherson]

I work in Welly, so I can afford to support the local GW scene a bit, I just have to be careful what I spend and consider buying back home. Its annoying when you buy stuff on the GW website though and choose shipping to NZ, and then find out it doesnt actually come from NZ, it's being shipped over from Sydney, and then you get import taxes charged on it, if th order is over 200NZD, unless you ship to the local GW store. But I digress!

[Turragor]

Interesting to revisit this and see that AoS (amongst other fine products) really is doing well:

http://investor.games-workshop.com/2016/12/01/trading-update-5/

 

[Arkiham]

Amazing thing is, it's not even started getting with the times,  they're so far behind on youtube and twitch, if as I suspect 40k goes the way of AoS sales are going to rocket.

[TerrorPenguin]

7 hours ago, Arkiham said:

Amazing thing is, it's not even started getting with the times,  they're so far behind on youtube and twitch, if as I suspect 40k goes the way of AoS sales are going to rocket.

Absolutely this. 40k has an established and fairly well loved universe but I suspect struggles to recruit new players at the moment because of the enormous mess the game is in. 

If they could establish the sort of growth they have seen in AOS in 40k they will be laughing all the way to the bank

[Turragor]

1 hour ago, TerrorPenguin said:

Absolutely this. 40k has an established and fairly well loved universe but I suspect struggles to recruit new players at the moment because of the enormous mess the game is in. 

If they could establish the sort of growth they have seen in AOS in 40k they will be laughing all the way to the bank

Surfing there on a river of tears flowing from those who hate the 40k changes

[Arkiham]

9 minutes ago, Turragor said:

Surfing there on a river of tears flowing from those who hate the 40k changes

Both slaanesh and tzeentch will rejoice.

[TerrorPenguin]

11 minutes ago, Turragor said:

Surfing there on a river of tears flowing from those who hate the 40k changes

Having had their 'tactical genius' title stripped from them now that the taudar they bought are suddenly not able to table everything turn two

[CoffeeGrunt]

Every time I mention that I'd like to see 40K get streamlined, even without mentioning AoS, I get so, so much hate. I've had people accusing me of being anti-intellectual, of trying to kill 40K, of not being a real fan. Y'know, 20K collection of converted Gue'vesa be damned.

Nerds, they really are a sensitive bunch.

[Soulsmith]

Yup, I guess it is part schadenfreude and part sweet revenge that most of us would like to see the 40K system sigmar-ed. They will continue the story and keep the universe, as it's the money maker, but the rules have to go.

 

I may even be interested then.

[RuneBrush]

1 hour ago, CoffeeGrunt said:

Every time I mention that I'd like to see 40K get streamlined, even without mentioning AoS, I get so, so much hate. I've had people accusing me of being anti-intellectual, of trying to kill 40K, of not being a real fan. Y'know, 20K collection of converted Gue'vesa be damned.

Nerds, they really are a sensitive bunch.

Must be honest and say I've found exactly the same reaction whenever I've seen similar posted.  Lots of people who live on the outskirts of GW and get all their information off BoLS seem to be under the mis-apprehension that GW are going to repeat what they did to the Old World and change the rules so that they are personally nerfed  

I think that whatever they do will be compatible with things that they're currently producing - however the ruleset as it stands is horrible to play with (let alone learn).  I spoke to a couple of the rules guys at the 40k Open Day and they were saying that they've learned a lot from doing AoS and things that work well, such as wounds tables for monsters and things that don't - so you never know what's going to happen!

One thing I will say is that it's really positive to see AoS is contributing to GW's profits

[Turragor]

2 hours ago, Soulsmith said:

Yup, I guess it is part schadenfreude and part sweet revenge that most of us would like to see the 40K system sigmar-ed. They will continue the story and keep the universe, as it's the money maker, but the rules have to go.

 

I may even be interested then.

I don't really care that a large chunk of the most vocal 40k players mock AoS. So if it's a poorly taken change I think I'll feel rather neutral about the wild, wild storm of crazy internet madness that'll chatter from the angry fingers of a thousand baboon people.

I mean, I just described them as baboon people so you know I don't think neutrally about the type of person reacting really badly but I won't be surprised by those reactions. They won't register that much. Just another internet catastrophe crafted from almost nothing by crazies.

I mean, in the long run it's going to play the same or better than before. It's just the reaction to  big change itself is always, somehow, hysterical in these murky online depths.

What I really care about is being able to play 40k again. That  game got me into tabletop gaming!

[CoffeeGrunt]

Yeah, I ended up getting dragged into an argument with a guy who claimed that the complexity was a good thing in 40K. I noted that, as an engineer, complexity for complexity's sake is just wasteful to me. I love minimalism, a design that achieves the goal using precisely what it needs and nothing more. There's a note of that efficient elegance in AoS. 

40K, by comparison, is so very bloated to teach newcomers. You need to constantly reference the book, memorise tables for Perils, Vehicle Damage, Superheavy Destruction, D Weapons, Deep Strike Mishaps, etc, etc. It's all so unnecessary and bloated after edition-upon-edition of tacked-on upgrades, like a late-gen T-90.

[Zeratan]

Indeed, years of accumulated accretion made 40k really difficult to get into. I had spent hours studying the rules, watching videos explaining them and battle reports on YouTube  but when it came watching a tournament on a convention I couldn't say what was going on.

[MrCharisma]

I'll be waiting for more information from the press announcement in Jan (?), however; this statement is certainly better than the last annual statement. I read the last one cover to cover and it was interested to read how the licensing agreements really propped up the business while AoS fell behind plan. There was a real arrogance in the last annual statement which I don't see in this update to the market.

Changes to White Dwarf, release of the General's Handbook and some excellent models, and the release of boxed sets... I imagine this statement will be the positive momentum that they need to for a strong future. 

While Blood Bowl won't be factored into his statement, I'm curious to see how it performed against plan.

[James McPherson]

On 05/12/2016 at 10:51 AM, Turragor said:

Interesting to revisit this and see that AoS (amongst other fine products) really is doing well:

http://investor.games-workshop.com/2016/12/01/trading-update-5/

 

Where do you look for info/a breakdown? I only see a small trading statement?

[daedalus81]

5 hours ago, James McPherson said:

Where do you look for info/a breakdown? I only see a small trading statement?

That will come in January with the actual report.

[Ollie Grimwood]

Aosifying (?) 40K would be worth it for the tears alone. Not so keen myself because it'll effect my focus as it might draw my interest away from AoS. 

I'll be interested to see the report. Part of the issue last year was a large increase in GWs costs, I wonder if these were one offs or have continued, I suspct they might have been involved in setting up the community team. 

[BaldoBeardo]

Massive jump in royalties, but that's likely pre-orders of TW:WH given the dates of the report.
The bit I do find weird is the sales split between Stores, Mail Order and Independents. GW makes more than 60% of sales through it's own full-price channels. I find that really surprising.
It's also why I treat any analysis of independent sales breakdowns by product with large doses of NaCl.
GHB release isn't captured by this report, so will be very interesting to see the full-year - all the unofficial info I've had is that GHB did absolute wonders for AoS sales, which weren't awful to begin with.


Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[daedalus81]

Total War royalties hit on the year end of last report.  It is unlikely that royalties got them that high this time around.

[Gaz Taylor]

5 hours ago, BaldoBeardo said:

Massive jump in royalties, but that's likely pre-orders of TW:WH given the dates of the report.
The bit I do find weird is the sales split between Stores, Mail Order and Independents. GW makes more than 60% of sales through it's own full-price channels. I find that really surprising.k
 

Really? I'm not. Most players aren't aware of the only community and channels for purchasing online. Plus you get people buying gifts and presents for players and they will only go to an official store (it's what my wife does as it's easier)

[Bjarni St.]

Over here (Norway) the gaming stores aren't cheaper anyway. One markets itself as being "the cheapest" and sells most things at 1 NOK below GW price.

[Kramer]

3 hours ago, Bjarni St. said:

Over here (Norway) the gaming stores aren't cheaper anyway. One markets itself as being "the cheapest" and sells most things at 1 NOK below GW price.

so far the only benifit of buying in store here in the netherlands I have found is a 7% discount but only on orders over 50 euros and that are not webstore exclusives. (which for some reason have been my last 5 or 6 purchases) So ordring through GW is a viable option. 

Also not that many official Games Workshops stores in the Netherlands .

[mhsellwood]

January for more detailed information but certainly at this point you would have to be very positive - full year profit in the first six months? Yes please.

Obviously it is too early to make predictions, but I think it likely that we will see much improved actual core business sales (as opposed to one off royalty revenue). I base this view on a couple of things:

- I have seen a chart of sales through Wayland Games - actual numbers removed but trends are obvious - and what it shows is that the Generals Handbook and the Sylvaneth release were hugely successful. Obviously a limited sample but interesting.

- We have seen a couple of releases with sufficient demand that GW posted on facebook about being sold out (Sylvaneth and Genestealer cults from memory)

- Battle for Prospero.

What I would like to see though is for GW senior management to take these profits and actually invest them back into the company and their product lines rather than hand back cash to shareholders.