Age of Sigmar weekly survey: Games Workshop Price Changes (Results 23rd February))

[Harioch]

The price hikes has stopped me buying more than 2 armies right now (1 for 40k and 1 for AoS). Maybe a third. But before I was buying for fun side project and now I limit myself and keep on growing slowly one army at a time. And now I only buy from third parties.

It also makes it difficult to promote warhammer to friends because it's not only the models you need to buy. It's the battletome, the expansion (BR or PA for exemple), paints, glue, etc...

[Chikout]

Here in Japan prices are crazy. I did a little comparison. In order to buy a Mega Gargant direct in London a MacDonalds worker should work for 15.3 hours. In New York it is 18.7 hours and in Tokyo it is a whopping 29.4 hours.  That's a pretty crazy difference and as inflation is very low in Japan it's only going to get worse. 

As much as the regular price increases are an issue it is the vast differences in prices around the world that is the real problem.

[SunStorm]

No issues with the prices from me. I know that is sacrilege to say on these boards and someone will be along soon to call me a GW shill, but this is a hobby to me and is optional. Other hobbies I have are also expensive, so it's not just GW.  Compared to buying £300-400 action figures or car parts for £1000, spending a fraction of that on a box of miniatures that I can enjoy assembling, then painting, then gaming with and also have on display seems like a good deal to me.

 

 

[Beastmaster]

To be fair, I recently looked into multiple other miniature lines. 7 Euro is quite standard for a single human-sized 28mm in a roughly comparable quality. Maybe there should be a discount for boxes of 10, but at least the old, not easy to build boxes had lots of neat spare parts that were well worth it. Still, I think 30-35€ for 10 basic infantry, or maybe 15-20 for a small hero I really want is about the maximum I’d pay without feeling ripped off.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Beastmaster

[Noserenda]

Your last question does not seem to support me continuing to buy from 3rd parties regardless of price changes. A discount is still a discount

Higher prices dont really make me buy less, but they do make me buy different things, like ive considered several new AoS armies the past year but the value is much better on things like Titanicus, so i have a bunch more titans instead, gw still ultimately got my money though! 

[Mcthew]

 Echoing others here, price is both a prohibitive thing for the hobby and discourages. I held off building a Nighthaunt army purely on the basis of Chainrasps being ludicrously expensive. 

Mortal Realms magazine then showed me that GW can still sell these models at a lower price point and not suffer financially (£2.99 for 10 chainrasps and 3 sequitors!!!), so it's got precious little do with production costs really.

The new Slaanesh models look nice too, but again are overpriced. So I won't be buying the new Hedonite mortals range unless I can pick them up cheap from a 3rd party.

Price isn't just a problem for current players though. It discourages the next generation. Most of my son's friends do not play because it is overly expensive. A business will struggle without new blood and GW can no longer rely on gamers passing their interests onto their kids.

I'd say pricing needs to be looked at as a matter of priority for GW for the next 12 months for this to be sustainable. You simply can't ramp up costs and expect to thrive during an economic downturn without the business suffering.

[Fairbanks]

So am I the only weird one who would buy direct from GW if they lowered prices?

I’d like to help the local Warhammer store/manager, and make sure they keep the local store.

But (most recently) I was about to impulse-buy a DE Battleforce from the local third party (who has it in stock), but when I saw the rumor that Cursed City was $300, those plans were scrapped immediately and I haven’t gone back ($300 looks suspiciously accurate). So have any Hedonites purchases (The Archers are maybe the only thing close to price-accurate), Lumineth (the current stuff is too high), hell, I was even interested in Kill Team Pariah Nexus (That’s a big f***ing NO. 12 models for $160 is gouging).

I turned to “Big Box Specials” recently for a reason. Everything else isn’t worth the monetary cost except the big centerpiece models, which is a drastic flip from what dragged me into Fantasy in the first place.

[Clan's Cynic]

On 2/16/2021 at 7:53 PM, Vasshpit said:

GW isn't stupid and they have to be aware that mainstream 3d printing is right around the corner and with these prices it'll be hard to compete. Just my opinion. 

You underestimate peoples laziness and/or how the upfront cost of a 3D printer will impact on peoples decision.

I imagine most people would rather keep spending money in £50-£100 waves than an upfront cost of- well, let's say a £250 printer + materials. Look at how few people use an airbrush for example. Most people I expect would still happily pay 500% the cost for the convenience of just opening up a box and pulling out the sprue than having to 'learn' how to do something else.

Another thing to consider is GW might actually be aware of it and that's why every other new model is on a Tactical Rock(tm), or has all those very finely detailed, finicky bits that are sometimes so 'fine' they actually break on the sprue in the box (see: Direchasm). These might be less aesthetic decisions but an attempt to hurt 3D printers that aren't of an industrial quality.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Clan's Cynic

[Vasshpit]

9 minutes ago, Clan's Cynic said:

You underestimate peoples laziness and/or how the upfront cost of a 3D printer will impact on peoples decision.

I imagine most people would rather keep spending money in £50-£100 waves than an upfront cost of- well, let's say a £250 printer.

Perhaps. BUT the unlazy ones will make a profit selling to the lazy ones. 

I'm a firm believer that the tech is just going to get more and more common everyday to the point of  reaching the mainstream equivalent of a pc or even a tv in most homes. 

[Mcthew]

It's not just the model price rises either. I mean, 2 Lumineth battletomes in 12 months? Is this what we should expect? Incomplete lore and rules that you have the privilege of buying twice? I'm surprised Lumineth players have taken this so well.

What about AoS 3.0? Are we expected a split release for the core book? I was a wee bit annoyed that Hedonites needed another book, but this could get out of hand. GW are not covering themselves with glory here. Sure Lumineth players are wetting themselves but for many others you start feeling like you're being played.

It's not a nice feeling really.

Edited for a personal reflection:

I'm keeping an eye on GW. I may need to take a loooong break (a few years) from this hobby if this persists. 

Edited February 20, 2021 by Mcthew

[stratigo]

On 2/19/2021 at 3:50 AM, SunStorm said:

No issues with the prices from me. I know that is sacrilege to say on these boards and someone will be along soon to call me a GW shill, but this is a hobby to me and is optional. Other hobbies I have are also expensive, so it's not just GW.  Compared to buying £300-400 action figures or car parts for £1000, spending a fraction of that on a box of miniatures that I can enjoy assembling, then painting, then gaming with and also have on display seems like a good deal to me.

 

 

"I could have an even more bougie hobby that the poors are less able to afford" isn't a grand defense of GW price hikes

[Candlelight]

As someone who doesn't play the game, only buys miniatures from time to time to paint, I'm even done doing that. They are simply asking too much for a piece of plastic.

Many of my friends who've been playing the game since 3rd edition (40k) feel the same and can't justify spending that much. Some of these guys don't have to worry about money, they make 200k+ a year, yet even for them it's reached the point they said it's too much.

[Mcthew]

4 hours ago, Vasshpit said:

Perhaps. BUT the unlazy ones will make a profit selling to the lazy ones. 

I'm a firm believer that the tech is just going to get more and more common everyday to the point of  reaching the mainstream equivalent of a pc or even a tv in most homes. 

Absolutely! Resellers are doing a roaring trade. Of that side of the hobby, Games Workshop doesn't see a penny. Admittedly these days out of £100 I spend on the hobby,  GW sees about £20 of my money. The rest is via resellers. That has  changed from 5 years ago when it was more like £60-70. But due to waves of price increases my buying habits changed. So in effect, GW gets less of my money now, even though I'm buying more.

Factor in 3D printing and there is no value to GW as largely you won't see a huge difference in the quality between official and fake. And even if you do, do you really care? GW seem intent on milking their fans and while I love their product, I don't like the business model.

I no longer have qualms about where I buy my hobby from, as long as its not directly from GW - it is massively overpriced for what it is.

[stratigo]

When I buy, I usually buy from the shop I game at. I occasionally check ebay for amazing deals, but I absolutely, categorically, hate stripping models and skip over anything that looks like I'd need to.

 

 

[eciu]

I'm only buying GW stuff because I'm able to get 1/3 off the price of GW stuff.  And even then I'm looking for cheaper models, Start Collecting bundles etc. 

 

And this is only becouse I'm earning in stronger currency than the one I'm using to buy stuff. 

[Fairbanks]

7 hours ago, eciu said:

I'm only buying GW stuff because I'm able to get 1/3 off the price of GW stuff.  And even then I'm looking for cheaper models, Start Collecting bundles etc. 

 

And this is only becouse I'm earning in stronger currency than the one I'm using to buy stuff. 

I did this for a lot of very large models. I haven't found anyone who has made it worthwhile for small boxes (although, I'd buy a ton, which might make shipping cheaper)

[SirSalabean]

Results will be up tomorrow everyone so last chance to enter. 

[SirSalabean]

Results are in! 

[Feii]

happy to see 75% are now buying at the retailers. #WOKE 

[SirSalabean]

4 minutes ago, Feii said:

happy to see 75% are now buying at the retailers. #WOKE 

It’s interesting I am certainly one who has moved over as direct prices are too high. I’d support them more if prices were lower and data seems to support that. 
 

I’ve sent these results over to GW out of interest of their response. Im unrealistically hoping it shows them people would spend more if they had better prices but I’m expecting some generic response. At the end of the day they see the raw figures this is such a minor segment of the consumer. 

[Candlelight]

36 minutes ago, SirSalabean said:

It’s interesting I am certainly one who has moved over as direct prices are too high. I’d support them more if prices were lower and data seems to support that. 
 

I’ve sent these results over to GW out of interest of their response. Im unrealistically hoping it shows them people would spend more if they had better prices but I’m expecting some generic response. At the end of the day they see the raw figures this is such a minor segment of the consumer. 

One thing we have to consider, it's less work for GW to sell in bulk to LGS rather than directly to customers. We don't know how expensive it is for GW to store everything, manage it and ship it. It might be easier for them to simply forward it to retailers to take care of that. Many companiesdo that.

[Joseph Mackay]

I have a suggestion for the next one (four actually 😛 ) for each Grand Alliance, which single army do people play the most, and the reasons why (ie look of the models, playstyle, competitive or not etc)