Can the hobby survive without GW?
We’ve talked here in the past about the impact of Games Workshop and the valuable service it provides the rest of the hobby by creating a flow of customers for other companies. This is, of course, not what GW wants. It wants to retain those gamers and keep them happily buying 40K figures. But over the last few years there has been a broadening of interest in new games and new genres that has been facilitated, in part, by a movement of gamers away from GW products. This is, to my mind, a good thing. Even if GW doesn’t retain those customers the hobby as a whole appears to be keeping them. This helps to create and foster other companies that produce more games and miniatures for us all to partake in.
People often talk online about the collapse of GW as a business entity and I for one certainly hope that doesn’t happen. If only because I am enjoying reading the Horus Heresy novels and want to see them continue. The primary reason though is that if GW didn’t exist the hobby would slowly lose its customer base and diminish. Its a factor of the size of GW. Its everywhere. And that omnipresence means that new gamers who might never go online looking for Black Scorpion pirate miniatures will find 40K or Warhammer miniatures at a nearby Games Workshop store and perhaps at some point eventually try to expand their interest into, for instance, pirate gaming.
Where would companies like Crocodile Games, Artizan Designs and even Privateer Press get new customers if there was no Games Workshop acting as a funnel for clients? The internet certainly helps then reach out to new customers but how will smaller companies in the hobby reach out and get the attention of gamers who are currently being entertained by video games and online games? An interesting question and its one that I think that these companies might want to ask themselves as a means of being prepared for what might be a dramatic change in the way that GW does business.
Why? Simply put because GW can’t continue to do things the way that it currently is and while there are many options that can be pursued by the management of GW that aren’t quite as dramatic as closing up shop and selling off their IP that would certainly be something that would be a possible option. More likely is a reduction in the number of GW retail outlets as a way to lower overall costs and perhaps a consolidation of their European operations.
In any case, the smart money is on any future Games Workshop being a leaner enterprise focused on keeping its customers and that means that, if successful, there is going to be less opportunity for other companies to pick up business from GW’s mistakes. Either the company is going to learn from its current mistakes or its going to eventually go away. In either case it means that companies competing with GW or operating on their fringes of the company need to get leaner and smarter as well.
And its probably a good idea to do it now when there is the luxury of time rather than later when it becomes a necessity.