GW announces price increase
Games Workshop has been alerting Trade customers to an upcoming price increase in their miniatures, paints and print products.
From their announcement:
Dear Valued Customers,
There is an old curse you might know: “May you live in interesting times “
I would be very surprised if anyone could look around our tiny world today and not ponder the truism of such a simple remark. There is very little doubt that these current days would certainly qualify as interesting.
Among many other concerns the world has been struggling with the rising cost of energy, transport, and materials. These rising costs have ultimately affected not only the price of gasoline that we put into our tanks, but the price we pay for milk, eggs and cereal. It has also, not surprisingly perhaps, greatly affected the costs for producing miniatures.
Today we are contacting all of our Trade customers globally to announce that due to these rising costs, we too will be raising some of our prices.
We do not do this lightly. We fully understand that the timing of the price rise directly conflicts with our annual July price review and for that we deeply apologize. I hope that you understand that this price rise is not something Games Workshop Global desires to do, it is something we have to do.
That being said, we wish to approach this change with the same dedication to customer service that we do for every endeavor. So for clarity and fairness I offer the following points:
We are contacting our Trade customers this week to prepare them for any questions they may have.
On Monday August 25th a message informing end hobbyists will be placed on all of our websites.
Prices will change September 29th.
A message will appear in our October White Dwarf.
The price increase will affect part of our paint and hobby ranges, as well as a large portion of our metal models and printed materials.
Even with the pressure of rising costs we are adamant that we will not at this time raise prices on any plastic model kits. Providing high quality, great value kits is fundamental to our corporate strategy and will continue to produce and distribute them at the current prices for as long as we are able.
Sincerely,
Games Workshop
GW just had their first profitable quarter after three years of losing money and… raises prices.
I am glad to see that in some cases GW has had a real turnaround on issues that were alienating their players - but raising prices AFTER their “annual price review”, in such a poor worldwide economy… it’s going to be grist for the mill.
It doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do.
+25% on metal is brutal if they raise the box sets too, which is rumored to be the case.
$93.75 for a box of blood knights…ouch
Yeah, but the cost of the metal isn’t the majority of model cost - it’s still labor. From sculpting to moldmaking to casting to packing them in pretty blisters and boxes, that’s really where the cost of miniatures strike.
Metal costs are scary but even a doubling of the cost of pewter isn’t more than a dollar or two per model.
Robert wrote:
Labour and lately it has been transport costs as well.
Surprise, surprise.
I’m kind of surprised (happily) to see that the costs of the plastics are not rising. They still get shipped so fuel prices are affecting them. They get boxed up, so labor prices are affecting them. I’m not sure what the exact type of plastic used in GW’s models is, but isn’t all plastic petroleum based? So the crude prices should be affecting that as well.
Just out of curiosity, I’ve got a question I’m hoping those who own/work in hobby stores might be able to answer: What is the percentage roughly of GW sales made up from just the plastic troops boxes? Compared to blisters and boxes of metal minis, do they sit on the shelf, tie them, or pass them by in terms of sales?
Xander wrote:
Yes and no. Everyone has been increasing their prices and making business decisions based on fuel costs and labour costs in China.
Why they are doing this outside of their regular price increases is what is surprising.
If this in indeed true. I have yet to have this confirmed by a third party or by GW.
The main issue is that though the global economy does necessitate price increases, the way they phrase it is kind of interesting. Because they are basically saying, “Don’t hate us, it’s the global economy’s fault” even though the majority of their price increases were never made to combat the global rising costs of resources. It’s like they want us to pity them this time, even though they are known for their ridiculous price increases already.
Is anyone surprised about this?
As stated the prices on everything are going up. Heck even the value menu at McD’s isn’t as good a value as it was a year ago.
I do the majority of grocery shopping in my household and even basic groceries have become a budget killer these last few months. We used to not really pay attention to sale ads from grocery stores but these days we find it necessary. Lets not even talk about the fact that it costs over $100 to fill my truck up these days and that banks won’t raise the floor limit on pay at the pump requiring customers to run their card twice to get a tankful…which conveniently puts extra money in the banks coffers if you’re not careful about the choices you make there.
It’s no surprise that our hobby is similarly affected. Yeah we all know that GW is the leader when it comes to pricing issues and they’re certainly the company that gamers love to hate/demonize when it comes to this as well. Honestly though, seeing notices about price increases from miniatures companies almost feels like a daily dose of castor oil these days. (Tastes gross, but what are you gonna do?)
It’s news when a company says thet’re holding the line or lowering something but the truth is those kinds of headlines are few and far between. The trend is up not down, and the fact is that for fans of GW this won’t make much of a difference as they’ve likely already accepted the fact that GW is GW.
Thoughts?
for fans of GW this won’t make much of a difference as they’ve likely already accepted the fact that GW is GW.
True for “fans”… But you don’t run such a big business with only “fans”.
I’m not a “fan”. I know compulsive buying is part of the hobby consumption (we almost all have tons of stuff at home!
As far as I’m concerned I already own many LOTR figures and books. I was tempted to buy the mordor supplement and some of their minis (except the troll, interesting new ones are all metal made!).
This kind of announcement is likely to make me reconsider doing it because I hesitated due to prices BEFORE they made this statement…
Damn, I am happy that I am into Chaos Mortals, all the models / units I am interested in are (hopefully) going to be plastic with the november releases and the Warriors of Chaos book.
I wonder how much increase we will see in paints, I always thought 2,50€ a pot was about right (even a bit on the expensive side, compared to Vallejo Colors)… considering how fast you can end a pot of wash if you use the stuff right, any significantly higher price will rip a big fat hole in my pockets and also slow down my painting process.
This sucks… on the other hand, this gives me more time to paint my stuff while I save up money to get the latest and greatest minis and hobby-items.
But honestly, I doubt anybody is going to buy 5 metal cavalry units for 60€ and more (if that 25% rise is really gonna happen) - this is gonna cost GW customers on a big scale and probably hurt the hobby in general a lot.
Guess I ought to buy that tomb spider I’ve always wanted.
this is gonna cost GW customers on a big scale and probably hurt the hobby in general a lot
Though the hobby needs “fresh blood” I’m confident it will survive and innovate with or without GW ;o)
GW priced themselves out of my impulse purchase limit a year ago, so this new price hike only means that I also won’t use GW blisters, instead opting for Reaper and other cheaper sources or with higher quality companies for the price. I stopped playing GWs inane “ruleset” years ago. About the only GW plastics I can see paying for anymore are the starter boxes as cheaper filler for existing armies bought off ebay/bartertown.
Given that they are not increasing plastic prices, this doesn’t bother me a whole lot. Their metals and hobby materials have always been overpriced (for the past several years at least), if you could afford them before not a whole lot is going to change.
“Though the hobby needs “fresh blood” I’m confident it will survive and innovate with or without GW ;o)”
I, and pretty much everyone I know was introduced to the hobby by GW… either through Warhammer 5th, or 40K 2nd, or golden oldies HeroQuest / Space Crusade (it was those two for me, followed by 40K 2nd years later).
And at least in my place there is not much of a scene besides GW, sure we got 5 people (in a city of 200.000 people) playing Warmachine, and some 10ish Battletech fans… and all fifteen of ‘em enjoy Confrontation but the toyshops (we don’t even have real LGS) in town only store GW-stuff, and if stuff is too expensive there will be no new players that could be lured away from 40K and Fantasy to better systems… and heck, everything but the starter-sets is already pretty expensive I would say.
Nature abhors a vacuum
This could be another nail in the coffin for “army” games like WHFB or even 40k. Those small warband sized games like Alkemy is looking more attractive (of course for Alkemy it’s about $8.00 a plastic fig so maybe not)…
Those small warband sized games like Alkemy is looking more attractive (of course for Alkemy it’s about $8.00 a plastic fig so maybe not)…
Yes price per mini is high but all things considered you need fewer stuff to play an interesting (and innovative) game.
Moreover they managed to bring on the market very nice multipart plastic minis, easy to assemble and with a reasonnable amount of parts.
“Nature abhors a vacuum”
At least that means there is something to abhor… without GW in rural areas like mine, there would be no wargaming, simple as that. Unless some smaller company gets their stuff into the toystores and out of the “freakshops”. But I fail to see anyone able to pull that off.
I moved away from 28mm massed army games to 15mm massed army games years ago and in the light of increasing shipping and materials costs across the board (GW and indie manufacturers too) it’s looking like it wasn’t a bad move.
As for GW, I agree with pyromaniac. I stopped buying GW figures about three years ago because they priced themselves out of my budget locally (in Asia Pacific).
Price was not a factor in my move away from WHFB/40K/LOTR. It was the once great rules had become insipid and stagnant compared to the new games from PP. Even the great new sculpts from GW in recent haven’t encouraged me back into the game.
From a wider perspective it is good that GW will not be increasing the prices of plastic minis. These are now the bedrock of GW games and a superb way of bringing people into our hobby. The new 40K box set is a shining example of good marketing.
Some years ago I went to an AGM where Tom stated the aim of GW was, within 10 years, to move entirely to plastic minis.
Well this really can’t bode well for GW. I can understand their reasons for doing so. Like AceWasabi said, I’ve been feeling the increases in prices on most things lately too.
I know Warhammer has always been about the large scale battles, maybe it’s time for GW to consider a smaller scale solution? Perhaps I’m the only one who would like to see a small scale suppliment to 40k.
Though I must admit, even before the announcment of these price rises I was considering jumping ship to another smaller scale skirmish game and something that is a little less of a blow to the hip pocket.
I would surely consider a gamer friendly version of inquisitor ;o)
I’m with Phillip above there.
They weren’t getting my $$ before, and certainly not getting my $$ now.
I used to read about their price increase justifications in their annual reports. They were simply increasing margins on a shrinking customer base. I have no reason to believe that still isn’t the case. To me, this is a bad move. A purely academic opinion as I don’t buy their figures (or the Foundry’s) anymore, but in an age of recession, massive job losses, shrinking discretionary income, and winter approaching, GW has managed to make a virtue of not buying its miniatures.
I think it’s very telling that GW burned any capital they have on this front long ago. Other companies making this type of announcement recently have been met universally with gamers saying “it’s understandable” or “I’ll still buy them”. I think GW price increases in the past have basically soured at least some portion of the gaming community, and made them very cynical about the company (myself included).
That said, this is probably the best evidence I needed that 40K 5th edition is not for me. I already find their stuff overpriced for what I feel my value is under the current price scheme, so there is no chance that I will be buying into things after the price increase. Seeing as this might save me money, thanks GW, I think???
Isn’t it about once a year or so that GW has some press release or some other company comes with a new product or game system and all the GW naysayers start the doom and gloom predictions about the death of GW?
Honestly this has been going on since at least when Target Games showed up with Warzone/Mutant Chronicles and Bob Watts was accused of bragging to people that they were going to drive GW out of business. It’s always one or the other if not both.
The truth is that if GW wasn’t here we’d all find some other company to rant about…probably Battlefront/Flames of War since they seem to have the most similarity to the GW business model and some of the complaining that goes their way seems very similar. Not to mention that I’ve seen a lot of “death to WotC” vitriol flung around lately due to 4e and pricing/gameplay changes with DDM.
Don’t get me wrong…venting is good and we can all hope that at some level it penetrates “the company” and has some positive impact (for consumers) on their business decisions. I think this has happened in the past and someone else is probably better able to point some examples of that out for us.
Lastly, before anyone starts flaming me for being a GW apologist, I’m not…ok well maybe a little bit ;) but no more than for any other company that makes stuff that brings me some joy. I’m just trying to point out the vicious cycle that we seem to annually engage in. Sure I’ve got some GW in my collections and Epic is still one of my favorite games of all time but I’ve got a 25+ year gaming habit that’s pretty all encompassing and GW is only a portion of that and certainly not the majority.
I tend to spend my discretionary money on stuff that I think will be fun and makes sense to me in a given situation and sometimes that’s not entirely logical but more visceral. Since a lot of feeling goes in to this and I imagine any other hobby it’s entirely understandable that a lot of emotion is involved as well.
Lets just not fall into the trap of “burn the heretics because everyone else is doing it so why can’t I?”
Lets just not fall into the trap of “burn the heretics because everyone else is doing it so why can’t I?”
Why not?
I bought GW products until recently ;o)
Give me a few example of GW’s TRUE innovations (in terms of game system) these last years ?
I’m Ok to pay the “right” price for innovative stuff ;o)
Some people complain about the lack of hobby support in countryside towns… Well complain about internet service in your area… Many games are available through internet and though I firmly encourage everybody to buy at local brick and mortar games there’s no shame buying elsewhere when needed ;o)
I think this post shows that gamers just like complaining - and heres why.
Just like AceWasabi pointed out it seems to be the death to GW rant again. Yes the prices are increasing, but guess what - costs for the materials used in minis dont really go down much. Reaper is the first company Ive seen in a while that is trying to decrease the cost with thier P65 line and even that has issues due to European laws covering lead.
And if think prices for minis are bad try working in contracting. We have a couple commodities, like concrete where we can end up paying double to triple the cost of the product in fuel charges. And this is after the product has increased in cost phenomenally (some have increased up to 400%).
So yes it sucks the prices are increasing but so is everything else.
True innovation? You mean like Apocalypse and the idea of playing armies that are fun rather then min maxed? :P
Free yourself from them! There are TONS of gaming products and companies that are NOT GW, but still offer fantastic game play. Anything from relatively low priced board games, to full skirmish battles…
The only way to truly protest against it is to spend your hard earned money elsewhere. And believe me, the choices are abundant. You can be a dirt cheap gamer, download incredibly fun games for free, make your own counters. Or use other manufacturers minis to proxy GW.
The great thing about the mini-market right now is that it is filled with choices.
I don’t begrudge GW fanboys from wanting to stay with their systems, but for gosh sakes, lets move on with the complaining. Maybe 7 or 8 years ago the argument would have held true, but finding yourself a new innovative game is easier than ever now.
True innovation? You mean like Apocalypse and the idea of playing armies that are fun rather then min maxed? :P
You mean being able to pay for such an amount of minis is an INNOVATION? :o)))
Definitely agree with supervike!!!!
I would second (third?) what AceWasabi stated. There was none of the doom of the world when over the last six months everyone else announced price increases. The second GW does everyone gets the jitters on. I always love when Americans get upset about a rise in price that might put it within the price range here in Canada or Europe (Just today on another site someone was upset that the 144 page Marines codex was a whopping $25 — we Canadians remember those days!)Actually, I am vaguely pleased/surprised to see they left the plastics alone. This is a shrewd move, as I can assure you that my kids/their friends/everyone I know who is starting in the hobby buy plastics. GW has been moving for years to slowly eliminate metal minis. This is just another part of that. The plastics are kid friendly and relatively (!) cheap. Despite the annoyance of the cost and all that, I don’t think they are so stupid (but hey I have been wrong before) as to kill their consumer base (which, incidentally, is more 14 years old than 40 I suspect!)
For the record, in case I get a blast for being too pro GW, I play other systems, I like metal miniatures, I like skirmishes, I remember bell bottoms and own no GW stock. Oh yeah, and I would like them and all the other manufacturers to stop increasing prices despite the fact that inflation is at 4.4% yearly in the UK right now. Hey, I can wish!!
Oh one part that does upset me is when you buy GW you are supporting Tom Kirby’s enormous salary. Check out their financial report and then weep.
Just an observation (and hopefully not too off topic), but why are people so sensitive about people who are Pro-GW? To me it seems like everyone jumps on the band wagon to have a go at GW when a price hike comes through. People shouldn’t forget that GW aren’t the only ones to increase their prices this year too, and the prices going up due to fuel costs, etc aren’t limited to our hobby.
Also, innovations in gameplay aren’t everything. GW has two (main) solid games going for it. It has a huge history and some great stories within it. The thing I enjoy most about 40k is just the sheer scope of the universe and the creative freedom I get with my armies and their respective fluff. It’s something I haven’t really found in other games yet. Which I think makes the game extremely fun.
Anyway, like I said, I can’t begrudge them for the price hike, and they’re certainly not going to be the last miniature company to increase prices. I just hope they can convert everything to plastics soon as to help keep costs down.
AceWasabi wrote:
I can’t recall that happening for some time and I think that most of the people in the industry either came from GW or grew up with their products.
I think that the issue here is simply price. GW have a reputation, earned or not, for being expensive and being fast on the draw when it comes to price increases and so this starts to become the straw that broke the gamers back.
I’m just glad that I bought all the Epic Space Marine figs I did when I did as they are really quite expensive and if they are going to go up an additional 25% then they are right outside my budget entirely.
evernevermore (John) wrote:
I’m not sure that we need anyone to tell us that :-)
If the brunt of the attack is on the metal price, then this will be the death-death of Specialist Games. They’re all metal - almost. And already over their priceelasticity.
If the brunt of the attack is on the metal price, then this will be the death-death of Specialist Games. They’re all metal - almost. And already over their priceelasticity.
ARGH! I didn’t even think about that… *needs to buy a lot of Blood Bowl teams now*…
Well…
Haven’t bought GW mini’s for a long time and don’t plan to in the future.
But if they were to start a 15/18mm line, I’d dive in head first. Why are the 15/18mm folks being ignored? Come on GW… give us some LOVE!
I’m glad they’re not increasing the price of the plastics, which I what I mostly buy from GW. Can’t actually remember the last time I bought a metal miniature from them, so that must have been a while ago. Price isn’t the only issue there though.
Everything goes up, but our wages. Joy!
Games-workshop You are losing at least 1 customer. Almost the entire beasts of chaos army is metal and minotaurs are already 30$ a model.
anyone out there know what these increases in price will look like…are paints going up %25? minis 10% ? are we all bitching about a 2% increase or are the upcoming prices going to shut out any new gamers coming on to the scene?
mikesilk wrote:
I would suspect that a 2% price increase wouldn’t require them to be alerting their trade partners like this. So I think we can safely count that option out :-)
Well, I just bought the 5th ed rules having been tempted back after an absence from 40k of 18 years. I was planning on collecting an army of SM and joining the 40k fold. As he news doesn’t include plastics (yet) I may still do so. On the other hand this just cheeses me off and I may just bung the book on ebay and forget it. I mean its a decent game, but GW ridiculous pricing on metals (which I much prefer to plastics) is absolutely ridiculous (£6 for a single goblin!!!!) compared to the likes of Hasslefree, em4miniatures, et al. It seems any time their fans start trusting them again, GW can’t wait to give them the shaft.
Its probably not rational, but I can’t help feeling that the further gamers stay away from GW, the happier they will be.
Sorry Zac - I tend to state the obvious sometimes :P
@ Supervike - so your saying I should give up on armies I like because the company increases its price? Freeing yourself is one thing to say but if you really like the army what are you supposed to do?
evernevermore (John) wrote:
Or if you really like the game. Or if you can’t get anyone to play anything other than WFB or 40K?
I think there are a lot of people that play GW games due to their popularity if nothing else.
I play (a term I use very loosely) because I love the setting of 40k, wierd traits and all. Yes the rules can be archaic and are open for abuse (show me something that can be done competitively and isnt as abstract and sterile as chess that isnt open to abuse) but the setting and to some extent the models keep me firmly attached to the GW machine. Yeah my sales will probably slow down some - but given many of my figures are already out of production I dont think they will notice much.
At the main store I go to the games you see played are 40k, WHFB, PPs Hordemachine, and Battletech. Occasionally there are Flames of War games, and I think a Necromunda campaign starting up, but while there is a little Infinity, AE WW2, Rezolution and such stocked I dont think its seeing any play time. GW and PP are the two companies you can rely on for games, with some prepaint stuff a distant third.