Games Workshop is crushing it and doesn’t have to change, as sales soar while customers and stores search for products to buy like peasants.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter what any of us think because despite some of the worst allocations, customer engagement, and divisive rollout of 10th, Games Workshop has had its best year ever, and they LITERALLY have zero reason to change anything.
With GW’s financials out, their profits are at an all-time high, with dividends and profit sharing with their employees all covered with money still left in the bank.
This is all in a time when they have had about six months of allocations (with The Lion maybe being the worst), rolled out 10th Edition 40k with tons of errors and obvious balance issues, while seeming putting the wants of customers and stores on the back burner.
Games Workshop Doesn’t Have to Change Until We Do
Let’s start with the financials and how well GW is doing with some highlights:
- Profit before tax is estimated to be not less than £170 million, which is up about 14 million from last year.
- Core revenue to be not less than £440 million, which is up about 60 million.
- Licensing income of £25 million is down by about 3 million from last year, which is interesting as this seemed to keep profits afloat last year.
- Profit share cash payments (to employees) are up by about 1 million, amounting in total to £11 million.
- Dividends per share went up by an insane amount, almost doubling.
- Dividends declared and paid in the year were £136 million.
So, while they do not see any issues financially, this year arguably saw some of the worst interactions from Games Workshop with the community, from stores down to the consumer.
Constant Allocations
Nearly every week for the past six months, we have seen extremely strict allocations for stores in the USA. This means not only has it been challenging for customers to get the products they want, it means stores are not even benefiting from stocking Games Workshop products.
This has also led to a giant rise of scalpers, as they somehow always get the products from GW’s site, meaning regular people can’t get the products from their store (because of the allocations). Then the site gets sold out almost immediately due to the scalpers, which then means people have to pay so much more for anything new in some cases.
Then, on top of all of this, GW has regular items out of stock in the store for months and months, and even some of the Leagues of Votann stuff has never been restocked since launch…
But get this Games Workshop is not only aware of this situation but seemingly proud of it by the tone of this statement from CEO Kevin Roundtree in their 2023 Financial Report:
To continue to be fair to our 6,500 trade partners and to ensure our stock allocation is appropriate, we don’t carry high quantities of new release products on our own online store – so it will nearly always sell out
Last but not least, GW sends multiple copies of new products to influencers, and hobbyists can’t even get the products they see on social media!
That has led to a backlash against content creators as well, some even going back to their own projects for their audiences to follow and dropping Games Workshop’s new release content altogether!
A Bad Roll Out of 10th Edition
Not only was Leviathan allocated, but even the rules for the 10th edition have drawn some ire. While the core rules are not too bad, the power levels of the factions are so all over the place and almost a little insane.
The Index Cards were also full of errors and typos. Just take a look at some recent tournament results as GW said they “fixed” Eldar but weeks later, they are still topping the leaderboards worldwide.
The chart comes from Blood of Kittens.
That weekend after the big change to Eldar, there were seven significant 10th Edition Warhammer 40k events, and we got a decent amount of data on the new edition. Obviously, this still isn’t enough to go off for everything but gives a good idea of where everything is. Unfortunately, even weeks later Eldar is still dominating after their “balance adjustment.”
Oh yeah, and they put basically everything from Horus Heresy directly to Legends. Just months after, many hobbyists bought the minis to play exclusively in 40k because they were available for the first time in plastic.
Warhammer + Issues & Lack of Support
We’ve talked a lot about the issues with the app and Warhammer Plus, but in short, this was a big bust, and they put so much of their effort into the project and seemed to let other things slip away.
Then, with the release of Horus Heresy, it was a huge success at first, but within months of the launch, you couldn’t get anything you wanted, or even essential items for the game. Since then it has fallen hard, with almost no one playing compared to the initial effort put into it.
It’s just sad to see the lack of support after the game dropped in terms of products and balance updates, which seemed to, really slow the growth of the game down. Many fear the same thing will happen with Legions Imperialis and Warhammer Old World, but there is no way to know for sure.
What Can We Do About It?
From all this, it seems like Games Workshop definitely won’t change until we, as hobbyists, do.
Simply put, voting with your hobby dollars is even more important these days! If you don’t like how a release is going or don’t agree with something GW is doing, take a step back and just don’t buy it. Maybe spend the money on hobby supplies and some more time painting up something you already have or start a different game system altogether.
Buy from your local stores, as they need all the help they can get right now, and not from the webstore (which GW makes more money on). That’s about all we can do because if their profits keep soaring, despite all the mistakes and backlash on social media, there is no reason for Games Workshop to change… until we do.
What do you think about how we can change the business practices of Games Workshop?
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About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
