GW’s last-second changes to the Space Marines release pre-order have confused everyone from Local Game Stores to customers alike.
If you ever thought Games Workshop might be trying to push sales to their own webstore for pre-orders, listen to this change to the release of the 10th Edition Space Marines they just dumped on stores today.
With the new Space Marines miniatures and Codex hitting pre-order this weekend, it’s one of the biggest sales periods GW (and LGS, who carry 40k) may have this fall. They are easily the biggest faction, and there are some miniatures people have been wanting for a long time.
After months and months of allocations, stores may actually be able to sell some product in what is traditionally the slowest month of the year, sales-wise.
Or will they?
TL:DR
- Games Workshop’s CEO says they will “nearly always sell out of new releases”
- Games Workshop said they “made too much money already” and will pay out dividends to shareholders on income from June 2023- August 2023 ( 10th Edition release.)
- For the first time in the internet era, stores were not allowed to lock in their pre-orders with GW before the Space Marines releases go live for pre-order on the GW webstore Saturday, Sept 30th, 2023, confusing both game store owners and customers alike.
- If you pre-order from the Games Workshop webstore, your order will arrive well AFTER the street date when you could have purchased it locally from a retailer in your community.
- Click Here For The New Space Marines Products On Pre-Order
- In some cases recently, orders have been delayed by additional weeks in the UK, etc. The official policy in the US is for customers to contact customer service after 25 days of not receiving their order.
- So, in essence, when someone orders from the Games Workshop website directly, GW has up to 25 days to get new release orders to that customer’s door.
GW’s Last-Second Changes To The Space Marines Pre-Order Release Confuse Everyone
Games Workshop informed local game stores on Thursday and Friday, Sept 28-29th, that they will take their pre-orders NEXT Thursday (Oct 5th) for Space Marines from local game stores, while everyone else in the world gets to order them from the GW website and local Warhammer stores starting Saturday (the 30th).
So, in theory, local game stores have no idea how much product will be allocated to them for this release cycle.
Games Workshop claims that there are no caps and that there will be “no supply issues.” They also reportedly told local game stores that they can still “take pre-orders as normal because there should be no issues with stock.”
Update: GW sent an email to stores “guaranteeing” no caps on the main Space Marines products the day before thier website pre-orders went live on Sept 30th, 2023.
However, for stores that have been consistently burned by constant allocations and product sellouts, it’s a very dicey situation, as we heard from over two dozen of Games Workshop’s bigger accounts when this policy went into place.
Most tended to say the same thing: I can’t even take pre-orders because I don’t trust I’ll get anything until it is shipped.
Reportedly, GW told stores this is a new change “to take the pressure off them to order early.” However, the ones we spoke with said this seems like just another way for Games Workshop to play the “shell game” and sell as many units at full margin directly to consumers before GW knows what they have left to allocate to local game stores (at a lower margin.)
Speaking of a shell game…
Games Workshop Adds Another Shell to the Stock Allocation Shell Game?
Some game store owners we spoke with have speculated that this abrupt change in pre-order policy from GW is because GW “added another shell to the stock shell game” by needing to have enough stock for attendees to buy at the Tampa Open, which happens to be on the same day the Space Marines hit store shelves on October 14th, 2023.
It is an interesting coincidence that GW has a tournament and is doing a two-week pre-order for a faction release like Space Marines and not a single starter set release (like Leviathan etc.)
They didnt do it for the Tyranids or even the new Orruks, but they are doing it for the Space Marines release while potentially hamstringing local stores and allowing for the maximum flow of products to their own sales channels.
GW has been making quite an insane amount of money lately, as they already paid out $20 million in dividends for the months of July – August 2023. So, we’ll see if this is part of the new strategy to keep profits higher on new releases, as they plan on selling out of every release.
Perhaps they are only making a limited stock of their new releases on purpose, as they think FOMO and scarcity are the way to make the most money off their products.
Overall, we’ll have to see how this plays out with stores, stock, and if they continue this policy in the future.
Click Here For The New Space Marines Products On Pre-Order
What are your thoughts on Games Workshop’s new policy towards stores and pre-orders?
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About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
Bio: Virginia restless, miniature painter & cat dad. He blames LEGOs for all this, as there was something about those little-colored blocks that started it all. Spikey Bits sprung from Rob staying motivated to hobby on his backlog of projects, while sharing his knowledge with others during the early blogging era.
LEGO maniac and scale model hobbyist in the 80s turned miniature wargamer and trading card player ever since. He’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition), but 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 minatures made of pewter and resin.
