GW Schedule – Early February 2014
It looks like GW is trying out a new release strategy with the new weekly releases – and it begins February 1st. Here are the details:
Here is the schedule doing the rounds:
So some notes on this GW schedule.
1) Note that it is only for February 1-February 14. So we get to see the first two weeks of products of the new February weekly product rollouts.
2) Yes, indeed (drum roll) Dwarfs are coming…
3) See anything missing from that sheet? That would be finecast.
4) Black Library is kicking out an amazing amount of content these days.
5) See anything even more oddly missing from that sheet? That would be the Dwarf Armybook. And that’s the BIG ONE. It would appear that GW is testing a new approach of rolling out all the amazing miniatures first (they still have rules remember – the current Army Book), then the rules second.
Minis Before Rules?
To be honest I’m of two minds about this.
On the one hand I can’t blame them. If GW truly believe they are a model company first (like they always say) then this makes sense. They want to impress you with their primary products – the minis. Their rules come a distant second.
On the other hand this seems like a way to maximize impulse buys before players have a chance to see if the new miniatures have rules that are in any way good. How would you feel if you bought a big unit of amazing miniatures and discovered 2 weeks later they had dreck rules?
It also just seems to “Un-GW”. To me it feels like a tactic that is below such a sizable old company. They shouldn’t be trying to hide their rules – they should proudly show them off. It’s kind of disrespectful to the rules designers in a way. It just feels like the kind of thing that years down the road could end up with people living in a world where they see the newest GW miniatures and ask that old favorite “Great Dwarfs – I plan on using them as counts as for ++INSERT OTHER GAMESYSTEM++.” And that’s not a place I ever want to see GW end up at.
The Final Variable – White Dwarf Weekly MIGHT have rules for newly released miniatures – but we will have to wait and see what is in there…
~Your thoughts on the sales strategy?
