RUMORS: GW’s New CEO and the Changes Ahead
Games Workshop has a new CEO in place. Here’s the latest on what the change will mean for the next year:
via Steve the Warboss 11-16-2014
After the reorganisation of the Managment, the replacement of Kirby and the switch of CEO, GW will have probably some more little changes in the assortment:
Look for these changes:
-The number of limited releases will increase
-More classic GW games (Epic, Mortheim, …) should be released in “all-in-one” Boxed Sets with limited run (like Space Hulk)
-In contrast to rumors that have been wrong, there is internally a serious discussion of FW
-There are plans to integrate FW in the core assortment, how to be solved is not yet clear
The following is a speculation by me (The Source):
Advertisement-Horus Heres is very successful, GW wants so sell FW-Products in their Stores and the Webpage to increase sales, but they don’t know how FW will Produce their range in higher numbers
-I expect an extension of FW in 2015 with larger capacities and the sale of products at GW in 2016
So we’ve heard much of this before, so let’s take these in turn.
The CEO
Kevin Roundtree has been an executive at GW for 14 years and is said to be very well liked and respected in the company. One can safely assume we will see an acceleration of the big trends that GW has been rolling out these last few years.
Limited Edtions
If GW truly believes that “collectibles and Limited Editions” are the future of the company I can see this happening. Of late we have seen both GW and Forgeworld start to ship out much pricier limited editions first to soak up that lucrative segment of the market, then the “plain” editions of products later. The End Times Series keeps selling out in record time, so I only see the company doubling down on these “exclusive buy them RIGHT NOW before they are gone” type of products.
Mystery Boxes
The All-in-One “Mystery” boxes seem to be a mixed bag. They certainly could be rolled into the “collectibles” category, but while Space Hulk has been a resounding hit two time in a row, Dreaffleet sunk like a stone. If GW sticks to just doing reissues of classic games like BFG, Mordheim, Necromunda, EPIC, etc… this could work.
Forgeworld
The integration of FW into the “main game” should surprise no one as it is well underway in the paper books already. There are already multiple Forgeworld items in Escalation, Apocalypse and the like. The real challenge will be to figure out how to package the product for retail sales, and shore up the quality of the resin to deal with mass-market customers to avoid another Finecast rollout debacle.
If this pans out GW will continue to forge out in a new direction, every day more and more a “top tier collectibles company” with specialized stores more akin the Swarovski Crystal company and thier chain of stores and less like a traditional games company like FFG and Privateer Press.
What’s your take on these? Thumbs up or Thumbs down?
