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I'd be more sympathetic if their prices weren't already well ahead of the curve. It's not like they're barely making a profit on every unit shifted or anything.

What!?!

Is there any news on what is going up to how much?

not yet again!

And GW wonders why their sales are erroding?

Seriously they always event new ways to screw up. Then to add insult to injury they stick it to their ever dwindling customer base...

Wow, 25%? It's so galling to see independent manufacturers trying to scrape a living (plug: go buy something from Heresy, Hasslefree or Spyglass, everyone!) and apologising to their insanely loyal customers for even the slightest price increase so they can feed themselves when GW are raising the cost of their already horrifically overpriced products. The thing is, they do this every year! They're always raising prices well above the rate of inflation, so why even bother justifying it this time?

I find it especially laughable considering in their previous Annual Reports the contention has been "our hobby is relatively (and our customers) price insensitive". GW is smoking something pretty strong if they actually believe that.

Goes back to my same contention: Warhammer is a kids game... with adult pricing.

Lastly the thing that becomes more and more apparent: We love warhammer not because of GW, but rather in spite of GW.

Amen

The raw materials and the finished products both have to be transported somehow.

F**k me,cheaper on Ebay

Seriously this is something that is happening with everything so i am not surprised to find a corporation like GW leaping on the bandwagon to inflate prices way beyond inflation

Its funny, since all the models are really is just a representation... I think I have a plan...

For the next army I make, whatever it may be, I'm gonna build myself a simple model. A simple representative model of whatever it is, and then I'm going to get some mold making equipment. Now, the model will be built by myself, so I have the rights to recreate it. Then I can make hundreds of them, and pay only as much as the materials, and the price of the green stuff.

And the best part is I can make them look like whatever I want... Hello Cathay!

They'd still have to buy petrol though, wouldn't they?

Seriously, that's all it is. Transport costs. No, it doesn't justify a 25% price increase but, as excuses go, it does make sense. Everything's going to go up in price as long as we're dependent on an ever-depleting resource.

still, the increase is only in metal models, and with GW turning more and more to plastic, we won't feel it that much.

not that I'm protecting GW, no, no, really, believe me, no, aaaargh!

http://investor.games-workshop.com/lates...ndix2.aspx

"Niche businesses have natural strengths . . . :

    * They are naturally protected from macro economic factors
    * Their customers are dedicated and loyal
    * They are relatively price insensitive"

1 and 3 are falling flat on their face and Tim Kirby is looking more and more clueless everyday. These are some of the best examples of how to predeict the opposite.
2 is true in the past and is looking more like wishful thinking

GW can claim these things still remain true or hope that the trend stays the same; the reality is that although written in 2004, the exact opposite of these three points is becoming more of a truism each time GW does this.

The thing that GW fails to realize is that the quest for the young gamer is a lesson that they have to repeat over and over again. I can't think of another business that essentially swears off a customer once they reach a certain age. Its not like this industry has that many potential customers to begin with, why risk alienating the ones you already have?

As far as GW raising prices personally, it doesn't matter to me.  With the demise of the online store and the sad state it is in now... I have gone from being a user of their services/site to doing 100% of my shopping on either eBay, fan sites or Bartertown.

And all of this can be directed to no one else's fault other then GW:
GW didn't/won't release the army I'm working on (Chaos Dwarfs) Solution: create the models myself.
GW didn't/won't/stopped releasing hobgoblins for the army I'm working on; Solution: get them from the sources I listed above.
GW obliterates the sole source of my income to them (the online store bits ordering): See the previous sentence..

So does GW have to show for my involvement in the hobby: Practically nothing. When in turn had they actually produced what I wanted to buy they could have pocked my money that I was willing to give them. Apparently they don't want my money. Now granted I'm only one customer... however I'm willing to guess that my experience isn't the only one out there.

So as a result of the hobby not growing, what does GW do? Raise prices. Basically the are left with "punishing" their already existing customers. When all the while this does not address the issue of the hobby or the company for that matter, merely the symptoms. Sure we get that costs go up. But its not like their operating margins aren't already out of whack compared to the rest of the industry (not that Privateer is much better with their pricing on metals).

To be honest GW going bankrupt isn't necessarily a bad thing. No one could imagine it happening to TSR and it did in the 90's. I disagree with the direction that WoC has taken D&D, but the point remains. GW going under isn't going to mean the end of Warhammer. Simply it might have a better, fresh perspective that actually forces it to address the issue rather the raising prices to cover the interim.

In essence, GW is trying to delay the day of reckoning. Sooner or later the day is going to come for GW, thou its a case of being much closer then can fathom.

Aren't you already paying 12pound a book already Godbob?

I don't know, everytime i pop to the shops to sort out dinner for two i seem to spend 15pound. Everything is getting rediculously expensive these days. It's enough to make a grown man cry when you fill up your motor and the pounds beat the litres by a mile everytime.

On the subject of the rising price of tin, for all those casting experts out there, is there anything theoretically stopping them using the moulds for metal models and filling them with plastic? Will it not cast right because of wrong airholes, lack of a sprue, etc? Just a thought as their plastics seem to be getting sharper in detail it seems that the only reason to keep producing the metals is to have something to stop your army roster blowing in the wind. Am i wrong?

Metal moulds are completely different to plastics.  Plastics aren't so much moulded and set, they are injected. The metal moulds are just a high desnity rubber and are pretty cheap to make.  Plastic moulds are significantly harder and more expensive to make. Resin is a compromise, but more expensive for mass producing than either of the others.

I had a hunch this was the case. Thanks for clearing that up for me Cornixt. So do they just pour the molten lean in by hand or is the whole thing machine operated?

Well they kill off rather than swear off their customers, but hey who cares in our happy capitalist dream world

No, just regularly. A price rise at this time is pretty justified. However, previous price rises have not been so linked to economic events. They're suffering for past greed, not the present climate

As for this price increase, no it won't stop me gaming or buying miniatures and GW products. It will stop me buying as many. I used to buy every army book which came out, but my income no longer allows it, so I only buy the ones for my main armies - WFB chaos and space marines. I used to build a new army every few months, now I just paint the minis I've got. I daresay this is pretty common with other gamers too

Likewise parents will be more likely just to buy their kids a regiment or paint set rather than a battalion or boxed game for christmas. Presents will have to be scaled down or limited. Don't forget GW will have to compete with whatever christmas releases Sony and co can come up with - kids won't be getting both anymore.

This is just ****ing ridiculous. £12 is alot for those army books, £15 is just stupid, they are just not worth it.

£8 for spray, you've got to be kidding me.

These things are just not worth that amount of money, simple as that.

It's kind of ironic that when the codexes/army books were at their cheapest they were packed full of new art, articles, fiction and yet now they're at their highest price, what exactly do we get? I was looking through the marine dex the other day and noticed a painting guide lifted right out of Codex: Ultramarines, stiill using the Metal/Plastic arms hyrid marines from the same time. I mean, how much does a painting guide cost. I've made one, anyone can make one, very quickly for the price of the miniatures/paint and the electricity in your camera...and they own the miniatures/paint already.

Pure laziness. I've got a bunch of the old codexes and they're novels in comparison to the wafer thin books of today. How labour intensive can copy n paste really be? Not to mention how some of the armylists seem to have been written one afternoon at the pub...then there's the proofreading...

I really don't have an issue with the books. I highly doubt they make much money after printing costs.