Tuesday, January 18

New FAQ = sales ploy

Ok we have all had enough time over the long weekend to either
1. See that the new 40k FAQ is out
Or
2. You had enough time to actually play test multiple lists with 3-4 land raiders and/or 30+ terminators on foot.

Well, today Im going to cover a little ditty about what I see behind the workings of the FAQ as it relates to GW corporate.  More after the break, read on!



Either way, becuse of the brew FAQ everyone and their mother is getting their terminator models out of the closet, wiping off the dust and dreaming of tournaments to come... In my humble opinion, the meta has changed. Yu must now consider what your going to do to handle 20+ TDA suits and attending land raiders. Missle launcher spam? Maybe not dead, but gimped for suree

But the changing meta and the power of The new lists, but really the thinking behind it. Until recently the official GW repaonse to why one codex gets 3++ storm shields and all the other goodies is simply because "they have newer gear," or some other such lameness. Needless to say they had no plan to budge on this at all and told everyone to just deal with it. It was at that point that I put away my own deathwing army.

So why now? Why all of the sudden go back on years worth of precidence out of nowhere? Well, a few weeks ago GW relesed a statement that it's earnings projections were looking bad and lowered financial guidance. Also, if you have been following my blog you will know the less than stellar state their financials are in at the moment.

At this point it is pretty obvious that the powers that be only made any changes to this previous standpoint to make more money and hopefully increse sales. I mean who wouldn't want to sell more of their very expensive terminators and lndraiders?

Truth be told I think this is the fair thing to do, but I have a feeling that if GW was making more money they would have left it alone and continued to give the finger to BT and DA.

All in all I wish this was something that was done just to make things more fair for the codices, but it isnt. And seriously, what is GW doing with their business model that they need to give an emergency FAQ update to help save their earnings? Souldnt normal operations generate enou earnings without using tricks like this? Ideally yes... But you could also argue that this is part of normal operations.

Anyhow, contests to DA and BT players... Now you can stop playing "green marines," and black blood angels.

Duke

8 comments:

  1. Duke, Interesting point and I've been following your posts RE GW. However, I have my own take on the recent FAQ's and they involve Grey Knights and the rumor that inducted marine units are still "in" the codex. Could it be GW is standardizing all the codexes for the GK codex release?

    You are 100% correct about all the new dreams of glory with terminator and LR spam lists...

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  2. I was just thinking this the other day, too. I was just about the sell my Dark Angels a couple weeks ago and then I thought to myself that it was a good thing I didn't, as prices probably have skyrocketed and I could make more now. I'm still considering whether or not to sell them, but it hit me like a truck that I bet GW was selling Terminators like there is no tomorrow and probably made some money on Black Templar units.

    GW is a modeling business first and foremost, but their rules are what sell the models. A quick rule update like this probably generates as much short run sale as a new wave of models.

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  3. There is no doubt this increases sales... Heck, i might even purchase a few more goodies. That said, you will probablybget a quick buyer if you sell you terminators right now.

    @fritz: I haven't heard anything about nducted marines from my contact... Bt you know how rumors are. Even so, GW hasn't seemed to care before about making things nice between the codices... Les hope this is an overall paradigm shift in the way GW looks at it's rules balance between the multiple marine codices... Either way, I am stupid excited about the grey knight codex coming out, as I'm sure you are too.

    Duke

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  4. For sure the new FAQ is generating sales for GW.

    But I'm not sold on the direct link between the meh financials recently released and the FAQ. When Fantasy 8th came out in the summer all of the books for that system received an update immediately and GW said that in the past they hadn't paid as much attention to faq's as they should have been, but they were in the process of changing this. The immediate update for all the fantasy books was the first step in that process, the marine faq's should be viewed as another step in the same direction. Maybe there are more updates to come?

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  5. I would like to agree with you anonymous, but I don't think it is just a "we saw the light and want to make things more fair.". However, most of the FAQ answers really reinforced the rules as intended, so maybe they are truly changing gears.

    Do you happen to have a link to that quote about 8th Ed fantasy sying that they haven't paid attention to FAQ in th past and that they would do so now.

    Duke

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  6. I think you make a good point. However, is this a bad thing? Don't we want GW to realize that constant updates and balance will be better for their bottom dollar?

    Don't we constantly say this? Perhaps this FAQ will show them the truth of our words and they will indeed keep things constantly updated, knowing that it will generate constant money.

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  7. @Brisbane: yes I would say that It is a giidrhin overall, I was only questioning the initiative behind it. Anonymous has a good point that gw said they are changing their view of FAQs and that is great! In an ideal world corporate policy makes consumers happy and then we buy more widgets which in turn makes the company more money. I hope games workshop starts actin like a normal company in this manner, and makes tons of money!

    Duke

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