Games Workshop is Digging its Own Grave 

I feel like both Games Workshop and Lego slowly forgot that children exist. lol.

when I realised I could get a resin 3d printer for less than the cost of an army box or starter set that did it for me, had the printer delivered 2 days later & been happy ever since

I think the biggwst problem of all companies is that they are so desperate to milk their old fanbase that they lose on new fans and this will bite them back longterm.

Insane is the fact that the start collecting box which included the magmadroth was $80 and the magmadroth AT THE SAME TIME was ALSO $80. Their prices are so arbitrary and inconsistent that they can’t even keep track of how much they’re artificially jacking up prices on stuff that can be clearly compared!

The reality is, GW has been acting like they need to milk customers are wildly as possible for years. I'm someone, like you, who has a massive collection that I've been working on for 25 years but if I look back at myself as a kid. Had GW been at modern prices, even adjusted for inflation, it would have been impossible for me to get into the hobby. How can that be a good long term business strategy? Old World pricing has been such a shocking revelation, at least for me. With other sets they can make arguments like "new kits require more cost to make and produce because they are more detailed larger kits yadda yadda yadda" but with old world its almost entirely kits that are 25-30 years old that GW had to do 0 work to remake other than maybe remaking some molds yet these are some of the most expensive kits relatively speaking that GW has ever put out. The Brettonia starter set is $310CAD. When I was young, in 2000, the 6th edition starter set for Warhammer fantasy was $110CAD. These two kits are compatible in size and contents. Both had about 100 minis, both had dice, templates, and a book. If you adjust that $110 for inflation, it comes out to be about $180 in 2024. This means that GW's prices have nearly DOUBLED relative to what they were in 2000. We see it over and over. Dark Vengeace was $107 in 2014. Dark Imperium was $160 in 2017. Indomitus was $199 in 2020. Leviathan was $250 in 2023. We see a consistent pattern over time of GW's prices going up faster than inflation across all product lines. Eventually this camel's back is going to break and when it does I fear our whole hobby is going down with it. Until then GW is going to milk us for every penny. One shocker that really is an eye opener is when you think about gross margin. When people think about crazy margin they think of companies like Apple who has a wildly healthy 30% gross margin. (aka profit). GW crushes that at a whopping 41% making them one of the highest margin companies in the world outside of a few absurd elite luxury brands.

I agreed that growing up in the low income class, I could never afford this hobby until I found a stable job in my early 20's after finishing school and a degree. Now I just play/paint proxy armies for fun as ever, and I just pay my friend a couple of bucks in resin, and he will print me proxies and many badass minis found on the interweb...now my children and family can enjoy the hobby without breaking our banks.

Die hard GW enjoyers don't understand how easy it is to print an entire space marine army with very good looking STLs

I believe that GW is really only after short term profits. They've got problems meeting demand, which have gone on for years. They're not building new production capacity. So what's their plan, raise prices? There is no long term plan. They're walking right into the 3D printing debacle, the same way Blockbuster did with Netflix.

The issue from my perspective is that GW has created the aftermarket by their incredibly predatory pricing model. They incent their players to go to 3D proxies because Warhammer is such an incredibly expensive hobby.

WAY back in the days of 3rd Edition (1998-2003), GW released the Vehicle Design Rules, which allowed players to kitbash their own models for use in the game, with official stats. I ended up building a bunch of 1/35 scale 20th-century armor for my Imperial Guard army, and dressing them up to look futuristic. Not only were the models better looking and a more appropriate scale, but they were MUCH less expensive. I never looked back.

I took a step back from Warhammer because I didn't have anyone to play with and I was getting tired of constant Space Marine releases when other armies needed a face lift in 8e/9e. I thought I about getting back into it so I can have something do with painting the minis, and the pricing increased $20-60 across the board. I immediately went "Yeah, not happening."

100% spot on.. I hate seeing it.. but clearly GW is ignoring the lessons that were displayed by Blockbuster ignoring Netflix.

I got to a point with 40k in what I don't even enjoy the new edition rules and the prices are just complete madness. I started playing OPR with a couple of friends and my girl and it's enough. I buy usually alternative brands too, because having 1.500 points of imperial guard it's literally more expensive than a horse. AK and Vallejo (I'm spanish, so i'd rather buy a national brand) got nice enough paints and tools too. So i'm basically done with GW, wich feels weird because i have been partaking on WH since the early 90s, but they are not the hobby anymore, they are just a greedy corporation holding it hostage.

not just the price of the miniatures, the price of books to start playing too. They lied us this edition saying they will be at least one free list to play. They are erasing the free one with each army codex launch. So at the end, it was not free. And the fact that inside codexes there's no new combat patrols or anything make me thing that "this edition will be more accessible with ways to play cheaper" was just a marketing campaign to sell the new edition and not a real commitment.

Hey good video. The demographic shift that you mention is something a lot of people overlook. Look at Harley Davidson. For the longest time, the average age of a Harley buyer increased by about a year every single year. That meant that no new people are becoming Harley riders. And every year a crop of Harley buyers put away the bikes for good. If GW isint growing, it’s dying. If people are playing Rogue Trader or Total War:Warhammer fantasy, very very few are going to actually buy a box of minis when a single box cost more than the that got them interested in the miniature game, and a full army costs more than the computer they played it on.

The problem isn't even the price, it's the amount you have to buy to play a reasonable game. $60 for the rule book, $60 your Codex and then $300-$500 for a 1k army (plus painting) is a lot compared to most other games I have looked at or played, even when GW is charging less per mini, to say nothing of getting a second person going. Battletech is cheaper for the main rules, and the starter box has enough minis for 2 'standard' forces and you can get both for less than the cost of a Combat Patrol. Looking at Warmachine mkIV, you can get most, if not all of the equivalent to a 2k army for less than $400, and the rules are completely free. And both of those games are made in such a way that they are very proxy friendly (Battletech actively encourages it), unlike 40k's true line of sight.

Inflation in Australia right now is crazy and $95 AUD for THREE Eradicators is insane.

GW should embrace 3d printing and print on demand. Put 5 printers in stores and have them run them themselves.

The company I work for has gotten itself into a similar situation. For the past 5 years, they have been only looking at improving profit rates, despite all the calamities in the world, and they thought all is well. Then they realized as they were taking a look at the sales numbers, that the company was making more and more money with less and less products sold, because of the price hikes. Management has now realized that this is unsustainable, and now they are investing as much as possible into product development, logistics improvement, customer research to figure out ways to improve actual sales numbers instead of hiking the prices even further. And sometimes sales even does some heavy discounts too, in order to lure more customers in. I think this phenomena is the case for a lot more companies, including GW, than we would have originally thought for. Here is hoping that they will eventually realize their mistake when looking at the dropping sales numbers, and begin to course correct... eventually. There isn't much else we can do, other than voting with out wallets here.

I’m sure if games workshop just lowered their prices they would make so much more money with people buying their plastic crack. But idk if they can do that with how much and how long things stay out of stock

I had gotten into the hobby right as Covid hit...watched a box of skitarii rangers go from $35-$60 in the course of 3 years. Also, with things like Age of Sigmar, a lot of models are still resin/ finecast and sold at an exhuberant price. Half of my Beasts of Chaos army was 3D printed simply because the sculpts looked better and less goofy lol!

Ya know, if GW was smart, they'd embrace 3d printing and switch from selling plastic models to licensed printer files. I know it's not that cut and dry, but I bet they could do it and still come out on top while making everything more affordable.

Well, if they stopped trying to destroy their own Fandom by destroying the heritage and legacy of the warhammer universe, then they would have secured more longevity because then it would be more about the game and franchise itself rather than just the miniatures. If the fans are left with nothing other than just the miniatures then they are more interested in other options.

No one should feel bad about enjoying their hobby in a way they enjoy and feel is sustainable.

I've been cobbling together a Death Korps army for about 8 months. Picked up Steel Legion - Made to Order in April 2023. 2 full squads, one full heavy weapons team (Las Cannons), and a Lieutenant for $185 (Steel Legion were the original models for Death Korps in 3rd edition) My girlfriend was kind enough to pick up a plastic Death Korps "Veteran Guardsmen" squad for my birthday in September, 5 of which I intend to use as my command team, or to forgo the command team and just run them as a full ten man squad of Death Korps. In addition she got me the Ogryn squad ($55) which I will run as a 3 Ogryn Ripper Gun team, or the single Nork Deddog, to go with a metal female Commissar from Games Day 1998 ($25 eBay price) I picked up a single Leman Russ tank for $65 in October, and a set of Atillan Rough Riders on Amazon for $55 in November. (Converted with some Death Korps adjacent heads) All fine and dandy yes? $185 - Steel Legion $51 - Veteran Guardsmen $55 - Bullgryns $25 - Commissar $65 - Leman Russ $55 - Atillan Rough Riders $436 for my current force, not including sales tax. Its not even 1000 points. For that I'll need a hell of a lot more infantry squads, or perhaps elites. But since I'm running Death Korps, and Forge World prices are insane, I need to be smart. The obvious answer is mechanized vehicles. Sentinels, and Chimera's specifically. To allow my force to move up the board at speed and take some damage without being creamed. My conundrum: Chimera's are $60 a pop, and I need at least two, and Sentinels are $45. I want to run a full team of 3 Sentinels for firepower and maximum point usage. To even out my force to 1000 points I still need to spend $255, a little over half of what I've put in already, in other words complete insanity. I've spent less on my Sisters of Battle and Firstborn Space Marine armies combined. Here comes Etsy and alternative 40k model companies to the rescue. I can buy two resin Chimera's for 44 GBP with free shipping ($56) - so two Chimera's for a little less then the price of one on the GW site. And in addition I can get a set of three Sentinels for $55 on Etsy. Instead of spending $691 on a full thousand points, I'll have spent $547 $441 if you only count the things personally paid for, and not the gifts I received. I could have paid even less If I had found Death Korps proxies that I enjoyed, however I am a sucker for old school minis and the GW Death Korps look in of itself, so here we are. The point is, 3D printing is a wonderful alternative for those looking to get into the game system without having to pay close to $1000 just to have a seat at the table. I and my girlfriend have spent $436 on 49 models piecemeal, and its not even a full army yet. Meanwhile I just spent $276 on The Old World starter box for Bretonnia, which comes with 76 models (1250 points), a rulebook, dice, templates, and those little whippy plastic measuring sticks. Its no secret where GW wants you to spend your money, because owing to their dodgy pricing system, $276 is a steal compared to buying everything separate.

I think it's funny that you say "the kids are fine throwing money at GW" because in my community it's the kids who can't afford GW and are printing armies. And it's the old heads that berate us for having "fake" or "inauthentic" models. They tell us "they have to do those predatory rules releases." "They have to always raise their prices" "wouldn't want GW to go out or business right?" We just have to tell them that we don't have the conveniences of generational wealth. Many of our players entered working age during the pandemic and our economy is not strong. We don't own property and renting a house for 2600 a month is killing us already. Our armies may not be GW plastic, but it's still a physical model that we are bringing to games. We aren't buying GW rule books when OPR has free rules and a better activation system. These old heads aren't converting us. They are fueling our hatred for the abuse these companies levie towards us. And cementing our belief that they aren't good fits to our growing youth gaming community, and aren't getting invites to events.

Games workshop is a corporation. If people atop buying from them worst thing that happens is they get bought out or sell the WH IP, in that case the new company can lower prices or face the same fate

when i was a kid i bought a box of 30 space marines and it was 20$, thats 50$ in todays money but it was 30 customizable mini, now for 50$ you get 10

Good video. You didn't even mention that after spending that money on models, which I have, GW expects you to turn around and spend hundreds on the rules and tools to play the game for 3 years.

I have three Plague Crawlers. One GW two 3D printed. I could afford all three to be GW… but Nurgle is all about been sick and twisted not been uniform and identical and having three completely different styles looks amazing together.. also I prefer the 3D ones! One has all eyeballs and tentacles!

Australia is 431 dollars for the old world boxes which i feel is a much more intimating price just from the sound alone

as a commissioned miniature painter of 20 + years, i always try to persuade my customers to pick up cheaper tabletop games. gw's main ambition is to brand their products as luxury items. so you get the luxury brand price tag. luxury products are not meant for the middle class, just to put that across the least harsh as possible.

FYI if GW goes under your rule books still work. You can still play your games without GW emptying your wallet.

Well as someone who has been a GW “supporter” since the beginning (have my 1st ed Warhammer fantasy, 1st edition WH 40k rogue trader rule book, both Realms of Chaos books) still have numerous armies (and gave away or sold countless armies to friends or others) and still have many citadel rogue trader minis in my armies and a bunch of oop minis packed away…….. anyone interested. What I will say is GW has always been on the high end in miniature prices since they were usually the pinnacle of miniatures (even back in the rogue trader days) compared to other Mini companies of the time. That being said there biggest problem is a lot of their minis are “dated” (old world min the case) (personally I’d buy everything that comes out for their prices even overpriced except most of those minis are sculpts from 15+ years ago) and even some of their newer stuff is dated out of the box. Personally I think GW has “lost their edge” in mini sculpture most everything is computer generated sculptures and it shows……… just my two cents………

I started 20 years ago when I was 13. Now I have 14 armies for 40k, 4 armies for Old World. And I'm close on quitting all things GW-related. The prices are just unjustifiable.

The closest value bang for your buck is the combat patrols, not all of them for sure, but GW plastic with standardized GW designs. Outside of picking up hard to get spare unit or centerpiece model, there isn't any value to buying from GW website. The last GW purchase I made that I felt was worth it's actual price was a squad of stealth suits for my tau. Every other purchase I've made since them, retail price, has been actually breaking the bank. Single model characters starting at 40 dollars, and decent hard signature units 80-100+ dollars has made me firmly into the secondary market. They've priced me out a long time ago. There is way too many options and game systems to be firmly locked into the games workshop environment.

What confuses me is GW strategy to get new players in. What is little Timmy gonna tell his mom? I need this +$250 box which isn't assembled. Or painted. Isn't even a complete army. Or include terrain. Or rules. Or include your opponent. Last time I played warhammer youngest guy was 30ish years old. Dad's are the only one who can afford. Killteam is cheaper but still eye watering.

After years playing MtG and years of videos about how MtG is supposedly dying, I was expecting a "old man yells at clouds" video. But this was actually very well thought of and interesting. You're making a solid point from a business point of view, and I'm sure that this will be one of GW's board major topic in the upcoming years.

If you keep raising your prices, sales will always go up. Until they start going down.

Good talk. I'm a long time warhammer player starting OPR and 3D printed models for all the reasons you listed. You've earned a sub.

At some point, GW will start selling ridiculously priced STLs.

100 GB = $126.33 on 4 February 24 , then look at GW's mark up charged US which makes up to 60% of over all sales GW sending plastic by 1st class seating on passenger airlines ? Local hobby stores are GW's warehouses

I fully agree. I have not bought anything since leviathan (record length of time ) and I have not preordered SM2.

3D printing is keeping OOP GW system alive, kicking and even flourishing as fan led communities have taken 'ownership'

That ridge runner looks like something I could pick up at the toy aisle at Wal-Mart and kitbash. I've been doing a lot of kitbashing. Orks are a great faction where I can junkball stuff like stompas and gargants scale to Titanicus and BattleTech.

I think when it swings, it's going to be very, very fast. Way faster than GW can react to market conditions. The reason is, GW is really pushing the competitive side of things. Competitive gamers will walk in and buy a whole new army because a new codex just came out and put that army at the top of the meta. Competitive gamers don't really care too much about models. They're just playing pieces. They're the price of entry. The majority I've seen will slap down an army they threw together the night before, mold lines everywhere, a drybrush and some contrast if the tournament requires painted models, and that's it. A lot of tournaments are perfectly fine with 3d printed models and if they're not, people are going to start organizing their own tournaments that are. Nobody can stop them. When the critical mass hits of a few tournament winners running 3d printed armies for a fraction of the cost of what everyone else spent, it's done. GW can tweak all the FAQs they want and release all the overpowered codexes they want. They're not going to be making a dime off it. And there isn't an army of lawyers big enough to shut down every seller on Etsy that they think infringes. By the time they wake up, it'll be done. And then we'll be looking at Hasbro-Warhammer.

I used to own my own store and I remembered how "expensive" i used to think GW figs were 20 years ago. There are some finer detail figures I will splurge and get from GW because the plastic holds up better should the figure get dropped vs. resin models, but generally Id rather bulk out my forces with resin printed stuff at this time from an initial box set than pony up $1000 to finish out rank and file guys for my army. I agree with all of your points. Its also likely why GW wants to push the IP ends with books, Warhammer TV and Prime TV/Movie deals instead of just little plastic men.

Raging Heroes for example, started as a physical minis company, but when they saw the rise of 3D printing (and the fact that many of the sculptors that worked for them started making their own Patreon, like Artisan Guild), they made their own Patreon and MMF pages, and started selling STLs. If GW is smart, they will make an online store for STLs. But they think they're un-demolishable. Reminds me of how Blizzard thought that the MOBA style wouldn't draw in the gamers, and when they woke up and released Heroes of the Storm, it couldn't compete against LoL and DotA 2 because it came too late.

The pricing and blatant greed of Games Workshop is what has made me decide to not support them in any way

Games workshops prices have been insane for a long time, I bowed out mostly due to a growing hatred of their rules and found Dropzone commander and deadzone which have far superior rulesets and great miniatures for far lower prices. Price wasn’t my motivator at the time but ive considered dipping back in to build a small force purely for display because I love the IP even if the game is trash but then I see the prices and I immediately get over that idea. In recent years I have started 3D printing and I’ve refound my love for the 40k universe through Adeptus titanicus scale. Loads of minis available for free and some genuinely amazing new minis in the 8mm range “not marines” and “not Eldar” available both free and for reasonable prices (units about €5) printing them costs about €20-30 worth of resin for a whole freaking army. It’s a no brainer. I don’t think GW are dead in the next few years. No debt and good cash flow make them a hard whale to take down, but a tipping point might come in the next 20 years where they have to look at the practicality of their retail chain. 3D printing is still a niche within a niche for our hobby.

I got my friend to print out 2x 'flashgitz' units. He said it cost less than £5 in resin. If i went for GWs models it would have been £60-70!!

I recently got back into WH. I played it a bot back in the 90's with Second Edition (such cool models). I was shocked when I saw how much everything costed. I actually started looking at perhaps buying a printer since it would probably be less expensive in the long run. That's really sad cause I'd love to buy the real deal but just don't have the money since my three kids also want to play and have their own armies. 😅

I don't get why they don't just sell stl files for oop minis

I mean I think GW is going to go on as a miniature company for the next 10 years; but the future could indeed be for GW to shifting to be to a multimedia company, with 40k video games, series, movies (cf. Cavill-Amazon etc)

I remember battle of macragge was like 50€, basic troops 30€, heroes 15€, monsters and veichles 40-50€ and detachments (today's equivalent of start collecting) were 75€, but had loads of miniature inside. Now everything costs double when you're lucky, if you're not a turnament player though you don't need gw mins, because there are so many beautiful minature that don't infringe on copyright that can be printed.

Long response ahead- I just started trying to learn wh and trying to learn to paint at the same time. I bought a kill team box and a combat patrol box it was 250$, I cannot even play the game. Once factoring for paint and such now we're another 200$, add in modeling supplies another 50$. I'm not poor, I do quite well but to get a 2000pt army that's competitive that's upwards of 1000$ once factoring for supplies. That's absolutely insane. And it's not a cash outlay I can or want to afford for a hobby I don't even know if I will like. Granted I knew before I started I would enjoy the building and painting part. But guess what I did? I bought a printer for 200$ a 2 liter bottle of resin for 35$ and some rubbing alcohol. My patreon subs are 10$ for models and I've made and painted more warhammer adjacent models from patreon than I have warhammer models. Because I could actually get on the board to play. I am absolutely someone willing to buy into a hobby and the game. But 1000$ is a lot. Now that I've got my first army that's 3/4 "proxy" I'll slowly add authentic models into the mix. Unfortunately because of their insane pricing I'll never play competitively because if my decided army isn't good I'd need to spend another 700-800$. So bottom line if a combat patrol was 100$ and characters were 25-70$ and 5 unit space marine type boxes were 30$ my entire army would be authentic. But instead I'm in no hurry. I guess I'm just too poor to play warhammer. But it seems very business stupid. If their profits are as high as their stock price reflects its dumb that they don't want more players. I don't think the movie is going to do it for them either. Because the average 25 year old won't spend 1000$ to figure out if they like something. I happen to be older with more expenses but also more income. You mention golf, I also play golf. I got my first set of clubs for like 300$ and now I can play anywhere. Now I have probably 1000-2000$ in clubs but that took years. Warhammer you can't even play without that outlay. They dont balance the game around 500pts they balance it around 2000 and the game is simply not as fun in my opinion with a combat patrol game. So yes 3d printers will force them to get into competitive range for new blood or die. I can't imagine people who have played long term like paying 50% more than they did a few years ago. Engaging new players with such big marketing coming their way with the movie just seems common sense. Also setup a us factory so you don't have to gouge us. It's not hard to see the price conversion doesn't add up and that alone makes me feel less bad printing proxy models that are well enough to play with friends.

I have a strong feeling GW is trying to get as much money as possible right now, make deals to get them into popculture consciousness ASAP, then sell the company at a high price before the chumps who bought it realise it will fall apart in 2 years. My hunch.

I bought a couple of printed models because they were no longer available at my country. 6 month into the hobby. GW will start lowering prices or not increasing them more because of 3D printing. Right now the demand is greater than their model produccion , this its why then can charege a lot more. They are also going to move a lot more into movies in the future

Great video. This message bodes well for the future of 3d print model based gaming.

Like you said. They. Are a business not a service. You are also right it doesn’t mean they should squeeze every bit money out of you for what is becoming a mediocre product. Their slogan of being the best miniature producer out there for price is not now true. But to put it into perspective you have the GW price, Third party retail price(-10-20%), GW employee discount retail price (-50%). All the time the company is still making money???? Makes you wonder how much they are really worth?

Personally, I see no issue with printing/proxying models. I'm not going to tell another person they can't play toy soldiers because they don't want to buy models from a specific company when there's competitors that can create game pieces. Additionally GW can't seem to keep the models they do sell in stock -- heck, I bought a printer just to acquire "Online Only" models that sell out in minutes. With a full time job and maintaining a house I can't drop everything in a moment's notice to buy an expensive toy. I'd rather just print it at that point. Or I can take first party boxes and print bits so I can build "both models" from the same kit -- less waste that way and I can justify a $75 Venomtrope box because I can get six models out of the kit.

Ever since GW has started intentionally tanking the lore and telling their community to fuck off if they dont like it, I've stopped caring if people buy from them anymore or not.

I wanted to play GW games, saw prices and realised I can afford 1 warband. Then local game group introduced me to OPR :) I don't own 3d printer, I just buy minis from other games and make warbands. And it is still cheaper. Huge plus for me is that I can make minis I like and find rules for them. Or just make my own as last resort.

As a guy that lives near Nottingham and goes to whw frequently I agree I hardly spend in there other than paints or eating in bugmans it's really expensive especially forge world so for people living in the states having to pay shipping etc alot of people are going to turn to 3d prints.

So much of GW stuff has been scanned to and released into the wild. Hypothetically, if you have a decent printer, one could create a 1to1 40k army for the price of the resin. Like it or not, GW is fu£ked.

Perrys €22 Warlord games £30 Wargames Atlantic £25 That's why I left GW band Wagon

Another nail in this 2030 coffin ⚰️ is the utter lack of timeliness in support of their IPs... My personal complaint is Imperialis.

The big issue is that Games Workshop sees regular profits year over year that are well beyond their operating costs. They don't NEED to increase their prices to make money, but it's the classic issue with capitalism. They're a publicly traded stock based company, so they need to show ever increasing profits year over year, and because of the point they've priced themselves to, it's impossible to show those profits without simply further increasing their prices to milk their established player base. It's difficult for GW to draw in new customers because the barrier to entry is simply so high for a lot of their games. The argument that GW is a big company and thus has greater expenses is an enormous logical fallacy, because as economies of scale provide, the greater the scale of your production the less and less labour and cost of material factors into the overall pricing of your product. It's the reason why McDonalds can sell a Cheeseburger for $1.99, when it would usually cost you double that to make a cheeseburger at home yourself, the normally cost effective method. The more of something you make, the less you have to spend relative to your sales on production. By all logic, GW should actually be able to price themselves significantly lower than a private etsy based maker and still make a profit, because of the law of economies of scale. They simply don't because of the profit motive inherently necessary within a capitalist system. It's an ironically wildly dystopian issue with modern society that 40K as a universe is supposed to parody, but instead GW has become the very thing that they intended to parody with their universe.

Vote with your dollar. Most Proxies look as good or better than GW. They are multipose, they usually come with extra bits if you ask the seller, and they are usually a reasonable price.

I've been playing 40k since 2e. i watched GW go from a company whose business model was "games, for gamers by gamers" then going publicly traded and switching to "get all they will spend" or "what the market will bear" as a business model. the last 10+ years have ALL been a money grab by the corporation. the group i play with (players from their early 60s to early 20s) switched to ONLY playing odd editions because GW was basically selling the "rights" to beta test each new edition to the consumers, which i didn't agree with. The price hikes and screwing over the independent game shops to push them out of the profit margines as well as disregarding any value of long term gamers opinions were just getting ridiculous to the point of insanity... basically, we didn't like the new business model, but we still mostly supported GW and loved Warhammer 40 and fantasy. with the new WokeHammer direction GW has chosen.. well, we froze at 9th edition and will not be putting any money towards GW profits... corporations only hear one voice, the voice of money. resin printers are a great investment and produce a great product... printers go Bbrrr

I do agree. Its getting ridiculus. I am a single man in my early 30's so I can buy myself a plastic soliders. The thing is I just paid the cost of monthly student accomodation (in PLN I am from Poland) for 20 plastic toy soliders (4x Adepta Sororitas Seraphim Squads). I think that the Adepta Sororitas will be my last army full in GW plastic, and I will just start to print. My friend got himself a 3D printer. He printed all of his Tau Battlesuits, that would have cost near the price of a week summer vacation abroad :0. Plus I cannot even imagine, the teen getting in this hobby.

Currently, I will 3D print any model that I can not get my hands on the kit locally.

I stopped buying 40k in part because I'm not making the money to keep buying the sets, but also because they stopped making models I like. I was buying space marines and they decided to go with a style that I feel just isn't space marines, and then they changed the kit for the Mk 3 armor in 30k to something I didn't care for either. If I wanted to continue the hobby, I'd have to buy a 3D printer just to have the aesthetic that I liked.

The 3D printing is way less prevalent in the historical gaming space because there is a lot more variety and the companies charge fair price. A lot of these figures are also in white metal which is more expensive material supposedly. Still better value than GW plastics.

I'm Warhammer fan from 2nd ed 40k. I broke free from that crap exactly thanks to this great pricing policy. Well this, and frankly - for me it's insane how many times we have to pay for, let's face it, basic rules for a game. I hate greedy people. I don't believe when they say they have to push so hard to stay alive. There are other beautiful games out there. I love 40k. But I would lose respect for myself still giving them money. And I think exactly as You do - if such me exist, there are more like me out there.

Its not ONLY GW’s fault when it comes to high retail prices (in America, nor here in Europe) it had to do with rent of stores, inflation, taxes, >import fees< and shipping cost and it’s a fact that the dollar is low on ‘power’ when it comes to valuta value.. From where I live if something is 170 pounds that means around 200 euro’s PLUS import fees that ranges from 13~21 % depending on what so yeh it sucks for me too.. Also I hoped with printing and resin/plastic GW would cut their prices.. BUT no.. Mini’s from other companies are much cheaper.. Anyhow the Warhammer(40k) franchise is going to get an massive uproar, a big focus and ‘landslide of attention’ from the media and mainstream thanks to Henry working on some series/movies so when that hits the web/tv/stream sales could skyrocket.. And then maybe GW would be forced to think twice about pricing, Marketing, changing rules so often, production and kind of mini’s to sell etc because the complains, praise, suggestions, and problem all are going to skyrocket too. So in a few years its going to be something!

I've been collecting GW minis since I was 10, which was in the late 80s. My local hobby store literally had a bin full of random GW figures, all in pewter, which they sold for 50 pence each. Back then a character model in a blister pack would have been about 3.99 which was about what a Happy Meal cost back then. I have not bought a GW model though since the day I got married. I can't justify the cost.

Just found your channel today. Only GW game I play is Blood Bowl. Its probably the cheapest of all their games but there are so many online options to 3D print. Even companies making their own models. I've wondered this myself with so much 3D printing.

Maximising profits before they fold.

Hello! Path chosen by GW is really unreasonable. I understand when they deleting scans of their original sculpts, but they also blocking authors with their own designs, which were only inspired by GW. And prices of new boxes are really insane. I suppose, that new lines and new sculpts for old ones will be much more pricey, then we have now. I own three 3d printers and even started to kitbash my own minis on my laptop. It gives me more motivation and feeling of success, cause I made unique things. Best wishes for you and yours family. (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

For US citizens it is really bad, I saw the prices and was shocked. On the other hand a lot of things are more expensive than in Europe in the US.

My biggest problem is 1 hero is around 25 euro but a pack of 10 units is also 25 euro. While the plastic used for the 10 units is more.

Just think how much more you'd save if you printed them yourself. Also, there are games out there that are designed to be played with whatever mini's you happen to own, so you don't have to feel bad about not buying their own brand of mini to play them.

It is actually more of a price difference in the long term than it is now. The stuff you are buying from etsy is low volume cottage industry production. For items with more demand someone can produce them in larger quantities and sell them (still with a good profit margin) for half the current etsy prices. So instead of $20 vs $60 it will be $10 vs $60. That is when GW is in big trouble.

I moved to Horus Heresy when 2.0 came out. That entire community is a lot more open to 3D printing than the 40K crowd. It's been great to not have to buy things at an inflated price. Plus, I can try things out before I maybe purchase them as well.

I have to keep saying it every video because its rough out there for 3D Artists in the miniatures market, with mass file sharing sites like MEGA and Telegram groups. On top of Etsy is generally just models being sold with out the creators permission. I know people don't give it any thought and just want miniatures but its important to do your due diligence to support the actual artists behind the STL files and Prints you love.

Realistically, as long as they keep selling stuff faster than they can make it, they'll be able to keep raising prices and be fine. I have no idea who's still buying all this stuff though, it sure as hell isn't me. I've probably bought 3 kits from them in the past decade.

They’ve been digging their own grave for many many years, yet vast majority of FLGS stay in business because WH makes up 90% of their minis sales. Players are sheep, and 3D printing is a pretty huge barrier to entry - it ain’t anywhere close to easy

When I got in the game Land Raiders were 2 to a box and Rhinos were 3 to a box...

Because of GW's high prices I have gone to 6mm and 15mm miniatures and indy wargames.

Hmmmm, 3d printing is also impacting Historical gaming. So, it`s not just GW. It`s gonna fuck up so many companies.

I'm with ya. Die hard GW supporter since 2000 (3rd ed) but I've started looking at 3d stuff for some items.

Price hikes are understandable, but the issue is how that scales across an entire army. I think GW should tighten their IP and mini quality around the characters and then loosen up about troops and transports for 3D printing.

Look at Hasbro $25 for a 6" action figure. Two packs for $55. The days of them putting out quality at an affordable price to the masses are gone. Now its lets target the niche players and sell 3x higher. McFarland figures just jumped to $40 I wanted to get some of his Warhammer stuff.

I think there's really a few problems with this: 1: 3D printed models look like crap 2: They're banned at GW events and shops 3: GW can easily ban shops who allow 3d printed models from carrying any of their products or hosting any sponsored events I think those are what will stop 3D printing from being a major factor... I know for me, even when I was a poor graduate student I decided against 3D printing models because "why waste my time with something I can't bring into a Warhammer store if I wanted to?"

I have a 3d printer and print poxies for GW models all the time. The one problem I have with etsy is that they don't always have the sculptor's permission to sell the models. Someone put some time and effort into creating the sculpt so I think they should be compensated

I feel like GW has a competitive advantage due to the vast world building it has done over the last 4 decades. They are 'the premium' miniature seller (as far as I know) and are at the moment probably in some what of a golden age of wargaming. They have seen a massive uptake of TT wargaming (COVID, PC gaming being made less accessible due to crypto driving up GPU prices) and general acceptance of 'the hobby' in general. I'd argue that *currently* the 3D printing trend works in their favour. People buy the majority of their kit from GW and print only as a supplement to their GW purchases. As the quality and accessibility of printers improves and the gap between what GW produces and 3rd party products diminishes.... Well I think they might find themselves in the reverse of the current situation. Case in point: when is the last time someone you know purchased any GW terrain? It's peripheral, non essential, 3D printer go BRRRRRRR!!!! The other element that will accelerate this is removal of their competitive advantage. I.e. tamper too heavily with the lore and/or compromise artistic development and drive away long term supporters. The backstory may seem like fluff to the initiated, fair enough. However... If you are going to charge a premium for your product you need a point of differentiation (or one hell of a marketing dept...)That differentiation used to be quality of miniatures, not being able to be replicated by small business due to capital required to design and produce. That's out the window. So the lore & 'goodwill' (brand recognition) is all that's left. I'd be very surprised if this issue does not have pride of place at most strategy meetings within GW. What I would be surprised to hear is that they have even the slightest idea how to tackle it! TLDR: GW charge too much, interest rates up, blackrock & vanguard piss people off regularly, neckbeards be spiteful and technically adept, in 2025/26 3D printer go BRRRRRRR & GW go uuuurrrrrggghhhhh....

I've been into 40K since 2001. I've loved 40K for most of that time (took a few years off) and this latest round of price increases has been too much. I'm going 3rd party and playing other games now.

I can print a whole baneblade out full sized with weapon options for about 30 dollars of resin. and still have a little left for a squad of guardsmen. So far ive printed about 8 leman russ tanks, 3 baneblades an unknown and ungodly amount if infantry and ither weird stuff. I still buy some GW stuff of course but most of my collection is 3d printed now. I dont hate ge either i grew up with gw and want them to succeed but i cannot afford theor prices anymore.

i am currently printing an entire tyrranid army