Why does Warhammer Visions suck so much?

[s_o_r_r_o_w]

Look, I knew it wasn't going to be great. I knew it would be a cash grab and over-priced.

But how did it come to this? Page after page of...pictures. Sure, most of the pics are pretty good--if repetitive. But there is minimal explanatory text, and what text is present is in a distracting three languages!

Blanchitsu, Conversions, Painting--great! But where is the actual content? Explanations? Description of how the models are done?

Battle Report--are you kidding?

And I find it completely disingenuous to describe this as a "coffee-table style" art book--and then make its page size SMALLER than the WD.

So annoyed. And I have something like 20 WD coupons left.

[Boskie43]

24.7% stock drops in less than a full 24 hour time period...

Cash grab over priced picture book. That's all it is. Much like the current white dwarfs. I've essentially stopped buying them completely. I have old ones that were amazing with everything you can ask for - Painting Ideas/help. Conversions. Terrain Features. Battle Report FOR BOTH GAME SYSTEMS IN THE SAME MAGAZINE. Different and alternate mission scenarios/battles to play with special rules. Now they are simply an "overpriced here is our product, please buy the catalog". I can at least go into Sears or JC Penny's and just grab the catalog off a display to buy the product later (and they have better descriptions in their catalogs anyways - DON'T tell me you didn't need reading material at some time when you were out with your wives!).

Much like the release of the 8th ED fantasy in electronic format and then claiming why would we release that so soon to a new edition? More than enough rumors showing either this summer or next is the new release. How about the better question to GW is: You make your books in a PDF format and then send it to a printer to be bound/distributed why not just put it up? It's a PDF... Just upload the damn thing - it'll take all of 45 seconds to do that. Thats why you put it up... for the same amount of money as the hardback when it literally costs you nothing in effort/energy to upload it (yes time/research/pay is all factored in to "make" money).

Store owner by us allowed us to just open it as he told us it was worthless. Apperently GW has a policy in place though for store owners with it the new Visions thing. Buy as many as you need and you can return the ones that don't sell for credit on future GW releases. So our LGS bought 4 copies. Hasn't sold a single one. Though to be fair... when the store owner tells you it is worthless I doubt anyone would buy it

[Karyle]

I dunno, I like it. I wish the weekly were in the small book format too

[s_o_r_r_o_w]

I dunno, I like it.

Can you name even 1 thing that's good?

I wish the weekly were in the small book format too

Less is less. Why would you want a smaller book?

[spiralingcadaver]

24.7% stock drops in less than a full 24 hour time period...

seriously?

[Boskie43]

Yep, January 15th or 16th it happened. Let me find an article, very well written overall by a guy who left the same industry I am in in order to run a games store and painting group after being a CFO of a HUGE distributing company.

Article also has a direct link to the investor paper work from GW showing their relatively static/large decline of perceived growth. Almost a complete 4 mil less profit - translates to essentially a 33% loss in profits in just 6 months of time. Thing that GW has going for it though - ZERO, 0, none, zippo - debt. So that's actually probably the only real thing outside of considerable physical assests that didn't make it an even larger drop overall.

They also closed down almost all of their foreign headquarters except for the USA headquarters (might have kept Australia open as well?). All the other headquarters shut down and the local stores there now answer to Nottingham as of end of January.

[Imaginos]

It felt rehashed, but it was not a bad book. I agree that it would be nice for more verbiage, but I liked it better than the last few White Dwarfs I picked up.

[kturock]

The stock dropped because the CEO left and sold off all of his shares and that made the price drop.
I have a link to the story about... somewhere.

[NuWishA]

I've also read that GWUS has been rolled into GWUK.

[Boskie43]

There is way more than just the CEO leaving. CEO leaving had nothing to do with their 33% drop in profits over just a 6 month time window.
The almost absolute loss of their brand outside of their company to lose almost 80% of their royalties income in less than 18 months, to be fair their choice of flag bearer outside of the table top went bankrupt, still less income though and can again be viewed as a terrible decision by the company to pick another company that was not potentially strong enough to survive while pushing their products as well as not being able to have anyone sign onto their high royalty fees again.
The decision to NOT hire and simply roll CEO and chairman duties is never viewed as a good thing in a publicly traded company.
--------------

The major problem as the rolling of duties and the closing of stores/limiting to 5 days a week for 8 hours on top of the decisions made already is extremely troubling for an investor. Their sales BY their own numbers have become stagnant over the last 2.5 years. They themselves haven't given an official reasoning for this. Their pricing has increased to cover the loss in sales but eventually that will catch up to you as a company - any company would be caught eventually, a niche hobby company even faster than normal.
Add all the store closing on top of the increased prices and profits will be made by any company out there. Less workers, less rent, increase in prices - profits shall be made. In the short term. Eventually a price ceiling will emerge as will the hit of potentially less volume of direct sales as your store front is less existent. This ceiling is exacerbated by competing companies offering very similar product for extremely lower prices. All be it, GWs product may just be the best on the market overall (in my opinion) but eventually you have to look at all the decisions as an investor and the erosion of faith that can be seen.
Criticism on our Facebook? Close it! Don't deal with the community if they have nothing nice to say of us.
Gamesdays don't make us money? Close them.
People are releasing product for things we ourselves don't make? Sue the hell outta them. The amount of money GW spent on only the Chapterhouse is ridiculous for their decision this far.
No longer build up any hype for product due to FIRING people for giving people things to look forward to? Brilliant!
PR? What's that? More employees cost money, forget that.

None of those are viewed as good things long term by investors. Simply an erosion of faith in the company internally.

This is not even adding in the fact that the previous CEO sells his shares the moment he is out. No investor on the planet will think anything but the fix is in. And to think the CEO has the shares to drop a company that far when he is not close to a principle partner is relatively asinine as he stepped down more than a year ago. First 6 months that he was gone and selling stocks the numbers looked great. It's only the last 6 months combined with their sales/income percentages over the last 2.5 years that scares investors to not have the value jump back up. Value's didn't even drop when he left... which is when you normally see the instant drop. Not months later.

Look at the issues local game stores are beginning to have with GWs term of sales and you'll see a drop in sales at those locations as well. This has slightly less of an impact on them as at most GW will only make 20-30% profits on products that are sold in these stores. Make it more difficult for them to sell and guess what... Less sales due to less product on the shelves.


All in all - I could write more but typing on my phone in the doctors office is tough!
As you can see there is ALOT more than just a CEO leaving. Yes a CEO leaving will have a 3-7% drop in shares. Dropping profits 33% less than 6 months will have a much much larger impact and with the decisions made previously can and will scare investors.

Side note - sorry for spelling and grammar... Phone typing sucks - will try to edit when I get home

QUICK EDIT! I'm NOT SCREAMING THE SKY (or GW in this case) IS FALLING AND THE COMPANY WILL DIE/FAIL COMPLETELY. I DON'T BELIEVE THAT ALL. Have a less impact in the overall hobby? Potentially.

[kturock]

Yes, profits have been dropping, that's part of why the CEO left.
Profits dropped due to the reasons cited.

He sold to get the last bit of money from GW, knowing that it was the most money he'd get in the short term.
The share price dropped 2% in 1 hour. It later recouped the lose by the end of the day. From 527 to 517 and ended th day at 525.

Here's a link to the yahoo finance page.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=GAW. ... ff;source=;

You can see that over the past 52 weeks the price fluctuated from 510.00 - 830.00 and ended at 525.

[starslayer]

The new dwarf hammerer/longbeards are 10 for $50.
10 small plastic figures for $50 US. They are nuts. More than double the plastic Dwarf Warriors or Thunderers.

[kturock]

GW a while back, decided to make the rare, special, elite, models cost more, thus making them rarer on the battlefield.
When that didn't keep people from fielding unbalanced numbers of troops, they decided to keep the prices high and just change the number of unit choices for that type of model.
Then they said that these models were produced in smaller numbers and thus cost more.
Then they said it cost more to import the models into the US, since 'lead toys' were linited/prohibited into the US.
They they made plastic models and said they had to charge more because of the cost of oil and the new molds and injection machine.
Inflation has cause the to charge more.

They've used every excuse, and even no excuse other than it's the yearly price increase.

[pretre]

The stock dropped because the CEO left and sold off all of his shares and that made the price drop.
I have a link to the story about... somewhere.

Mark Wells left in January... 2013. I think you have your facts mixed up. Kirby is still there.

[kturock]

"it as actually expected; the outgoing CEO had been hoarding stock, and a january
sell off was expected. really, i am just surprised that the stock was that high
to begin with."
My dates were wrong but the facts were right.