NagoyaHammer.com

GW's annual report is out (in case you didn't know).

http://investor.games-workshop.com/wp-c ... 5-July.pdf

Analysis by someone who seems to know what he is talking about.

http://dukesinferno.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... .html#more

Seems that they aren't actually in terrible straits after all. Mind you these figures are only until May this year so don't really cover the 'sales embargo' and the 'finecast fiasco'. It will be interesting to see their numbers for later in the year which will include the above and really show the result of all the ill feeling generated. Was it all just a storm in an internetz teacup or will it cripple the company? How will the seeming popularity of Storm of Magic affect things? Rumours of 40K 6th edition?

Mike the Pike wrote:GW's annual report is out (in case you didn't know).

http://investor.games-workshop.com/wp-c ... 5-July.pdf

Analysis by someone who seems to know what he is talking about.

http://dukesinferno.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... .html#more

Seems that they aren't actually in terrible straits after all. Mind you these figures are only until May this year so don't really cover the 'sales embargo' and the 'finecast fiasco'. It will be interesting to see their numbers for later in the year which will include the above and really show the result of all the ill feeling generated. Was it all just a storm in an internetz teacup or will it cripple the company? How will the seeming popularity of Storm of Magic affect things? Rumours of 40K 6th edition?

Well, we'll have to wait until the end of the year for the preliminary figures to be released and the middle of next year for the full report. The fact that sales fell in some of their biggest sales areas isn't a great sign for future growth, especially because I cant see anything that they have done so far this year making up for it. Oh well, at least according to that report Finecast was an overwhelming success with a 97% quality rate.

at least according to that report Finecast was an overwhelming success with a 97% quality rate.

That was a good one, wasn't it? This Duke guy seems to think that Kirby is a bit of a muppet and he is particularly responsible for all the recent c*ck-ups. Maybe he'll retire soon. Here's hoping

Mike the Pike wrote:

at least according to that report Finecast was an overwhelming success with a 97% quality rate.

That was a good one, wasn't it? This Duke guy seems to think that Kirby is a bit of a muppet and he is particularly responsible for all the recent c*ck-ups. Maybe he'll retire soon. Here's hoping

Why would he retire, he just got a 20% pay increase?
Sweet monkey on a bicycle, thats a lot of cash!

Seeing that the douche bag head of GW gave himself a 20% pay increase after everything that has happened in the last several months disgusts me.

Yeah I think something bad is on the horizon

I hate to agree with Voss...

FOW anyone?

how to surprise and delight our customers over and over again. (Go
take a quick look at Citadel Finecast - awesome!)

ahahahahaaaaaahahahahahaahHAHAHAHAHHAAH!!!!


och dearie me. I'm going to have to call a doctor, because I think I just laughed my ass off...

seriously though, Duke's commentary seems pretty sound to me. I dont have the savvy to pull that kind of info from the report itself (altho I did read the first dozen or so pages, then got bored...) but he seems to be reasonable, informed, and not completely unbiased. A comment just at the end was interesting:

Tom Kirby's significant pay rise should be taken as a sign that he plans to retire, and soon.

It is not uncommon in UK businesses (can't speak for the ROW) to give directors one last large pay rise, to bump up their final salary based pension.

This is promising, I reckon. I think most of us agree that Kirby's arrival/buy out back in the late 80s was when GW started to slide into its current evil corporate state, and if Kirby buggers off, it could be that corporate attitudes may change, over time. I'd be willing to pay him to leave, if it meant the company reassessed its attitude to its customers, focused more on increasing sales by encouraging existing customers to stick around and buy more (and, of course, pull in new blood. Its a necessary part of any business plan for growth), and generally stop the whole "line em up, take their cash, tell em to feck off, NEXT!" approach currently employed.