The Business: G-Dubs Biffed A Big Launch

Pat's reporting that the Stupid British Toy Company fucked up the launch for Horus Heresy 3rd Edition.

We are seeing GW get the stick for not giving the customers what they want, which was to not have a new edition at this time.

Pat buried the lead here, but this is the culprit: Shareholder Demand For Action.

The reason for this launch is because the shareholders are demanding that every single product line in the company adhere to the same three-year model that GW's two primary product lines (40K and Fantasy) have adhered to for decades; those that cannot be maintained at this pace get culled.

Combine this with pressure to push the prices ever-upward by those same shareholders, at a time when discretionary spending has all but collapsed, and and you have Yet Another Mammon Mobster Fuck Up. You can't blame the Death Cult for this problem; this is the pure and demon-inspired greed of the Mammon Mob in action, not realizing that this was an entirely preventable problem.

"So they'll correct course, right?"

LOLno.

That pivot to being a Brand-focused company means that products that underperform will be axed in favor of products that do. Space Marine 2 and Darktide did far more numbers than even top-tier 40K Tabletop stuff, so guess what happens to secondary product lines that don't deliver on their delusional expectations of performance? They get a bolter round in the face and the corpse dumped into a processor vat.

You are going to see GW accelerate away from Tabletop towards Vidya as the tabletop product launch failures and underperformances accumulate. Make nice with the Oldhammer folks if you haven't already, you GW diehards; you're going to be pushed into their camp sooner than you think by the company that hates you. (Also, accelerate forking their products.)