GW does not want Kill Team to succeed, do they?

[Phantomworks]

3 copies made 3 copies sold... What a frustrating hobby and company. 

 

The IP is so cool... The company owning it seems completely out of touch with customer demand. 

 

 

[ChargingSoll]

For people curious, GWs factories have been making Leviathan for 9 months now and this have been drastically affecting every other kit that was due in the same time line. As in 60 to 75 percent of total factory allocation being given to Leviathan. Compounded a bit with scalpers buying just to resell and 40k just blowing up in popularity.

 

If they could make more they would but the factories already at its limits. 

 

I don't say this to defend the stupid preorder situation we're in but to try to understand why were in this situation in the first place and hopefully after the Leviathan box set comes out things should get better

 

I heard a bit on how they are trying to meet demand with Leviathan and they have stupid numbers beings made  ALOT more then the total number of indomitus made. 

[Colman]

I’ve heard similar: my local is expecting Ashes stock in the next week or so, though they got bugger all  pre-order stock, and they’re expecting decent stock levels for Leviathan.

[Flaherty]

I have the same intuition as @ChargingSoll. My LGS owner puts out a weekly state of the store video on YouTube and has been noting that GW is only able to provide 40-50% of the back catalog items that he orders in any given month and this has been the case for many months, presumably because they're doing so much Indomitus production.

 

That said, it wouldn't hurt for GW to message this buyers. They have this stance of maintaining an impenetrable facade, nothing ever goes wrong, etc. as we saw with Cursed City. My favored solution would be some sort of loyalty program. Let Warhammer+ subscribers get first crack on pre-order with precedence going to those who have subscribed the longest. Would solve a lot of problems, salve hurt feelings, and provide a real benefit beyond the free minis!

[Lord_Ikka]

=][= Moved to Amicus, this is not News, Rumors, or Board Announcements. =][=

[Valkyrion]

30 minutes ago, Flaherty said:

I have the same intuition as @ChargingSoll. My LGS owner puts out a weekly state of the store video on YouTube and has been noting that GW is only able to provide 40-50% of the back catalog items that he orders in any given month and this has been the case for many months, presumably because they're doing so much Indomitus production.

 

That said, it wouldn't hurt for GW to message this buyers. They have this stance of maintaining an impenetrable facade, nothing ever goes wrong, etc. as we saw with Cursed City. My favored solution would be some sort of loyalty program. Let Warhammer+ subscribers get first crack on pre-order with precedence going to those who have subscribed the longest. Would solve a lot of problems, salve hurt feelings, and provide a real benefit beyond the free minis!

 

They should offer it first to people who can post a selfie with a copy of Rogue Trader, then to people who can post a selfie with the cardboard ork dreadnought, then finally those who can show off their Dark Eldar with the mad hair. You know the one. 

[Joe]

35 minutes ago, Flaherty said:

That said, it wouldn't hurt for GW to message this buyers. They have this stance of maintaining an impenetrable facade, nothing ever goes wrong, etc. as we saw with Cursed City.

 

As far as Cursed City goes; there were massive issues at the end of 2020 when Games Workshop had to switch back to using one of their older China-based printers after Westdale went bust due to Brexit. Consequently, they were pretty far down the ladder in priority and mistakes were made in the quantities that were ultimately produced.

 

They can't really talk about it officially without damaging business partnerships, which is understandable. As it stands, they've since switched back to a UK-based printer, so they aren't working with the Chinese company anymore. Unfortunately said printer is a leaky sieve compared to Westdale, which isn't great for them from a professional stand-point.

[Phantomworks]

It is baffling that they continue with delivering disappointment. Every Killteam 6 releases or more has been the same F.. Up

 

Ans then the preorder page stares everyone in the face on their website despite it being long gone.

 

Clueless they are... Hey let's.. p...off as many potential customers as we can before moving on to another pre-order catastrophe. 

 

 

 

[Indy Techwisp]

5 hours ago, Phantomworks said:

It is baffling that they continue with delivering disappointment. Every Killteam 6 releases or more has been the same F.. Up

 

Ans then the preorder page stares everyone in the face on their website despite it being long gone.

 

Clueless they are... Hey let's.. p...off as many potential customers as we can before moving on to another pre-order catastrophe. 

 

9 hours ago, ChargingSoll said:

For people curious, GWs factories have been making Leviathan for 9 months now and this have been drastically affecting every other kit that was due in the same time line. As in 60 to 75 percent of total factory allocation being given to Leviathan. Compounded a bit with scalpers buying just to resell and 40k just blowing up in popularity.

 

If they could make more they would but the factories already at its limits. 

 

I don't say this to defend the stupid preorder situation we're in but to try to understand why were in this situation in the first place and hopefully after the Leviathan box set comes out things should get better

 

I heard a bit on how they are trying to meet demand with Leviathan and they have stupid numbers beings made  ALOT more then the total number of indomitus made. 

 

Just gonna quote these together as your issue has an explanation already delivered to you.

[Ripper.McGuirl]

My question is: are they really going to sell *that* many Leviathan boxes? Are people that amped for it?

[Lord_Ikka]

28 minutes ago, Ripper.McGuirl said:

My question is: are they really going to sell *that* many Leviathan boxes? Are people that amped for it?

Look at how big Indomitus was- they even did a MTO for it after it sold out. Secondly, much like Indomitus, Leviathan is introducing a lot of new units that won't be available for individual purchase for months after and there will be a lot of people who want a unit or two but not the whole box- the secondary market will be loaded with kit-splitters who are selling the units off individually. The current box price estimates and value comparisions also point to a major savings, along the lines of getting just the units for 30% of what they would be in individual kits. This all leads to a lot of probable sales for the box set.

 

Killteam, like it or not, is a secondary game and secondary priority for GW. Leviathan, being the launch box set for a brand new edition of their flagship product line, is completely different. 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Lord_Ikka

[lansalt]

25 minutes ago, Ripper.McGuirl said:

My question is: are they really going to sell *that* many Leviathan boxes? Are people that amped for it?

Indomitus had supposedly the best sales ever of any 40k box, and that one didn't include new Terminators and Tyranids. GW predictions must look even better for them.

[Ripper.McGuirl]

Huh, guess I just hang with a crowd that’s more ambivalent about it. Regardless, I hope it sells well and then they actually can get back to making  enough of other things that they arent out of stock for months at a time.

[Vassakov]

7 hours ago, Ripper.McGuirl said:

My question is: are they really going to sell *that* many Leviathan boxes? Are people that amped for it?

 

My LGS, a small shop in a medium sized town in the UK, already has ~25 preorders for the box. They still have a couple of copies of Dominion for context.

[Mana]

I didn't get Indomitus, looking back I somewhat regret it. I will try to get Leviathan, I think Leviathan will sell better than Indomitus. I understand that they are producing silly quantities to meet demand of Leviathan. I think they know other product lines are suffering, but they had to make a choice, and decided for their most popular product, 40k. I don't blame them, it makes sense.

 

I think GW knows they have to expand their production capabilities, but that takes time and good planning, I expect them to try to fix it in the future, simply because there is a lot of money to be made and left on the table, greed of public traded companies knows no bounds.

 

The Kill Team situation sucks, I would love for them to restock older boxes after Leviathan launches, like another run of ashes of faith, but honestly I doubt GW would care enough, they will just release a new product for Kill Team with better availability. Sometimes it's more of a product in the stack that takes a slot, and they are just happy with having new products taking that slot, don't caring if is a new box. The Slot in this case would be a Kill Team box with 2 teams and terrain.

 

It's a shame the ashes of faith campaign will be lost if you don't get the box, a lot of people might enjoy it, they should release the rules for free if they don't intend to produce more.

[2PlusEasy]

I'm less empathetic towards GW's factory issues: the demand for their product is there. With Hasbro over their shoulder as an investor and their willingness to consistently increase pricing by 6 - 10% per year, GW are greedy enough to chase what makes them more $$.

 

So that tells me three things:

 

The first is that GW really are genuinely production-strapped and are struggling to maintain stock. If this is the case, that's dangerous: if the demand is there but the availability isn't, people will go elsewhere to get what they need whether that be (often cheaper) 3rd party proxies or more illegal means of recasting. That's a big loss for GW either way.

 

The second is, just perhaps, GW under-produce on purpose  because it looks great to investors when everything sells out. And because the demand is there, combined with the fear of missing out from previous releases, they've manipulated their clientele to ensuring they always make their return and profit from their own online store at full retail price.

 

The third, which is probably the most objective... Is maybe Kill Team just doesn't sell well due to internal and external factors? For starters, it's two most direct competitors in the Skirmish wargame market are other internal GW products: Necromunda and Warcry. Infinity is also very popular as an external competitor and Battletech has made a massive resurgence with one of the highest Kickstarter backings in history.

 

But I get what the OP is conveying though: I missed out on Soul Shackle which I wanted for both Arbites and Dark Eldar so I can share their frustrations.

[appiah4]

GW are definitely encouraging artificial scarcity to justify prices.

[MegaVolt87]

20 hours ago, appiah4 said:

GW are definitely encouraging artificial scarcity to justify prices.

 

This is a dangerous play to make for GW. I imagine new releases are a major part of their revenue every quarter. If there is not enough stock to meet demand, people will not be as interested in newer releases, they buy older kits GW may not produce a lot of, creating shortages while new stock is potentially under sold. This would be a bad spiral for the company if it goes on. Increased sales of old stock doesn't always translate to increased revenue, more so with periods of unavailability, there would be potential losses on new products added or just breaking even with not much growth. 

[appiah4]

The market doesn't quite work that way, FOMO can boost your new product sales way more than you think in these kinds of scenarios..