September 2026 - Price Rises

[ZeroWolf]

9 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said:

Agreed. The rising price point is just one of the issues I have heard of from many people about why they don't play 40k anymore or won't start. 

 

One of the major issues I can see cropping up for GW in the next few years is their insistence on sticking with physical rulebooks/codices and apparent lack of institutional knowledge/desire to work with digital media. I don't really see another miniature game company being so stubborn about not offering full digital rules (free, paid-for, or subscription)- even games with the same historical age of 40k like Battletech offer pdf versions of their rulebooks. GW seems to have decided that they will only offer physical books. It's really baffling to me that this is a hill they seem to want to die on. At least they have sort of priced the codices better in 11th, but I don't think that that is a real saving grace.

There's a fair amount of people who think the game should be screen free and inist the game stick to the codices/ army books. Though they prefer them to be better written and developed so they don't need constant patching like a video game. 

 

I'm somewhere in the middle on that to be fair. I like the ease of digital rules but I would rather my attention being on the board in front of me rather than a screen which eats my time the rest of the day. 

[Valkyrion]

These new orks are outrageously overpriced. There's no way the ork half of Armageddon has an RRP of £300.

A 3-5% increase in line with rising expenses, overheads, inflation etc is fair, even for a profit monster like GW. 

But £52 for an Ork Trukk is enough to send me to ebay for all future purchases, and I don't even want a trukk. 

 

 

 

[Antarius]

10 hours ago, LittlePlasticHomies said:

According to a CNBC article from about a year ago, virtually all consumer prices have risen 25%~ since 2020. 
 

I don’t like this any more than the next guy but I really think the only difference is that a gallon of milk doesn’t announce its price increases.

Yeah. The way groceries have gone up just the last couple of years are pretty crazy (admittedly, I'm in a little rural village with some way to the next nearest shopping oportunities so there's probably a bit of "the only game in town" going on with local prices too. Still, whenever I go shopping in the cheaper supermarkets in town I also go "didn't this use to be a lot cheaper", so it's not just that).

That being said, I don't buy GW stuff like I used to. It seems a lot more expensive even if it might not relatively speaking be so.

[Wibbling]

This actually demands a reasoned and rational political discussion but we aren't allowed it, so I'll simply say that as an upper rate tax payer with shares in Workshop I am being priced out of the hobby. As a kid I was earning £16 a week and could get myself a Rhino and 30 Tacticals - the RTb01 box. 

 

Cutting out new, younger less monied entrants to the hobby and the better off with different priorities the customer base shrinks even further. There's a point where taking a cupful from a lake is more sensible than a bucket from a puddle. 

[darkhorse0607]

2 hours ago, Antarius said:

That being said, I don't buy GW stuff like I used to. It seems a lot more expensive even if it might not relatively speaking be so.

 

Yeah, this is where I'm sitting as well. Could I afford to buy more than I do? Yeah (not a flex I swear, I just don't have many hobbies, just this, running and buying a few video games a year). Are there more reasons now than there used to me to get me to pause long enough that ends up turning into skipping it? Also yeah. 

 

For me, increased prices are getting to the point where I paint my backlog instead. I have sympathy for folks that are genuinely priced out, truly, that is not a great feeling. I went through a period where I couldn't afford anything from GW and had to sell most of my collection, it's not a great feeling to not be able to do the hobby you enjoy.

 

That being said, for my current situation it's everything combined.

 

-Increased prices like I said. Even if it's not out of control compared to everything else, walking in to get the new MKIV squad and seeing a $90USD price tag is enough to get me to stop for a second. Or kill teams that cost $75. Or whatever example you want

 

-Increased prices with less stuff. I don't play the game, so I'm not going to discuss the validity of them going down to three-man special squads (Victrix, Inner Circle, etc) versus the five-man, but you get less. Another really great example are the new Custodes. You used to get the squad with spears and swords/shields. Now the new ones are more expensive, and you only get one weapon option. I really like some of the sculpts, but again, when they're both sitting there it makes you pause

 

-Almost every new release is locked behind a $250 box. By the time it comes separately the hype cycle is on to the next thing. If it's something I really want I still circle back, but more often now I just think "well, I'll wait and see what's coming" 

 

-Really the biggest one is the fact that purchasing from GW is an absolute pain. Record profits after record profits, but yet there's more than a slight chance than if I decide I do want something that I won't be able to get it because it's out of stock (let alone wanting anything from my local store). Finally come out with something I've been waiting for, like a Caphias Cain miniature? Cool, it's limited. Enjoy refreshing the webstore for 30 minutes because their technical infrastructure is terrible. Product out of stock? Cool it'll be back any time from now through 6 months from now, oh yeah and the website notification that you signed up for probably won't come on time. Something you wanted go up for pre-order get sold out? Cool, go look at ebay because that's where they all went. Etc. 

 

I've said it before, I don't think GW is going to hurt any time soon, but I do think they're going to hit the point in a few years where the amount of new customers coming in is outweighed by the number of older folks leaving because there are too many negatives. I think that they're banking on things like SM3 or the Amazon show prolonging it, time will tell if they're right 

[NovemberIX]

It's been a while since I've been in a GW that had people in it, so I start to wonder, who is GW's target market now? I don't think it's little timmy or tammy or their parents anymore, and far as I can tell it's not the old grodnards who are the one's complaining most about how prices used to be. I mean I know people are buying all this stuff, GW wouldn't have record profits otherwise. I just wonder what their target demographic is and how they plan on keeping it, because yeah these price rises are regular and inevitable but no one likes it (except for the shareholders).

[phandaal]

2 hours ago, Wibbling said:

This actually demands a reasoned and rational political discussion but we aren't allowed it, so I'll simply say that as an upper rate tax payer with shares in Workshop I am being priced out of the hobby. As a kid I was earning £16 a week and could get myself a Rhino and 30 Tacticals - the RTb01 box. 

 

Cutting out new, younger less monied entrants to the hobby and the better off with different priorities the customer base shrinks even further. There's a point where taking a cupful from a lake is more sensible than a bucket from a puddle. 

 

This is where I am for the most part. Knowing how much I earn, and where that places me according to the Federal government, I do wonder how the average person (average young person especially) is supposed to make regular purchases of new GW products.

 

Ultimately, they raise prices because they can. And yes, there is math behind the price increases. The doleful "times are tough" shpiel is funny when it follows so soon after announcements of great sales.

 

But there is a reason why the price of paint only goes up about 1/5th as often as the price of miniatures does.

[Valkyrion]

@phandaal and @Wibbling

 

I've highlighted you two because you posted similar comments and I know neither of you personally or professionally, but I think you're assuming young people (however you define that) can't afford GW products, but they can and they do.  

40k (or GW) has never been more for the younger or university generation than it is now.

 

 

 

[ZeroWolf]

5 minutes ago, Valkyrion said:

@phandaal and @Wibbling

 

I've highlighted you two because you posted similar comments and I know neither of you personally or professionally, but I think you're assuming young people (however you define that) can't afford GW products, but they can and they do.  

40k (or GW) has never been more for the younger or university generation than it is now.

 

 

 

Yeah, to add to this, every time I've been in my local GW, there's always been a kid (or several) pointing at something and their grown up buying it. Heck the amount of times I've seen the staff successfully selling a parent the ultimate starter set has baffled me.

[Xenith]

Yea, every other hobby and everything else has gone up also. each successive console generally seems to be 50% more expensive than the last, and games are now heading in the direction of £80 or so, and then £60 a year for online access.

[phandaal]

2 hours ago, Valkyrion said:

@phandaal and @Wibbling

 

I've highlighted you two because you posted similar comments and I know neither of you personally or professionally, but I think you're assuming young people (however you define that) can't afford GW products, but they can and they do.  

40k (or GW) has never been more for the younger or university generation than it is now.

 

 

 

 

I do not think I am assuming that young people cannot afford GW products at all. Clearly plenty of them can and do, and GW's sales numbers would make it hard to argue otherwise.

 

What I mean is that I look at what some of these kits cost now, compare that with what an average younger person is likely earning, and wonder how feasible regular purchasing is for them. Buying a starter set, getting something for a birthday, or being active in the hobby is different from being able to routinely drop $75-100+ on new kits.

[Lord_Ikka]

I can't remember the exact terminology used, but there is a really good argument going around about the reason that companies like Crumbl and various coffee/baked goods shops are really popular even if their products are not great/can be produced at home with a little time/effort. Especially in the current era of high overall prices and issues that the younger generations are having with employment/purchasing housing, something relatively small purchased as a reward is something that the human psyche craves. Can't afford a house, buy a latte, the theory goes, because it will make you feel better in the moment even if the overall situation may be depressing. Something similar could be a big influence on people buying gaming/hobby stuff. Even if the price is a lot more than it used to be, it doesn't matter because you'll get a hit of dopamine when purchasing/building/painting/playing and the cost is (relatively) cheap compared to something like a new car or house. 

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

5 hours ago, NovemberIX said:

It's been a while since I've been in a GW that had people in it, so I start to wonder, who is GW's target market now? I don't think it's little timmy or tammy or their parents anymore, and far as I can tell it's not the old grodnards who are the one's complaining most about how prices used to be. I mean I know people are buying all this stuff, GW wouldn't have record profits otherwise. I just wonder what their target demographic is and how they plan on keeping it, because yeah these price rises are regular and inevitable but no one likes it (except for the shareholders).

I guess it all depends on location. I'd take a picture if it wouldn't seem creepy but from the absolutely packed GW (on the weekend) near me the demographic is little timmy and tammy, 20-30 year olds and the greybeards playing bloodbowl/necromunda in the back 

[Armchair Warlord]

5 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said:

I can't remember the exact terminology used, but there is a really good argument going around about the reason that companies like Crumbl and various coffee/baked goods shops are really popular even if their products are not great/can be produced at home with a little time/effort. Especially in the current era of high overall prices and issues that the younger generations are having with employment/purchasing housing, something relatively small purchased as a reward is something that the human psyche craves. Can't afford a house, buy a latte, the theory goes, because it will make you feel better in the moment even if the overall situation may be depressing. Something similar could be a big influence on people buying gaming/hobby stuff. Even if the price is a lot more than it used to be, it doesn't matter because you'll get a hit of dopamine when purchasing/building/painting/playing and the cost is (relatively) cheap compared to something like a new car or house. 

There's a lot of truth in that.  I remember in the financial press in the 90's recession, post 2008 financial crash and Covid - Games Workshop's sales increased significantly above average.

[N1SB]

Brother Phandaal, Brother Kenzaburo, we may not actually be disagreeing.

 

On 8/17/2026 at 11:26 PM, phandaal said:

I've worked with plenty of both and I can tell you for 100% honest fact, Sales and Marketing executives love it. Prices going up often means they are able to hit their own KPIs more easily. Higher prices also mean bigger commissions if they are still on that kind of plan, and higher company revenue means higher executive bonuses if they are on that kind of plan. The only thing that would bother them is if revenue went down because prices were too high.

 

If price goes up by 5%, KPIs/sales targets/quotas/etc. go up AT LEAST THAT SAME 5% for us (if not more).  So any upside from a price increase becomes a wash, and now we just gave the customer something to push back on.  1 time our gaming division had some collector's edition at a higher price counted for their target, that was sweet.

 

HOWEVER, a salesperson or marketing professional DOES want to move to higher priced, more premium products.  I got into a role out of MBA and there was like this 20-year veteran with the same title, but his product was a suite of software all enterprises must own, AND is always adding more pieces.  This guy never wants to move.

 

On 8/18/2026 at 5:52 PM, Kenzaburo said:

But yeah, price rises have never done anything positive for "my" marketing department - just loads of work and tense customer and business partner interactions. Sales department is a different thing, but generally speaking, depending on the percentage of the rise and the reason for it along with overall customer satisfaction at the time, they might have quite the negative view of it themselves.

 

Are you me?  When we increase price, WE pay the price.  More pushback, more work, deals take longer, deals broken.

 

We had to disguise price hikes by soft-bundling stuff so it's much higher value, using marketing dollars, it was so cheesy.

 

THAT SAID, there's this detail, 3 letters...

 

On 8/18/2026 at 11:03 PM, phandaal said:

Telling a customer that the price is going up is more along the lines of "OK yeah we can do that, let's call them and see how it goes." And speaking from the customer side (B2B, not GW kits) I have also been on the receiving end, and the message from the vendor is not met with moral outrage so much as "is this still worth it, do we have leverage to tell them no, what can we negotiate" etc etc.

 

B2B.  Business-to-business, they don't buy units of a thing, they usually have a contract/agreement/solution.  Like selling software to a company with 12,000 information workers, we sell "volume licensing" for like...10,000 PCs.  Turn a blind eye, "Huge employee churn here, lots of lay offs," actually another way to hid price increases.

 

Both Brother Kenzaburo and I are saying the EXACT same as you, customers asking is it still worth it, can we say no, what to negotiate...everything we do is to get people to say "yes", "yes", "yes" AND "yes."  All it takes is 1 "no" to sink a deal.  A price change absolutely can reset the process back to step 0: do we even want this.

 

What you just said is exactly what we meant, put more eloquent-like.  None of us were talking moral outrage, just the cold calculus of capitalism. 

 

And once again I realised Warhammer has taught me all the life lessons I ever needed:

 

Selling is HOLDING an Objective

 

In Warhammer, it's easier to capture an Objective than hold it.  Harlequins, Purestrain Genestealers, etc. rush in, can wipe off whatever Space Marine Scouts you had Infiltrated on it during Deployment.  New players only think about TAKING the Objective, not getting shot up after, they don't think that far.

 

Thus it is with selling.  Taking the Objective is what people think of, a smooth talker, marketing hype.  HOLDING is more sophisticated.

 

A price hike is like your opponent just conjuring up a free Daemon unit (7th ed Formation did this) to attack the Objective you just took.

 

This is a better analogy than how I was taught by an older sales guy, which was "it's easy to get a fish to bite, it's harder to reel it in."

 

BACK ON TOPIC: Pile of Shame

 

I actually have something important to mention, I think.

 

I was looking at my pile of shame.  It's so ancient, some still have that circular sticker with letters on them.  For those that weren't around, GW stores didn't put actual price stickers on the minis because prices went up so frequently.  You had to look up the letter on a chart on the wall, THAT's the price.  Minis were still metal then.

 

That's like me having a conversation with my young self, you know you self-reflect, see if the child you were would be proud of he would become?  He was like, "Whatchu complaining for, it's ALWAYS been like this, stupid!"  Maybe the circular letter stickers kinda make sense now...oh man that's a horrible thought.

 

HEY you guys were mentioning GW prices NEW products higher so they don't have to increase prices on old ones?  In 2016:

 

 

So back in 2016...BEFORE Primaris...new releases were approximately 30% of sales.  Now let's look at more recently, in 2020:

 

 

GW was explaining Covid's impact on their (core) gross margin, but you see how new releases are closer to 40%?

 

There's more and more new releases that they could "hide" a higher price on.  If we assume that trend has continued...I bet it has, there's actually more new stuff that could be priced higher SO THAT they didn't have to do a pricing update on existing products.  So it's like they even maxed out on new products to price higher.

  

19 hours ago, Valkyrion said:

These new orks are outrageously overpriced. There's no way the ork half of Armageddon has an RRP of £300.

A 3-5% increase in line with rising expenses, overheads, inflation etc is fair, even for a profit monster like GW. 

But £52 for an Ork Trukk is enough to send me to ebay for all future purchases, and I don't even want a trukk. 

 

YEAH, EXACTLY, Brother Valkyrion, thank you, that!

 

I still feel GW has a built-in buffer, but they also never talked about energy prices, that's why I'm still putting them ON WATCH!

 

But the whole thing is a big pile of shame.  Not just GW, but the fact I can see there will be all sorts of added costs, for everyone.

Edited yesterday at 07:40 AM by N1SB

[Captain Idaho]

I'm gonna throw a wild card into the mix, both in parlance here and in economical hypotheticals.

 

What if the price of the hobby, going up as it may be, is the lesser of 2 evils with the prices of the real big industry, video games?

 

Video games have definitely over reached. They've put way too much sunk cost into new AAA titles, games need to make waaaaay to much to earn their costs without record sales. If it isn't "returning billions of dollars in 6 months of release, the game is a failure" type thing. Same somewhat for films but that doesn't necessarily factor in here to my incoming hypothesis.

 

It isn't just video games that themselves are sneaking up dramatically in cost (Grand Theft Auto is looking at over £100 for the next release, an increase of about 50%) but also the next generation of games consoles which will be having a massive price spike.

 

The latest new games console (or equivalent) released is the Steam Machine. At over £1200 for passable version to utilise (you'll need the game pad and you'll need the extra 500gb memory space, as I have a Steamdeck and trust me... yes) that's just way too much.

 

PS5 is rumoured to be close to that amount too.

 

So with these large price rises in an industry that is actually dominant and would make miniatures collecting and gaming, it makes the price of Games Workshop products seem modest in comparison.

 

Let's be clear, the kids ain't gonna just jump into Warhammer in the same numbers as video games, of course! But it's the margins at the side.

 

People like me, older "kids" who still game. Parents who look at what to get Tarquin and Sebastian into something cheaper for Christmas than a £1K+ games console. (Cookie for the reference to class based consumer base there, for funsies)

 

Is it possible, considering all this, that paying £300-£400 on a warhammer hobby a year looks like the cheaper investment compared to the big outlay of a new console and £300-£400 in games a year that is beyond the price of most people?

 

Is that the calculation Games Workshop are taking into account somehow, despite seemingly incompetent games writers at times?

 

(And yes tongue firmly in cheek)

[calgar101]

24 minutes ago, Captain Idaho said:

I'm gonna throw a wild card into the mix, both in parlance here and in economical hypotheticals.

 

What if the price of the hobby, going up as it may be, is the lesser of 2 evils with the prices of the real big industry, video games?

 

Video games have definitely over reached. They've put way too much sunk cost into new AAA titles, games need to make waaaaay to much to earn their costs without record sales. If it isn't "returning billions of dollars in 6 months of release, the game is a failure" type thing. Same somewhat for films but that doesn't necessarily factor in here to my incoming hypothesis.

 

It isn't just video games that themselves are sneaking up dramatically in cost (Grand Theft Auto is looking at over £100 for the next release, an increase of about 50%) but also the next generation of games consoles which will be having a massive price spike.

 

The latest new games console (or equivalent) released is the Steam Machine. At over £1200 for passable version to utilise (you'll need the game pad and you'll need the extra 500gb memory space, as I have a Steamdeck and trust me... yes) that's just way too much.

 

PS5 is rumoured to be close to that amount too.

 

So with these large price rises in an industry that is actually dominant and would make miniatures collecting and gaming, it makes the price of Games Workshop products seem modest in comparison.

 

Let's be clear, the kids ain't gonna just jump into Warhammer in the same numbers as video games, of course! But it's the margins at the side.

 

People like me, older "kids" who still game. Parents who look at what to get Tarquin and Sebastian into something cheaper for Christmas than a £1K+ games console. (Cookie for the reference to class based consumer base there, for funsies)

 

Is it possible, considering all this, that paying £300-£400 on a warhammer hobby a year looks like the cheaper investment compared to the big outlay of a new console and £300-£400 in games a year that is beyond the price of most people?

 

Is that the calculation Games Workshop are taking into account somehow, despite seemingly incompetent games writers at times?

 

(And yes tongue firmly in cheek)

My justifying of spending a few hundred pounds a year or so on GW is that, £ per hour of enjoyment is much more economical than almost any other hobby.

I haven't bought an Xbox since the 360 days so my numbers are out of touch, but you spend say £450 on a console, plus £60 on a game? How long does that game last?

 

I spend equal value on GW I'd bet my collection I get more hours of enjoyment out of Warhammer.

Price rises are a crapper and its horrible because (in the UK for sure), there is a lot of rises in all of our lives concurrently. 

[Captain Idaho]

There is also a resale value for miniatures that doesn't quite exist for video games (especially with the move to digital) beyond a few niches, which definitely makes a prospective collector consider the cost to be somewhat diminished.

 

Whilst many of us DO NOT sell things ( I am guilty of this at times) I must confess I did sell my 40K Ultramarines due to several factors that I stand by to this day. And it did help me with my hobby costs. (My children. My children stole it)

 

Another factor that plays with the video game bubble bursting potentially.

 

All reasons why the ceiling for the GW profit to price hike ratio seems sooooo high.

[de Selby]

I've noticed in recent years GW (who famously don't do sales) have released many more discount bundles in the form of battleforces, army boxes, spearheads and whatnot. In combination with discount online retailers and their regular sales I haven't really had trouble getting GW miniatures at what I consider am acceptable price.

 

The RRP of individual unit boxes is shockingly high, even more than in the past, but I basically look at individual units as a rare completionist purchase, almost like bits ordering. The ork half of Armageddon definitely isn't worth £300, I hesitated about paying ~£75 for it. But I consider the bulk buy price to be the normal price.

 

Interestingly my Armageddon ork boys didn't come with loads of special weapons in each squad, so they are nerfed relative to the indidually boxed boys. This is one way GW has been invalidating old armies and pushing people into buying new or just giving up on the new edition of the game, in my opinion a much sneakier strategy than an inflation-adjacent price rise.

Edited yesterday at 12:53 PM by de Selby

[Jukkiz]

1 hour ago, de Selby said:

Interestingly my Armageddon ork boys didn't come with loads of special weapons in each squad, so they are nerfed relative to the indidually boxed boys. This is one way GW has been invalidating old armies and pushing people into buying new or just giving up on the new edition of the game, in my opinion a much sneakier strategy than an inflation-adjacent price rise.

This kinda thing was very blatant when primarinades came out with 2wounds apiece and superior weapons compared to marines

[Brother Carpenter]

Unfortunately the raw materials took a price hike. In my profession (environmental research and remediation) a lot of plastjcs are used and our supplier just raised the price for a lot of hdpe stuff with approx 20% midway if the year. Usually you have the annual price corrections in january but this was rather shocking.

So I'm not surprised of the gw price increase.

 

[SvenIronhand]

1 hour ago, Jukkiz said:

Compared to 10th Eradicators, 10th Fire Dragons were in another ballpark. Cherry-picking the range is dishonest.