Reply To: Warhammer Fantasy Battle….'returns'??

[limburger 21708xp 2]

I think GW underestimated how popular the historical version of Total War series was. They also made the mistake of not linking with any of their own products (even with something as basic as Bloodbowl). I guess they thought that handing over their license to a 3rd party in exchange for a new source of free money would be all the effort they needed.

I wonder … if this ‘new’ warhammer is simply a recreation of the Total Warhammer series on tabletop. As such it may lack the connection to the WFB series, because that system is dead and the current audience is more likely to make the link with TW.

The things that were happening at GW at the time AoS was developed didn’t help the launch of the product. I suspect part of GW wanted it to fail as it was the brainchild of a former manager. That sort of thing often happens in companies when a manager or management team is replaced : ‘they did it so it must be bad / our ideas are the best’

@twodeesick any company is in it for the money. They might appear to be customer friendly initially, but they either change that attitude or fail.

Companies are only loyal to their customers if there is profit to be had.
Likewise customers are only loyal as long as it suits their needs.
The thing that makes Warhammer different is that you can’t find a competing company who can (legally) produce content to use in that setting.
Part of the problem is that thinking in abstract terms is difficult for a lot of people , which is why telling them that they could switch from GW to a new system (or back again) is not easy. This only works in historical settings, because the fluff isn’t unique to a specific company.

This new marketing is brilliant. I do doubt it was designed to hinder the launch of KoW, because with this being the Christmas season it is the perfect time to let your friends and enemies know that you’ve got something new planned. And with GW being as big as they are they don’t even need to show a lot to generate hype. Everyone is going to have an opinion and do their work for them as this thread proves.

I’d say that other companies could learn a thing or two from this. The only problem is that they lack the branding and marketing budget to try and compete.
Mantic could easily claim “They always new it was hip to be square” … but I kind of doubt they are the kind of company who would engage with their competition like that. They will have to do something if they want to be more visible and not rely on word of mouth alone. Especially these precious few weeks after launch and before Christmas.

btw : I wouldn’t be surprised if GW eventually acquires Mantic or Warlord or any else for that matter, because that is something big companies do when they need to acquire a profitable technology/IP without having to invest their own time.