Reply To: Overpriced GW

[limburger 21714xp 1]

Charge less and win the competition ?
That’s not how things work, unless you’ve got the resources to win the race to the bottom and the products are replacable on a 1:1 basis. Nothing of that sort is applicable to the kind of games that GW produces. It could work in the historical genre … but that’s about it.

Wether you like it or not the industry tends to favour standards over disruption, because the latter can be quite costly if you don’t have the cash to cover any set backs.
It’s why video games always have the exact same price at retail … because that’s the expectation they’ve set.

And as you’ve said … Infinity is not competing with 40k at any level. It may compete with Killteam as the forces would be similar. Even at that level it’s the lore and style of game that will be the deciding factor instead of price.

Speaking of cost (prices in pound sterling using official webshops):

• Infinity Code One starter : 125
• Infinity Operation Crimson Stone : 125
• Killteam : 65
• Ash Wastes : 180
• Horus Heresy : 180
• Hive war : 100 (out of production)
• Red Harvest : 135
• 40k/AoS starter : 110 / 65 / 32.50
• Mantic – Firefight : 95
• Mantic – Deadzone : 90

GW isn’t *that* expensive to get started … and prices are similar. Ash Wastes and HH as the only exceptions at the moment … and both contain a lot of models compared to the competition.
Heck … if you compare like for like than Killteam is cheaper than Infinity(!) which makes GW the better choice.
Most webshops tend to offer GW products at a discount too.

You can make playing GW games cheaper by looking for alternatives … but that same thing applies to others too.

The only thing that keeps playing GW games expensive is the need to buy their official army lists and expansion books whereas the rest have all that data either in the core rules or easily available for free on-line.

To me it’s not the cost of GW models or starter sets that is a problem.
It’s the near endless amount of additional rule books (Necromunda really takes the cake …) that you end up buying just to get all the info and up-to-date rules.
I’m so glad that none of the competition has copied that sales model (yet).