Hello,
I wanted to share with you my observations on AoS from a purely financial point of perspective, please leave your comments. Maybe your observations will match my own maybe you have some new information i'd like to hear from you.
If anyone hasn't i'd recommend you'd check out the investors reports available here.
Investor Relations | Games WorkshopHaving read some of this content along with information which if picked up along the way from non-GW statements. About 2.5 years ago GW noticed that the Sales of Warhammer fantasy had been dropping, an aging demographic of gamers and a general frailer to bring new players into the hobby (please see the investor report for the last point as that's confirmed by the CFO of GW as a key problem)
I going to read between the lines of what I've read from the GW sources and take into account I've noticed locally about the hobby and to make a fairly safe conclusion that AoS is an attempt to bring the younger market into the GW hobby or atleast to get new customers into a or another GW Hobby. Buy models and make money - logical.
From what I've been able to see on Facebook groups, forums, youtube and in stores it's release was relativity by-the-book. There's an initial backlash by very vocal customers, more accepting customers have accepted it and most inevitably of all there's an initial sales boost of the current starter set.
Now i'm not really interested on if the game is any good or not, after all Games Workshop is a model company not a games company - yes we're all aware of the irony in the name but that's from the horse's mouth.
What i'm interested in is in quantity of new or existing customers that have been motivated to spend cash on AoS instore (or online) - although in-store sales have been gradually declining and managers of poorly preforming stores are moved on. - Again see investor reports. But that's a different but very relevant discussion.
So are you, or are you seeing wargamers quitting 40k Bolt Action, X-Wing etc for AoS. Is you're son, daughter, younger brother bugging you/their parents for more AoS models after they got the starter set. Are they interested in it at all. - Maybe Gamesworkshop 40k/Fantasy is (mostly) Generational. Subbuteo Anyone?
From what I've seen when i'm in a GW store or gamer club admittingly this is just two regular sites with connections to two more. I'm not seeing either new players picking up AoS and i'm seeing exponentially less under 13 and under in the store than there was when I was 13 nearly 20 years ago.
So i'd have to say so far i'm not seeing AoS as a success so far. I'm excluding the starter set as that's a one-shot short term success - customers are unlikely to buy more than one?
If that last paragraph and a half has you trace routing my IP address and running for a noose please bare with me. I'm not commenting on the quality of the game but and really keen on if Fantasy-fan-boys/girls - that's not a slur or an insult; are rushing to your local store to buy a new army or that unit of knights that you now really have to have?
I'd like to go onto where i think the major problems are but i might save that for a latter time.
Please comment what are you seeing/doing with AoS.