Bill Eckman of Classic Cards & Comics in Castle Rock, Colorado saw our article on Games Workshop recent financial report (see 'A 'Bad Year' For Games Workshop') and feels that GW's decline in sales is due to 'price, plastic, and retailer support:

Games Workshop is kidding itself.  Its decline in sales is based on three things -- price, plastic and retailer support.

Over the past few years the prices on every single box set and blister has gone up.  The price point for starting either Warhammer or 40K is over $300 (I'm sure someone will tell me they can do it for less, but try fielding any army with Elites, Heavy Support, rulebook and codex).  New players are not picking up the game, because it's too expensive.  For a game to thrive, you must have new players.

A majority of the box sets are all plastic.  Plastic is cheap.  Everyone knows this.  Many older and long time players have gotten fed up with the prices going up for plastic models.  If the models were metal or had metal bitz then they wouldn't be so unhappy.  Plastic models and higher prices don't equate to good value.  Without the value for the money, even long time players started looking at other games to spend their cash.

Most of GWs games are being played at independent venues where we provide table space.  Gamers have someplace to get together.  When they play more, they buy more product.  Simple fact.

When I know all about a product in advance, then I can usually get some buzz started by talking it up during games.  GW has never gotten this information to me.  It's hard to talk up a product I don't know about.  Almost every other game manufacturer puts out sell sheets that tell me when the product's coming out, SRP and talking points.  These usually get to me a month or more before the product's due out.

GW provides zero free prize support for tournaments by retailers.  Many other manufacturers provide at least some level of free prize support.

There's more to complain about, but if I camp on this particular soap box, I'll be typing all day.  Suffice to say, that GW's attitude has never been 'How can we help you to sell more product;' it's 'Why aren't you selling more?'

If Games Workshop wants to stop the decline they need to address the issues of why 'many smaller independent operators are ceasing to trade,' and not simply blame the loss of sales on us.