Is Games Workshop Getting Ready to Sell? | The Tabletop Tactics Podcast Ep 65
Jinx October 14, 202461
35
61 Likes
On this week’s podcast we go on a bit of a speculative adventure. Games Workshop has changed a huge amount since its inception, evolving and re inventing its main franchises and rules systems, but with the recent streamlining of rules and major moves into both Video Games and TV, could this be a sign that Games Workshop want to take a huge next step and “sell” their business to become part of a larger organisation? Would someone like Hasbro, Warner Brothers or even Disney be interested? And what could this actually mean for the hobby and us as fans? Bard, Beard and Spider sit down to explore this topic and ponder the good and bad such a tremendous change could bring!
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My gut feeling, if they sell it to anyone it’s going to be Amazon 🤔
Great podcast. I think that if they did sell, a new owner/leadership would seek to further maximize their profits, so my thought would be how do you get more people into the hobby without sacrificing some of what makes it great right now? I like streamlined rules but any more streamlined and hardcore tactical players might leave. Sacrifice quality to make it cheaper and you might lose hobbyists. Pre-painted models might lose painters. And lose the grim dark setting to make it more appealing to a wider audience might upset some of the more mature audience. I think the video… Read more »
Incorrect place for this comment, but I saw the league was returning. I love the narrative and ‘normal’ stuff you guys do, but idea for a series: maximise your faction – 2-3 of the team brew up their most lethal lists for a faction. Just work your way through. Free reign to pick the same detachments, or maybe pick one each and make the spiciest list you could for each one? Just to give peeps ideas
I don’t think that anyone buying Games Workshop would produce pre-painted figures for the same current game (especially also coming out with unpainted figures). Think about how much space it currently takes up in a game store to carry all the figures currently out. There is no way that a store like Walmart would dedicate that much space to 40K or age of Sigmar. They probably would release action figures and board games geared towards little kids. They would be buying this for the IP. Movies and tv shows would be where they make their money. They would probably just… Read more »
Btw the buyer will be Amazon. The TV series negotiation would have been alright, how much for the whole company? Value adding through their integrated pick pack, storage and delivery business would make a lot of money and they can do cheaper, smaller, media productions that can maximise profits from a smaller audience. Just this and closing retail store could make the business 30% more profitable, at that point it’s up to 51% of shareholders to reject a truckload of cash backing up their driveway. Its too complicated for Disney and they don’t have the distribution and logistics networks to… Read more »
Games Workshop Group has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17 – which is really low debt compared to their value – Disney is 0.46 and Hasbro is 3.43. Effectively if Games Workshop wanted debt to fund expansion they could probably get it – and they are expanding factories, etc. They also have a reasonable amount of cash and free cash flow. To buy them you would need to buy from the shareholders not the Board – they are mostly held by small shareholders, with some private equity firms holding around 25%. The highest shareholder are Baillie Gifford & Co only own… Read more »
I hope 40k matures into the film/TV space in the same way it’s done in the literature and then gaming space. 5 years ago the Warhammer IP was a bit of a joke in the gaming world, but I’m playing through both Space Marine 2 and Rogue Trader at the moment and they’re both…really good?! Then you had Chaos Gate, Boltgun, Total War obviously, etc. If they can hone their TV presence in the same way, and find those really good partners, it’ll be amazing. I was very interested to see that Amazon animated anthology coming out soon and featuring… Read more »
In terms of this Im not really fussed if GW sell or not, am far more interested in if they sell who they sell to. If the buyers understand the IP, accept it and dont try to change it to the degree it lacks the Grim Dark charm that caused its success. Personally I think Cavill owning a controlling stake in GW would be amazing. He loves the hobby, protects the lore and has the weight to push the IP towards projects that could enhance its exposure. The last thing the hobby needs is a large existing entertainment company with… Read more »
100% agree. Historically speaking when the foundation members of an organisation retire the company gets sold within a generation. Looks like GeeDubs has been dropping IP conflict models and turning away from R18+ to M15+ as well. First tough when I heard about the assassination of Gabriel Seth was I hope the mouse is happy. Lawrence’s point on the board is spot on. Warhammer as we know it probably peaked during COVID. Every game has to grow and it’s a difficult brand to grow and painting is the elephant in the room, it has a very high attrition rate. James,… Read more »
I should probably listen to the whole episode before commenting 🙄😂
I think the discussion about pre-painted minis is interesting, and in an ideal world GW would offer both. Normal/blank minis for those who want to paint, and then pre-painted minis, with a small price increase, for those who wanted them. I love seeing well painted minis and want to use them on the table, but I will probably never be a good enough painter to be able to achieve that myself due to time commitments, etc. Of course this is where commission painting services come in, but they are so expensive!!
Ummmm I feel I have to defend myself! I do NOT like the new Star Wars Stuff!! Primaris – YES. Votann – YES. But the new star wars films are not good. Do they have redeaming features, yes but overall they are bad. I think Lawrence was getting confused with my stance on The Hobbit trilogy which I think are verry good. Lawrence, you need to listen to my podcast more. 😉 Cast-a-role.
Great discussion topic guys. Let’s hope there’s still a niche for all us commission painters in the future of the hobby… pre-painted minis might spell serious trouble for us. Don’t make me go back to being a teacher! Please!!
The market being what it is right now and most investors sticking to more stable products like bonds and even gold. Everyone is acutely aware of the demographic shift in most societies as the bulk populations age into retirement. Most real investment comes from 55-65 year old. Now that they, and especially the baby boomers, are moving into retirement they are leading the charge on that front. Then you add in the current Republic of China disaster and I don’t see a lot of available capital moving in GW’s direction until they full embrace an IP focus approach and figure… Read more »
On one hand I think a takeover/acquisition of GW would be bad for the hobby, we’ve seen the slow dilution and decrease in quality of the MCU and Star Wars IPs since Disney took over, and I believe the same thing would happen should a massive corporation take over the GW IPs. I could see GW partnering with some more companies like Amazon and sharing their IP to be used in different media, but selling the actual miniatures production and game development would be a massive risk, even for the additional investment. On the other, I would love to see… Read more »
Great conversation guys! To be honest though, when GW split with Fantasy Flight Games after eight years I was gutted to hear this. I’m sure I’m not the only one, I think they really missed some amazing opportunities with board games and card games. With the new content they have, it really could of been endless. Especially for the younger players as they are more likely to play those formats as its easier to collect.
good discussion
Maybe the real reason Sir Ian was visiting was because he was interested to buy tabletop tactics? Kind a weird that he just shows up one day for an interview and then this podcast drops. (Insert X-files theme) 😉
So I wanted to weigh in on near the end of the Pod because the whole thing of ‘give us the names of the sculptors/writers, let us support and be positive about them’ is a nice idea in theory. But we’re in an Internet age where people will track someone down to there home address because they’re angry about some design or development change that has been made. We see this in the Video Games industry, Developers have and will continue to cut-off communications with their playerbase because the trolls and the negativity can get to the point of actual,… Read more »
Surprisingly, the lack of discussion around Amazon in particular – a company clearly after developing its own teeth with IP, who definitely would be interested in production and distribution? If there was a company somewhere who would be interested in 40K and GW, it’d be the one wanting to expand its place in media
Awesome video guys and I do believe a sell out wouldn’t be good for us as consumers cause of the way it could go… but then again it’s all speculation and we won’t really know unless it happened lol One thing this video made me realise is what’s gonna happen when Jes Goodwin – the god father of my beloved Eldar is no longer designing them.. how are they gonna change from a new artists perspective.. scary times man scary times We already seen how the editions and general game have changed since the days of Priestley and Chambers lol… Read more »
Having seen the disaster that is Hasbro owning WotC, GW staying its own entity would be by far the better option for the average player. Even with the problems they have.
Hi team – I work in Mergers and Acquisitions for a Fortune 100 company. Honestly, GW being acquired seems unlikely. They’ve grown, yes. They’re more mature from a business standpoint, yes. That said, they’re not doing everything in their power to squeeze every bit of value out of themselves. The idea would be that they would be running to make as much money as possible while shrinking costs – you wouldn’t see them do something like invest in new warehouse capabilities, for example. They’d literally just be existing to increase their valuation. Leave investing in the business to the buyers.… Read more »
You did release tge video on your app! This is great, thanks.
If it is, that’s the end of the hobby as it stands. The Quality will go down, the price will go up & the enjoyment will disappear. I would probably leave if it happens…