High Prices, Underwhelming Deals

Posted by Ranillon on 21. November 2009 00:41

Generally speaking I have taken the price hikes of Games Workshop over the years in stride.  Yes, they have always been pricey, but the models are great and the costs for similar forces from other companies roughly the same.  Yet, looking over the new Skaven models recently I have to admit that I've experienced real sticker shock.

Take for example the new Skaven Battalion.  For $105 you get what amounts to one and a half infantry units (rats tend to go around in large groups, after all) and maybe half of the rat ogres and giant rats you need for full units.  In other words, for over a cool hundred dollars you get, what, a fifth or so of an army?  Sure, you don't play Skaven to have a handful of models, but still...

Then there is the cost of Stormvermin -- $50!  That's $2.50 a model for plastic.  Yes, I know I have spent $50 (well, usually not as I always try to get a discount) for a group of five terminators, but seeing a mere 20 models of an army that can require hundreds cost so much frankly made me go bug-eyed when I first saw it.  I shutter to think what Tyranids are going to cost when they arrive in a few months.  Yikes!  Thank goodness my bug army is basically done.

I read forums all the time where people drone on about how obscene the costs of GW figures are and I am usually willing to write it off to mere griping (and the odd, even masochistic need for some fantasy/sci-fi geeks to find something about the hobby to be offended over) but for the first time I am really beginning to wonder myself.  How far can the Games Worshop form of the hobby go with prices going so high?

Compare the new Skaven Battalion with this army deal from Warlord Games for a Royalist English Civil War force:

For the price of (using current exchange rates) $82.5 you get 120 pike and shot troopers.  Admittedly, the models are nice, but certainly not to the quality of Games Workshop.  They also don't have the options that GW kits usually do.  But, you nevertheless get a lot and you don't need another five or so sets for a complete army (unless you want to play at very high point totals).  You get more from GW, but at what point do players just balk at buying their kits no matter the cost and go with a less expensive game no matter how inferior?  Actually, in this case we are even talking about the same basic system.  Is playing with rats and magic really worth that much more money?

That is naturally a personal choice, but the fact I even have to ask that question is depressing. I really think GW has to do something about prices or at least the negative perception they have with many players thansk to the practical death of grand tournaments and similar support.  People don't like to think they are being taken for granted.  More and more GW comes off (fairly or not) as a sort of ivory tower business remote from the average player who believes it can jack up prices as needed without consequences to the bottom line (and support from its fans).  That doesn't make for a good long term situation.  Showing players that they actually give a damn would give people a reason to accept rising prices, but as it is...

Hmm, maybe I should take a closer look at those new ECW cavalry models...