If it wasn't for GW and their stuff, there would be no such things like Infinity, Wyrd, Soda pop, Smart Max (not mentioning independent sculptors).
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You cannot conclude that sorry, you know why? because before GW creators were even born already existed little lead man sculpts to paint and games and even before the lead and metal were discovered it already existed carved little statues and games etc... I know for many of you GW is the begining of it all and the end but dont be fooled for a second if you think sculpture of miniatures and games were invented by GW...
The new companies are part of the natural evolution of things and in the overall history of sculpts and games GW is sorry to say not that relevant
Funny
never said invented:D
just introduced to the 'masses'
but ofc I may be wrong
about 2,5 years ago an official GW store opened in Antwerp. Apart from that there was my usual gaming store called Celtic Cross, about 2 minute walk from the GW and another store just outside the city center, let's say 10 minutes by bike or car (in rush hour).
Celtic Cross was never very fond of GW, especially after the first Mantic releases, they removed some GW off their shelves and replaced it with Mantic. After some time (I think 1,5 years ago) they removed GW entirely, you could still order stuff from them. When I asked why they got rid of GW I got the answer "too expensive, people don't want to buy it anymore". And then a story would follow about a boy who visited the store with his dad to start a 40k army, and they couldn't get a decent starter force (including some paints & tools) for under 100 EUR.
Last week I visited the other gaming store (call The Game Store) and they did exactly the same with GW. They blamed it on the bad support, wrong/late orders, and also being too expensive. There was a time that 40k was very popular in the store (it was even home to a club), but now there are only 2-3 hardcore guys left.
So is this directly related to the opening of the nearby GW store? Or do players indeed find the game too expensive?
More than ever in hard economics times, people balance the better deals and dig further... finding better miniatures and better prices elsewere... that and the fact that when a GW hits town your independent store is going to struggle for timelly GW news and accurate orders ( thats what I heard).
Economic topics tend to say that GW profits from sales has been dropping from some years now... ( but hobbit will make them fat again like lotr did).
In my local store there really is no GW group anymore. And the stuff hardly sells. They keep a few army deals and some blisters, the rest you can order.
A lot of people play Anima tactics, Infinity and Privateer Press games. Smaller skirmish based games are more popular.
i have learned to take store opinions with a grain of salt. too many hidden agendas going on to really believe everything they say (neither GW, nor unaffilliated stores)
I am not that much into stores in vienna anymore, since a friend of mine quit his GW job (he was running store I in .at) which also killed most of the comunity he was organising a few years ago and i have not visited an independend store since the best one around (original microconstruct also had a brick-store) closed 2-3 years ago. there was a giant miniature hype here from when i started the hobby 2002ish-2005 and then some, when the first gw store opened, but everything moved to private clubs and then there is GW. So I cant really say whats going on...but i know that at least one more store closed since then, one didnt get delivered by GW anymore cause of not-paying them issues and then there is one that i think still has GW stuff. the hype is clearly over and from 5 original independend stores 3 closed and 2 moved their main sortiment away from miniatures...
clubs order most of their stuff online i think or buy by ebay. kids go to the GWstore, like always. kids come, kids go. think thats the way it goes.
but dont be fooled for a second if you think sculpture of miniatures and games were invented by GW...
