New Tau fire warriors another £8 more

[billyboy]

Ok I know they do this a lot, but how are they justifying adding another £8 for losing two models in the box set? This just does not seem sustainable for the future and i dont see them being here for more than 10 years.

[Lexington]

Oh, this is nothing - they cut half the models from the Dire Avengers box a few years ago, but left the price the same. Upping prices (both actual and relative) while losing customers is literally the whole of GW's business model anymore. It's an intentional death spiral.

[Mr Mystery]

People were saying that 10 years ago. In fact, since at least 1998 when I first ventured online.

All depends on how much people want the spanglies.

So far as I can tell, Strike and Breacher teams are going to be a dual box (mostly supposition), and that Breacker team is looking pretty cool.

New sells to new players and existing players. If you've already got a Tau army, it will likely just be Breachers your after.

[YorkNecromancer]

1.) Go online, buy old Fire Warrior models cheaply off eBay.
2.) Go online, buy new Fire Warrior heads off eBay or bits sites.
3.) Smile, secure in the knowledge that you're Doing Wargaming Right.

Buying models for this hobby's a game. Always has been. At least it always has been for me. 'How do I afford everything I want when I have no monies?'

Scratchbuild (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?48252-My-Most-Ambitious-Scratchbuild-Ever) everything (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?43612-Let-s-scratchbuild-a-Spartan-Assault-Tank!).

Including weapon accessories (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?45519-A-Beginner-s-Guide-How-To-Scratchbuild-Infantry-Weapon-Accessories), interesting details (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?45255-A-Beginner-s-Guide-How-To-Scratchbuild-a-Servo-Arm) and even the guns themselves (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?44720-Scratchbuilding-a-Heavy-Bolter-with-Plasticard-A-Beginner-s-Guide).

Seriously, it's worth it (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?58609-Scratchbuilt-Tarantula-Sentry-Guns).

To the people who say 'I've got no skill', I say: well? So what? Just start. You'll get better.
To the people who say 'I'm not interested', I say: you, my friend, are missing out on a key part of the hobby.
To the people who say 'I just want to play the game, I'm not into the hobby side of things', well. Sorry.

You I got nothing for.

[billyboy]

Inspirational stuff right there, too bad i fall in to at least 2 of those categories.
But in all seriousness I would if I had time between juggling school and work, but I would get a few things done a week, and im in love with the GW sculpts and the way they fit together smoothly.
But addressing the fact they have been doing this for years, they could get away with it then, they dominated the market, now with infinity and war machine up and coming I honestly see GW

[Mr Mystery]

Warmachine has been around for at least what, 11 or 12 years now, perhaps a bit longer (I know I had stuff going back to 2003), and whilst I understand it's doing pretty well in the US, it's not exactly got the same following in the UK.

Anecdotal I know, but I've been round a few gaming clubs and relatively few people play Warmahordes compared to GW and X-Wing in that order.

Infinity? Local club has around 4 regular players, out of around 60 members.

So from what I've seen, whilst there is indeed growing competition in the market place, GW remain pretty dominant.

[billyboy]

Really? In my local area GW is dying, infinity is the next thing, not so much warmachine but infinity is becoming better with more players because according to them its a lot more affordable

[Mr Mystery]

Which is fair enough. I can only comment on what I'm seeing in my neck of the woods - and I make no claim to that being an all seeing eye type thing :)

[Kirsten]

Infinity is affordable for the small model count, the models themselves are far more expensive than GW.the fire warriors will now come with multiple variants, possibly three if you include pulse rifles, pulse carbines, and pulse blasters. plus the funky turret and drones. I think that is acceptable personally.

[Tyrendian]

Infinity is affordable for the small model count, the models themselves are far more expensive than GW.the fire warriors will now come with multiple variants, possibly three if you include pulse rifles, pulse carbines, and pulse blasters. plus the funky turret and drones. I think that is acceptable personally.

yeah - less models, but apparently a huge jump in parts and options, kinda like the old new Pathfinders, so I'd say if you're looking for ridiculous price jumps the Dire Avengers are still "top notch"

[Kirsten]

yeah, the avengers re-box really was dire

[Mr Mystery]

I understand some were tipped off, and swooped in with the speed of a scorpion to pick up the 10 man sets that had been gathering spider webs on the shelves before they were removed.

Those who missed out the reaping of such things screamed like banshees in their frustration.

[Path Walker]

I understand some were tipped off, and swooped in with the speed of a scorpion to pick up the 10 man sets that had been gathering spider webs on the shelves before they were removed.

Those who missed out the reaping of such things screamed like banshees in their frustration.

How do you live with yourself. You're a monster.

[Mr Mystery]

By spending oodles of cash every month on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Lots of Dr Who (replacing VHS collection with DVD), lots of toys and books and beer and ciggies and that.

[billyboy]

So what im getting here is im uniformed about prices of other companies, thats fine should fact check, but im just curious how many years do you think of actually still being around or being the dominant force of models?

[Mr Mystery]

Well, GW pretty much have the UK sewn up tighter than a ducks arse due to their shops.

If GW do ever go under, there's a reasonable chance it could take a sizeable portion of the rest of the industry with it.

Not only would GW stores all but disappear from the world High Street, leaving a niche unoccupied, it's kind of dicey as with the current biggest player gone, whether FLGS could remain open.

Sure, they may not be the bread and butter for any given FLGS, but it seems they still sell well enough across the board that to find a FLGS not stocking their toys really quite rare.

However, that's an 'if they went under tomorrow' type scenario. In order for them to have an unmanageable decline, their competitors have to keep growing at their current rate, and for more and more games to come out and succeed.

Now, take X-Wing, one of the most understandably popular games at the moment. Not only is it Star Wars, with the best models set in that universe I've ever seen, but it's also a bloody good game. I've got at least two of most ships, and at least one of every ship. And it continues to grow its player base.

But....it remains a very young game, having been out for about two years.

Yet already, in my opinion it's beginning to creak a little. The last wave was a bit lack lustre. K-Wing is a fun ship to fly, but looks bloody stupid - same as the TIE Punisher.

There's also a potentially fatal flaw in its marketing. One of the big draws is that it's stupidly cheap to get into. You only need the base set, or at least the templates, and perhaps four or five ships. Huzzah for that. Except....the upgrade cards just keep getting more useful. For someone intent on attending Tournies you really need to be buying one of everything to get your mitts on the current 'must have' upgrades.

Example? TIE Advanced, as it comes in the expansion, sucks balls. But, it got a new lease of life via the Imperial Raider.....a mere £60ish extra to make your £10 ship worth it..... A-Wings are similar, but require the purchase of Rebel Aces to get the best cards for it.

Good news there? It seems FFG are up to the task of delivering the tweaks to ships. They just (understandably) charge you for it.

Now, the next wave looks amazeballs. Lots of groovy ships from Star Wars Rebels, and we're about to hit the new films as well, and the ships we'll see on there. Provided FFG can keep every ship unique and viable, the game will have legs. But as much as I have faith in them, that's still a pretty big 'if'

Arses. I'm waffling....Erm....

Well, in short? GW being the biggest and oldest are going to see the smallest expansion in terms of turnover and sales increase. They're the ones with the players, and doing most (but by no means all) of the recruitment. The relative newcomers are offering more genre specific games, and that will attract existing GW players who see something shiny new and interesting and give it a whirl. Some will switch entirely. Some will (as I did with Warmachine) go back to GW, having not found the new game to their tastes. But in my experience, most will switch to playing multiple systems - so whilst Company X attract players, GW aren't necessarily losing players.

I hope this makes sense, and I've not wandered off into The Land of Bollocks.

[billyboy]

No i do get what you are getting at, but with GW continuing bs business model and with no sign of switching up and admitting they are wrong, as well as not listening to their customers. I just see people reluctantly being forced to move on to other things in order to stay in pocket, the new Tau stuff, while they are good looking they seem to factor how well they will do in game and include that in the price, whilst saying only a small amount of people actually play the game. So they just seem fluid in their business ideology.
Although I in now way claim to be an economist i just dont see them retaining their fan base figures and keeping prices not stupidly high, after the recession hit they didnt try and re establish their prices, just keep them the same for hopes of more profits.

[YorkNecromancer]

I will say that last weekend I was in Game and saw the new 'LEGO Dimensions' game. I was all 'wow, this looks cool', until I saw that if you want to play with virtual Lego figures, you now have to buy real Lego figures.

In a box that contains 3 for £15.

My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw that pricing. Lego's cute and all, but £15 f**king quid for three figures?!

Seriously, if you're making GW look like a cheap option, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong somewhere.

[Mr Mystery]

Thing is, they continue to make profit, and pay dividends. Beyond that, most investors don't really give much of a monkey's.

But it seems change is afoot. Big Boss Man, whilst ruling out price cuts, is interested in having a better range of prices. Now, what that will ultimately translate into nobody currently knows - including GW.

When it comes to business practices, we only ever see tiny snippets of info, and anyone who claims otherwise is lying. GW don't offer a breakdown of what is and isn't selling - because to investors (those who the report is for), it doesn't matter as long as the whole is making that all important profit.

There's many armchair commentators, but to the best of my knowledge, not one of them has any experience of running a company anything like GW. They're pretty much unique. Wholly owned chain of stores selling only their own wholly owned products, based on their own IP. This makes any kind of comparison a fool's errand. Their immediate competitors don't have the same overheads. Most outsource their production to other countries. No others have their own chain of stores. GW, for good or for ill, do it all in-house.

Yes, that makes their products pricey - it has to cover their overheads. But when you consider that other companies aren't any cheaper on a per-model basis, I can't help but find myself wondering just who it is doing the price gouging.

Again, I'll use X-Wing as an example. Most ships can be picked up for around £10, but they have a RRP of £12....for a tiny ship, base and, Erm....bits of cardboard. That's quite some mark-up. But like GW, I don't begrudge paying the prices at all, because price is so very rarely linked to value, because value is what you make of it. When I move into my new flat, I'll be having some display cabinets, meaning all my models will be displayed. As I find that to be visually pleasing - that's adding value to me.

For students and part time workers? Well, way back in 1996 I was a college student. By 1997 I had a poorly paying job I hated. In both instances, I couldn't afford whatever I wanted. That's just how the cookie crumbles when yer a Yoof, so it's nothing GW haven't had since, well, forever.

I reckon they'll still be here in 10 years. They own their production facilities. They're not shy of closing down loss making stores. But, most importantly - they have no debt. So despite their current wobbles, they're in good shape as things go in the business world. Indeed when you look back to the casualties of the Financial Crash, they all had one thing in common - mountains of unsustainable debt. Woolworths? Up to their armpits in debt. HMV? The same. So on and so forth. When you've got no debt, you can ride out high street financial woes fairly easily.

And GW, historically, have always been debt adverse, preferring to expand as their profits allow. That helps to keep expansion sustainable, and as a business model is quite sensible.

[Charistoph]

Infinity is affordable for the small model count, the models themselves are far more expensive than GW.the fire warriors will now come with multiple variants, possibly three if you include pulse rifles, pulse carbines, and pulse blasters. plus the funky turret and drones. I think that is acceptable personally.

When you boil it down the consistent facts to their basics, there really isn't much difference between GW and CB models.

First, to appreciate CB model pricing, look at what the Sororitas pricing is, or just any of the Characters, metal or finecast. CB models haven't really pursued plastic for Infinity, and are still running in pewter.

Now consider the fact that Infinity rarely goes above Kill Team numbers, and even more rarely hit the 500 point 40K in 40 Minutes demo games.

So, when you consider all these facts, Infinity models are not technically more expensive, they just do not operate on the same level and have no need for the quantities of the same model that 40K does.

Of course, with the way GW is raising their prices, a Necron Praetorian box is only a little cheaper than any of the Infinity starter boxes.


I will say that last weekend I was in Game and saw the new 'LEGO Dimensions' game. I was all 'wow, this looks cool', until I saw that if you want to play with virtual Lego figures, you now have to buy real Lego figures.

In a box that contains 3 for £15.

My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw that pricing. Lego's cute and all, but £15 f**king quid for three figures?!

Seriously, if you're making GW look like a cheap option, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong somewhere.

Lego Dimensions isn't even the one who is guiding the pricing point, they are actually behind the curb. For that, we look at Skylanders who started the craze.

From there, we have Disney and their Infinity lines. That Infinity line also gains more and more power since they have acquired the Star Wars and Marvel licensing, and they have released how many Marvel movies in the last two years? And are looking to release the first live Star Wars movies in ten years, as well as the second season of Rebels!

[Lexington]

People were saying that 10 years ago. In fact, since at least 1998 when I first ventured online.
Well, now they have the added benefit of actually being right, the lucky guys. :p

Seriously, this isn't some controversial proclamation - GW's said it themselves in their own investor's reports recently. Phrases like "ex-growth" and "declining profitably" aren't thrown around for giggles. GW is shrinking, they have been for a while, and it seems they're thrown up their hands and decided there's nothing that can be done about it besides squeezing higher margins out of those that are left. It's too bad, since they probably could do better. Their higher-ups just aren't seemingly inclined to do so.


So what im getting here is im uniformed about prices of other companies, thats fine should fact check, but im just curious how many years do you think of actually still being around or being the dominant force of models?
"Being around" is a much more flexible concept than just existing as they are today, or not existing at all.

How long will GW "be around" in the way we think of them? I'd say 3 - 5 years at their current rate. Maybe less, if the Age of Sigmar launch has been as big of a dud as indicators would suggest. Mystery's right, they're still making profits and paying dividends, but it's not a happy story underneath those two facts. Their sales figures have declined by an aggregate of about 20% over the past two years. The whole company's on a pay freeze until that number improves, which is a great way to get rid of anyone with promise that's still hanging on to the organization. They've spent the past several years cutting as much of the company as possible to remain profitable, pumping out new releases with higher profit margins and destroying game balance as a sales mechanic, but none of that seems to be working too well. It's kind of a mess.

At this rate, it won't be long until they simply can't pay dividends anymore, and that's where things go really wacky. The company is primarily owned by a small number of investment portfolios, and isn't big to warrant a lot of scrutiny from the owners so long as they keep paying out. Once that stops...well, any number of things could happen. The IP could be broken up and sold off for a good chunk of change, or they could decide to sell the whole company off to another organization (Asmodee seems like a good candidate to me - why pay GW to license an increasingly damaged IP when they can just own it instead?), they could bring in new management and completely reshape the company in a hope to keep things profitable. There's a lot of possibilities, but almost none of them seem good in the short-term.

As for how long they'll be dominant? A while, at least, but network effects catch up with products like miniatures games really quickly - look at D&D after 4th Edition hit. Just today, I watched three former Warhammer Fantasy players laugh about how quickly the game's healthy local community collapsed after AoS was released. They're all playing Infinity now, which didn't have ten local players just a few months ago. The Facebook group's up to sixty people now, and growing by the day, while the Warhammer new releases sit, untouched. These things happen faster than you'd think.

[Lord Mayhem]

It might be worth looking at FASA for an example of how fast things can go down hill. When 40K came out, around 1987, Battletech was the dominant Sci-Fi tabletop/board game, huge IP, expansion into multiple formats (including simulation centers), it's own array of novels, etc. FASA also had a strong RPG presence, notably with Shadowrun, and several auxiliary games (Renegade legion, Earthdawn, Star Trek, Dr Who, etc). However they ran into a series of troubles (IP legal issues, poor sales on some new ventures) and in a surprisingly short time frame they were gone.
While some of their primary properties (Battletech and Shadowrun) have remained, largely due to the large and passionate fan base, they are relatively minor games now. I'd go so far as to say that the crash of FASA is partially responsible for the current strength of 40K; when Battletech dropped out, 40K was the only significant alternative Tabletop Sci-Fi game, and picked up a lot of BT players who could no longer find regular BT games.

[daboarder]

https://youtu.be/_zSxQnZ3TM8

Worth pointing out this was released months before centurian rumours even started.

[Kirsten]

Games Workshop aren't going anywhere any time soon, they are still doing fantastically well. As Mystery said, they don't have any debt, and they are still making millions every year.

[YorkNecromancer]

As far as I can see, GW's problem is that they're presently targeting their products at the 'exclusive collectors' market, because those idiots will pay any amount of money for the most worthless of shiny baubles. Which, you know, is fine. The problem is that most of those exclusive collectors started in the hobby as schoolkids.

Let's be fair: most adults into GW and wargaming came to the hobby as kids. This is a hobby that runs on a huge amount of nostalgia. And the current generation of kids are almost completely priced out. I've been trying to get new recruits into gaming at our school for a decade now, and in the last four years, it's just been impossible. They come along, they want to get into it, then they see the prices and can't. It used to be that the school could afford to buy stuff for everyone to use. Not any more. :(

Now my question is: if you've got a generation that are priced out of the hobby, and that generation never learns to love wargaming in those all-important teen years... Where are the exclusive collectors of the future going to be? Because whatever they're nostalgic for, it won't be GW, because they never got into it.

I think the cheaper army sets GW have put out in the past, like Shield of Baal, those are a move in the right direction. But this current thing of repackaged models with an exclusive figure? Not enough of a saving. Like this new Raven Guard/generic set: 12 models for £85? Eleven marines and a land speeder for £85?

Sorry, I've not smoked enough crystal today to think that's a good idea.

So yeah, I don't think GW are going anywhere for now; whether they can sustain themselves in the future? Hopefully.

Hopefully.

[Kirsten]

yeah, they definitely need to bring prices down. I am quite surprised that the push-fit models never expanded. they ought to do push-fit boxes of every race's troop choices for less. tactical squads, ork boys, fire warriors, guardians etc. that way kids could at least get the core of their army going.

[billyboy]

Yes, but if they lower the prices of models then they will cry about them losing even more profit as older players most likely no longer follow GW so wont buy back in, if they do huge campaign saying how prices are lowering then they will more than likely be getting profits no seen in many years, as people may just flock back to them with hopes of better services than before and actually being customer friendly.

[Mr Mystery]

It's not as easy as just cutting prices.

In order to get the pay off, you need to increase your sales to match the price reduction - and given most hobbyists have a fairly set budget, that's mostly going to mean recruiting new players, or luring back lapsed ones.

That's really, really risky. In order for a price cut to really appeal, you're looking at around 20%. Which means you'd need to increase your turnover by 20% just to break even. You have to be damned sure it's going to work to commit to that.

GW seemingly aren't sure. Hence what they're looking at now is a better scale of prices. As mentioned, nobody knows what that's going to look like in the end. It could be push-fit cheapie kits - something for the casual customer to enjoy as they start out.

It could be a new range of games. Consider an old classic - Warhammer Quest. It came with rules enoug to populate a dungeon with your existing army. Wouldn't take much to 'reverse engineer' that concept, so it encourages and allows players to turn their dungeon critters into an army that could be fielded in Age of Sigmar.

Seems there's much afoot at Lenton. But what the result will be, we just don't know. But it seems certain existing kits won't be getting any cheaper.

[billyboy]

I agree that kits wont get cheaper, but due to them being a majorly profit driven company, they could shrug off a bad quarter or two with no major consequences, but they are defiantly not improving with profits, so they make everything more expensive still thinking they will be selling to the same amount of players, but they just make the same amount of money whilst selling to less players.

I honestly think if warhammer not GW is to survive they will be forced to sell to a company like Hasbro who could mark down the prices, and a move like that would generate a lot of publicity so in theory they could make it stick. But in practice who knows, its doubtful they would sell just let it die with them as they are overly protective of the franchise as weve seen in numerous Lawsuits.

[Mr Mystery]

You can't be overly protective of IP. It has to be actively defended, or you risk losing it.

Spots? Pushing it.

Crapterhouse? Totally deserved it.

As for their profits? They were up last year, despite a small dip in their turnover (seriously, it was a fraction of a percent down). That's not a company in immediate and irreversible trouble. Not by a long shot.

[billyboy]

In their case i feel they are 100% overly protective, did they not once try to coin space marine as their own? I understand things like china cast and the company that done the primarchs. But they would happily take on anyone as long as they are not as big, which just makes them seem disingenuous.
But with their profits they never fully recovered from the dip have they? Which I would of thought a company of their proportion should of had no problem doing, but by effectively stopping all individual sellers of warhammer in the americas they neutered their possibilities.
And if you check the stock market they are not doing so good, but again im not 100% sure on how to evaluate the data on this, so the point may be far off.

[Lexington]

As for their profits? They were up last year, despite a small dip in their turnover (seriously, it was a fraction of a percent down). That's not a company in immediate and irreversible trouble. Not by a long shot.
Entirely due to taxes, tho. They paid something like six million pounds less in taxes in early 2015 (the time period they were increased) as compared to the previous report. No idea why that is, but it's not an indicator of the company's overall health.

[Path Walker]

Not sure why certain people won't let go of the idea that GW not doing what they want them to do will crash and burn in flames in spite of the tons of evidence to the contrary. End of the day, its a company making a product, what does it matter if they thrive or not?

[Kirsten]

The Spots of the Space marine thing was never actually a lawsuit anyway, it is infuriating that people keep talking about it as some sort of issue. Games Workshop issued a notice about the trademark, and did nothing else. there was no case, no victory or defeat. they issued the notice, as they are required to do as a minimum to protect their IP, and did nothing more. they didn't request the book be taken down, they didn't try to stop it being sold. they informed Amazon that it was their trademark, and did nothing else.

[billyboy]

What does it matter they thrive or not? Thats the whole point of the business, to thrive, and as we've seen when a company doesnt thrive prices increase on their product. This is a blanket statement not solely referring to GW, but their product being affordable to the average person is what entices someone into getting said product.
So if its not affordable, its not enticing, its not enticing no sales
No sales=No money
No money=No company

[Brandon Otto]

1.) go online, buy old fire warrior models cheaply off ebay.
2.) go online, buy new fire warrior heads off ebay or bits sites.
3.) smile, secure in the knowledge that you're doing wargaming right.

Buying models for this hobby's a game. Always has been. At least it always has been for me. 'how do i afford everything i want when i have no monies?'

scratchbuild (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?48252-my-most-ambitious-scratchbuild-ever) everything (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?43612-let-s-scratchbuild-a-spartan-assault-tank!).

Including weapon accessories (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?45519-a-beginner-s-guide-how-to-scratchbuild-infantry-weapon-accessories), interesting details (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?45255-a-beginner-s-guide-how-to-scratchbuild-a-servo-arm) and even the guns themselves (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?44720-scratchbuilding-a-heavy-bolter-with-plasticard-a-beginner-s-guide).

Seriously, it's worth it (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?58609-scratchbuilt-tarantula-sentry-guns).

To the people who say 'i've got no skill', i say: Well? So what? Just start. You'll get better.
To the people who say 'i'm not interested', i say: You, my friend, are missing out on a key part of the hobby.
To the people who say 'i just want to play the game, i'm not into the hobby side of things', well. Sorry.

You i got nothing for.

word

[Path Walker]

Except they've shown they can get better profits through lower sales, so they'll do that instead, they don't need mass market appeal.

[billyboy]

Yer they make profit by making a single figure, uno toy models for £30, we are simply stupuid enough to pay for such things. I hate myself for doing it as its just contributing to the problem, every times they raise the price, more people will leave and it will get to the point where a box of space marines will be a combat squad for £40

[Psychosplodge]

I never bought a single box of firewarriors, I got four of the original battle boxes with the 3 suits, firewarrior squad, kroot squad, and drones because it was better value. Depending on how they box things this time around will influence my next Tau purchases.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Warmachine has been around for at least what, 11 or 12 years now, perhaps a bit longer (I know I had stuff going back to 2003), and whilst I understand it's doing pretty well in the US, it's not exactly got the same following in the UK.

Anecdotal I know, but I've been round a few gaming clubs and relatively few people play Warmahordes compared to GW and X-Wing in that order.

Indeed. We had an explosion of WMH this year, and while many players still play it, it really fell by the wayside it seems. 40K still regularly pulls in punters and local tournaments get decent attendance, whereas WMH has struggled to fire at all for a few months now. Again, anecdotal, but it doesn't seem to be tearing up the place here like it was when it first landed. I think the honeymoon period's over, or, like all things, it's merely a cycle.


So what im getting here is im uniformed about prices of other companies, thats fine should fact check, but im just curious how many years do you think of actually still being around or being the dominant force of models?

That's the eternal question of this community. As an example in an anecdote, a new local store opened in my area, and the three biggest sellers on the opening weekend were Guild Ball, followed by Halo Fleet Battles and Age of Sigmar. Despite owning enough Guardsmen to stop a Black Crusade myself, I bought a UNSC Fleet Box because I've wanted a Halo miniatures game since my nerdy friends and I used to alternate between Halo 2 split-screen multi-player and games of 40K despite none of us having the rules and being kids. It's been a long-time coming, and Spartan have done a great job, so I'm really enjoying the game atm.

I think that's the best example I can think of. The new store had basically no 40K presence aside from myself and one or two others. Skirmish games are massive and easily had a dozen players getting into Guild Ball, which has exploded here.

Thing is, I can split a Halo starter kit, and for £32 from t'local, get a new game. Same with something like Guild Ball, at £20 or so, or ~£35 for Infinity. I'm ramping up for the new Tau Codex, but the book alone's gunna cost the same as starting up a whole new game.

Also just to address the "cut the prices = more profit,' fallacy, here's an example.

I, a filthy Tau player, want Riptides. Now, I want three, for a nasty, nasty Formation, say. These three Riptides will cost me £45 each, of which, say, £25 is profit. That's a tasty 55% profit right there, £75 in total.

Now, GW then announced a 20% price reduction. Those £45 Riptides are now £36! Awesome, now I can buy three, and with the savings, get a box of Fire Warriors! However, they're only making £16 per Riptide in profit, now. That's £48 for the three of them. Even with my purchase of Fire Warriors, which we'll assume also run at 55% profit at around £20 retail price, only gives them an extra £11. Overall they get £59 from me, a loss of £16 from simply keeping the three Riptides at cost.

So even though 3x £36 Riptides plus a £20 box of Fire Warriors has me spending £2 more in actual retail cost, the profitability GW get from it is significantly less.

That's an example of course, I don't have GW's profit margins to hand. However, you can't simply cut cost and hope sales increase enough to counter it.

[Lexington]

Except they've shown they can get better profits through lower sales
This is notably untrue - their profits have actually declined even more steeply than their sales over the last few years. I think the biggest tumble was very close to a 50% reduction in profits between reports.