Investing GW what do you say?

[Flammenwerfer13]

Investing GW seems interesting.
We as gamers can mostly agree GW has done a horrible job with Public relations and setting up a viable long term business model. With the vast majority of it's claims in the CH vs GW lawsuit getting thrown out and being mostly defeated in it's efforts to dominate the market for 3rd Party Add-ons failing bad the question is what is GW plan in the long term going to be to address all the problems it's short term gains are creating?

Lets start with very random assessment.
[url]http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Games_Workshop_GRP_%28LON:GAW%29[/url]

Now the stocks seem to say otherwise here.
[url]http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=GAW:LN[/url]
[url]https://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:GAW.L[/url]

While this article (mostly locked sadly) is showing that GW is growing but other areas are starting to slack.
[url]http://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/2013/01/21/tips-and-ideas/share-tips/tips-of-the-week/games-workshop-in-winning-streak-4PSX1vr0eRMsnTPE3eD1jI/article.html[/url]

Seems even last year this topic was being worked over almost verbatim. (very good read in the comments)
[url]http://www.iii.co.uk/news-opinion/richard-beddard/games-workshop-two-minutes[/url]


Looking through the comments I came across this
[url]https://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?type=&code=cotn%3AGAW.L&it=le&display=discu ssion&action=detail&id=10489930[/url]

"Today’s deal with Roadhouse is the ninth we know of, joining existing agreements with Creative Assembly, Slitherine, Zattikka, Rodeo, Full Control, Cynanide and Nomad Games. EA’s Mythic studio is closing down its F2P Warhammer title at the end of the month."

Can we as a community piece together all the titles out there in the works or being played?



Seems as you read all the investors they all come to the same general conclusion. GW Shares are a bit too pricey but with the profits steady for the last few years it might be worth it. They question the price hike increases but are willing to accept it for now as it's not showing overt hard to profits and GW is looking to be viable long term for now.

[Mr Mystery]

Meh.

Invest, and you probably won't lost your money, but don't expect big returns or dividends. Wrong market entirely.

3rd party market? Massively overrated. CH took $100,000US. GW? Millions......

What we have is a company in cash growth in a tricky economy...

[Bigred]

The interesting part is the flurry of activity in 3rd party licensing this year:

"Today’s deal with Roadhouse is the ninth we know of, joining existing agreements with Creative Assembly, Slitherine, Zattikka, Rodeo, Full Control, Cynanide and Nomad Games. EA’s Mythic studio is closing down its F2P Warhammer title at the end of the month."

But the big problem is those are all teensy games from tiny developers that will have miniscule sales. It looks like GW is scrambling to make up for the loss of the big important licenses that matter like THQ, and EA before them. Those mega games with multi-million dollar budgets are what bring in the licensing revenue.

And looking at the big picture, GW's IP isn't the glimmering gold they wish it were.

THQ has uneven success with the licence. Basicaly Relic is an amazing developer and their Dawn of War series sold like hotcakes. But the pricey Space Marine, did not meet expectations. Vigil, crashed and burned on the MMO, and even industry giant EA couldnt get Warhammer Online off the ground. That one in particular was a monstrous waste of investment. I've heard budget rumors between 15-25 million all in for Warhammer Online. I'm sure at some point here in the near future, when some contract term expires, EA will quietly pull the plug on the servers.

I'm not sure the big studios will pay top dollar anymore for such an unpredictable license. GW isn't Star Wars, or LotR.

[eldargal]

GW have licensed to Creative Assembly, hardly teensy.

[Bigred]

At this point I dont trust Fantasy to have any legs in the videogames genre. Fantasy has gone from failure to failure over it's last few licensed titles.

Now 40K they can do some stuff with, so I'm watching to see what SEGA does with the pieces they bought off of THQ. That could go places.

But in any case these major games are years off.

[Mr Mystery]

MMOs.... Remember, even WOW is shedding players faster than attracting them. Conclusive of nowt I'll grant you, but let's not look at things in isolation eh?

As for GW on its Todd? 10% growth in the US for 2011/2012..... $66,000,000ish turnover (not profit, sales) from $60,000,000..... Not too shabby.

[eldargal]

Ordinarily I'd agree, the concepts for the licensed WFB games have been flawed from the start. But Creative Assembly have never produced a dud yet as far a I'm aware.

[troglodytesrus]

Short term I view GW as a decent investment, small growth for the next couple of years I expect. This from my own view and knowledge of GW rather than any solid news, just my feelings.
However long term I am predicting the price bubble to burst and things to start going downhill what with 3rd parties, 3rd printing and overextension of prices.

[GrauGeist]

GW is a Hold, not a Buy. GW will continue driving solid profit, but their big growth is over, hence focusing on cost cutting with things like 1-man stores, no bunkers, no events, no metal, no Specialist Games. GW will squeeze ever more profit from ever fewer sales, hence $50 artbooks like "Codex" Iyanden.

[Caitsidhe]

I see Games Workshop as valuable only for attempts to make small profits by selling short, i.e. having to buy and then watch to drop it off fast. I agree with the others who feel that the company's days of real growth are behind it. It isn't going anywhere and will be a relatively safe investment, but there won't be any massive gains on it.