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GW preamble up, New CEO incoming, Annual report included now
#1
http://investor.games-workshop.com/wp-co...e-2014.pdf
Rob gave me a heads up on this, looking forward to the financials now to see what GW plans for the future...
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#2
I can't decide if this is legit or a massive troll, it reads so unprofessional.

Highlights for me-
-Website cost £4 million! (JJ, Stu you guys have an idea working in that field, surely can't have cost that much right?)
-Chapterhouse are naughty and the legal system hates us, let compare ourself to apple!
-Them there 3D printers are a fad, just like VHS and CDs. If they do become something, we'll sell our own. People will buy it, just like our paints and brushes, at 10x the price of one you can buy off amazon lol.
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#3
Has a hint of hoax mixed with whole bunch of arrogance and a dash of bitterness... either way GW painted in yet more bad light... if this is true good riddance.




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#4
(28-07-2014, 09:33 PM)manrogue Wrote: -Website cost £4 million! (JJ, Stu you guys have an idea working in that field, surely can't have cost that much right?)

Well if they paid £4 mil for that, they got done. Haha. It's certainly possible a very large website for an international brand like say JLR might cost something like that but seems pretty high. I've worked on website projects ranging from several hundred pounds right up to tens of thousands but I know of projects that have been in the hundreds of thousands.

4 mil seems a bit ridiculous to me though.
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#5
(29-07-2014, 07:32 AM)jjakaalbinoboy Wrote:
(28-07-2014, 09:33 PM)manrogue Wrote: -Website cost £4 million! (JJ, Stu you guys have an idea working in that field, surely can't have cost that much right?)

Well if they paid £4 mil for that, they got done. Haha. It's certainly possible a very large website for an international brand like say JLR might cost something like that but seems pretty high. I've worked on website projects ranging from several hundred pounds right up to tens of thousands but I know of projects that have been in the hundreds of thousands.

4 mil seems a bit ridiculous to me though.

What something costs depends on how you (want to) calculate the cost. For example, they may have paid PoisonSpyderWebBuilders 500k for a defined job. They may have allocated they had 20 people in house working on and planning it for a year. Maybe their average salary is 25k, so that's another 500k salary - but those people cost the same again in 'employment costs', they have desks, computers, phones, IT support, HR, managers, etc... so that's another 500k. If it's the CEOs pet project then add another 250k. Then there is training of staff around the world. 2500 (?) staff x 2 hours each 5000 hours at a cost of (hmmm, finge rin the air) £100 per hour = 500k. Cost is not just today, factor in investment costs for next 5 years, then we will build in 5 years maintenance of the system, constant changes of stock, etc. another 100k per year for PoisonSpyder 500k. Plus big marketing push worldwide 500k maintain for another 5 years at 100k per year = 500k. Thats 3.75M already...

So now an 'expensive' 500k job has become 3.75M... Undoubtedly a lot of double accounting going on in this simple example, but that's what can happen and then it's easy to generate big numbers if you want/need to.

I remember a local council sacking 20 school crossing people to save 600k per annum... hmmm... 20 people work 10 hours a week for 39 weeks a year, 7,800 hours. That's pay of about £77 an hour...! Maybe not me thinks. Accounting hocum...
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#6
Cheers for the insight Paul and JJ, just seems a bit much especially as it is worse (in my opinion anyway) than the old site.

But valid points Paul, can see what you mean.
40k- Space marines(5000 pts) Imperial guard (3000 pts) Tau (3000 pts)
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#7
And annual report is up-
http://investor.games-workshop.com/wp-co...-FINAL.pdf
Just reading now, but £11 million down on last year despite an increased release schedule, new faction (Imperial knights) and edition change doesn't sound great.
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Infinity Yu jing (Aprox 1000 pts)
Necromunda Escher Mad capsules Avalanche
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#8
Lol, the sooner Kirby goes the better in my opinion. He just comes across as so arrogant in this report and the last one.
This made me chuckle in the annual report-
Quote:Our market is a niche market made up of people who want to collect our miniatures. They tend to be male, middle-class, discerning teenagers and adults.
We do no demographic research, we have no focus groups, we do not ask the market what it wants. These things
are otiose in a niche.
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Epic 40k-Space marines/Imperial Guard(2000 pts)
Infinity Yu jing (Aprox 1000 pts)
Necromunda Escher Mad capsules Avalanche
Blood bowl Skaven
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#9
Maybe its an attempt at a tax write off, by claiming it cost more then it really did? Either way poo poo to the corporate entity that is GWS.
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#10
The opening gambit that Vince posted did sound like the pre-cursor to a poor financial report, with early emphasis on restructuring to keep investors happy.

It's good to hear them finally pay at least lip-service to 3D printing, even though Tom has largely dismissed it. It was something that was notably absent from last years statement when discussing possible risks to the business. I don't agree with his sentiments on it though, as the technology is very much a growth area at the moment with major improvements to processes and materials happening all the time, while costs are being driven down. The risk is also in no way pre-supposed on the availability of 3D scanning - it only takes one individual with access to quality equipment to produce a model scan that could be widely shared. There are also computer modellers out there with the ability to recreate a model purely in software.

£4M does sound excessive for the website - it's certainly nothing special and in all likelihood based on a pre-existing content management system, so most of the work is in styling and migrating the data from the old site. As Paul rightly says though (and from my experience of project budgeting) it's all too easy to inflate a cost, especially where that could be used to hide a loss elsewhere.

Sadly it's sounding like there isn't a long term future for The Hobbit range Sad

So, a question for the assembled...

If you took up the mantle of CEO, what would be your business plan for GW?
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