If you are unfamiliar with the Games Workshop trade agreement controversy it is a recent change to the terms of service for independent retailers. The updates to the agreement heavily restrict online sales of Games Workshop products. I just watched the miniwargaming.com video explaining why they will be shutting down their online store. I then read the "Boycott GW!!" train of comments that inevitably follows news of them doing anything.
The new agreement has four major changes:
1) Forbids out of box sales. (No more bits sales)
The disallowing of bits sales is never going to restrict peoples ability to sell the bits they didn't use out of a kit, nor does it mean the end of bits stores. All this is really going to do is stop online shops that buy kits directly from GW from selling a complete Rhino (for example) as "bits", thus circumventing the prohibition of online sales by selling the kit without the box.
2) Forbids direct online sales of their products.
This clause has existed for a long time it is just stricter now. It is not going to stop phone order sites, so I really do not see what the big stir about this is. All this does is stop retailers from directly selling G.W. products online. Miniwargaming was arguing for the "online ordering experience" and how it has an important place in the war gaming world. I don't see it, this is a tactile game with models, terrain, and movement of those models around a game board. How does a stock photo and a model with a discounted price tag provide an "experience"?
3) Limits GW Direct sales to $500 a month
G.W. has approximately 1800 models that they only move a few (few being relative) of a month. These items are in the Direct line, and they are available to independent retailers at a smaller margin than the regular product line. MiniWargaming made it sound a lot worse than it really is, direct includes a lot of old crap models that not many people would want anymore. Direct also includes things like less popular terrain pieces, and a lot of the HQ choices. In my personal experience I can say that I have never even hit close to $200 in Direct a month. Its always been a few things every month that a customer special requests. The only stores hitting $500+ a month in Direct would be online retailers.
4) No international sales
An American retailer that buys directly from G.W. can not sell the product in other countries. I do not see why this is a big deal. The entertainment industry has done this for years with region coding, and other means. G.W. is the big daddy of war gaming, and they have a presence all over the world. It makes sense they do not want G.W. Australia, being cut by G.W. USA
I do not want to nit pick MiniWargaming on their video and its content too much, because they had something to say and subjected themselves to the full scrutiny of the internet. Kudos to miniwargaming for that, but I did not appreciate MiniWargaming's casual dismissal of most independent retailers as comic book stores that carry some of the products and don't have a place to play.
I've had a really hard time with this article. It has been through more content revisions than anything else I have ever posted on this site. I feel really passionate about this because I do not like online retailers, and this is why.
What a friendly local gaming store with does for you:
- Provide tables, terrain, and usually a dedicated time to play
- Initiates new players into the hobby through demos and displays
- Runs leagues, tournaments, and other organized events
- Provides slightly more models than would have been purchased otherwise
I hated writing this whole article and I feel like it shows a little. In the end this is going to be a step forward from the step back that the online models industry created. I hope that these steps lead to increased sales a local game stores, due to the increased difficulty of placing online orders. I like that there are places to play our games all over the United States, and I want it to stay that way.
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