Sunday, June 30, 2013

Opinion: GW dropped the ball on the Apocalypse Release

This isn't so much a rant, or a serious complaint, but I think that GW missed a great opportunity with this release of Apoc.
Owens = GW
What did they screw up? Bundle deals.

Now all the formations look great and it is an awesome way to start a collection. The problem is that anyone in the hobby has no incentive to buy them. If it is the same cost of buying the individual units, then I am more likely to budget out my puchases than spluge.

SM Battle Company from the original release. I think this was $300. Not that I expect those kinda saving today, but I am sure this flew off the shelves.
It is the same concept as Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Memorial Day sales etc. etc. etc. People overspend because they trick them selves into believing they are ultimately saving. You figure you are going to buy all this stuff eventually, or you at least want it all, and now it seems affordable, so you buy more than you intend. And yet you still spend more money later, even though you exceeded the amout you wanted to spend at the time. Most people spend pretty consistently and don't alter their purchasing habits, even if they had a month they spent too much.

The problem with what GW did is they gave me no incentive to overspend. I already have a large collection, so I can play Apoc just fine. Plus all the really cool stuff is available from Forgeworld, so I'd rather save my money and get a Titan or their superheavies.

New Battle Company. $674.75. So I get less than last time, and pay over twice as much. I already own half a battle company, so with no savings, why should I bother to buy this?
Are they telling me that on a formation of 3 Wraithknights, they couldn't bundle it for $20 less? That is only $6.33 less per Wraithknight. Still over $100 a model. BUT if I had planned on evetually getting 3 and there is no discount I am going to spread out my purchases, and keep my purchasing habits consitent. If I had had the bundle though, I would have bought it and then started planning my next purchases, which I had not been considering or budgeting for, but now I am suddenly and I am likely to buy them sooner than originally, ultimately spending more money.

Other than the impulse buyer or someone jump starting a new collection, there is no reason to buy the formations.

And since the formations are lackluster, I would've hoped for an awesome model release, but there wasn't much. 4 Finecast Marines, 3 superheavies, and terrain clearly for Imperial/Chaos use. And while they look good, it is really not alot and not for every faction. I do love that the baneblade is a combined kit. I am honestly surprised we don't see GW selling "Citadel Magnets" with all these combo kits these days.  And the WoM terrain does look nice.  But it just isn't what we were hoping for.