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7/14/2025, 1:29:34 PM
>>96086030
problem with the indies is that they arent actually competition. not in the proper sense of the word, they cant use cheaper prices or better deals to take sales away from GW, they just arent big enough and GW has too much of the market share, so this ends up in a scenario where GW sets the market price and everyone else sets their prices accordingly. so yes, games workshop does have a monopoly. they control probably upwards of 90% of the marketshare, set the market rate for fantasy and scifi wargames, and bully other games off of the shelfs of local gaming stores with very little pushback, GW stockist reps lately have become increasingly brazen with arm twisting "stock X or we wont give you Y" ultimatums as well, forcing local stores to carry excess GW product they may not want because they wont get their fulfillment of the new hotness otherwise
the only place i know where this is not the case is the historicals market, which sells to a somewhat different audience and is detached from the GW market space. and because of that you see companies like perry and victrix selling boxes of 40-60 plastic sprue miniatures for like $40-50. the plastic miniatures they are producing are of no less technical quality than GW relatively speaking (some difference in aesthetic and scale but otherwise nearly identical in terms of milling and casting quality), but because they mostly dont interact with that GW ecosystem and are often direct to consumer, they can afford to set their prices far lower per model.
problem with the indies is that they arent actually competition. not in the proper sense of the word, they cant use cheaper prices or better deals to take sales away from GW, they just arent big enough and GW has too much of the market share, so this ends up in a scenario where GW sets the market price and everyone else sets their prices accordingly. so yes, games workshop does have a monopoly. they control probably upwards of 90% of the marketshare, set the market rate for fantasy and scifi wargames, and bully other games off of the shelfs of local gaming stores with very little pushback, GW stockist reps lately have become increasingly brazen with arm twisting "stock X or we wont give you Y" ultimatums as well, forcing local stores to carry excess GW product they may not want because they wont get their fulfillment of the new hotness otherwise
the only place i know where this is not the case is the historicals market, which sells to a somewhat different audience and is detached from the GW market space. and because of that you see companies like perry and victrix selling boxes of 40-60 plastic sprue miniatures for like $40-50. the plastic miniatures they are producing are of no less technical quality than GW relatively speaking (some difference in aesthetic and scale but otherwise nearly identical in terms of milling and casting quality), but because they mostly dont interact with that GW ecosystem and are often direct to consumer, they can afford to set their prices far lower per model.
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