BB 2016 - Web only, no support in stores

[garion]

In Uk Newcastle, they are stocking the game in store and Deathzone suppliment in a specialist games wall along side Armageddon etc.... Though do not have room to play them currently.

Its all indie stores in which you can play the game.

As you say I think GWs attentions are firmly turned to 40k at the moment as their last edition was roundly hated.

No there not Mate

Was in there yesterday and they are carry ZERO bloodbowl now.

Everything is mail order only

Ah man that sucks I loved seeing BB stuff in store. Do you know if forbidden planet stock it ?

[Babs]

Jip wrote:

Seems like you're being turfed out of a Games Workshop store, for playing a Games Workshop game, that can still be purchased in the same store you're being booted out of!?

Yep, that's exactly it. And that half of the screens on the computer terminal at the moment (for Web ordering) are Blood Bowl splash screens.

JT-Y added:

In fact the sad truth is that people like me would be bad to have gaming in a store; I'm only interested in BB, I spend very little, and I'd encourage others to be like me, which would be great for the BB league but sh!t for the health of the store.

JT-Y - we sound so alike based on this description!

JT-Y again

No its global.

This is sad. I do think there needs to be some shelf space in _some_ of the larger stores to stock things like Blood Bowl (LoTR, Shadow War, Silver Tower, etc.). I do understand that online sales is where it's at these days and this has had an impact on the size of GW stores etc etc. I was just kinda hoping that this wasn't a global phenomenon, but I got the gist of it with Blitzmania not being GW stores at all. Seems odd not to let Blood Bowl in Warhammer stores due to retail 'pressure' (for lack of a better word) but push this same issue onto the independent stockists.

Which leaves me in a conundrum, since many of my players are multi-game players and hang out in the GW store. Just last weekend, two potential new players came and saw us playing the finals and expressed an interest in being involved.

I don't _want_ to go to the independent stockist up the road. I _want_ to support GW directly with retail sales. But I'm not going to be able to.
The only upside? 3rd part minis will be allowed at another venue (but I was perfectly OK with not allowing them).

[Milo]

I don't _want_ to go to the independent stockist up the road. I _want_ to support GW directly with retail sales. But I'm not going to be able to.
The only upside? 3rd part minis will be allowed at another venue (but I was perfectly OK with not allowing them).

To some extent, we (the consumers) have done this to ourselves. Local game stores, including GW shops, have had a lot of pressure on them financially, because many people would rather buy online and get a discount for what they need instead of paying full retail. The problem is, that extra cost from buying at MSRP is what goes to fund the stores that we want to get together and play at. If everyone who frequented a store's gaming space also made ALL of their purchases at MSRP directly from the store, we'd see the gaming store industry being much better off and more willing to support in-store events.

I can't speak for the size of stores in Australia, as I've never been -- but I've seen a bunch of GW stores in the UK that are barely bigger than a large broom closet. I can sort of understand why they can't afford to share shelf and displace space between Blood Bowl and 40k/AOS. It's a shame that it's a global policy, but it does make it easier on store staff to be able to say "We'd love to support it, but GW won't let us."

I do hope, though, that FW will offer the full line of GW merchandise to retailers via wholesale, so that we can see blisters on the shelves again in local independent game stores that support Blood Bowl.

[Regash]

To some extent, we (the consumers) have done this to ourselves. Local game stores, including GW shops, have had a lot of pressure on them financially, because many people would rather buy online and get a discount for what they need instead of paying full retail.

Unfortunately, this is true.
I've worked in an independent game store myself and people actually came in, asked a ton of questions about what to play, how to start, what to buy and then even told you that they're gonna see if they can get the stuff cheaper online.

And the best part is, they're pissed off at you when you tell 'em: 'You bought on ebay, then go play on ebay!'

Over here, larger companies even have slogans like 'Geiz ist geil!' (Parsimony is awesome!) or 'Wer Rabatt gibt war vorher zu teuer!' (Who gives a discount has been to expensive before!). I think it's aimed at making people buy as cheap as possible, which is good for larger companies, as they make profit in numbers and an absolute killer for smaller businesses.
Sad story but that is how it works these days.