Games Workshop Announces Good News...And Bad News

It better be mostly good news...

Games Workshop, like many businesses across the world, temporarily suspended operations worldwide at the start of the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic. Gamers around the world were shocked and saddened that the purveyors of plastic crack had decided to appease the Plague God (and the British government) by shuttering their retail stores, customer support services, and their manufacturing facilities.

Luckily, however, the situation was only temporary, and Games Workshop began the process of resuming normal operations at the beginning of May. Of course, things aren't 100% back to normal. Games Workshop's website still states that orders will arrive within 28 days (potentially longer) because of the Shanghai Shivers. I personally placed an order with Games Workshop that took almost a week to come out of pending status.

Games Workshop made yet another announcement via their Warhammer Community website on Thursday regarding future operations and getting back to normal. Honestly, though, the announcement was kind of a good news/bad news situation.

First, the good news:

We know you’ve been waiting patiently to get your hands on some new releases for weeks now. Well, the wait is almost over!

We’re pleased to say our factory in Nottingham has resumed operation, and after a two-month hiatus* new releases are set to return, available to pre-order from May 30th, with new models landing on shelves/at your door from June 6th.

The resumption of new releases is very welcome news. Especially since there's a whole slew of things coming down the pike that the community has been waiting (sort of) patiently for. 

Now, the bad news:

From the first of June, around 400 Warhammer products will change in price (there are well over 3,000 Warhammer items available right now). Most of the items that are hanging haven’t moved in price for years. 

The RRP on the majority of Warhammer will stay the same.

Games Workshop was courteous enough to let us know exactly which models were going to see a price increase. Looking at the list I see a lot of bigger kits-vehicles and monsters-will see a price jump. There are, however, some squads and troop types that are apparently going to see a hike in their pricing as well.

Obviously, no one likes to see any kind of price increase, especially when Games Workshop is already known as one of the more expensive wargaming companies out there. That being said, periodic price increases are also expected when it comes to Games Workshop. I've been in the hobby most of my life, and the one thing you can be sure of is Games Workshop will at some point raise the prices of their kits.

In the end, though, I'm not going to lose a whole lot of sleep over it. I'll grudgingly accept it as long as the price increases are reasonable. I think most gamers are of the same mindset. Really, what Games Workshop is doing is creating even more of an incentive for gamers to buy from their FLGS. These are the folks that are going to be more willing to offer discounts, deals, and promotions that will help to offset some of the cost of this plastic crack.

You're much better off buying from them than you are ordering directly from Games Workshop.