The one thing we do not hear about much is exactly what and why Games Workshop has moved to such a secretive marketing strategy. Personally I have my opinions it simply to boost sales to what was becoming an irrelevant publication, White Dwarf. Not to mention there were a couple manager leaks that occurred, but that is what happens.
Personally I do not like how secretive Games Workshop has become. Basically its come down to this, Games Workshop is trying to keep a tight lip on everything until it is announced in White Dwarf. So you get about 2 weeks notice before a big release. It is a pretty awful policy for most of us out here. It is too fun and exciting to read and find new rumors and information about upcoming releases. It also helps some people plan their budgets accordingly, or if I know something cool is coming out that I want, I wont spend the money elsewhere.
My rumor net is pretty large, so does it effect me personally? Somewhat. It means that I have to be more vigilant in finding my rumors. It also means that there are less people sending me information as well. Otherwise, I am hoping that things will eventually loosen up, but I am not much on hope, I deal with things as they are, and plan accordingly. I cannot change the policy, only give my views on it encase they read them.
So much information gets lost when it comes out of Games Days, that its hard to grab the few that are interesting. So I grabbed this before it got lost to the tide of too much info.
via kitch102
So I garnered very little in the way of concrete information throughout the day, staff were being a lot more tight lipped than expected regarding forth coming releases - all I got was the whole "we're working on a lot of things, keep an eye on WD" yadda yadda yadda.
Interestingly, in the sermon thing that I attended, their head of studio said the secretive marketing strategy was just an experiment and if enough people didn't like it, they'd drop it. Needless to say that I put a written feedback slip over to the WNT guys, saying pretty much what everyone has said - hobbyists budget for their purchases and if you let them know in advance of what they can get, you'll see happier customers and an increase in sales on launch day. Here's hoping that they'll listen, though obviously if you feel the same way, we'll all benefit from you writing in to tell them to stop being so bloody stupid.
