The Games-Workshop Lawsuit

So I did do a post on this previously, but deleted it as it was going in too deep. Instead, I'll just sum up my thought's on this.

I feel what was written in the document was done with a dash of venom. Yes, one can claim that they did copy some things from other works, but back when they did that it was also when they had a sense of humor. GW does have a mixed history with lawsuits, so chances are that even with some of the ranting, it will go ahead. Even if they guy won, I seriously doubt he'd get anywhere near the amount of money he's asking for.

While the document was that of an angry store owner, some of those points made however have merit. I know that one of Australia's biggest online miniature stores The Combat Company, stated in a more recent newsletter:

Unfortunately we have made the difficult decision to discontinue the majority of the Games Workshop range. Many among you may have already noticed the range has been difficult to aquire from us for quite some time now and there are numerous reasons why this has happened. However, rather than go into the specifics we'll just say this; we started this business because of our passion for Games Workshop products and while we would love to sell and stock their range Games Workshop have made such actions extremely difficult for us independent retailers.

We believe that we are no longer able to distribute this range to the standards our customers deserve and thus we are going to call it a day and clear it all out. Going forward we will continue to promote and sell ranges that you enjoy, ranges that have passionate manufactures that want to see you using their products and have the same respect for the stores selling their products as the stores do for them. We would like to thank all of the community for their support along the way. 

I do have to agree with this view. The announcement from the Combat Company did take a number of people by surprise, as many pointed out that the company made it big selling GW ranges. I know from my previous experiences with ordering GW products from my local independent retailer that they seem to have issues trying to get stock. I've cancelled orders previously because after a month or so of waiting, you tend to want to focus your money else where (didn't help that the online store said that they had stock, yet when I went to my retailer for an update, he said they told him they still didn't have any available). Hell, I'm still waiting for my AoS Skirmish rule book and I'm holding off ordering anything else because I simply don't know if it'll ever arrive.

It isn't too much of a loss for most retailers with GW, as the miniature war gaming market is now quite large and there are so many games to choose from, so most can continue without selling their range. It's just sort of sad for me to see this sort of thing happen, but it wasn't unexpected.