Having touched 884p at the end of 2004, the shares [of Games Workshop] have slumped this year to 455p.
The stock price of Games Workshop is in a relative freefall at the moment (down 300p since April 1st). The author of the above article is not worried, because around 2000 GW did the same thing (got down to 100p) but sprung back up. I on the other hand am a little bit more worried.
2000 started the 'new' GW that we see today. All of Fanatic was starting up around then, and the much improved look of the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k universes were underway. Games Workshop was producing exciting stuff then, and things looked good for the future.
Now, things are not looking good. Fanatic stopped publication (got my last issue a couple days ago), and the Fanatic team was basically disbanded. Andy Chambers left (one of the founders of the modern GW). 40K has been redone, and now seems like a child’s game instead of something involving and compelling. I just can't help but think that falling share prices are something to worry about for GW fans.
It's not that the company is gonna go belly up; we will be able to see that coming. No, what could happen is something far worse than GW dyeing, Games Workshop could be bought by another company.
Why would that be the vampire's garlic? Because in today’s crap-tacular world of cheap thrills the parent company would have no love for long time players, and would focus all efforts on turning through as many new players as possible. The gaming systems would be wrecked, and Fanatic would never have a chance to be resurrected. Grim indeed.
I hope that this is just a repeat of the happenings around 2000, but in I fear that this is not the case.
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