Berkut666 wrote:
Ah, again I disagree. Outsourcing something (especially a service) cannot be compared to production of a physical product under licence. The misconception that they are similar is one of the main reasons things like outsourced IT fail. I agree 100% it is very hard to put a contract in place and monitor the level of service you receive from another company as it is subjective. ie open to interpretation by those using the service - one persons good service experience is not anothers.
However with physical goods it is easier to set quality, and indeed production, limits. ie goods will be produced to "x" standard and we will require "y" number of units per year. Hence the reason that outsourced manufacturing is, to a large degree, way more successful than outsourced services.
Fair enough, to each his own. I've no more insider insight than you, that's for sure.
I guess we are talking about slightly different models, i.e. you are outlining a scenario where GW is actually doing a lot of the work in designing the game, defining releases etc, maybe even designing the models, and only outsourcing actual manufacturing. That's a bit different to licensing a game a la FFG or video games. When I say risk, I am not talking about excess flash on the models, I'm talking about delayed releases, problems with stock, lack of consistency in the design of a range, all the myriad things that can kill a game. Why did Epic 40K fail? Was it because the models weren't good enough? I think the answer to that is a resounding "no". GW knows only too well it can mess it up themselves, so the idea that someone else would do better is probably not forefront in their thinking.
I would quite agree that the risks are much lower under simple manufacturing outsourcing. (And that is just how things get made in most large scale industries, because factories are expensive). Even so, what you have to recognise is that GW already has arrangements for manufacturing, they are good at it. Whether that is via production facilities they own or already outsourced to a third party. So who exactly would you outsource it to who can do it in sufficient quantity for cheaper? It might be that GW is limited in capacity, in which case it could make sense (if a suitable partner exists). But its not clear to me that the limitation is in manufacturing (as opposed to the design, publishing, management etc bandwidth required to produce a new game).
Anyway, personally I think it could work, and wish they had the agility to throw caution to the wind to do it. The small guy will be motivated to a good job by more than just a contract and that is often left out of the equation. I just don't think they really can justify it on a business imperative.
