The big difference is intellectual property.

Commodity manufacturing basically involves no IP, so stuff like clothing can readily be outsourced.

Cars and tech products depend on patents. That's max 28 years in the US, 20 in the EU, and in practical terms much shorter as the tech is superseded. Inadvertent loss of a patent is fairly short term and only impacts a portion of the company's business line.

Miniatures depend on copyright. That's 70+ years and inadvertent loss of copyright is a long term and ongoing threat to the company's core business line.

Where are you getting the 28 years number? I was told it maxes out at 20 I. The US as well.

(May actually be important to me soon)

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Thanks,
Troy


Once Upon a Midnight Dreary....

I would like for this to happen, therefore it will not.

Todderman - wow that's negative. You sound like you need a hug!

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Walk softly. And carry a big gun.

IMO that is not so much a negative as a realistic appraisal
When was the last time anyone can remember GW acting as we would have wished?

GW core business is selling figures together with the rules and background that support and encourage their use. However, the "new kid on the block" is downloadable IT:- Apps on smartphones, tablets etc. which is at odds with this core business. Together with the global economic situation, the comments in the Telegraph which suggest revenue is declining are hardly surprising. Indeed abandoning SG and Epic are further symptoms of the same underlying problem.

In this context, a smart move ( ) might well be to find ways of moving to this technology, developing the relevant apps to encapsulate the desired rules for the figures, perhaps using the smartphone camera as a scanner and even as a rangefinder that might just be able to calculate casualties automatically etc.

Much as we might desire it, selling one-off boxed game sets or even going to a different figure scale would seem a short-term stop-gap until GW can devise a business strategy that keeps pace with the bewildering technological and economic changes that are transforming society.

Um... total brain cramp? It's 20 years from filing date in the US.


Sorry. IIRC, many, many years ago, there was a 14 year + 14 year renewal option = 28 years. I don't know why that popped into my head.

Wellspring posted an exceptionally good analysis of the situation earlier on. Thanks for that. I think that it hit the nail on the head.

This may come to pass, but it will just end up being a drop in the ocean. It might sell reasonably, but I don't see it being compatible with any of the Epic games that we all play here.

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So what you're saying is... +1

Sorry it's just too tempting. No more I promise

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Kyrt's trade list

I could imagine a redone adeptus titanicus game. I just hope it would be truescale 6mm Titans

AT would bring a flavour more easily distinguishable from "tiny 40K" for the 40K crowd, Titans have a lot of appeal, and the game would make much more sense as a contained package/release than the whole epic game, which would have to be a huge range to be satisfying (you have to redo the whole 40K range in 6mm basically). I think the original rumour was only speaking of the return of Epic scale, which is IMHO correctly assumed to be Epic Armageddon by some of its readers.

Anyway, I won't put any belief in that rumour until we get much stronger confirmation. It looks like a random guess plus a hefty amount of wishfull thinking at the moment.