# GW China Position



## Jezlad (Oct 14, 2006)

A mate on MSN just linked me this.

Figured Id pass it on.

[if]http://www.pi.com.sg/Downloads/GW%20EmrgMkt2009.pdf[/if]


Any thoughts?

Is promoting the hobby in China a good or bad thing?

Will it promote cheap imitations? - China are good at making fakes...



> We are offering remuneration in the region of CNY 12,000 per month to
> someone with the following qualities:


According to xe thats

12 000 Chinese yuan = 1 100.56735 British pounds
12 000 Chinese yuan = 1 757.496 U.S. dollars


Buttons for a Degree holder surely?


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## nightfish (Feb 16, 2009)

Massive market if they can get it. For 40k, they quite like Starcraft in that region so it may give GW a good profit if they can get into the same sci-fi groove. Not too sure about Warhammer though.

Weren't the Tau suppose to have been made to entice the Japanese market? How did that pan out?


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Tau...
Communism...
China...

Is it just me who finds that funny, or?

Of course it'll promote fakes. Also, I'll be they'll be gold farming in it. I don't know how, but somehow they'll do it. Perhaps you pay them, and then 48 hours later, you'll recieve another 1000pts you can take on top of the 2000pts you can already take.

Seriously though, 40K I can imagine making big bucks over there. Fantasy - well, I've heard a few rumours being bandied about a Cathayan release for the 8th edition in the next few years. Perhaps that could well be the interest that provided the boost.

Most of the fantasy "crew" have come to the idea that they have several ways to go - East, to Cathay, Nippon, Ind etc, West to further explore the New World, Naggarroth, and Lustria, South for the Khemrian deserts, and Southlands Rainforests, or North, for Kislev.

Which, when you look at the recent campaigns, have been North, and West - hence the southern/eastern routes, and perhaps the Cathayan idea is being taken seriously.

Who knows - Turkey = Chaos Dwarves, and I've heard that Turkey is in the east, so we may be seeing a return?

Sorry, just realised I'm heavily off topic here, but that's what's just jumped out at me.

Apart from ChinaCommunismTau. Which is childish, but still funny.


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## Qualtor (May 21, 2009)

Well, enough people there for playing it, but I am afraid there are only few who can effort it (since I know a guy thought other games in China, who makes as much money in a month as I do with 12 hours working..).

It is smart they do it in shanghai, there might be enough rich people 

Well, by the time I am looking for a job (in about 8/10 years after studies etc.) I might be up for it, but there is one problem: can't speak Chinese...

--

Q


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## Farske (Mar 1, 2009)

I reckon 40k and necromunda will be successful. 

Airsoft got popular over there and we benefited as airsofters, as we got "chinese clone" airsoft guns, lowering the price of all airsoft guns sold here. ^.^

Airsoft guns are not GW minis though... so only time will tell!


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Well i have a feeling that the Ork stompa was produced in China,the sprues are very different to the usual UK tool room sprues and the plastic feels softer,not to mention a growing number of GW products are coming from the far east these day.


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## Chaosftw (Oct 20, 2008)

I don't think it will fly. The Asian culture has a lot of anime and games as is. I mean it might go well but its going to be hard to get it going. It will be interesting if they can get it going. Its just sad that instead of GW trying to make the hobby better for Europe and North America and let their profit come from here with more promotion/better prices. but instead they just go to another market.... sigh...

Chaosftw


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## gwmaniac (Sep 1, 2008)

I think it'll do well if it goes to China, and it may be surprising to some guys here, but I'm Chinese and I haven't read a single book or seen a bit of anime, so there might still be some people out there that have yet to find their hobby. True, counterfeit is pretty easy, but with China having a huge chunk of the worlds population, business for GW should be good.


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## paperclipracer (Jan 11, 2009)

it might work they already have a stand in japan. So why not, the more people to this hobby the better i always say. But if it gets big over there, watch out for a lot of top level painters and tournament gamers.


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## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

Seems like a crappy deal to me. If I was that highly qualified (spoke multiple languages, had experience in sales and business and the other half dozen things listed) the _last_ place I'd want to work is a Games Workshop, especially in China.

The pay is absolute peanuts for what you're expected to do...

Oh well. At least they offer to pay for travel expenses to get to the interview?

As for GW games in China... I don't see them doing so well. From what I understand of Chinese culture their games, models and things like that are almost always pre-made, something that you can use right out of the box. Because of the long work days, relatively small income and lack of storage space that so many Chinese have to deal with, I can't see them flocking to buy massively expensive models (plus hobby tools!) that take countless hours of time and effort to get to a decent standard, especially considering that even after you've gotten all the hobby supplies and models, you _still_ need to buy rules.

It sorta seems like GW is planning on opening a super-high quality clothing store in a ghetto. _Note: I'm not saying that China is a ghetto, or that the people are low class or anything like that._ _I'm merely attempting to illustrate my view on the marketing sense of their idea to open stores there. After all, why open a store in an area where almost no one can afford to buy the product?_


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

i dont think GW will be marketing towards your average factory working family somehow katie.


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## Syph (Aug 3, 2008)

That wage is poor if you're in a similar position in the UK, but living on that in China would surely be quite good? In fact, having just read on a couple of sites, average wage for a Grad in Shanghai is about 2500 yuan! If you've got a doctorate it's only 6000... GW offering 12,000? That's bloody good. 

I think China would be a good market to get into; huge population, interest in these kinds of hobbies... And I'm sure the costs will be significantly less in China too, regardless of the pricing elsewhere. 

We may be lucky enough for the Chinese market to bring a lot of extra cash/resources into GW that eventually the hobby cheapens for us too.


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## World Eater XII (Dec 12, 2008)

im with syph on this one, would be a good place for GW to break into!


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## Inquisitor Einar (Mar 6, 2009)

For the goldfarming.. I think Painting services there would skyrocket.. Yeah.. Chinese Model Painters.. sounds much like a Chinese Gold Farmer


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## sgt macragge (Jul 7, 2008)

HEY! i could get that job..


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## squeek (Jun 8, 2008)

I think the job is aimed at local talent anyway personally. _"Fluent spoken and written English with relevant languages for China, Taiwan and South Korea."_ I can't think many European or US grads with an interest in GW are likely to be so well versed with local languages and so on. As the others mentioned that salary is very good for China presently, so I would guess they are looking to attract an experienced Chinese business person to push the GW thing over there.


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## Syph (Aug 3, 2008)

I'd say so too. The only others earning anything remotely like that in China work for companies like IBM.


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## Asmodeun (Apr 26, 2009)

Well optimism is always optional, and hell you'll feel better for it. 
So if GW does open up in china, and the prices are lower, then hopefully, like we get with all us English speaking fellows, we'll get chinese websites advertising stuff for anything between 10% to 35% off from _their_ prices -bingo, lower all round market price! . . .


. . . Guh, why did that feel like a rant?


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## Scorpio (Feb 25, 2008)

The thing is, there are already IR stores in Shanghai, Taiwan as well as Douth Korea. GW probably wouldn't have decided to open a hobby centre there if there isn't already a somewhat steady demand there. Not that I'm complaining or anything, cause most of my relatives are Chinese and I have 10 years of Chinese new year yuan to spend^_^.

As for the counterfeits, I've seen the stuff that they (counterfeiters) put out, and there's a 80% chance that you could probably pick out which ones aren't GW cause there will be massive mold lines, as well as highly undetailed details (does that make sense?). Unless they somehow manage to steal a set of plates...


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## MyI)arkness (Jun 8, 2008)

Whats with the talks of china being poor? Sure on average they are very poor, but as i remember they make for a MASSIVE mobile phone market, i mean, there are probably more people who CAN afford it there, than in whole uk, especialy knowing that in coupla centuries(err not centuries, few tens of years i mean xDDD) China will be producing more than whole usa or EU, so expanding there is an investment into the future.



> China had about 236,000 wealthy people, each with more than US$1 million in assets in 2003, the Shenzhen Economic Daily said Monday, quoting a report in the Guangzhou-based 21st Business Herald.


Edit: Ok nevermind that, UK got about 400k millionaires, so although the upper wealth levels are somewhat comparable, they would be too spread out or rare because of such a huge space of China, unless the "rich" people there are concentrated in several major urbanisations, then it could work out if GW would advertise the game really well there. I think it still will work out in the future, maybe gw wont even have to invest Too much into it - minor sums in a long period of time, it all depends on if chinesse would like the whole warhammer thing.

And PS: yeh i know economics doesnt work like that... just an estimation


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## eric (Apr 12, 2008)

I think the idea of China being financially poor is an old idea that needs to be killed off. As a whole, the country is fairly well-off, but with none of the wealth distribution that communism is meant to bring with it (any idea that China is some kind of pure communist state is just as infantile, though).

There's a very good reason the GW prices are as high as they are here; people pay it. GW will set the prices at whatever level they feel people will pay in China, based on what prices yield the best results.

What China is lacking is rights and freedoms, something that their entry into the free market failed to give them. They managed to disprove the whole notion of capitalism being synonymous with democracy. This is where the (very real) image of Chinese factory workers being kept in slavery and abject poverty comes from. These people are deliberately kept poor, but obviously GW will not be aiming their product at these people. It will instead be aiming for the growing middle class sector and their children.


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

Scorpio said:


> As for the counterfeits, I've seen the stuff that they (counterfeiters) put out, and there's a 80% chance that you could probably pick out which ones aren't GW cause there will be massive mold lines, as well as highly undetailed details (does that make sense?). Unless they somehow manage to steal a set of plates...


Off topic but hey!
Citadel Miniatures are an absolute doddle to recast, not that I've done it you understand, wouldn't dream of it!
Anyway, if I can do it I'm fairly certain that any decent forger would be able to pull it off with no problems at all, just watch out for the lead content!


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## Angels Of Flame (Feb 22, 2009)

there are people out there that can do it, the current fakes may be poor but as demand rises and supply and cost cant meet that demand then the forgers will.


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## The Sullen One (Nov 9, 2008)

I think GW would be better concentrating sales in South-East Asia on the Japanese and South Korean markets, they after all are successful democracies.

With China I think the communist party would be a big problem, after all try explaining to a party official that the Imperium is ruled by a God-Emperor, sounds to much like old Imperial China for their liking.


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## eric (Apr 12, 2008)

The Sullen One said:


> I think GW would be better concentrating sales in South-East Asia on the Japanese and South Korean markets, they after all are successful democracies.
> 
> With China I think the communist party would be a big problem, after all try explaining to a party official that the Imperium is ruled by a God-Emperor, sounds to much like old Imperial China for their liking.


Are you making the assumption that our wonderful democracies do not censor?


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## marcch (Apr 1, 2008)

Emerging economies such as China and India are ideal places to get into. These two countries alone have a bigger middle class than the USA now, not to mention what's ahead. Sure fakes are going to be a problem, if they aren't already (I wonder if some of our online discount merchants are really selling us original GW now at times). Let GW worry about that stuff and just worry about yourself as GW dosen't worry about us.


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