WARNING: SW HAS A LOT OF OPINIONS. I love talking about this stuff. Apart from my family and religion, the two things in life I love are miniatures and small business. So, while i have a lot to say, it's out of enthusiasm for the subject. That and I'm an ar**hole.
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Well, Inferno was a scale most fantasy and scifi gamers don't collect or paint. It was also a big effort into a new market, in effect.
Consider the people buying your products: they were ALL into board games or 28mm or military scifi, guaranteed.
Some might also have been into 6mm fantasy-horror, but that wasn't guaranteed. I mean, for example, I loved the military scifi of LOS and later appreciated the historical element. It was nice to have a straight scifi background, too. I am still collecting LOS miniatures as and when I find them. I have zero interest in Inferno; not saying it's bad, just saying there's no overlap.
There was still room for LOS to expand; some armies had only a handful of miniatures relatively speaking and those that had fuller lines, UNE and machines for example, had heaps of room for specialists, boutique sub-armies, or experiments in marketing that could be wound back if they failed (say, gruesome special castings for Bloodlord Overlords.... you bring out some zombies with Deadbolt launchers, if they fail, meh, if they sell you bring out an Assault Fiend that looks like a flesh and blood demon.... if it sells, hooray! If not, no biggie).
The point here is that gamers who like a line will likely stick with it and expand their collection. We tend to be that kind of animal. So the key would bhe to keep those guys buying and keep them happy with new shiny things, whilst tentatively adding things that they might like or might gain you some interest from fence-sitters, who will then perhaps start collecting an army, or two armies.
If you have a look at Reaper miniatures, everything they've tried that wasn't 28mm has failed to gain any real traction.
If you track them over time they've had their 28mm fantasy line of characters and monsters that they've expanded faithfully every month since forever.
Then they had a 15mm fantasy line they ditched.
Then they had an 8mm scifi line that never really gained much market share.
Then they introduced a new line of...... 28mm fantasy characters and monsters, which had a game attached and was mildly successful but which still mainly makes its money off the same set of customers as the original 28mm fantasy line.
So now they have two lines of 28mm fantasy that are interchangeable and which they faithfully expand every month.
Finally they recently added a line of...... 28mm sci-fi characters and monsters which they faithfully expand every month.
Nothing they've done has been show-stopping. Their miniatures are good quality but not the superb, critically acclaimed artworks that Rackham was producing before it.... you guessed it... went bust. They don't have rights to a big IP like the Starship Troopers miniatures line before it.... you guessed it.... went bust (actually it got shelved). They don't even have any really original IP like FASA did before it.... went bust. Their successful lines are not original. Don't get me wrong, I love their miniatures, they're good and they're well-priced. Reaper don't take bets they can't afford to lose, don't borrow money, and keep their eyes on the meat and bones of business: marginal cost of production, cash flow, balance sheets.
So yeah, I hve been hanging out on the Reaper boards since they went up six years ago, and the folks from Reaper do in fact talk shop there.
Last thing is, OF COURSE Clark knows his business better than I do! I'm just throwing up a combination of trivia, observation from the sidelines, and a smattering of actual experience in the general overlap of business. Farming. No, it doesn't just come out of the ground and then you get paid for it, LOL.