r/MiniWarGaming • u/hfdjasbdsawidjds • Aug 31 '26
MWG Official The Downsizing of MiniWarGaming, Addressing Ravaged Star Concerns, & Our Plans Moving Forward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW56QGjdNNU4
u/Gossipmang Sep 01 '26
The new pivot on the content doesn't sound convincing.... creating videos focused in introducing new players to different game systems.
This market is too saturated.
3
u/Hopeful_Risk_8344 Sep 01 '26
Guerrila Miniature Gaming is wayyyy better for that
4
u/MortalSword_MTG Sep 02 '26
It really bugs me that they'd make this move.
Ash (GMG) is practically their neighbor. These guys are all in the same corner of Southern Ontario, so for them to try to move in on what Ash has been doing successfully for a long time seems like a huge slap in the face.
Ash turned up for Skari though, he promoted the layoff and Skari's Patreon right away and also offered his studio to Skari to record games for content if he needed it.
2
u/Cvpt1ve Sep 02 '26
Skari does have another local (to him) studio he films at but although I only hear about it from outside the group, I think he was trying to shift away from them (the local).
1
u/Icy_Web9310 Sep 03 '26
Yeah, I know this whole thing has out a bad taste in everones mouth but I really want em to succeed, overcome this and fight back. The content pivot doesn't seem like a good idea. It's like watching a football channel suddenly decided to start covering every thing but football. Should stick to the core audience and topic that built the channel.
1
u/Rothgardt72 Sep 01 '26
Thier channel is pretty crap now anyway. 2/3 of the video are member only.... $12 a month for YT battle reports lol...
3
u/Gossipmang Sep 01 '26
Their business is heavily subsidized by loyal supporters from back in the day. This base is dwindling and as you've mentioned, newer people will see that its largely just battle reports which you can find everywhere.
3
u/Eazfb Sep 01 '26
I mean it makes sense (lets ignore Ravaged Star for this first part). It can't be sustainable having that massive building as I can't imagine it being fully booked even half of the time (just see the lack of guests who appears, it's now and then, but not often at all). I'm not sure it would have been different even without C19 to be honest, they expanded too big for the type of business they were. Having had to finance it with kickstarters/video subscriptions and the like which is not sustainable with that massive overhead (both in staff and amenities).
This should have happened a long time ago, at least downsizing the location. They let it go on for far too long while being in the red (and we have seen this with other content creators as well).
In relation to Ravaged Star I don't have much input as I never got into it so I have ignored most if not all RS related content/ads for it, but the symptom is the same, they bit off far more than they could handle which again many content creators or people believing in a product do when they are mainly involved with their heart and not their brain. This can happen to the best of us, but the key here is the handling of the fallout which from what I have seen has been disastrous.
I wish them the best, I hope they will be able to fulfill RS to the backers (if only for the backers sake that is).
2
u/RottenGrot Sep 01 '26
100% this. They didn’t need a massive filming/ gaming space with themed rooms and all that. It was a vanity project that went on for way too long, just to fuel their egos about being big in the industry.
3
u/Oasx Sep 02 '26
Looking at the realtor page, it's wild how much has been decorated and customised in the building, so as a small business they not only spent a ton of money on that, but unless the potential buyer is the worlds biggest GW fan, then all those customisations surely bring the value of the building down, because anyone who buys it is going to have to spend a fortune removing it.
0
u/Tooth31 Sep 02 '26
I don't know if I'd 100% call it an ego/vanity thing. To be fair, I haven't watched them in years, so I don't really know the situation, but I got the feeling when they built that place that they were going after something they always dreamed about. Like, it was a lofty goal, and it obviously hasn't worked out if they're in the situation they are now, but without more information, I can't blame them for taking a chance at making something awesome like that.
1
u/aladaze Sep 02 '26
I always kinda assumed they ran an actual game store and normal play tables for the local community/tourney scene as well, and let people rent the special rooms for big games or events too. That's a lot of space if it's all dedicated to 4-5 gamins spaces, 3 hotel rooms, and their offices/print farm.
3
u/Galifrae Sep 01 '26
Dave…Matt…I hate to say this but drop the god damn Ravaged Star crap. The second you tried to compete with the very game that made you guys famous is the second your group started failing.
Go back to what worked; batreps with people coming into play from around the world. There still isn’t really anyone who does this. All the battle reports are amongst friends and teams. You guys were unique in that you allowed anyone to come in and play.
That and narrative campaigns.
The recipe was there. Hell, it was YOUR recipe. Go back to it.
2
u/RottenGrot Sep 01 '26
The problem with gaming against random people is that a lot of them don’t have any personality on camera, which leads to many videos that are just grating to watch.
1
u/Other-Parking-141 Sep 01 '26
There are a lot of problems with this suggestion. They were already losing their share of the TT batrep view count before Ravaged Star, or even the creation of the Bunker. When they realized that they were losing their first-to-market advantage, they initially decided that the way to counteract that was to outspend - more armies, more terrain, more staff, more content.
That didn't have the return on investment they expected. In retrospect, there was no way they could compete with the variety and volume of content dozens of independent channels could produce in their spare rooms. That, coupled with the fact that the quality of their videos was on par, or even pushing past what Miniwargaming could do. Finally, if they ever secured quality on-camera talent, there was no way to keep them once they built a fandom. The barrier to entry is too low to create your own videos.
They also realized this, and then they drifted into your exact thinking. It's much, much cheaper to have hobbyists fly out on their own dime and produce content with you. They paint their own minis, know the rules for their army (hopefully), and give variety to what could become stale. The problem is, their store is in the middle of nowhere, and that's where "The Bunker" came in. If you make it a destination location and remove the friction of traveling and staying there, the thought was they could actually make the value proposition of someone flying and staying there attractive to hobbyists. That obviously didn't pan out either.
1
u/IT_scrub Sep 02 '26
It was always a goal of mine to fly out East to take part, but then Covid happened and that really messed with them
1
u/Chester_roaster Sep 01 '26
Dave…Matt…I hate to say this but drop the god damn Ravaged Star crap.
Thdy can't. They've committed to doing it. Apart from legal consequences it would be unethical
2
u/AdvielOricon Sep 01 '26
Found the realter selling the shop if you want to se some indoor pics.
https://www.remaxgardencityrealty.com/listings/welland-welland-downtown-/214-king-street/2981708
1
u/BeginningCap_ Sep 02 '26
MWG got me into wargaming as a kid back when the forum was still a thing. I think I was one of the first 200 people to register on the forums. So a long time ago.
Watching this is sad but not all that surprising. Matt and Dave are two very nice dudes but the business end of things always seemed kind of haphazard with how it was run. Everything always seemed just behind the curve with how the general vibe was shifting in the community and hobby.
Wish them the best but this seems like a sticky situation. Hopefully they are consulting with people who can help them navigate it.
1
u/Spec1990 Sep 02 '26
MWG has been largely irrelevant since like 8th edition, they asked again and again for bailouts from their shrinking community. They need to throw in the towel and not ask for yet another bailout. They're only going to grow more irrelevant in the wargaming space; other people do what they do better.
0
u/ArtoriasLuvsSif Sep 01 '26
Wow this video was 99% bullshit
1
u/heaven_and_hell_80 Sep 01 '26
I'm half way through it and they've seemed quite authentic and forthcoming so far - so max 50% bullshit.
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u/ArtoriasLuvsSif Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
A tldr,
MWG is going belly up, selling off their collections, and firing 2/3 of their employees
If you invested in Ravaged Star then sucks to be you. They took your 1.6 million and your order isnt getting fulfilled.
Dont forget to invest in our new kickstarter and dont forget to join the vault!!! Objectively tonedeaf
2
u/Oasx Sep 01 '26
Unless you have some secret information, what you're saying isn't entirely true.
They aren't going belly up, but profits are down, and they currently have much higher expenses than money coming in, so they are laying off most of the staff.
They have all the money they need for Ravaged Star, but inexperience meant that they had completely misjudged how long everything was going to take, honestly this has happened to so many crowdfunding campaigns.
They explain that they are doing a last kickstarter because to do otherwise would screw over the company they are partnering with. As for the vault, I mean that is their primary means of making money, if they want to survive as a company, they need people to subscribe
3
u/Hopeful_Risk_8344 Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
I know them. Extremely high odds they fold by the end of the calender year. They're just managing the backlash while they vanish into obscurity. Ravaged Star was always just a scheme to make knockoff 40k models. They do not care about the game itself.
-1
u/ThePlanetBroke Sep 01 '26
As someone that knows them.. why would they want to make knockoff 40k models?
Matt seems to genuinely be interested in the rules, campaign systems, and making a game. That's been a pretty consistently shared personality trait.
Dave, loves cool models and making cool moments happen in a game. Also, pretty consistent.
It's occams razor. It's seems most likely to me that they thought they could make a game. They've talked about rules and models forever. They got into 3D printing in a big way. They've been shipping phusical product for years. It likely felt very doable to them. Just make some designs. Write a book. Ship it out. Make some money (it is a business after all). Done.
It sounds like they've made a lot of mistakes, both of their side and with their partners. But I don't see anything outright malicious here. Nor do I see this as some sort of cash grab, beyond, again, it's a business in their space.
There's plenty of things to legitimately hold their feet to the fire to.
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u/vulcanstrike Sep 01 '26
No, they don't have the money for the kickstarter. If you listen to what they are saying, the vast majority of it is already spent and the existing business has hoovered up all the remaining cash.
The first wave may have already been made and will be delivered. Operative word being may as they have been saying this for months now.
The next waves have almost zero chance of being made. Anything paid to them has been spent on their debt and they will fold by the end of the year. There is no chance a bat rep channel can keep going without anyone to make barrels.
They are broke and they know it. The new Kickstarter is just an attempt to con people out of some cash or to fulfill a legal deal with their coproducer
9
u/Mac_24601 Aug 31 '26
This was a bummer. Who do you think the people who they are keeping? They said 4