Report To The Stakeholders

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

For what it is worth, someone from the SJG sale/marketing team may want to contact Good Games and inform them of the retailer, get GURPS direct from SJG, offer.

Good Games is one of our international distributors.

http://www.sjgames.com/general/distr..._list.html#AUS

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Owen Smith

. . . if the distribution system remains so fundamentally broken.

It is less that the system is "fundamentally broken" and more that the distribution network is overwhelmed. The industry is fast following the footsteps of the larger toy market, with product sales front-driven and few restock orders except on all but the most popular titles.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/...of-essen-2016/

"Exhibitors from 50 countries brought with them an estimated 1,200 (!) new games to show . . . "

Under that volume of product, distributors and retailers are overwhelmed and everyone is left with so many options that they can select _only_ the hottest sellers.

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by philreed

It doesn't quite work that way. We will ship what is needed to fulfill the project + whatever is ordered. We do not have consignment deals in Australia, and shipping excess games is not a good way to control our inventory. The local distributors and stores will have to place orders before any games over the project needs go on a boat.

Ok, thanks for the above and beyond explanation.

I think though what I meant isn't exactly what you explained. Or maybe rereading my post I just changed my mind/misexplained myself as I was posting it.

I meant rather that if/when SJ Games is almost ready to ship they can allow preorders to benefit from the substantially lower shipping price from the pallet. That's both for stores and individual customers.

I was coming at it from the creating urgency (a substantial postage discount) versus ordering months later and being hit for the extra $$$.

Anyway forum advice is not actual business advice. :)

[philreed]

Originally Posted by lachimba

I meant rather that if/when SJ Games is almost ready to ship they can allow preorders to benefit from the substantially lower shipping price from the pallet. That's both for stores and individual customers.

The complexities involved would _not_ be worth the return. You're talking about blending channels for -- based on what we saw when we opened pre-orders for Dungeon Fantasy -- would be such a tiny number of actual orders that we would spend more on administration than we would make on the orders.

Anyone who has not yet pre-ordered the game should go to their local store and state: I want to pre-order this game, please.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by philreed

Anyone who has not yet pre-ordered the game should go to their local store and state: I want to pre-order this game, please.

Use any Influence skill except possibly Intimidation.

Anyway, thank you for the report Phil. I know enough to realize that there's a lot of sweat (coffee?) poured into one of these.

[hectorgrey]

Honestly, I get the feeling that there's one reason Discworld didn't do so well that doesn't seem to have been touched upon here or in the report: the lack of a PDF option. I live roughly in the arse end of nowhere, so there's no FLGS for me to buy a copy from in person. That means I need to order online. $50 plus VAT, plus shipping would have brought the price north of $75, which is much more than I am willing to pay for a rulebook that I will almost certainly never have the opportunity to actually use. A PDF at a reasonable price, on the other hand, I would have been more than happy to pay for.

It probably also doesn't help that the vast majority of people buying RPG products have absolutely no idea that warehouse23 even exists and had absolutely no idea that this product even existed for them to buy. OBS (OneBookShelf - the guys who own RPGNow and DriveThruRPG) are practically the Steam of RPG PDFs - if your product isn't available there, then people have to actively go looking for it, which is going to reduce the number of sales you're getting.

On another note, I don't do pre-orders on general principle. You can blame the video game industry for that one.

[trooper6]

A thought on pdf's and hard copies. I like having both. If a company will give me both for one cost, I am more likely to buy it. Pelgrane gives you the PDF free if you buy the hard copy. I bought Cthulhu Confidential, and they immediately gave me the PDF even thought the hard copy wasn't out yet...so I could read it and maybe generate buzz before the hard copy hit the stores. Lots of the Kickstarters I backed (where I've been spending the bulk of my RPG dollars recently) also provide both PDF and print. It is certainly an incentive to buy.

I know SJGames doesn't offer both--but maybe offering bundles would be positive?

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by hectorgrey

Honestly, I get the feeling that there's one reason Discworld didn't do so well that doesn't seem to have been touched upon here or in the report: the lack of a PDF option.

Personally, I do now believe that a PDF version would be a very good idea. But the fact is, things like Discworld first edition sold quite well despite the non-existence of PDF options back then. So the first question has to be -- What's changed? Are PDFs killing print market volume, directly or indirectly, or is it something more complicated?

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by philreed

It is less that the system is "fundamentally broken" and more that the distribution network is overwhelmed. ... Under that volume of product, distributors and retailers are overwhelmed and everyone is left with so many options that they can select _only_ the hottest sellers.

Respectfully -- a distribution system that can't handle the market as it exists is broken and not fit for purpose.

[Andrew Hackard]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Respectfully -- a distribution system that can't handle the market as it exists is broken and not fit for purpose.

It's still better than not having any distribution network and missing even MORE store shelves. Probably best to drop this tangent and move on.