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Old 07-27-2018, 05:13 AM   #1231
Taliesin
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Default Re: Report To The Stakeholders

I'd like to chime in here as well. I own hundreds of SJG products. I've purchased maybe two from my not very well run FLGS. Without this site SJG would have dropped off my radar a long time ago. As it is I just backed my second kickstarter yesterday.
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Old 08-04-2018, 11:09 AM   #1232
Steve Jackson
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Thanks! We wish all LGS could be well capitalized and well run. They're not. So it's good to have a backup.
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Old 08-10-2018, 07:56 AM   #1233
David Johansen
 
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Yeah, I wish mine was well capitalized and well run. :D

Oh well it's been fun, stressful and painful but I sure have run a lot of D&D and GURPS these last six years. To be honest I think the old distribution and store model is dead. Especially for rpgs but the one to three month sales window that Steve talked about is the same one Games Workshop talks about. Their best sales for any model are in the month it's released and the two months after that. After that it's all back catalog and long tail.

I've spent a lot of the last six years frustrated with how difficult it's been to get product. In the last year I've been in a financial death spiral and I probably won't be in business this time next year. SJG does a great job of reaching out to retailers and I really regret not having been able to afford a direct order from them but the GURPS books they have in print aren't the ones my customers are looking for because they've already got them. :(

What needs to exist, for retail roleplaying games in particular is a print and bind on site system that lets stores have every book in the entire history of gaming available every day. The technology exists but the infrastructure doesn't. If you can't get a retailer discount on the file, the paper, the toner, and the binding sleeve you can't compete.
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Old 08-11-2018, 06:37 AM   #1234
Polydamas
 
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Originally Posted by David Johansen View Post
Yeah, I wish mine was well capitalized and well run. :D

Oh well it's been fun, stressful and painful but I sure have run a lot of D&D and GURPS these last six years. To be honest I think the old distribution and store model is dead. Especially for rpgs but the one to three month sales window that Steve talked about is the same one Games Workshop talks about. Their best sales for any model are in the month it's released and the two months after that. After that it's all back catalog and long tail.
Ok, how could that work? I mean, if you want a Chaos Space Marines Tzeentch army, you need Marine infantry, the right kinds of minor demons, and a few basic vehicles, and none of those change frequently. Do you have any links? Traditionally they kept their business model close to their chest, because "marketing to 12 year olds who can't actually paint" "letting third party retailers build business than cutting off distribution and launching your own franchise next door" and "recruiting fans as who will spend most of their disposable income on discounted minis to staff your stores" do not play well on the front page news.
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Old 08-11-2018, 07:26 AM   #1235
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Ok, how could that work? I mean, if you want a Chaos Space Marines Tzeentch army, you need Marine infantry, the right kinds of minor demons, and a few basic vehicles, and none of those change frequently.
At a guess, there are regular new figures that make an army better, and hence are necessary to stay competitive in the wargame. There will also be new factions and armies launched as a matter of fashion. Think of it as being like selling pop music singles before downloads, but with only one record company, managing the competition between fan factions to its benefit.
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Old 08-11-2018, 07:58 AM   #1236
David Johansen
 
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How could that work?

New editions of core rules and codexes every two or three years and a move to big centerpiece models. They've had a few articles in their investor page over the years about it.

It can be hard to separate out the fan theories from actual practice. But the big companies like GW and WotC will often cancel lines and products that other companies would consider a massive hit.

Games Workshop has been trying a lot harder since they had a couple years of bad losses and threw out the old CEO. The new guy doesn't seem to hate the fans so much, they even have a social media presence now. But that's getting a bit off topic.
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Old 08-11-2018, 08:03 AM   #1237
Polydamas
 
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Originally Posted by David Johansen View Post
How could that work?

New editions of core rules and codexes every two or three years and a move to big centerpiece models. They've had a few articles in their investor page over the years about it.

It can be hard to separate out the fan theories from actual practice. But the big companies like GW and WotC will often cancel lines and products that other companies would consider a massive hit.

Games Workshop has been trying a lot harder since they had a couple years of bad losses and threw out the old CEO. The new guy doesn't seem to hate the fans so much, they even have a social media presence now. But that's getting a bit off topic.
When I was playing there were some traces of that ... they released 'army books' slowly and those tended to give armies with a book an advantage over armies with the stats from the basic rules. But I can't imagine it working on a three-month scale! Painting units takes too long and people often want just another squad of Imperial Guard for their 2,000 point army who look like the six squads they already have in their 1,500 point army from last year.

I gave up on them partially because they seemed to want you to spend a lot of money continually and I did not have any, and partially because they gave me a bad feeling.
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Old 08-11-2018, 11:30 AM   #1238
David Johansen
 
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It was a throwaway comment on GW's part, probably in a White Dwarf, though I think it might have been on their investor relations page a year or two before the new CEO came in.

But considering the hype they put on new models the month they come out and the tendency for the latest army book to be the best I could see it being true. How it compares to the total sales of all lines rather than individual models is a different question. They might sell 10000 of the new model in the first month but what are the sales on the totality of the back catalog in the same time period?
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Old 08-12-2018, 03:39 AM   #1239
Polydamas
 
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Well, anyways, I can see how supporting products that only sell for three months after release is not worthwhile for general retailers, as opposed to franchise branches which have a pretty good idea of how many of the regulars will want a supertank or a dragon and get a steady stream of new products aimed at different segments of the fan base. I am sorry that the GURPS books your customers want are the ones which SJG cannot afford to keep in print!
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Old 08-12-2018, 04:16 AM   #1240
Polydamas
 
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Also, Kenzerco have said that they decided to launch a new edition of Aces and Eights because while they had reprinted it in the past, today the market supports new editions over reprints. I can't find that on their kickstarter but it was somewhere in KotDT or on their website.
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