Report To The Stakeholders

[duskblade]

Heres to hoping we get to see Evil Ted this year. And that I can manage to get my hands on whatever those secret munchkin items are.

[mook]

Overall the report left me feeling hopeful and upbeat - I love to hear when SJG is doing well! The fact that Low-Tech had "disappointing sales" is kind of a bummer though - I was hoping it would do much, much better in hard copy. Probably see even fewer hard covers now if something like Low-Tech doesn't sell well! C'est la vie.

[stefanj]

GURPS has two full-time staff and small bits of two to four other people.

AHHHHHH! AIEEEEE! OMG, OMG! YOU SICK BASTIDS!

Are these, like, brains in a jar that are forced to proofread character stat blocks, or random small bits used as magic talismans?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by stefanj

AHHHHHH! AIEEEEE! OMG, OMG! YOU SICK BASTIDS!

Are these, like, brains in a jar that are forced to proofread character stat blocks, or random small bits used as magic talismans?

Nikki's brain, for sure . . . Steven's, too. I think some of their fingers. Once in a while, we get one of Will's eyes. And of course Monica is constantly getting nicked when she reaches into the machine; "redhead" is how she explains the blood splatters. Phil does his best to keep away, but I stole a kidney while I was staying at his place last month.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by mook

Overall the report left me feeling hopeful and upbeat - I love to hear when SJG is doing well! The fact that Low-Tech had "disappointing sales" is kind of a bummer though - I was hoping it would do much, much better in hard copy. Probably see even fewer hard covers now if something like Low-Tech doesn't sell well! C'est la vie.

Well, I'd opine that Low-Tech's sales were hurt by the PDF sales to forumites.

I bought the PDF as soon as it was out, and then I kept waiting for the hardcover to be available on Amazon for below cover price like all the other GURPS books, it never was, so I eventually bought it at full price this year, but I can see how other people with the PDF wouldn't necessarily buy it, given that they already have a functional PDF.

There also appears to be some confusion out there, amongst people who aren't regular forumites, about what is the Low-Tech PDF vs Low-Tech companions vs the hardcover book, as well as some confusion as to why the supplements are not part of the book.

[Palmer]

Originally Posted by Ts_

"Printed RPG Sales" are listed under "Failure". If they make up the other $150k, that by itself is a bit troubling because they probably have higher production costs than keeping e23 running. Besides, Amazon lists some physical books cheaper than the PDF on e23, so the margin from each book must be pretty bad in comparison. I have no clue, but I guess Amazon wants a 40% share on such exotic items

Retailing generally follows the Rule of Halves for price.
Basically, each step down the chain, from retailer to writers, takes about half the money.

Example: A $40 book. The retailer sells it for $40.
They bought it wholesale from the distributor for $20.
The distributor bought it from the publisher for $10
The publisher bought the print run for $5 a copy.
The writers and editors were paid about $2.50 a copy.
The remaining $2.50 is profit.

So the margin for the publisher is quite small, but they're multiplying it by the number of sales.

Amazon and other online retailers sell below MSRP... the discount is coming out of the $20 difference between wholesale and retail. It's usually around 30%, so the book is $28 on Amazon.
While the FLGS earns $20 per copy sold, Amazon only makes $8.
Amazon's business plan is "Sell 2.5 copies for every 1 that FLGS does" which is easy with that big discount. Because they're online and have lower costs, they can afford to lose the $12 per copy... and after they sell 3 copies, they've made more profit than one FLGS copy.

Profit via volume.

**DISCLAIMER: These numbers are approximate averages. They are not real figures.

[stefanj]

I've run out of geek friends to give Munchkin sets too, but I still like giving games as gifts. One thing I'd love to see from SJGames is a more . . . man, how do I put this?

A less genre-ish boardgame. Something I could give to my sister's family, but NOT a bland family boardgame. They play Catan and Ticket to Ride. I'm sure they could understand and play Munchkin Quest, but I can't see my nieces getting into the theme enough to open the box.

Is this side of the market impenetrable?

[Pragmatic]

I'll post the gist of what I posted in the other thread:

SJ Games is making most of its money off of dice and card games. As much as some of us wish that GURPS got more attention, there just isn't enough of us to make it cost-effective. We GURPS fans owe a debt of gratitude for the dice and card gamers for buying so much from SJ Games. And we owe a debt of gratitude for SJ Games for continuing to spend resources on GURPS, which doubtlessly has a much smaller profit margin than the other products.

So... Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! :-)

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

SJ Games is making most of its money off of dice and card games. As much as some of us wish that GURPS got more attention, there just isn't enough of us to make it cost-effective. We GURPS fans owe a debt of gratitude for the dice and card gamers for buying so much from SJ Games. And we owe a debt of gratitude for SJ Games for continuing to spend resources on GURPS, which doubtlessly has a much smaller profit margin than the other products.

So... Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! :-)

The bottom line (as it appears from this angle *g*) is that GURPS is still making money. As long as that continues to be the case, we should expect a similar effort to be put into the line as has been for the past couple of years.

I know I'm doing my part :)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by stefanj

A less genre-ish boardgame. Something I could give to my sister's family, but NOT a bland family boardgame. They play Catan and Ticket to Ride. I'm sure they could understand and play Munchkin Quest, but I can't see my nieces getting into the theme enough to open the box.

Is this side of the market impenetrable?

Isn't Revolution! this game that you describe? Or am I missing something?