Rich Waldbiesser of Six Feet Under Games in New Holland, Pennsylvania saw the news about Days of Wonder going exclusive with Diamond-Alliance (see “Days of Wonder Goes Exclusive”) and says his store will no longer carry the Days of Wonder line:
Once again we find ourselves facing a major game manufacturer executing an exclusive deal with Alliance/Diamond. This time it is Days of Wonder and they were even nice enough to announce the deal on the day it became effective. This means all of us who pre-ordered the long awaited Memoir ’44 Bag or the Merlin’s Company expansion for Shadows Over Camelot from a distributor other than Alliance/Diamond will not be receiving our orders since Days of Wonder has decided not to fill these pre-orders.
What this means to me and many other retailers that I have already spoken to is that we will no longer be carrying the Days of Wonder line. I am opposed to exclusive deals from companies that have been dealing with multiple distributors. They are bad for the market. Since I do not deal with
While I wish Days of Wonder the best of luck, I think they will find that limiting options for distribution will hurt their chances for market penetration. If monopolies are so beneficial to the consumer, then why do we have the Sherman Antitrust Act? If Days of Wonder had chosen to distribute through three or four distributors rather than the current 12+, I would have supported them. Granting exclusive rights to an entire company's line of products is bad for the company and bad for the consumer. Days of Wonder should have started this process by granting exclusive rights to individual games to three or four different distributors and monitoring the effects on sales of those games while leaving the rest of the line open for each of the distributors in the test.
As for the issue of communication with retailers, Days of Wonder set up a retailer Website which was rarely updated and never used for retailer feedback. If feedback from retailers was actually important, there would have been forums available on the retailer site. They also could have e-mailed retailers with questionnaires or surveys for input. I know that Wizards of the Coast periodically asks their retailers to fill out surveys that request information on sales of products from all lines of the game industry. They also ask for any input that retailers may have to help improve the products and business. In exchange for filling out a set number of these surveys, the retailer then receives a reward. This would have been very easy for Days of Wonder to do. For every four to five surveys a retailer completed, that retailer would receive a demo copy of a game. Direct feedback from retailers is better than feedback filtered through any distributor.
Here is my message to Days of Wonder. Currently, my store sells approximately 300 to 400 Days of Wonder titles annually based almost exclusively on my recommendation. We like your games but we will not be told where to buy the products we stock. Therefore, we will no longer stock your products. When our customers come looking for a game, we will recommend Settlers of Catan or the 10 Days series instead of Ticket to Ride; Arkham Horror or Pandemic instead of Shadows over Camelot; Tide of Iron instead of Memoir '44; Toledo instead of Colosseum; War of the Ring or Twilight Imperium instead of Battle Lore. It will not be hard to replace your product line given the number of other great games on the market. In the end, there will be two beneficiaries of this deal: Alliance/Diamond and all of Days of Wonder's competitors.
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
