Marcus King of Titan Games & Music in Kalamazoo, MI read the recent interview with Upper Deck Entertainment's CEO Richard McWilliam (see "Richard McWilliam Interview") and had this to say:

In my opinion, UDE CEO Richard McWilliam just doesn't grasp it.  The game industry is not the sports card industry.  Game retailers are a different, if somewhat similar, breed than sports card shop owners.  As gamers, we keep score.

So, when a publisher makes years of one-sided decisions to support the mass market over hobby outlets, the hobby outlets learn.  They remember that you do not value them or support them.  So, when you come out with some new product like Huntik and you are attempting to launch it in the hobby channel, because your mass-market partners don't want products that are not already red hot, the hobby retailers may stand back and wait too.  Why should they take a chance on a new product by UDE when it's known that if that product is hugely successful the majority of product will be channeled into the mass outlets?

When UDE was a real powerhouse, before the recent decline of sports cards sales and losing licenses from the NBA and MLB, plus the loss of their Yu-Gi-Oh! license, UDE was known by many retailers as a company that would throw its weight around.  I recall that UDE held Yu-Gi-Oh! Championships in Columbus, Ohio (the same city as ORIGINS Game Convention) on the same weekend as the Origins event in a different venue.  Not once, mind you, but multiple times.  It might have been better to build a relationship with the Game Manufacturers Association, who hosts the Origins Game Fair and the GAMA Trade Show (the Game Industry's Trade Show). 

Even when it comes to the upcoming plans of their current product lines Upper Deck doesn't give much information on which a retailer can base good, sound ordering.  For example, in the interview in question on ICv2, the interviewer asks about the future of World of Warcraft Miniatures: Will there be more sets?  What are the plans?  What about rumors of the games demise?  Mr. McWilliam's answer is simply that a new set is forthcoming.  Also in his answer, McWilliam makes no mention about whether this might possibly be the last set, whether any future sets are in development at all, or any other information.  As a retailer this says to me:  do not order more of this product (unless I have a real solid demand for it). 

I hope Huntik will be at least as big a hit as BreaKey or the ever-popular Winx Club TCG for girls.  And should it actually do better, then I will do just like the mass retailers do -- wait for the demand to hit a fevered pitch, and then bring the product in, sell as much as I can, and drop it like a hot potato when the demand diminishes.  

But, until such time as Huntik (or the next big thing from UDE) is all my customers talk about or UDE learns to value relationships in this fairly small pond called "The Game Industry," I'll view all their new products with a very skeptical eye, and carry the products of companies who already have proven they value the independent retailers.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.