Sharpening the Sword is a regular column by retailer John Riley of Grasshopper's Comics, a 1300 square foot comic and game store in
Well GAMA has come and gone and once again it was a great learning experience. As usual the seminars were great and the new expanded trade show floor featured a host of manufacturers and distributors well worth talking to. I'm glad that this year was the last year at the
Let's start with policy announcements. The biggest announcement of the show came from WizKids which outlined their new retailer policies regarding new releases. Last year WizKids announced two new games at GTS with a lot of fanfare: Rocketmen and High Stakes Drifter, both of which suffered from poor rollouts. WizKids appears to have learned from this and has made big changes to give their new products as much chance of success as possible. For the new HorrorClix game retailers will receive returnability, an end to wave shipping, in-packaging prize support, a free giant Cthulhu figure, and the Clixbricks incentives. Furthermore, WizKids has now included the codes to purchase their new Collector Sets as part of the Clixbricks program, providing even more incentive for customers to go to brick and mortar stores for at least their initial purchases (which should be sizeable when bought by the brick.)
Although some disagree with the exclusive nature of the Collector Sets, it's clear that WizKids is making a real effort to initiate retailer-friendly policies. With the initial order of HorrorClix 100% returnable and a free giant Cthulhu (which you can keep even if you return the product after 12 weeks) there's no reason for any store not to at least try this game. Obviously, this is good for WizKids which should get tremendous market penetration on the initial release.
Although I think WizKids has made some questionable policy decisions in the past and has had waves of growing pains, they should definitely be loudly applauded for these moves. From a business standpoint they obviously make great sense for their company. They alleviate the risk for the retailer upon product launch thereby getting their new game in as many stores as possible. The incentives such as the Cthulhu create great excitement and the in-packaging prize support mean retailers can start running events the day the product arrives. This is a great win-win where the company benefits tremendously by addressing retailer concerns, specifically retailer risk after having taken on a string of bad product launches (can you say Creepy Freaks?).
On a lesser note Wizards of the Coast made some enhancements to their Premier Store Program. Although the changes are rather minor (all but the smallest stores should probably transfer immediately to one of the highest levels of their new program) they do proceed in the positive direction of providing exclusive support to those stores who are consistently providing support to Wizards. Although not as significant as WizKids' program, Wizards' changes again mark a significant move toward supporting brick and mortar stores.
Ok, so what was missing at this year's show? Just about every game announced last year. Conspicuously absent was any mention of Rocketmen or High Stakes Drifter, both of which have been cancelled. Hecatomb, Wizards' biggest announcement last year, was also conspicuously absent, as was any mention of MLB Showdown, which we've learned was also cancelled. All those manga-inspired CCGs? Don't walk the floor looking for many of them.
For me the most striking thing about this year's GTS was the emptiness left by the many new games announced last year that didn't survive until this year's show. As I wrote in a letter to ICv2 last year, it seemed that the manufacturers' answer to the current weakness of the specialty game market was simply to put out 'more of the same' and hope that something stuck. Apparently, it didn't.
The many games introduced last year failed almost to the one and where does that leave us? The two new games announced at this year's show were HorrorClix and DreamBlade. HorrorClix will surely have a great debut, but will probably exist long-term more as a supplement to HeroClix than a strong independent game on the scale of Heroclix. Dreamblade? I personally don't see it filling a niche that isn't already satisfied. While I hope that the World of Warcraft and BattleStar Galactica CCGs find a strong market, without them we're not left with a lot of potential for a breakout product. And with our existing products all reaching a certain maturity level, that will mean that we'll all need to be working a bit harder this year keeping excitement levels high. While board games have continued to show great sales gains, I'm not sure that they can make up for the slides in other areas that were recently documented in the ICv2 Retailers Guide to Games.
For our store we focused on looking for add-on products at this year's show and working more closely with some of our existing manufacturing partners. Accessories and spin-off games were our focus to expand on the edges of our current offerings. After all, with the development schedule of a new game we'll be lucky if we see any really significant new games until 2008 that address the needs of our current environment. So perhaps the greatest message sent by this year's GTS was 'learn to work with what you have.'
