Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University. This week, Thorne addresses some comments on last week's column and good pricing for D&D Starter Sets.
We are midway through Gen Con as I write this column, so will hold off on comments on it until next week. Based on the feedback I've received from last week's column (see "On the Future of ‘Magic: The Gathering’ and Hasbro"), which is admittedly based on a very tiny sample size, there is not a lot of enthusiasm for Wizards of the Coast's plan to target female players with sets focusing on K-pop and romantasy. The response from our female staff members was a side-eye, eye roll or snort, which does not bode well for targeting that part of the market.
Our store did see a lot of female customers come in for the Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy, but that was due to the sheer increase in numbers of customers coming in specifically for that set. Statisticians will tell you that, when you see an overall increase in sales of something, you can expect to see increases in demand among subgroups as well. Sales of Edge of Eternities have, not surprisingly, declined drastically from Final Fantasy numbers but the size of the subgroups buying the set has remained about the same.Speaking of Final Fantasy, we just received a restock of the Final Fantasy two-player Starter Kits. If WotC wants to get more new players into Magic, as opposed to reactivating lapsed players, Welcome Decks and Starter Sets are the best way to do so. The Foundations Beginner Box is a good product, but the size of the box is a bit intimidating to a player just starting out. The two-player starter is an easy sell to new players.I have lost track of the number of customers who have come in saying their friends are playing Magic, and "I want to get started." We show them the two-player starter and 90% of the time they walk out with one. We do make up our own starter decks and have them for sale in the store as well as Welcome Decks, but nothing beats having an officially branded product to hand them. If WotC wants to get new players into the Magic hobby, the best thing it can do is to keep a 2-player starter always available through distribution. If the company really wanted to recruit new players, it would put the decks out at a MSRP of $9.99 again, but given recent price increases over the past few years, I doubt that remains feasible. MSRP $19.99 is a perfectly fine price point for an introductory item.
Speaking of fine price points for an introductory item, $49.99 for the new Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands seems a bit steep. Granted, from the description, the set comes with a lot of stuff (see "Starter Set Incoming"); the number of items enclosed seems overwhelming for a beginner and $49.99 is a high entry point for someone interested but not committed to the game. The price points for the D&D Starter and D&D Essentials Sets offer far less perceived risk, and I estimate about 60 to 70% of those buying one of those sets come back for the books.What do you think? Is the point for the new D&D starter too high or about right given today's pricing? How about K-pop and romantasy as themes for Magic? Comments welcomed at castleperilousgames@gmail.com.The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
