Zev is leaving Z-Man Games!

I recall hearing about the end of the brick and morter, but fortunately in my area they seem to be stronger than ever. I can name at least 10 in the Austin metro area right off the top of my head (about half of which I've ever been to) and I'm sure there are others I'm unaware of. When I moved here about 16 years ago there were maybe three. Granted, this may not be an accurate sample for how the rest of the country is as we seem to have a fairly healthy economy.

There was a long time where I wasn't really going to game stores, except this one that specialized in wargames. I've moved out of that phase though so don't frequent as much. I have been visiting another one about once a month for my son to get his Pokemon on. That's an event game though.

Anyway, we can speculate what Asmodee's moves mean, but frank speaking Gary at Black Diamond Games has skin in the game and here's his take on the announcement.
blackdiamondgames.blogspot.com/2015/12/f...rket-tradecraft.html

To be honest, I was never a huge fan of the name "Fantasy Flight Games." That name was more evocative of elves and fairies than perhaps was suitable for their product line. But Asmodee is worse, because it sounds like a fake-French version of Asmodeus. I guess the name could be worse than Asmodee North America. They could have gone with Asmodee Northern United States.

I can certainly sympathize with Gary's perspective and I don't think the concept of getting people into the stores and developing relationship is as outdated as it may seem. When we were still regularly playing GW stuff, the store was the only place to play because they had the terrain and the space to do so. It absolutely helped create our community and I still have friends that I made at that store 17 years ago, even though none of us have pushed a model of 40K or WHFB across a table in years. Similarly, there's a local store here that hosts a boardgaming Meetup group every week and it's been consistently growing, to the point where it has spilled over from its Wednesday origins to regular Saturday and Sunday sessions, as well. I think there's still merit to the idea of meeting new people in a communal space that has very little to do with the idea of the "dark, dingy game store" and its associated trolls; in large part because the hobby HAS expanded and is no longer the exclusive province of the stereotypical neckbeards and their personal hygiene habits. OTOH, anecdotal evidence will get you coffee with $5 and there certainly have been nights that we've decided to play at someone's home because we could drink beer there and enjoy other comforts not readily available at a retail outlet.

By the same token, the overall plan does carry the impression of pissing into the wind. Online sales are not going away. Consequently, discounts are not going away, especially in the US, where the availability of disposable income shrinks as wage stagnation continues as it has since the late 70s. In contrast to that, boardgame prices have only increased. So I think there is some risk of slowing the growth of the hobby and/or watching the audience taper off or even begin to shrink because you're attempting to put the genie back in the bottle. Given the highly connected and social nature of both modern and gamer culture, there's also the risk of attaching negative trends to this new name. Not only will some object to the impression of the new corporate overlords of beloved brands, but if it accompanies the new diktat that creates higher prices, the suggested surge in Kickstarter will almost inevitably follow to some degree, as people begin to flee the big guy who now demands more for the same product. The rise in Kickstarter campaigns does not inherently aid either Asmodee or those B&Ms that it claims to want to protect. Quite the contrary.

It's a curious decision for a company that's been engaging in rampant expansion and, thus, presumably has a focus on quantity rather than margin, to suddenly try to restrict those sales to only approved outlets; thus working against the quantity approach. Something in their numbers must make them think that this is the route for them to take, but it's not apparent to me.

Well, like I said Jack, nothing sells games like giving folks a place to play them and people to play them with. There is definitely merit, and I get where Gary is coming from in that post- especially since he is running (at least what appears to be) a very successful B&M store. And I can tell you from direct experience, it SUCKS to have to compete on price with online retailers. I was doing this ten years ago, and it was fucking harsh. You've got to sell $50 games for $35, which means something you are supposed to be getting a $20 profit on you are getting $5 on. Which means you might need to sell four times as much to get the same profit on one game...for a game that you might only sell four copies of to begin with!

I think he also has a great point about the speculation and over-ordering. There's a reason why you see the "dumping"...because you have retailers that see the FFG logo and order 10 cases. Of Ventura, or Gearworld, or whatever that blimp game was. The result is that these junk products wind up selling quite literally for pennies on the dollar, and sometimes not that long after release. I _always_ see FFG titles on the daily sales...which aren't huge discounts, but those are a release valve for over-ordered product. Plain and simple. But they also contribute to devaluing product as a whole, which is where his point is the most valid.

But something that is not being expressed by Gary, or others, is how there is really only one kind of game that benefits from this model. Yep. A la carte, serial product lines with multiple SKUs. This does not benefit one-time purchase games AT ALL. If you're running an X-Wing tournament, everyone has to buy their own. If you're running a Settlers of Catan tournament, you only need one copy that someone may or may not even buy at that store. Games with leagues, organized play and so forth DEFINITELY benefit from locking out online, as Wizards of the Coast and GW will attest.

With that said, I would not be surprised at all to see FFG retooling its lines to focus more on these kinds of games- doubling down on X-Wing, Netrunner and possibly new lines. Because there is a lot more money to be made in them for FLGS, and by turn for them. But Asmodee and Days of Wonder have never really been in that market, so I'm not sure how they'll proceed. Probably a greater focus on expansions and developing titles that can sustain product lines rather than one-off purchases.

At my store, Magic and collectible/serial lines HUGELY outsold everything else and I am 100% certain you would hear that from any other B&M owner. Because the buying never ends, you get people "on the mill" and they continue to buy. I buy a copy of Tigris & Euphrates, I'm done. Next.

So I kind of think this is a longview take on how this will impact the business. The one-shots and such will go more to Kickstarter and smaller publishers. Asmodeeborg will leverage existing and upcoming properties to develop product lines that encourage store owners to buy in order to maintain a steady flow of popular merchandise. All of which supports this game shop-focused ecosystem, which I'm not sure most people buying and playing games really even want these days.

My understanding is that boardgames are BLOWING UP right now. It fits with my anecdotal facebook observations of friends that didn't give a shit about games but are now way into them, sometimes even complex ones (e.g. Armada). So, yeah, I'm with you Barnes and that's a great post---FLGS was not what got these people into games. Seeing these games in non-gamer hell locations, validated by their "normal" friends, and being able to order them on amazon is what got all these people into it.

I guess my recent decision to stop buying X-Wing stuff couldn't have come at a better time. And I'm also happy that I pretty much have everything from FFG that I could want. If any new stuff comes out that I may want, I'll definitely think long and hard about how much I need it instead of just purchasing it.

Msample wrote: Does Asmodee have a US based office ? If so, wonder if they are going to consolidate operations there.

I agree that this is a bad move. Esp given how much shelf space FFG gets in brick and mortar these days, why fuck with it right now ?

The ICv2 article says that FFG's offices in Roseville MN will be Asmodee North America business unit's HQ.
I'll be sad if/when the FFG logo comes off the buildings though.

Michael Barnes wrote: So Mr. Petersen comes out with this statement about supporting FLGS as a "third area" and so forth and effectively promoting retail locations not only as game sellers but also as _marketers_. Wizards of the Coast also does this exact same thing with Magic.

This comes up a lot and it's a position regular gamers, in addition to publishers, love to adopt. It's the same marketing pitch they use for Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer 40K. We like it because it gives us a little bit of a sense of relevance, doesn't it?

It's also bullshit. Get your game into mainstream stores and with real advertising. Exposure is needed to truly make the leap and nobody's FLGS has that kind of marketing power. You want to sell DnD, Magic, or X-Wing to the masses? Let's see the christmas ads, let's see the Amazon sales, and let's see real How to Play books that are written for and blind playtested by a 10-year old audience.

Six dozen RPG supplements, 400 unique miniatures or squads, X-Wing wave releases... It's all peanuts compared to your core game on even one out of every fifty kids' christmas lists.

If putting all these brands under one Asmodee roof gives them enough swing to pull some major marketing then that will be awesome for you, me, and every kid that has never heard of Fantasy Flight Games.


EDIT:

Michael Barnes wrote: Asmodeeborg will leverage existing and upcoming properties to develop product lines that encourage store owners to buy in order to maintain a steady flow of popular merchandise. All of which supports this game shop-focused ecosystem, which I'm not sure most people buying and playing games really even want these days.

That last line is what I'm saying.

I could care less about your FLGS. I live in a rural area. My FLGS is over an hour and a half away. I order online from Funagain, and once or twice a year when I'm in that part of the state I drop by and look at physical product and visit with the guy that ships my stuff. How does this anouncement affect them?

My LGS always charged above MSRP not below on board games. I suspect this is because they made most of their money through Magic:TG sales. So selling any other games was just a bonus.

Well, my recent efforts at trying to buy warhammer quest adventure card gem online showed me how fickle even online retailers are. I haven't tried to buy a game online in years. I haven't been buying games recently, and the one I did we're from amazon if I could get free shipping with prime. Trying to buy WHQAC I found that the online retailers I used to go to where gone. No more boards and bits, thought hammer, boulder games and the online/b&m store I used to go to in Utah were all out of business. It's pretty much just cool stuff inc, card haus and miniature market now.

The more I think about this, the less it jives with how I enjoy the hobby. I get why they want to do it, and I get why retailers want to do it. Take this quote from Gary's post:

"What will the consumer get out of this? Well, if you're just a get the thing at any price consumer, prices will return to normal, or more likely no more than 10-20% off MSRP as we discover the chinks in the Asmodee armor. On the plus side, I'm suddenly much more keen on running X-Wing and other events AND recommending such products when Asmodee Group games are not sold at cost online."

I could not give less of a shit about this. I hope I never have to set foot in another dank, stinky FLGS ever again. Fuck your X-wing tourney event or recommending things to your customers. So what I'm "getting" is higher prices significant sales. Yay.

I feel like we should leave this thread for Zev and open a new thread where everyone can say how they feel about Asmodee's North American logo.

Yeah, probably.

It's sad to see zen go. I guess my dream for pocket battles: Star Wars will never come to be now.

On the Zev front:

I am excited. I would love to see Zev reenter the business a company with his ownership again, that scouts out and innovates with boardgames. Pre-acquisition Z-man was an pretty outstanding business, they lost something when he moved out of the ownership role. And he took some serious chances on some things.