FFG wants to charge gaming stores to advertise

I was pretty incredulous about this claim, until I read this:

www.gamethyme.com/2010/10/fantasy-flight...s-and-um-im-not.html

Basically, FFG have a cool new dynamic ad-delivery system which is basically an iPad in a cabinet which they want to put in game stores to advertise their product. Cool idea. The bit where it becomes less cool is that FFG want the store owner to pay *them* for *their own advertising* ... plus there's no guaranteed delivery time or insurance if the cabinet gets damaged.

I found this pretty worrying. Not because I own a game shop, but because it seems incredibly arrogant to think that shop owners are going to pony up under these unfair terms to actually carry FFG's advertising for them. It smacks to me of a company which is possibly getting too big for its boots ...

Another nail in the alleged coffin of the FLGS. Any retailer going along with this must be really stupid. They could buy an iPad and internet access for less...

MattDP wrote:

I was pretty incredulous about this claim, until I read this:

www.gamethyme.com/2010/10/fantasy-flight...s-and-um-im-not.html

Basically, FFG have a cool new dynamic ad-delivery system which is basically an iPad in a cabinet which they want to put in game stores to advertise their product. Cool idea. The bit where it becomes less cool is that FFG want the store owner to pay *them* for *their own advertising* ... plus there's no guaranteed delivery time or insurance if the cabinet gets damaged.

I found this pretty worrying. Not because I own a game shop, but because it seems incredibly arrogant to think that shop owners are going to pony up under these unfair terms to actually carry FFG's advertising for them. It smacks to me of a company which is possibly getting too big for its boots ...

According to your link, the stores do not pay for it.

The stores must have $1000 worth of product. This is fair enough, why would such an expensive device be sent to a store which only sells a few of their games?

The only cost to the store is Wi-Fi. Fair enough, stores that big would normally have it anyway, and I think it's a little unreasonable to expect FFG to pay for your internet.

The recording of people and volume thing basically sounds like bllshit to me. I doubt they would ever get implimented. I'm guessing these are just cover-your-asses clause.

Paying for damage/stolen units - shouldn't a stores insurance cover that? If FFG were covering that store owners themselves would be knocking the things off for a free ipad.

Overall I don't see the stores getting a bum rush at all. If they don't like it, just don't take it, simple.

That being said I can't see these devices being worth the time and money invested in them by FFG, unless FFG games start getting into mainstream stores.

Skeletors right about everything but the insurance. The deductable would most likely be more thatn the cost of a new ipad, and if these things are as fragile as iphones (at least one out of every 3 iphone owners I know either have a cracked screen or have bought a replacement due to the same) then they could be broken in a week. If it's stolen, then the store owner should be on the hook, but not if it's broken during shipping or everyday use.

If I was FFG I'd be sending these to Toys R Us and Walmart for free, along with a sampling of games to sell on some kind of consignment basis. It seems like it'd be a great sales tool. Assuming these tyes of places would deal with them and not a big distro.

I'm with Skeletor. They're not charging them to advertise. That is a horseshit claim that reeks of internet outrage. They just have to have 1000$ of FFG inventory/restock sell that much of their product to qualify. Is that really that hard for any decent sized store to sell through a decent amount of product from one of the gaming big guns? Honest question. The article says this is probably a pallet of games. But isn't this really intended only for big stores anyway? Not seeing how this is unfair.

As for the replacement thing, I don't know about that. Maybe that is lame? I don't know.

Seriously? How hard is it to order $1K from them? That's for example only 10 big box games out of their 6 different ones or so, hardly any inventory for a good self-respecting store.

And I really don't see how this could crack like the iphone screens. Iphones are carried around in back pockets or coat pockets without protective gear, get sit on, dropped, etc. This is just like a fucking tv screen sitting on a shelf. How are you going to wear it down and break it unless you drop it?

I also think that's a fair deal by FFG. It probably won't help the dying FLGS who make almost no turnover, but those can't be helped anyway.

I also totally get the replacement cost. It's probably still less than or equal to what FFG pays for the iPad + modification. The cost is just there to discourage people from taking up on this offer to get a cheap iPad. And if someone manages to get that thing stolen from their store, then I guess a lot of other items can be nicked from them to begin with.

Columbob wrote:

Seriously? How hard is it to order $1K from them? That's for example only 10 big box games out of their 6 different ones or so, hardly any inventory for a good self-respecting store.

I guess it's double that because retail price doesn't equal acquisition cost.

Columbob wrote:

This is just like a fucking tv screen sitting on a shelf. How are you going to wear it down and break it unless you drop it?

Except this TV has an incredibly sensitive touch screen that's going to be used by a shit ton of people, many of them children, who aren't going to be nearly as gentle with it as someone who owns it. Again, if it's stolen, the store should eat the cost, but I would never have a sensitive touch screen device prominently displayed in my store for any and all to touch if I was going to be held responsible for it being damaged. The other terms are more than reasonable. Like I said, it looks like it could be an excellent sales tool.

If it's $1k retail, that's still a BIG amount of FFG product to order. If it's $1k wholesale, forget about it. It's easy to say "that's just ten big boxes", but the fact of the matter is that most stores don't carry ten of any of the big boxes. When DESCENT/WORLD OF WARCRAFT/TI3 were new, I might have 10-15 on hand. But once they hit backcatalouge, I may have one of each on hand. $1k is a ton of money for a small to medium sized store to invest in one company's product line. The real cost of this thing is having capital tied up in FFG titles that may or may not sell. And sorry, but most folks walking into a game store already know about FFG games and which ones are worth buying. A magical touch screen is not going to change that.

It is a fair deal on paper, it's just one that doesn't make any sense for most retailers and it seems like FFG is out of touch with what goes on at the retail level. It does smell like a "look how big we are, we can send you an iPad" thing.

It actually seems like a reasonable model. The $649.00 is basically replacement price for an Ipad, and 20-30 copies of one of their new releases is not vastly out of line if is a healthy store.

The odd part is Wifi. I have NEVER seen a game store that had wifi. Internet connections are at least commonplace enough now, however.

Agreed, ubarose. This seems to be a start to trying to get a presence in some mass market stores. Though I dont know if the with sound bit will work for B+N.

ubarose wrote:

I expect that this was designed with Barnes & Nobel. Most of them have significantly expanded their games section and are now carring a lot of FFG product. B&N already have high tech gadgets in their stores for listening to CDs, or checking out their Kindle type device. Plus, their staff aren't particularly knowledgeable regarding games.

I think Uba's on to something. My local B+N has never carried much in the way of games (I just laugh at the annual sale announcements, since you can't clearance what you've never stocked).

However, I was in there a couple of weeks ago and the store was completely rearranged, with four new aisles of games, including many of the FFG catalog, and an upstairs section of four or five aisles of "smart-kid toys". They're clearly going through a big shift in marketing, diversifying from books into "not stupid? you might like these other things!"

Considering this B+N now probably has more FFG stock than either of the two local game stores, FFG may not be as crazy as they look. Extending the same terms to their regular FLGS customers is probably an afterthought if they're rolling them into B+Ns across the country.

Not Sure wrote:

Considering this B+N now probably has more FFG stock than either of the two local game stores, FFG may not be as crazy as they look. Extending the same terms to their regular FLGS customers is probably an afterthought if they're rolling them into B+Ns across the country.

It may be more than an afterthought - it may be a way to say to FLGSs that FFG isn't forgetting about them by getting into bed with Barnes & Noble. Pure speculation but it could be a good move if true.

B&N's literature to stockholders is pretty clear about them wanting to diversify away from the book business. It seems to me they could have made this process much cheaper by just hosting the promotional material on standard hardware, but I'm not in the business so that may be naive.

S.