New Threats to FLGS? (BDG Blog)

The recent post by Gary over at Black Diamond Games is pretty interesting regarding the expansion of the board gaming hobby. I was wondering how all these games like 'Kid Ticket to Ride' and 'Oregon Trail' were showing up at Target and I'd never heard of 'em.

blackdiamondgames.blogspot.com/2016/08/m...arket-expansion.html

Totally agree. I called what they'd do, and they did it....they're protecting prices.

The game retailers need a trade group to represent them to ACD and others. I foresee lots of game stores dying off and Asmodee basically just selling to the largest survivors and selling everything else either online or at their own internal store. It's not like people are going to stop buying, and Kickstarter showed them that they can raise prices and nobody will bat an eye.

Ha ha! WTF, Target is "strongarming" publishers? Talk about bullshit hyperbole. I'm sure the "strongarming" goes something like this:

"Hi, I'm a Target toys and games segment buyer. We want to stock your game in thousands more stores than you are currently in and we want to pay you a dump truck full of money to make it exclusive. You stand to exponentially increase the sales of your game and get it in front of many people who would not otherwise see it."

"Where do I sign?"

Im sorry, but I've seen enough boo hoo from FLGS owners. There is nothing bad that comes from Target stocking "these games of ours". It increases exposure and it improves the public's perception of gaming. Ticket to Ride kids isn't for the hobby market anyway. And why would someone go out of their way to go to a shithole FLGS to buy it at full retail (or more) when it's there on a grocery shopping trip and there's a Cartwheel coupon for it? The words "Gaming community" mean zilch to most people, so pushing that old chestnut out there as a differentiator does not work in this case.

There will always be other, more niche hobby products- Target is not going to start carrying Pathfinder, Bolt Action, Vallejo, GMT, Kingdom Death. If you are a shop owner, figure out how to differentiate. It's not hard. The FLGS I go to has a big section of cosplay stuff on top of comics and collectibles, and they promote in store play heavily. None of which is available through ANA or Target.

Now, Asmodee's policies...that's strongarming.

But...but...but...Asmodee is going to protect the little guy!!!


*cough*BULLSHIT*cough*

Black Diamond Games is a good little game store, it's where I bought BattleLore 1st edition at full retail instead of a digned and dented War of the Ring for 50% ... sigh. Flying Colors Comics is just down the road too which is an excellent comic store.