[DL] Product Updates ( I feel a rant coming on...)

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

Well said - I think I'll cross post this to the DL list.

Reply-To: hoe@gamerz.net
From: Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>
 >It's a little more complicated than that. Okay, it's a LOT more complicated
 >than that.
 >
 >When an RPG company prints a particular product, they have to pay the
 >printer, the writers/artists/etc., as well as their own monthly fixed
 >costs... anyway, when they send a book to the printer it's something they
 >have to pay for right away, and given the razor-thin profit margins they
 >operate under, it usually means that unless they have cash in hand to
 >spend, they go into the red credit-wise.
 >
 >Once the book is printed, then they can sell it to distributors and try and
 >get back in the black again. In order to have any hope of getting back into
 >the black again, they generally have to sell the entire print run *really
 >quickly*... RPG companies generally try to print less than they think will
 >sell so that they aren't stuck holding unsold products in a warehouse,
 >which they have to pay taxes on. Plus, if an RPG book doesn't sell within
 >one week/month of when it was released, it generally doesn't get sold.
 >
 >Now a few years ago, it was a little simpler, the RPG companies shipped
 >everything to the distributor, got paid, and then went back to writing more
 >products. But this little thing called Magic: the Gathering came along and
 >completely changed how games distribution works. Some of the bigger changes
 >involved with how products are delivered and stored... due to the insane
 >demand/speculation for CCGs, the distributors couldn't get products out to
 >the retail stores fast enough. They were also ordering a LOT more CCGs than
 >RPGs, and putting much more emphasis on CCGs for preorders/advertising,
 >etc. Anyway, the distributors made changes so they could become leaner,
 >meaner CCG-distributing machines.
 >
 >Then interest in CCGs took a sharp dip, and the distributors were suddenly
 >stuck with *warehouses* full of unsold product and absolutely no way to get
 >rid of it... and they had to pay taxes on it, too, after it had been
 >sitting around too long, as well as all those unsold RPG products that no
 >one ever heard about because everyone was preordering CCGs. Some of them
 >sent these unsold products back to the manufacturers, who then had to find
 >some place to stick them and, of course, pay the taxes on them.
 >
 >Throw in a few mergers and the time it takes to integrate two businesses
 >that used to operate separately, and you've got a lot of RPG companies that
 >can't get products to their customers. Some of them start looking at taking
 >orders online and shipping direct to customers... which causes the retail
 >stores that haven't gone out of business by now to start SCREAMING foul at
 >the top of their lungs.
 >
 >Anyway, back to PEG... Shane sold PEG to Cybergames so that they could keep
 >an eye on the books. If PEG had gone into considerable debt to put out all
 >those wonderful products we enjoyed so much, then they might indeed have
 >told PEG to slow down their releases until they have the resources in place
 >to bring in more revenue. If you're putting out $100 worth of gaming
 >material a month and your target audience is only spending $50, then
 >problems start to show up in a hurry. Game stores now have $50 in unsold
 >products on their shelves, and they stop ordering PEG material from the
 >distributors. The distributors in turn stop buying PEG's new releases
 >because they've already got crates full of last month's that hasn't sold
 >yet... and they are NOT going to dedicate their warehouse space to product
 >that might not sell, they got way too burnt on that whole CCG thing.
 >
 >This is all bad guesswork on my part, but the way game distribution works
 >nowadays is just f***ed in the 'ead... and it could be even more
 >complicated than that. Cybergames probably has an entirely different
 >revenue structure than PEG, given their (supposed) online presence, and
 >they did go on a bit of a buying spree. Getting all those corporate
 >entities to work together may take a while.
 >
 >
 >
 >
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-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com
Deadlands fan site - http://www.darious.com/

Who ever heard of Casablanca? I don't want to star opposite some unknown 
Swedish broad.
                 -George Raft, on the role of Rick in Casablanca.