Re: [HoE] Iron Oasis

[CrazyDan@aol.com]

I recall an article I read somewhere abouts a few months back that actually 
took a look at the actual amount of profit a game company makes from its 
books.  This isn't the industry to get rich in -- rather, it's probably one 
of the businesess that is farthest from.  There are mega-success stories 
(FASA, TSR, WoTC), but most companies subsist on a love of the games than on 
financial prosperity.  It's like the question of choosing to get paid 
substantially for a job you hate or getting just enough money it takes to get 
comfortably by and do a job you love.  That's what the gaming business is 
really about.

Getting back to the article...  Let's say Iron Oasis WAS a 30-dollar boxed 
set.  That's the price on retail store shelves, where many of the games that 
are sold are finally purchased.  Now when the store owner is ordering the 
game from the distributor, the price paid is generally half that of the 
retail price.  So Joe's Amazing Game Store orders one copy of Iron Oasis, and 
after it sits on their shelf for a bit, they make 15 dollars.  The retailers 
are maki the most amount of money off of this sale as they are not selling as 
much quantity, and it takes up valuable shelf space, which can be used to 
promote other products as well.  A game store on a slow day could make only a 
couple hundred dollars, which has to go towards the employment, rent, 
utilities, management, and not to mention the owner getting his fair share of 
the revenue to support his/her family.

Let's go to the distributor, Stan's Gaming Supply.  Stan agreed to buy 
several hundred copies of Iron Oasis directly from PEG once they were 
printed.  Again, there is about a 50% knock-down in price here from what the 
product will later be sold for, so now they're buying it for about 8$, 
roughly.  Distributors are consistenly getting orders at their warehouses, 
and space isn't as much of a concern, as unpopular titles can go sit in a far 
back corner for God-only-knows-how-long, and not get in the way of day-to-day 
operations.  More products move through the distributors, so they can afford 
to make less than the retailers per unit, but still come out ahead with gross 
profit.

The guys who make the least amount of money per unit then, would seem to be 
the manufacturer.  And they have to cover production costs, advertising, 
writers' artists' fees, and more expenses, depending on how complex their 
organization is.  It's kind of a rip-off, but that's how it works.  However, 
when you buy direct, that generally puts a nice chunk o' change in their 
pockets in comparison to the average sale.

So for $8, Pinnacle would have to make a book, which probably cost $3 to 
print and bind per copy alone, then figure in their other costs for the 
writers, artists, editors, etc.  Extras cost even more money.  Like maps.

Pinnacle has produced some nifty stuff in the past, but that was during their 
partnership with AEG.  They had a bit more financial leeway.  Now, they can't 
afford to lose the extra sales losses they might incur if they made it a 
boxed set.  Many people can't justify spending the extra 10 bucks when they 
can get another product cheaper.  And since PEG isn't getting any extra money 
to finance a nice full-color-pull-out-glossy map, they simply can't put one 
in.  I'm sure they'd love to, but would you risk your entire job and company 
to give some people "freebies?" (Not to mention that some of these people 
feel that such a thing would not be a gift, but rather it is entitled to 
them?)

They put cool free stuff online every once in a while.  Maybe they'll put it 
up.  Maybe it'll be a cool promotional little freebie they might have at 
GenCon.  Or maybe we could actually get into the spirit of the game and 
simply use our imaginations to craft our own visions of Junkyard?  Every game 
is a posse's own, and no two games will ever be alike.  Gaming isn't about 
precise city architecture, abiding by every rule in the book, or even about 
cool do-dads that come with a product... it's about getting together with a 
group and having fun.  So let's get some zen going on that then, eh?

Oh, and about that Templar-killing-Stone thing...  That's just --- woah... 0_o

"Crazy" Dan