News Digest: International Tabletop Day, Fallout Comes to Miniature Gaming, Mensa Select Winenrs Announced, Financial Reports from the Industry, and more!
Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s news. International Tabletop Day news, Hasbro’s new crate service, a D&D Deckbuilder, Fallout comes to tabletop, Mensa Select games for 2017 announced, sales information for 2016 and Q1 2017 are in from some of the biggest game companies, and more!
International Tabletop Day is this Saturday, April 29. This year, over 1800 locations are participating from more than dozens of different countries around the world. Along with in-store events, there will be live streams from events and remote games on Twitch, YouTube, Beam, and other streaming services in order to help introduce new players to gaming or old players to new games. If your town is too small to have an independent game store but still large enough to have a Barnes & Noble location, you may want to check your local store. Barnes & Noble used their International Tabletop Day events to announce an expansion to the B&N Tabletop Gaming Meet-Up with more than 200 stores now participating. Like all the events worldwide, there will be special demos, giveaways, promotional cards, and much more and you’re encouraged to share your own videos with Geek & Sundry. ICv2 reports that not all the Barnes & Noble events are listed on the International Tabletop Day website or that some events are listed with different times, so please check with your location.
Hasbro will launch a “crate” subscription service for board games, Hasbro Gaming Crate. Starting this summer, Hasbro will offer the $49.99 quarterly subscription service for board and card games. Each quarter, subscribers will receive three new games in one of two different categories, “Family” or “Party”.
In a statement to Forbes, senior vice president of marketing for Hasbro Gaming said, “We’ve seen the subscription trend and how strong it has become outside our industry and we thought ‘Gamers are into their games and they want to try new games all the time’. It is a perfect marriage for the gaming company.”
While many outlets are reporting this as the “first tabletop gaming subscription service”, this is not entirely accurate as RPG Crate, Dungeon Crate, Mythoard, Board Game Bento, Game Box, and others have operated in this space previously since subscription services began gaining popularity.
Also announced this week is a licensing deal between Wizards of the Coast and Catalyst Game Labs for a new Dungeons & Dragons deckbuilding game. Catalyst Game Labs is best known for their Shadowrun and BattleTech projects, expanding into more board and card games the past few years with releases like The Duke, Vikings: The Board Game (Based on the History Channel TV show), and Shadowrun: Crossfire. The game design will be similar to Shadowrun: Crossfire as each player will take on the role of a party member by choosing a race and class, then upgrading their character’s equipment, spells, magic items, and more as the game progresses and they face challenges together in various Sword Coast locations. No release date has been announced yet, but the base game will have a retail price of $59.99.
These announcements come as Hasbro released its first quarter sales information. Though there was a decline in sales for Magic: The Gathering in Q1 2017, overall sales were up 2% with earnings up 41% against the same quarter last year with sales of $850 million and net earnings of $69 million. Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner stated during the conference call with shareholders that Dungeons & Dragons experienced “very strong growth”.
Asmodee also released their sales figures for the fiscal year of 2016. The original figures are in Euros as Asmodee is a European-based company, but I’ve converted to US Dollars for ease of comparison. Like Hasbro, Asmodee is reporting large growth with sales of over $400 million for the year, up 39.5%. Net earnings were also up 57.5% versus last year (listed as EBIDTA, or earnings before interest, depreciation, tax, and amortization) with earnings of almost $70 million. However, Asmodee also carries significant debt of $239 million. It’s unknown how much of this increase is due to Asmodee’s further acquisitions of a few European foreign language distributors, Catan Studios, and F2Z Entertainment with their assorted holdings.
Not all companies in the industry did so well in their filings. Steve Jackson Games posted in their Report to the Stakeholders on the fiscal year of 2016 that they had their second year in a row of declines. The main cause for the decline in sales is that two marquee games expected for release in 2016, Car Wars Sixth Edition and the Munchkin Collectible Card Game, were delayed for “our insistence on perfection”. Another large setback were the well-received but under-selling Discworld and Mars Attacks hardcover books for GURPS, leaving the impression “sales are no longer strong enough to make traditional distribution work for GURPS hardcovers”. Much is discussed in the posting, which I highly recommend reading if you’re interested in the ins and outs of the business. However, things should be looking up this year as Steve Jackson Games will be releasing the two delayed products in addition to Dungeon Fantasy, OGRE Miniature Set I, Munchkin Shakespeare, and other projects.
Modiphius announced Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, a skirmish miniature combat game based on the Fallout video games. The game will focus on combat between units ranging in size from 3 to 30 and include iconic scenery from the games. Also, Wasteland Warfare will have an entire narrative campaign arc and random missions with narrative objectives, using Caps recovered in missions to improve a unit’s Perks, Weapons, Gear, or other upgrades between encounters. A solo game with an AI deck to control enemies customizable to different factions will also be included, as well as Organized Play packs. The miniatures will be made of unpainted resin and be in the standard 32mm scale. Personally, I did not realize how much I needed a Nuka-Cola machine miniature in my life until I first saw the picture. The game will be released in November 2017, but no further details have been announced yet.
American Mensa Mind Games announced their winners for 2017 Mensa Select. This year, the selections are Amalgam from Simply Fun, Around the World in 80 Days from Iello, Clank! A Deck Building Adventure from Renegade Game Studios, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle from USAopoly, and Imagine from Gamewright. Games for the Mensa Select list each year are decided by judges based on their originality, gameplay, play value, aesthetics, and instructions. Mensa Select is among the longest-running honors for tabletop board and card games with the first games given this award in 1990.
This week’s Patreon spotlight is on Brian F’n Patterson and his webcomic, D20Monkey. D20 Monkey documents the comedy and drama that comes with being a roleplaying game player, with strong storytelling influences from creators like John Kovalic’s Dork Tower. Featuring long arcs with both in-character and out-of-character moments, this is one of my favorite webcomics out there. You may also recognize Brian’s work from the campaign setting Karthun: Lands of Conflict coming soon from Evil Hat Games. Backer rewards include exclusive comics, the Official Handbook of the d20Monkeyverse, custom social media avatars drawn by Brian, and more.
Eclipse Phase has always been a game way ahead of its time, and now it’s getting a second edition. The 2010 Origin Award and multiple ENnie award winning game is getting its first new core rulebook since its release, streamlining gameplay and character creation among across the board improvements to the product. Eclipse Phase puts you in the role of members of Firewall, a secret cross-faction organization that protects humanity from extinction threats. Or can we still be called “humanity” after the technological evolutions we’ve undergone? One of the if not the first transhumanist, post-cyberpunk roleplaying game from the minds of Rob Boyle, Jack Graham, and Adam Jury. The PDF is available for $20 (or $40 with stretch goals), $60 in print, or $75 for print and PDF bundle ($100 with digital stretch goals). This project is fully funded and runs until Wednesday, May 17.
Classic video game 7th Guest is becoming a board game from the original creator, Rob Landeros. Featuring the same logic puzzles, riddles, and word games you’d expect from the original 7th Guest and 11th Hour, this game will allow 2-6 players to compete to be the first to explore the mansion and locate the Little Room at the Top and solve the final puzzle. The core game will come with 300 different puzzles to solve allowing for a large replayability as you mix and match them. The game is available for a $65 pledge or for $105 to also get 7th Guest: The TV Series and $175 for a special limited edition of the game. This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, May 4.
Atlas Games is releasing the White Box ready to help you make your board game a reality. The box comes with a 128 page book full of essays on game design, production, playtesting, concept, and more, two punchboards of sheets (with generic markers or completely blank), 100 standard wooden cubes, 24 standard wooden meeples, 90 plastic discs, 8 dice, and more to help you customize your prototype and start designing your own game. You can get an ebook of just the book of essays in PDF, Epub, and Kindle format for $8, or the White Box itself for $30. This project is fully funded and runs until Wednesday, May 17.
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming news at the EN World News Network website, and don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you even more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I’ve somehow managed to gain the attention of RC Cola over a joke, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s news. International Tabletop Day news, Hasbro’s new crate service, a D&D Deckbuilder, Fallout comes to tabletop, Mensa Select games for 2017 announced, sales information for 2016 and Q1 2017 are in from some of the biggest game companies, and more!
International Tabletop Day is this Saturday, April 29. This year, over 1800 locations are participating from more than dozens of different countries around the world. Along with in-store events, there will be live streams from events and remote games on Twitch, YouTube, Beam, and other streaming services in order to help introduce new players to gaming or old players to new games. If your town is too small to have an independent game store but still large enough to have a Barnes & Noble location, you may want to check your local store. Barnes & Noble used their International Tabletop Day events to announce an expansion to the B&N Tabletop Gaming Meet-Up with more than 200 stores now participating. Like all the events worldwide, there will be special demos, giveaways, promotional cards, and much more and you’re encouraged to share your own videos with Geek & Sundry. ICv2 reports that not all the Barnes & Noble events are listed on the International Tabletop Day website or that some events are listed with different times, so please check with your location.
Hasbro will launch a “crate” subscription service for board games, Hasbro Gaming Crate. Starting this summer, Hasbro will offer the $49.99 quarterly subscription service for board and card games. Each quarter, subscribers will receive three new games in one of two different categories, “Family” or “Party”.
In a statement to Forbes, senior vice president of marketing for Hasbro Gaming said, “We’ve seen the subscription trend and how strong it has become outside our industry and we thought ‘Gamers are into their games and they want to try new games all the time’. It is a perfect marriage for the gaming company.”
While many outlets are reporting this as the “first tabletop gaming subscription service”, this is not entirely accurate as RPG Crate, Dungeon Crate, Mythoard, Board Game Bento, Game Box, and others have operated in this space previously since subscription services began gaining popularity.
Also announced this week is a licensing deal between Wizards of the Coast and Catalyst Game Labs for a new Dungeons & Dragons deckbuilding game. Catalyst Game Labs is best known for their Shadowrun and BattleTech projects, expanding into more board and card games the past few years with releases like The Duke, Vikings: The Board Game (Based on the History Channel TV show), and Shadowrun: Crossfire. The game design will be similar to Shadowrun: Crossfire as each player will take on the role of a party member by choosing a race and class, then upgrading their character’s equipment, spells, magic items, and more as the game progresses and they face challenges together in various Sword Coast locations. No release date has been announced yet, but the base game will have a retail price of $59.99.
These announcements come as Hasbro released its first quarter sales information. Though there was a decline in sales for Magic: The Gathering in Q1 2017, overall sales were up 2% with earnings up 41% against the same quarter last year with sales of $850 million and net earnings of $69 million. Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner stated during the conference call with shareholders that Dungeons & Dragons experienced “very strong growth”.
Asmodee also released their sales figures for the fiscal year of 2016. The original figures are in Euros as Asmodee is a European-based company, but I’ve converted to US Dollars for ease of comparison. Like Hasbro, Asmodee is reporting large growth with sales of over $400 million for the year, up 39.5%. Net earnings were also up 57.5% versus last year (listed as EBIDTA, or earnings before interest, depreciation, tax, and amortization) with earnings of almost $70 million. However, Asmodee also carries significant debt of $239 million. It’s unknown how much of this increase is due to Asmodee’s further acquisitions of a few European foreign language distributors, Catan Studios, and F2Z Entertainment with their assorted holdings.
Not all companies in the industry did so well in their filings. Steve Jackson Games posted in their Report to the Stakeholders on the fiscal year of 2016 that they had their second year in a row of declines. The main cause for the decline in sales is that two marquee games expected for release in 2016, Car Wars Sixth Edition and the Munchkin Collectible Card Game, were delayed for “our insistence on perfection”. Another large setback were the well-received but under-selling Discworld and Mars Attacks hardcover books for GURPS, leaving the impression “sales are no longer strong enough to make traditional distribution work for GURPS hardcovers”. Much is discussed in the posting, which I highly recommend reading if you’re interested in the ins and outs of the business. However, things should be looking up this year as Steve Jackson Games will be releasing the two delayed products in addition to Dungeon Fantasy, OGRE Miniature Set I, Munchkin Shakespeare, and other projects.
Modiphius announced Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, a skirmish miniature combat game based on the Fallout video games. The game will focus on combat between units ranging in size from 3 to 30 and include iconic scenery from the games. Also, Wasteland Warfare will have an entire narrative campaign arc and random missions with narrative objectives, using Caps recovered in missions to improve a unit’s Perks, Weapons, Gear, or other upgrades between encounters. A solo game with an AI deck to control enemies customizable to different factions will also be included, as well as Organized Play packs. The miniatures will be made of unpainted resin and be in the standard 32mm scale. Personally, I did not realize how much I needed a Nuka-Cola machine miniature in my life until I first saw the picture. The game will be released in November 2017, but no further details have been announced yet.
American Mensa Mind Games announced their winners for 2017 Mensa Select. This year, the selections are Amalgam from Simply Fun, Around the World in 80 Days from Iello, Clank! A Deck Building Adventure from Renegade Game Studios, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle from USAopoly, and Imagine from Gamewright. Games for the Mensa Select list each year are decided by judges based on their originality, gameplay, play value, aesthetics, and instructions. Mensa Select is among the longest-running honors for tabletop board and card games with the first games given this award in 1990.
This week’s Patreon spotlight is on Brian F’n Patterson and his webcomic, D20Monkey. D20 Monkey documents the comedy and drama that comes with being a roleplaying game player, with strong storytelling influences from creators like John Kovalic’s Dork Tower. Featuring long arcs with both in-character and out-of-character moments, this is one of my favorite webcomics out there. You may also recognize Brian’s work from the campaign setting Karthun: Lands of Conflict coming soon from Evil Hat Games. Backer rewards include exclusive comics, the Official Handbook of the d20Monkeyverse, custom social media avatars drawn by Brian, and more.
Eclipse Phase has always been a game way ahead of its time, and now it’s getting a second edition. The 2010 Origin Award and multiple ENnie award winning game is getting its first new core rulebook since its release, streamlining gameplay and character creation among across the board improvements to the product. Eclipse Phase puts you in the role of members of Firewall, a secret cross-faction organization that protects humanity from extinction threats. Or can we still be called “humanity” after the technological evolutions we’ve undergone? One of the if not the first transhumanist, post-cyberpunk roleplaying game from the minds of Rob Boyle, Jack Graham, and Adam Jury. The PDF is available for $20 (or $40 with stretch goals), $60 in print, or $75 for print and PDF bundle ($100 with digital stretch goals). This project is fully funded and runs until Wednesday, May 17.
Classic video game 7th Guest is becoming a board game from the original creator, Rob Landeros. Featuring the same logic puzzles, riddles, and word games you’d expect from the original 7th Guest and 11th Hour, this game will allow 2-6 players to compete to be the first to explore the mansion and locate the Little Room at the Top and solve the final puzzle. The core game will come with 300 different puzzles to solve allowing for a large replayability as you mix and match them. The game is available for a $65 pledge or for $105 to also get 7th Guest: The TV Series and $175 for a special limited edition of the game. This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, May 4.
Atlas Games is releasing the White Box ready to help you make your board game a reality. The box comes with a 128 page book full of essays on game design, production, playtesting, concept, and more, two punchboards of sheets (with generic markers or completely blank), 100 standard wooden cubes, 24 standard wooden meeples, 90 plastic discs, 8 dice, and more to help you customize your prototype and start designing your own game. You can get an ebook of just the book of essays in PDF, Epub, and Kindle format for $8, or the White Box itself for $30. This project is fully funded and runs until Wednesday, May 17.
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming news at the EN World News Network website, and don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you even more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I’ve somehow managed to gain the attention of RC Cola over a joke, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
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