Steve Jackson Games Releases Stakeholder Report for 2023

Steve Jackson Games released their annual Stakeholder Report for 2023. As is is privately owned by Steve Jackson, the company report to shareholders as a corporation would but still releases the annual report to the public as they consider their employees, business partners, and customers to all have a stake in the company.

In summary, Steve Jackson games had gross revenue of $3.5 million and posted a loss for the year. The company’s TTRPG offerings GURPS and The Fantasy Trip both fell under the “Ehhh” category for products with GURPS having no physical releases for the year and The Fantasy Trip still underperforming in sales. The big sellers for the company were Car Wars and Munchkin Digital. The only failure listed for the company involved delays on an unannounced product.

Big perfomers for the year were the board game Car Wars 6th Edition and the digital version of Munchkin from Dire Wolf Digital. Both the company’s big tabletop RPG lines were listed under “Ehhh”, with GURPS having no physical releases and only PDF and POD offerings while The Fantasy Trip not catching on in the wider market despite continuing to “please its fans”.

Staffing changes also impacted the company with new CEO, Managing Editor, and Marketing Directors joining the company and some key personnel leaving such as ex-CEO Phil Reed and ex-Chief Creative Officer Sam Mitschke. At the year end, the company had “30+ full-time staff including contractors, plus a few part-timers”.

The report also comments on the state of the industry, calling it a “golden age for gamers, with more variety and sheer volume than ever before”. This comes with challenges as distribution issues continue despite lowered shipping costs as printing and shipping costs haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Distribution issues meant schedules slipping with Q3 2023 releases not shipping until 2024 and retailers expressing difficulty getting product from distributors.

In summary, 2023 was a rebuilding year for Steve Jackson Games. Priorities for 2024 include ensuring the release schedule is met and “don’t get crazy about adding other things just because they would be neat”, designing a strong 2025 release schedule for new Munchkin products, and for the “Seekret Projekt” mentioned earlier as a “failure” for the company to be in shape for an announcement (not a release, just an announcement) by the end of the year.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I guess in the end TFT and GURPS are both exemplars of the "niche within a niche of a cottage industry" among RPGs, steeped in design ethos that date back decades. Fifteen years ago I still thought GURPS could take off if redone and represented the right way. Today....nope. It's core design is tailored to a really specific subset of the already specialized subset of gamers out there from a prior generation. It is a fascinating relic, one which I love, but the only way they could revive it today would not make it GURPS anymore. Cypher System, Savage Worlds and other systems tailored for "genre by book" takes (I suppose that includes PbtA and FATE systems) have subsumed the "generic system for all genres" corner of the modern market, recognizing an emphasis on versatility in story telling over mechanical verisimilitude.

Unfortunately this means there just ain't much left at SJG for me. I realized after reading this today I have barely visited their site at all in the last year.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Unfortunately this means there just ain't much left at SJG for me. I realized after reading this today I have barely visited their site at all in the last year.

I do fantasize about them releasing a third Suppressed Transmission book. Not sure if Hite has any more Pyramid articles for them to repackage, though.

 

[MGibster]

It's too bad that Steve Jackson is so tight fisted with the GURPS property. More licensing of the system, more support of third parties publishing supplements would have gone a long way towards keeps GURPS on something besides life support.

I say this as a fan of GURPS, but it's a product of a bygone era and those kinds of rules simply aren't in vogue these days. It's just not obvious to me that licensing the system or getting more support from third party publishers would have worked.

I guess in the end TFT and GURPS are both exemplars of the "niche within a niche of a cottage industry" among RPGs, steeped in design ethos that date back decades. Fifteen years ago I still thought GURPS could take off if redone and represented the right way.

These days that's especially true and doubly so for TFT. We're talking about that was in production from 1977-1983, so there wasn't a big chance for it to be popular today. But there was a time when GURPS would have been thought of as one of the big players in the RPG industry. If you walked into your typical game store in Dallas/Ft. Worth in 1991 you likely would have seen a whole shelf of GURPS books.

Things change, but I'm glad SJG was able to read which way the wind was blowing a pivot in a direction that allowed them to stay in business.

 

[Von Ether]

I do fantasize about them releasing a third Suppressed Transmission book. Not sure if Hite has any more Pyramid articles for them to repackage, though.

Now a days, you get your weekly hit of Hite from the Ken and Robin Talk about Stuff podcast.

Podcast « Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com

The more things change ...

 

[Wolfram stout]

I say this as a fan of GURPS, but it's a product of a bygone era and those kinds of rules simply aren't in vogue these days. It's just not obvious to me that licensing the system or getting more support from third party publishers would have worked.


These days that's especially true and doubly so for TFT. We're talking about that was in production from 1977-1983, so there wasn't a big chance for it to be popular today. But there was a time when GURPS would have been thought of as one of the big players in the RPG industry. If you walked into your typical game store in Dallas/Ft. Worth in 1991 you likely would have seen a whole shelf of GURPS books.

Things change, but I'm glad SJG was able to read which way the wind was blowing a pivot in a direction that allowed them to stay in business.

You ain't kidding. There was a time in my group during the late 80s to mid-90s that we would regularly get this conversation:

1: Lets start a new campaign
2: Cool, D&D or GURPS?

Having seen Steve J. at a panel at a Gen-Con around 1995ish, I am very glad he managed to last so long.

 

[Von Ether]

It is a fascinating relic, one which I love, but the only way they could revive it today would not make it GURPS anymore. Cypher System, Savage Worlds and other systems tailored for "genre by book" takes (I suppose that includes PbtA and FATE systems) have subsumed the "generic system for all genres" corner of the modern market, recognizing an emphasis on versatility in story telling over mechanical verisimilitude.

Evidently, I didn't run GURPS like most people did.

I ran a urban horror game with a marooned veritech pilot, psionic eco-terrorist, an Indiana Jones clone, and other odd balls and used only the first four pages with some add ons.

GURPS made me favor lizard folk who were more than just swamp gators on two feet and appreciate the bell curve.

It just boggles me how all the players who focus on character builds didn't keep GURPS and Hero alive.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Now a days, you get your weekly hit of Hite from the Ken and Robin Talk about Stuff podcast.

The guys get really testy when I try to wedge them onto my bookshelf, though.

 

[Argyle King]

I have some interest in TFT, but I'm not sure that I have a good grasp of what type of experience TFT is intended to provide. I'm not sure that the efforts to market the game have adequately explained what exactly I'm buying.

That being said, I've purchased a few of the maps, dice, and various other products.

I highly enjoy GURPS.

Recently, I've been ordering a lot of old 3rd Edition books via Amazon's print-on-demand service. I primarily pay 4th Edition, but many things from 3rd Edition can be used with little-to-no adjustments.

In particular the setting and genre books contain a lot of templates for creatures.

Most recently, I bought GURPS Dinosaurs. With minor adjustments to stats (to bring things in line with how G4E handles Strength differently), an added off-the-cuff breath weapon, and some flight... I have a bestiary of dragons without much work.

Before that, I picked up GURPS Japan. From that book, I did even less work to convert fantasy creatures from that book. The minor ST adjustments to bring things in line with G4E, can be done with minimal prep.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Digital Munchkin!???

Huh $10. Maybe.