Steve Jackson Games 2012 Stakeholder Report

Morrus · Feb 24, 2012

Steve Jackson Games (SJG) has published a stakeholder report online. The report defines the stakeholders as "our employees, our distributors and retailers, and, of course, the people who play our games . . . as well as the freelance artists and designers we work with, the printers who create the finished product, the volunteers who demonstrate our games at conventions and retail stores, and the folks who run game conventions."

I love this transparency, and hope to see more of it from RPG companies in the future. I also love the acknowledgement that customers are, indeed, stakeholders in a business ike this, and that keeping them informed (as opposed to keeping them publicized and advertised to) generates a good deal of goodwill.

The report covers a summary of the company's various product lines and their performance, their online store (e23), and priorities for 2012 which are:

Keep most of the core Munchkin sets in print. However, just to control our own inventory and the retailers', we will let some of the slower-moving core sets go out of print for a few months at a time. Munchkin Quest will also disappear from the shelves for a few months this summer to let the retailers sell all the current stock, because we're going to have to raise the price on the next printing.
Just like last year: ship several new Munchkin releases in a variety of formats (including digital); get Munchkin into new markets; promote Munchkin enthusiastically.
Very much like last year: Release more dice games, and possibly one or more small card games, or even "toylike" games, at low price points.
Clean out more of the old pipeline. Make Ogre 6th Edition happen.
Finish the upgrade of our website and online store. Make it excellent.

El Mahdi · Feb 24, 2012

I agree. I wish all RPG companies would do this also. Especially WotC and Paizo.

Thanks for the link/info.

Achan hiArusa · Feb 24, 2012

Ogre 6th edition! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Deuce Traveler · Feb 25, 2012

Woot for Ogre!

Nikosandros · Feb 25, 2012

El Mahdi said:
I agree. I wish all RPG companies would do this also. Especially WotC and Paizo.

Thanks for the link/info.

Indeed. I find all the secrecy that RPG companies typically shroud themselves into, rather ridiculous. I appreciate a lot what SJ does every year. As Morrus says, it generates a lot of good will.

IIRC, the guys at Evil Hat were also very open and forthcoming with their business numbers.

prosfilaes · Feb 25, 2012

El Mahdi said:
I agree. I wish all RPG companies would do this also.

Are they much of an RPG company anymore? The priorities for 2012 say nothing about RPGs, and the rest of the report says little more. Based on a couple lines in there, I assume they're going to continue releasing new GURPS stuff in PDF, but I'm tending to guess that they won't produce new GURPS hardbacks, and both PDF and print clearly fall under "Everything else is a non-priority, something to do if the priorities are under control."

El Mahdi · Feb 25, 2012

Well, D&D RPG products are far from the biggest thing at WotC. MtG far outstrips it, and read a Hasbro quarterly report and all you'll hear about from WotC is MtG...and practically nothing about D&D. Yet we still consider WotC an RPG company... So Yeah, I still consider Steve Jackson Games, among other things, an RPG company.

Steve Jackson Games report was the equivalent of what WotC would report to Hasbro. Except WotC and Hasbro won't publically release it. Steve Jackson not only releases general statements and future priorities, he releases where he thinks the company fell short, and provides hard numbers like profits. That's an awesome amount of transparency.

Now I don't hold it against WotC that they don't have the same transparency with their operations. That's their right. But I can still wish they would.