Another RPG company with financial difficulties

[Ghostwind]

Not very long ago, Guardians of Order went public about their financial woes. Now we have Hero Games doing the same (http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27395&page=1&pp=15). Add them to the long list of publishers who have scaled their releases schedule way back or stopped all together...

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Sigh. I liked Hero, too.

The RPG industry is simply very small. The "big" names would be considered feeble in almost any other market.

That's why it chaffs me when I see someone post some stuff about how more writers and publishers should do it for the love of the hobby. They already are! From a financial point of view, I'd much rather flip burgers in McDonalds than write for a game company.

Well, hopefully Hero will get back on track. Of course, D&D is becoming more Hero-ish with every verision, so we'll see.

 

[philreed]

And yet again, this is why people should support the companies they want to see stick around. Things are very bad right now.

 

[Ghostwind]

I don't think writers and publishers CAN do anymore. Writers are already paid so very little and many publishers aren't even paying them. The amount of money owed me by other publishers is ridiculous, but I also know that I will never see it now because the reality of the marketplace is that RPG sales are not improving. Oh, and to educate anyone who may feel like saying that writers are overpaid for what they do, many publishers are now only paying a flat sum or .01/word depending on the project and its size. Yeah, sad...

 

[MonsterMash]

Sad to hear, but not too surprising. RPGs are a small publishing sector and very vunerable to the overall economy as the products are definitely discretionary expenditure (unlike rent, food, petrol. etc).

 

[JoeGKushner]

It'll be interesting to see what happens from this point out.

Paper RPGs are a niche.

Computer ones are a fire and forget phase with sequels being built off of the top sellers.

Don't know what the solution is but the only way the trend is going to reverse is for the economy to pick up more and for publishers to find ways to grow the market or find things that tie into the games to lift up their RPG material. For example, movie rights, video games, card games, etc... Those things all have failure factors to, but when the hit big, they hit big. I still have friends who play Baldur's Gate.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Don't start writing their eulagy yet. They're just changing some strategies, not cleaning out their desks. They aren't going under, the long-term numbers aren't looking so good.

The short form is:

1. they're going to encourage people to buy directly from them, instead of encouraging them to buy from a FLGS

2. they're going to start producing more pdfs of their books

3. they're going to offer more package deals on the website store

 

[maddman75]

THe more I think about it and read various RPG industry/pricing threads, I think one of the biggest problems with the RPG industry is in the distribution chain. I don't think FLGS's are essential to gaming. Sorry, but I've gotten along without one for many years. In the old days I'd take a trip to the city to get books, now I order them online. Except for the basics of 3e and WW, those I can get at the mall. I think Hero may come out better for this change, and I don't think that they'll be the last company to do so.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

THe more I think about it and read various RPG industry/pricing threads, I think one of the biggest problems with the RPG industry is in the distribution chain. I don't think FLGS's are essential to gaming.

I agree, except there needs to be a way for people to get into gaming to begin with without having to seek it out online. But the mega-chain bookstores seem to be doing better with this all the time.

 

[GlassJaw]

except there needs to be a way for people to get into gaming to begin with without having to seek it out online

Well I think since the beginnings of D&D, the main method has been word of mouth. I would bet that it's a rare occurrence that someone decided to pick up a PHB from an advertisement alone. I would still consider video games introducing people to D&D a form of word of mouth.

Introducing people to the game and where they can buy books are two different things.

the only way the trend is going to reverse is for the economy to pick up

I think the economy has very little to do with the gaming industry. It's such a small and niche market. The economy has more of an effect on people buying houses and cars than it does on a few more books being sold.

If the RPG indudtry is doing so poorly, there aren't many solutions. Is it a bad business model? Not enough customers? No demand? Nature of the industry?