Do book delays hurt sales?

[J_D]

Decipher's Star Trek line died in a large part due to delays in releases. Books were listed as "Due in December 2003" that never saw the light of day. I know many people who got so frustrated with multiplicity of release delays the line that they gave up on it entirely.

Decipher's Lord of the Rings RPG (using the same Coda system that Star Trek uses) has suffered in the same way. By all appearances, Decipher is just letting their entire RPG product line sit and rot while they do nothing. My own guess is that they're putting their time into the card game stuff because the RPG's have too thin a profit margin.

What makes it worse is that the company is unresponsive and uncommunicative about what the problem is. I've read where people have sent messages and asked on the Decipher boards for well over a year what the problem is and if they get a reply at all, it's a brief and vaguely worded message that says absolutely nothing substantive.

At least most other companies are reasonably communicative about their delays. I had bought both the Star Trek and LOTR games, but I've had enough. I'll never buy another Decipher product again. {Expletive} them! I hope Paramount yanks the Star Trek license and gives it to someone else.

 

[Nightfall]

In one word, yes.

I speak from MUCH delay experience. Even from non RPG stuff, I know books that have been pushed back have hurt the chance for an audience. Course if it's improperly edited, not well written/rushed, doesn't do much either.

Delays suck. Quality is one thing, delayed quality without hype and/or advance notice, even worse.

 

[Janx]

I had into the Star Trek line when it was LUG. Thanks WotC for killing yet another game...

But on the note of does lateness hurt sales?

Yes.

Example, WizKids announces early this year a game for Lord of the Rings. Nevermind that all the movies are done. And that 2 other companies already have deals for RPGs, card games and war games. Within the last 3 months, they finally realized their folly and canceled the product idea. But that's a case of being late to the table.

In most industries (games, no exception) there's about 3 months from when a product comes out where the most money is made. Many companies further target those dates for the gap before their competitors product will likely hit the market, as well as hitting the holidays. So with those factors in mind you can be too late because:
competitor release similar product (decrease in sales)
missed holiday rush (missed opportunity for increased sales)
interest in topic languishes (Buffy is off the air, LotR movies are done)


Janx

 

[Staffan]

I had into the Star Trek line when it was LUG. Thanks WotC for killing yet another game...

From what I recall from an old interview with Peter Adkison over at Pyramid, it went more like this:
1. LUG is in economic trouble.
2. WOTC wants to buy them out, mainly because of the Star Trek license.
3. WOTC asks Paramount, "If we buy these guys, do we get to keep the Trek license?" Paramount says, "Sure," but no papers are signed to that effect.
4. WOTC buys LUG.
5. Someone in the Star Trek creative dept. gets wind of the deal, and says, "Star Trek RPG being done by the same people doing Star Wars RPG? Over my dead body!"
6. WOTC/LUG loses the Star Trek license.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

"Use the force Kirk. I mean Luke. Spock is that you? Sorry Yoda."

Just think of it...

TREK WARS... The Search for Episodes VI thru VIII

 

[SSquirrel]

What about non d20 books? Obviously, in the d20 market you can miss a window as books of similar topics come out in bunches. But other systems where the products come from only one company, do their delays hurt them? THe Buffy book Welcome to Sunnydale for instance is way late, like a year or so and from the talk people are still eagerly wnating it and the delay really hasn't had a huge negative effect.

Heh hasn't stopped Palladium from continuing publishing, especially RIFTS books. I love the setting but DAYUM, does Kevin SImbieda ever know how to delay a book.

Hagen