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Message: <blockquote data-quote="OnyxPharaoh" data-source="post: 5444274" data-attributes="member: 6669063">Finance in the gaming industryI feel your pain. I have been an avid gamer for many decades now and the dream of running my own game publishing company has been a motivator for some time. However, one thing I have noticed after decades of gaming is that publishing is a very difficult business to break into. The costs associated with the print and distribution are phenomal. Sadly, the games that had the most promise were also the most underfunded. The capital simply went dry before the games could really take off.  I think the sad truth is that the best games had excellent designers behind them but noone who knew how to properly run a business and turn a sustainable profit. I have to assume that the reason some companies fail and others succeed is because of the entreprenurial geniuses working behind the scenes.  As a major in Finance one thing I know for certain is that with the rare exception, all roleplaying game manufacturers are closely held private companies. While this is good from a creative standpoint it leaves financial information on the health of these firms in the dark. Major publicly held corporations have to provide quarterly and annual statements to the SEC providing relevant business data for the period in which they are reporting. This provides an excellent opportunity to examine what a company is or isn't doing to be successful. With the exception of Hasbro I have been hard pressed to find any game producer that has released any sort of economic data. And even in the case of Hasbro there is no way to separate the WOTC division's earnings from that of the rest of the company. So even in this best of cases, we are still in the dark. I am however confident that a profitable role playing game company with the right mix of creativity and financial engineering could be exceptionally successful. In truth, the only thing protecting the market share of the industry leaders is brand recognition and global distribution. With modern technology there are ways to overcome both of these advantages. The trick is to keep your firm profitable enough to survive those growing years with proper diversification and a good debt/equity mix.</blockquote>

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