Steve Jackson Games 2005 report

[KenM]

Or unfair, but that is his expert opinion. Probably why he would not allow GURPS ruleset to be open source else it would invite aspiring but unqualified, incompetent publishers to flock to his system.

I have not played GURPS in awhile, not surte if this is true with the new edtion. But witht he 3rd edtion, SJ had as much as he could in real world mesurments, scales, ect. so people couild convert stuff easy.

 

[Krug]

Bring back Car Wars, that's what I say!

 

[qstor]

Thanks. That was an interesting read.

Yeah! I'm a fan of Munchkin and GURPS but haven't kept up on SJG news.

Mike

 

[Henry]

I do have to say that, given the volatile nature of the RPG market for the past 20 years, Steve Jackson has always had my respect, even if his opinions differed from mine. He's been in the business of RPG's only slightly less time than Gary Gygax, he's seen it all, he made his own company and had the moxie and good fortune to KEEP it under his ownership. That can't be said about the majority of people who've been in the business that long.

As for the report, I have no reason to take his figures at face value, but I have no reason to doubt them either. I'm impressed that Munchkin was so crucial to his success recently - I've known about it, but it's always been under my "must play" radar.

 

[Desdichado]

I do have to say that, given the volatile nature of the RPG market for the past 20 years, Steve Jackson has always had my respect, even if his opinions differed from mine. He's been in the business of RPG's only slightly less time than Gary Gygax, he's seen it all, he made his own company and had the moxie and good fortune to KEEP it under his ownership. That can't be said about the majority of people who've been in the business that long.

In spite of some pretty rocky moments, IIRC. Wasn't he the guy who had all those false charges of cyber-terrorism dropped on his doorstep by the FBI? I know all those were dropped, but did he ever recoup any of the losses caused by that fiasco? I never heard the final resolution of that whole affair.

As for the report, I have no reason to take his figures at face value, but I have no reason to doubt them either. I'm impressed that Munchkin was so crucial to his success recently - I've known about it, but it's always been under my "must play" radar.

I'm surprised by that trend in general as well. Seems Atlas makes most of their profit on Lunch Money which is in the same vein, somewhat. And FFG is big into board games and the like as well.

 

[MongooseMatt]

As for the report, I have no reason to take his figures at face value, but I have no reason to doubt them either.

Given what I know of SJG and our own turnover, the figures he gives seem very reasonable.

 

[Belen]

I can see his point. So many stores were burned by the glut that most barely keep track of RPGs at all. It was much easier when it was SJG, TSR, and WW. You could really tell the difference between books and systems.

Now the stores have D&D plus a messload of d20 companies producing stuff. They cannot possibly purchase everything these days and it can be extremely difficult to be knowledgeable about general RPGs. In most cases, unless the store is dedicated to RPGs as a primary source of income, then I think the d20 glut probably has severaly damaged the hobby.

 

[Storm Raven]

In spite of some pretty rocky moments, IIRC. Wasn't he the guy who had all those false charges of cyber-terrorism dropped on his doorstep by the FBI? I know all those were dropped, but did he ever recoup any of the losses caused by that fiasco? I never heard the final resolution of that whole affair.

The sjgames website has an entire page devoted to the secret service affair: http://www.sjgames.com/SS/