Steve Jackson Games 2012 Stakeholder Report

[philreed]

I'm curious if that's true. If SJG split into SJ-RPG and SJ-nonRPG, could not SJ-RPG fund one full-time person and various freelancers like they have been? Perhaps there's some economy of scale with various things, but is GURPS really a leech on money in the system?

We're not currently interested in breaking any part of the company off into a separate company or division. It's all Steve Jackson Games, and it's all being run to Steve's standards.

 

[N'raac]

I'm curious if that's true. If SJG split into SJ-RPG and SJ-nonRPG, could not SJ-RPG fund one full-time person and various freelancers like they have been? Perhaps there's some economy of scale with various things, but is GURPS really a leech on money in the system?

I'm pretty sure that, if GURPS was losing money for SJG, they would not be producing it. They're a business. However, they're logically going to focus their energy and cash resources on the product(s) that generate the best returns first.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

Hardly a distant second, judging from the priority list it doesn't appear on. In the entire report, GURPS gets mentioned once. It feels like Basic D&D in the TSR days; some support, but at best apathy from above.

Ogre is not higher in priority than GURPS; it is listed due to its failure to come out. Same worh Ultracorps. Check out forum activity and e23 sales for a comparison between the non-Munchkin products; they weigh heavily on the GURPS side.

I can see your other points, but on this one, you seem to be using one point of evidence and ignoring the others.

Wildly successful? E23 makes a lot of raw information available to us (which I find deeply cool). According to my copy of Dungeon Fantasy 1, it was released Dec. 20, 2007; in 4 years, we've got 14 main books, a monster book and an adventure, ranging on a quick look from 20 pages to 64, and ranging from 1390 copies sold down to 293 copies sold. Admittedly, the top four have also been sold in unknown quantities as POD--roughly the print equivalent together of one 128 page book--but I'd hardly call that wildly successful in terms of sales or support.

In the RPG world, yes, that IS wildly successful for everyone but Wizards and Paizo. And at over 600 pages of material, that is a LOT of support, especially when you factor in that it ties to the other GURPS products.

 

[N'raac]

Wildly successful? E23 makes a lot of raw information available to us (which I find deeply cool). According to my copy of Dungeon Fantasy 1, it was released Dec. 20, 2007; in 4 years, we've got 14 main books, a monster book and an adventure, ranging on a quick look from 20 pages to 64, and ranging from 1390 copies sold down to 293 copies sold. Admittedly, the top four have also been sold in unknown quantities as POD--roughly the print equivalent together of one 128 page book--but I'd hardly call that wildly successful in terms of sales or support.

In the RPG world, yes, that IS wildly successful for everyone but Wizards and Paizo. And at over 600 pages of material, that is a LOT of support, especially when you factor in that it ties to the other GURPS products.

The fact that product sales from 293 to 1,390 is "wildly successful" is a sign of why RPG publishing is not a focus for a lot of gaming companies.

 

[Morrus]

The fact that product sales from 293 to 1,390 is "wildly successful" is a sign of why RPG publishing is not a focus for a lot of gaming companies.

Yeah, even I sell more than that, and I'd not characterise myself as wildly successful by any means.

 

[prosfilaes]

I can see your other points, but on this one, you seem to be using one point of evidence and ignoring the others.

The report before us has one off-hand mention of GURPS. It's hard to interpret that as the author of the report being concerned about GURPS--and when he's the sole owner, in some sense the company is not very concerned about GURPS.

In the RPG world, yes, that IS wildly successful for everyone but Wizards and Paizo. And at over 600 pages of material, that is a LOT of support, especially when you factor in that it ties to the other GURPS products.

In a year and half, Margaret Weis Productions put out 500 pages of material for Smallville. Over four years, they put out at least 600 pags of material for Serenity. Super Genius Games has produced The Genius Guide series with over 50 (small) books in the series for Pathfinder, as well as several other lines. There are a number of RPG companies that have produced lines with more than 600 pages of material over the last four years.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

The report before us has one off-hand mention of GURPS. It's hard to interpret that as the author of the report being concerned about GURPS--and when he's the sole owner, in some sense the company is not very concerned about GURPS.

I actually don't think you disagree with me — I clearly agree GURPS is a distant second — but you implied that there was some other product from SJG other than Munchkin ahead of GURPS. You gave no indication what that product is. The other two products in the report aren't even out yet, and don't support a full-time employee, being the owner's own projects.

In a year and half, Margaret Weis Productions put out 500 pages of material for Smallville. Over four years, they put out at least 600 pags of material for Serenity. Super Genius Games has produced The Genius Guide series with over 50 (small) books in the series for Pathfinder, as well as several other lines. There are a number of RPG companies that have produced lines with more than 600 pages of material over the last four years.

You're comparing apples and oranges. I was talking about a subline of a main line; you have the full GURPS line to add to those. If I want to add just Thaumatology and Low-Tech material to that I have another 600 or so pages. And the 800 pages of rules and spells from back in 2004 which are assumed as a base for DF aren't in that. For other sublines, there's about 100 pages of Action and about twice that of Monster Hunters, over 300 of Spaceships ... all in the last 4 years. And I'm not counting stuff like Social Engineering or Fantasy Tech, which actually could be used with DF.