WOTC Store news

[KenM]

Wizards is shooting themshelves in the foot with this, IMO.

 

[Zaruthustran]

It makes total sense. Good move for them.

WotC stores are in malls. Malls are expensive. RPGs are low-volume; you don't get much dough from your expensive non-selling RPG stock that's cluttering up your very valuable mall-store retail space.

Gamers can still order game books from the Web, at a bigger discount than a WotC retail store. And while individual game store often run out of stock or have obscure items on "special order" only, the Web never, ever goes out of stock, and you can always find what you're looking for.

Good move on WotC's part, clearing all that third-party RPG stuff out and making room for higher-velocity items.

Like, say... this new miniature line we've been hearing about?

-z

 

[Assenpfeffer]

Pretty much what I think too. I think as soon as all the 3rd party material is sold off they will have the rest of the WOTC stuff sent back and close all the stores. There is no way that WOTC stuff alone can support a store. IMO

Eh? I fail to see how that could possibly be the case. WotC sales (which, remember, include Magic and Pokemon and whatever else they make in addition to RPGs) make up a great percentage of the sales of any game shop as it is.

Seems like a move direct to the bottom line to increase the amount of profitable stuff and decrease the now-huge quantity of crap in their store.

Furthermore, it's better for the independent FLGS, too - they've never been able to compete with WotC at the retail level for WotC products, and now they won't have to on other RPG lines. people looking for White Wolf and Palladium, as well as smaller publishers like GoO or ICE, will be more inclined to go to the FLGS for them instead of the mall.

I say good move all around. As for GW, they can go pound salt as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Gizzard]

As for GW, they can go pound salt as far as I'm concerned.

And I believe they have their own little "GW Only" stores to sell their stuff in anyway. They dont need to be in a "WotC Only" store. ;-)

Thats probably an interesting data point for the "you cant run a store on just WotC stuff" proponents; GW has been doing just that for years. Of course, they are looking for a smaller rate of return, they aren't trying to mass-market 40K etc into big retailers like Amazon etc. But, still, you can obviously run a niche business like a GW Store at a reasonable profit.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Furthermore, it's better for the independent FLGS, too - they've never been able to compete with WotC at the retail level for WotC products, and now they won't have to on other RPG lines. people looking for White Wolf and Palladium, as well as smaller publishers like GoO or ICE, will be more inclined to go to the FLGS for them instead of the mall.

They will likely loose all RPG buisness to the FLGS who in addition to the non-d20 stuff will also be the only suppliers of 3rd party d20 providers such as AEG, Mongoose, Fantasy Flight, SSS, etc. When I go shopping for RPG stuff I like to look through all the d20 stuff and normally find something of intrest. Given a choice between a WotC store with only WotC products and my LGS that has both WotC and other d20 products, guess where I am going. If they want to make space for more mall products, that is thier choice but they won't be a game store anymore.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

They will likely loose all RPG buisness to the FLGS who in addition to the non-d20 stuff will also be the only suppliers of 3rd party d20 providers such as AEG, Mongoose, Fantasy Flight, SSS, etc.

I doubt that very seriously. By its very nature, WotC store business comes form people who don't go to the FLGS. Many of their customers may not even know there is such a thing as an FLGS.

When I go shopping for RPG stuff I like to look through all the d20 stuff and normally find something of intrest. Given a choice between a WotC store with only WotC products and my LGS that has both WotC and other d20 products, guess where I am going. If they want to make space for more mall products, that is thier choice but they won't be a game store anymore. [/B]

Yes, I agree, but we are serious geeks and aren't representative of the general market.

Personally, I don't think they're much of a game store now. And even if WotC ends up out of the retail side of the business, I don't see that as something which will hurt the industry at all.

 

[qstor]

To be straight forward. I think it sucks...and smacks of a monopoly. If WOTC wants to support the dd20 license and role playing in general. the LEAST they can do is carry other products in their stores. I mean Kmart or Marshal Fields sells other companies and designers products why can't Hasbro! I don think I'll be shopping there at ALL. I've been using rpgshop (dot) com and I'll be using them more. They have the selection that I want and it's shipped right to my door.

Mike

 

[ced1106]

Good move on WotC's part, clearing all that third-party RPG stuff out and making room for higher-velocity items.

Found this interesting counter-argument on the RPGnet boards. -- W! ^O^

"My one boss thought it was bad, but not that bad 'til I explained to him the following (and it's a lesson "Mom & Pop" game stores need to remind themselves):

The 80/20 Principle applies -- roughly 20% of your customer base is responsible for 80% of your rpg sales. This customer tends to be "the collector." He may or not game much, but he's going to buy more then what he can possibly game. He's going to buy new systems, new releases, just to check out what's going on in the hobby. If there is internet buzz, he wants a copy. This is on top of his normal gaming purchases...

It's imperative that you win over and KEEP this customer. Losing this one or two of these customers will show surprising impact on your rpg sales over the course of a year. This customer is why you want to get the off-beat games you are not sure you'll sell...

By cutting out all but d20 ( and not even carrying the "wierd" d20 third-party releases ) WotC has cut out this brand of high-spending/high-profit customer.

Alot of "mom & pops" do this -- money's tight, hell nobody's asked for Little Fears or Engel, so I'm gonna pass. Quickly followed by "I will special order it if you want it," which is the death-knell line for a specialty store in this day and age of the internet. The high spend collector comes to your game store every week to be surprised, to pick up Mechanical Dreams and go "wow, I heard about this" and impulse buy it...

Aw hell, i'm rambling now -- whatever, I figure I quit after the xmas season anyway. Why work for a gamestore that stopped selling the games I really liked?"

Gonster

 

[Zaruthustran]

Found this interesting counter-argument on the RPGnet boards. -- W! ^O^

"My one boss thought it was bad, but not that bad 'til I explained to him the following (and it's a lesson "Mom & Pop" game stores need to remind themselves):

The 80/20 Principle applies -- roughly 20% of your customer base is responsible for 80% of your rpg sales. "

Gonster

Ironically, it can be argued that the 80/20 principle is exactly why WotC's decision *is* a good idea: 80% of sales come from 20% of the store's products--the WotC products.

Cutting the non-selling, non-wotc products allows the WotC store to focus on what sells.

-z, who realizes there is a limit to the 80/20 principle