Rough year for gaming

[Rapier]

POD at the store is Pay now, Walk out with product right now. no credit card, no computer, cash in hand, product in bag.

Plus there is the browse now and buy. You think you are interested in a book but aren't sure. You can go to your B&M and do a browse and buy.

Maybe without the B&M you never buy or don't buy for a period of time.

I just wish there was a good solution. I know...Steve has to travel the country with a suitcase full of books and stop at each of our homes for some dinner, a few cocktails and some shopping of Hero product.

Hmmm, Door-to-Door HeroSalesman?

[Rapier]

To me it's not a question of wait now or wait later, it's a question of spending five minutes surfing Amazon or driving down to the store in traffic to see if maybe they have the book I want.

And that just kills me. Even if you decide to call ahead and they say they have it...I've gotten there and the only copy they have looks like it got between my Uncle Jerry and Christmas dinner. *SHUDDER* Its ripped, tore and stained with missing pages and a slight funky odour as if someone ran a marathon with the book in their drawers. Yucko.

[taxboy4]

you guys shouldn't complain, try living in a country that has only 4 million people....most of the stuff i buy is via the net, also buy and download several supplements etc.

Thank God Hero ships for free to NZ

[ShinDangaioh]

My local comic shop(I get games though the Diamond catalog) is still around. However, it is not a comic or game store. It is a used book store and is a sideline to the owners' other jobs. They live over the store and it does tend to pay for heat and light for a home and have a little bit of profit.

[Peregrine]

but then you are back to the wait for it or get it now dilemma--Print on Demand from a company still, to the customer is pay, then wait.

POD at the store is Pay now, Walk out with product right now. no credit card, no computer, cash in hand, product in bag.

It seems that any POD sales effort would figure one-print displays of a lot of products, or at least cover sheets--widely show that you really do have the product there at the customers fingertips. But certainly POD won't make the game makers unhappy either.

Distributors however.....

Well, the distributors have made their own bed, as far as I am concerned. They can burn in it. That said, non-book gaming items will still need to be distributed somehow, though online sales work for them just as well.

As to the 'get it now' effect, I agree that many customers would want that. The question is, would their demand for it be sufficient to motivate game producers to work with local retailers and allow the retailers to do the PoD production on site, or would the producers 'withdraw' to online sales and do the PoD production work themselves? The former allows game producers to basically become electronic publishing shops, capable of distributing the production work across employee computers without regard to geographic location (Come back, Allen! All is well...) at the cost of lower revenues, because sales go through local retailers who will get their profit. The other alternative is for the producer to alos be the production shop, and require capital investement in a PoD system and the accompanying shipping capability - the latter of which many game companies already have, either in-house or outsourced.

Of course, the ultimate is when PoD becomes affordable for the end user, even at a specialty provider (Kinko's next big thing, if they are paying attention...). User gets the electronic template and takes it to a PoD shop for printing... Say, I think there's a business opportunity in that...

[incrdbil]

As to the 'get it now' effect, I agree that many customers would want that. The question is, would their demand for it be sufficient to motivate game producers to work with local retailers and allow the retailers to do the PoD production on site, or would the producers 'withdraw' to online sales and do the PoD production work themselves?

If you can answer that question reliably, there are many people ready to pay for it

[Blue]

The upside of gaming stores (aside from geek-networking), is being able to actually look at the product before you buy it.

The upsdie of online buying is being able to find the product, price compare, etc.

Gaming stores also expose you to games you've never heard of from companies you've never heard of.

An online manufacturer will generally only sell their own stuff; An online retailer might be more well-rounded.

And with online sales, you have to have someone home to receive the package (which is my trouble).

There's something fun about the weekly trek to the game store. If they go, I'll be sad. But mine seem pretty strong.

[GothKidSamurai]

The only local gaming shop here is also a comic shop. However, the way they make their money is CCGs. They'll go through nine boxes of Yu Gi Oh cards in a week.

[Old Man]

CCGs and Games Workshop crap seem to be mandatory for a game/comic store to stay in the black.

[GothKidSamurai]

CCGs and Games Workshop crap seem to be mandatory for a game/comic store to stay in the black.

Hey, I like Games Workshop stuff. If only I could afford it. And could paint worth anything.

[pinecone]

Hey, I like Games Workshop stuff. If only I could afford it. And could paint worth anything.

Dude as long as you're dreaming...dream about paying someone with artistic ability to paint it for you!

[John Desmarais]

I just wish there was a good solution. I know...Steve has to travel the country with a suitcase full of books and stop at each of our homes for some dinner, a few cocktails and some shopping of Hero product.

Hmmm, Door-to-Door HeroSalesman?

Well, he can come by for dinner - but's its pretty unlikely I'd buy any more Hero products that I already (I eventually by all of them).

[John Desmarais]

CCGs and Games Workshop crap seem to be mandatory for a game/comic store to stay in the black.

Hey, whatever pays the rent and lets the still stay operating.

[Peregrine]

CCGs and Games Workshop crap seem to be mandatory for a game/comic store to stay in the black.

That's the 'recurring sales' thing. Any retailer has to have something that regular customers buy regularly and often, and those products have the level of new product flow that produces recurring purchases.

[Super Squirrel]

Most of the companies which went out of business were small d20/OGL companies trying to make a name for themselves. Some of the mid-sized companies which experienced near-shutdown difficulty include GOO, Decipher, and AEG. The reasons for their difficulties are all varied though. GOO supposedly suffered from the exchange rate. Decipher never really managed to get the fans to embrace their licenses. AEG seems to be more focused on other games now.

There are a lot of small to mid-sized companies [like DOJ] which are still struggling and probably will not see the light of day come 2007. A lot of that has to do with the fact that FLGS are disappearing as well. I have seen differing quotes saying that up to 30% of the FLGS have closed over the last couple of years. Less avenues to reach the buying public coupled with FLGS owners also feeling the financial pinch and so stocking less merchandise has also led to decreased sales for many of these smaller companies.

Funny, in Asheville two more opened up in 2005. I won't have anything to do with them but I find it odd that they are down elsewhere but opening up more here.