Today, I had a chance to visit for the first and last time a game store called "gamer's world" here in montreal. It was making a closing sale where everything had between 30% and 50% rebate. This store sold boardgames, role playing games and video game.
A few weeks ago, my friend said that there was a serious drops of sale in the RPG market. He was designing RPG modules for some RPG system and I think he stopped because it seems that the RPG market is dying. His solution was that players should evolve to electronic distribution only. He even suggested that the character sheets and the board should all use electronic devices. Maybe one day it will be possible.
Now you might be asking why I exposed the 2 events above, well I seriously think that things are changing and the business model will have to change. I would not be surprise if giants in the RPG game industry dissapears. For board games it is less a threat since people still need physical components to play while for an RPG, a PDF book does pretty well the job. Still, it's just a matter of time until we get a flashable electronic board game, at a reasonable price and buy all our games electronically.
One of the problem is that there is no strictly board game retailers. (at least not in montreal). Stores that sell board games also sell RPG, puzzles, miniatures, esoteric stuff or even books (games sold in library). If RPG game stores disappears well, stores that sell board games other than monopoly disappears too. So it makes games less accessible which could reduce board game sales.
Even in the video game industry, PC video games are disappearing off the shelves. They now all focus on electronic distribution via impulse, steam and other software management system.
What is the cause of all these changes:
The recession? That could be the first idea I can think of. People focus their money on important needs and does not have spare cash to buy games.
The electronic format? The new electronic material available which is much cheaper than the material in store could be another reason.
What could be the impact of such changes:
- Will the people play more the game they already have rather than buying new ones? Could it kill the "cult of the new"? Could it increase the number of variants?
- Will the publisher produce less games? Could it increase the quality of the game?
- Will Print and Play sales raise like crazy? Could it replace physical board games?
what do you think?
That is one idea that some people anticipate in the future. The print on demand idea. You buy the PDF, go to a printer and get the book. Or even, you have a distribution machine that print a book on demand.
This concept could be extended to board games as well. You could have board game factories where you bring your PDF and they print the game for you on the right card stock and supply the right plastic pieces.
So instead of producing and shipping over the world. You ship the PDF over the world and you produce it locally.
I am still happy to learn that some store are surviving pretty well from RPG sales.