OgreCave

Fantasy Flight announces price increases

Allan Sugarbaker — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:24:48 +0000

It almost seemed inevitable, and now it has come to pass - Fantasy Flight Games just announced price increases for many of its product lines. Citing “energy, commodity, and labor prices” as the sources of “tremendous upward pressure on manufacturing pricing”, FFG plans to adjust its prices upward by 10%-25% as of November 1st. The higher prices will be applied to most FFG products - see the official price sheet here. The sold-out preorders of Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game will not be affected by the price increase and remain priced at $39.95, though the second and subsequent printings will carry a $49.95 price tag. At the same time, FFG will discontinue its policy of net pricing, allowing retail and distribution customers a larger discount on big orders. It’s hard to say if this will cause the company’s holiday season orders to take a downturn, since FFG still has the quality to make the price worthwhile. See the full press release below.

Fantasy Flight Games press release follows:

FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES TO INCREASE PRICES ON GAME PRODUCTS, ELIMINATE NET PRICING STRUCTURE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Roseville, MN, USA (September 5, 2008) Fantasy Flight Games (“FFG”) announced today that it will increase its suggested retail prices on a wide range of its products, while simultaneously eliminating the Net Pricing wholesale structure it has carried on select product lines. The price increases are broad reaching, aﬀecting most board game and card game SKUs with increases in the 10%-25% range.

“There has been tremendous upward pressure on manufacturing pricing during the last three years,” said FFG founder and CEO Christian T. Petersen. “FFG has for long fought extremely hard to create and retain maximum value in its products for the gaming audience. This is something that we’ll continue to do. However, with energy, commodity, and labor prices aﬀecting every stage of our our business, we now ﬁnd it necessary to make a rare correction,” he continued. “Even with the price increases that we announce here today, I still think that our customers will ﬁnd FFG products among the best values in the industry.”

Price changes on existing inventory items will take place on November 1st, 2008, while prices increases on upcoming new releases will take place with immediate eﬀect. A detailed list of new prices and their eﬀective date, has been made available on FFG’s website: www.fantasyﬂightgames.com and will be sent today to FFG’s retail and distributor customers.

Battlestar Galactica®: The Board Game, FFG’s most anticipated fourth quarter release, will retain its SRP of $39.95 for the ﬁrst wave of product (which is currently sold out on pre-orders, and scheduled to arrive in October), increasing to $49.95 for the second wave (scheduled for late November).

Simultaneous with the November 1st pricing increase, FFG will eliminate the net pricing structure it has maintained on select products such as War of the Ring® and StarCraft®: The Board Game, among others. As a result of this, FFG will then exclusively sell wholesale items to retailers and distributors on its standard discount-based structure.

John Grams, FFG’s Business Development Manager, noted “In conjunction with this necessary price correction, we have decided to simplify our pricing structure to the advantage of our retail customers. Just a short while ago, we eliminated Net Pricing on the Rackham product line, and today we’re pleased to eliminate Net Pricing at FFG entirely. With a single discount structure, our wholesale customers will now be able to look at any FFG product and know with
conﬁdence what their price will be.”

About Fantasy Flight Games
Located in Roseville, Minnesota, Fantasy Flight Games is a publisher of board, card, miniatures, and role-playing games. Since it was founded by its CEO Christian T. Petersen in 1995, Fantasy Flight has published hundreds of successful titles, including World of Warcraft: The Board Game, the Lord of the Rings series of board games; board and card games based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos and George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones, and many original board games such as Twilight Imperium, Runebound, and Descent: Journeys in the Dark. For more information, visit the Fantasy Flight Games website at www.fantasyﬂightgames.com.

Tell-all Morocco book spills secrets at Chaosium

Allan Sugarbaker — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:12:40 +0000

According to the dark overlords at Chaosium, the hot new ancient evil is about to pounce. Originally done as a Kinkos-style test product (aka “Monograph”), Secrets of Morocco for Call of Cthulhu has started filtering through distribution and should be in stores in a week or two. Now investigators can wander in a strange foreign land, visit Casablanca or Marrakech, even venture into the Sahara desert. (Actually, that last bit sounds extraordinarily dangerous, but hey, who am I to judge?) The book will also include info for use with Pulp Cthulhu, due later this year. Here’s hoping Cthulhu Invictus is the next Monograph to make the leap to a proper CoC supplement - the world needs more Roman Empire horror.

Paizo to publish Book of Experimental Might compilation

Allan Sugarbaker — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:43:56 +0000

Again with the smart moves: Paizo Publishing has plans to release a print version of Monte Cook’s Book of Experimental Might before the end of this year, according to a post today from the man himself. Previously only in print through Lulu’s POD, the new edition will combine BoEM volumes 1 and 2 into one book for sale at game stores everywhere. That’s right, Paizo’s actively supporting the products that will in turn end up complementing and supporting the Pathfinder RPG - or at least making more fans in the D&D 3.5 community.

WotC titles on final approach at Game Table Online

Allan Sugarbaker — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:41:07 +0000

Game Table Online has continued to roll out online versions of both classic and more recent tabletop game titles since getting started in 2001. Next week, it seems they plan to roll out their version of some well-known Wizards of the Coast titles: Acquire, Axis & Allies, Guillotine, Vegas Showdown, and one of my all-time favorites, RoboRally. You can’t go far wrong with a Richard Garfield classic in your lineup. By the end of September, GTO should also have Battle for Olympus from Dr. Reiner Knizia available for online play, and a version of 1960: The Making of the President (another great game) is in the works as well. I haven’t been by Game Table Online in a while - these titles have got me thinking I should change that.

Monty Python Fluxx coming in October

Allan Sugarbaker — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:25:06 +0000

Though the game’s arrival in stores is still a few weeks off, FluxxGames.com has a group of sample cards from Monty Python Fluxx, the latest evolution of Looney Labs’ exceptions-based card game. As I mentioned after looking through a prototype deck back at GTS this year, you can expect to see a fair bit of spam represented in the cards as well. We’ll let you know how the Creeper mechanic plays in the latest incarnation when it arrives next month.

Gamers: Dorkness Rising arrives at long last

Allan Sugarbaker — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:58:29 +0000

After screenings at San Diego ComicCon and Gen Con Indy, The Gamers: Dorkness Rising is finally ready for mass consumption. Dead Gentlemen Productions has been working on the highly anticipated sequel for quite a while now, so fans will be happy to know the DVD is available, complete with outtakes and behind the scenes features. Check out the trailer if you haven’t spied it yet, and take note of the site’s header art - that’s by Colin Adams, our resident illustrator here at OgreCave. Hire him or something.

Days of Wonder sells Battlelore to FFG

Allan Sugarbaker — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:42:36 +0000

No, I’m not joking: Fantasy Flight Games has arranged to purchase BattleLore from Days of Wonder, including all copyrights and existing backstock, to become the game’s new publisher. BattleLore fans shouldn’t worry, as the transfer of ownership includes the recently announced Troll Map expansion, and BattleLore creator Richard Borg has agreed to continue developing support products. Probably a good fit at FFG, which obviously still didn’t think it had enough to do. (Full press release below)

Days of Wonder press release follows:

Days of Wonder and Fantasy Flight Games announce agreement on the BattleLore Board Game and Game System

FFG to acquire all rights, existing inventory and future development for fantasy game system

Los Altos, CA; Roseville MN - August 21, 2008. Days of Wonder (DOW) and Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) today announced that they have reached a comprehensive agreement for FFG to acquire all worldwide rights to, and become the sole publisher of, the BattleLore game system. In addition to all copyrights, game artwork and the moulds to reproduce existing figures, FFG will also purchase all remaining unsold inventory for the original BattleLore game, its expansions and the recently announced Troll Map expansion. Transfer of the game is expected to be completed by the end of September 2008.

Richard Borg, BattleLore’s author, has also agreed to support and develop additional expansions for FFG. DOW retains all rights to its other Command and Colors title, Memoir ‘44, and will continue to publish and develop additional expansions for this game, also created by Borg.

“BattleLore is as perfect a fit for FFG as could possibly exist in the marketplace,” said Christian T. Petersen, CEO and founder of FFG. “Needless to say we’re very excited and proud to include this power title and brand into FFG’s family of products. Previous to today, FFG had no fantasy ‘battlefield’ game, a void which we now can fill with this gorgeous industry leader. We plan to support this game vigorously. Even in the very first discussion with Eric and Richard about this deal, there was a flood of exciting ideas for how FFG can expand this game, serve its community, and move the brand of ‘BattleLore’ forward under the FFG banner.”

“With its strong resources and superb track record in developing fantasy titles, FFG is the perfect partner to take the BattleLore game system to the next level in gaming. As fans of the game ourselves, we are confident it will be in great hands”, said Days of Wonder CEO, Eric Hautemont. “This agreement now allows us to focus our resources on providing even more support for the other games in our portfolio as well as successfully launching yet-to-be-announced new games.”

“I am delighted with the opportunity to see BattleLore gain a second life at Fantasy Flight, and look forward to partnering with them as we continue to develop and expand the BattleLore system,” said BattleLore author, Richard Borg.

About Days of Wonder

Days of Wonder publishes top-quality, family-oriented board and card games that are easy to learn and fun to play. Founded in 2002, Days of Wonder has a global presence, with offices in the US and Europe, and distribution in 25 countries. To date, the company has sold over 1.4 million games and hosted over 12 million games online. In June 2004, Days of Wonder became the youngest publisher ever to win Germany’s prestigious Spiel des Jahres, the world’s most coveted game prize. For more information, visit their website at www.daysofwonder.com.

About Fantasy Flight Games

Roseville, Minnesota’s Fantasy Flight Games is a publisher of board, card, and role-playing games. Founded by Christian T. Petersen in 1995, Fantasy Flight has published many titles, including World of Warcraft: the Board Game, The Lord of the Rings series of board games; board and card games based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos and George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones, and many original board games such as Twilight Imperium and Runebound. For more information, visit the Fantasy Flight Games website at www.fantasyflightgames.com. Battlelore, and the FFG logo are trademarks owned by Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

More this just more even more in from Gen Con

Mike Sugarbaker — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:50:28 +0000

A few links from Saturday’s shows.

North Star Games has followed up their smash Wits and Wagers with Say Anything.
Fat Dragon makes cardstock terrain, and even some out-and-out fold-up minis, on a really high level of craft.
The Call of Duty real-time card game.
I’m fairly certain Paul meant Batavia.
How to Host a Dungeon sounds like a tabletop interactive version of the world-generation stuff at the start of indie PC text game Dwarf Fortress; everyone I know thinks that part of Dwarf Fortress is cool but stops playing as soon as they have to actually do anything. If HtHaD can actually make you a part of the cool stuff, that’s a recipe for success.
I’ve been eyeing The Continuum with interest for a bit, but also with some suspicion; they have their fingers in so many pies that they smell a little bit of desperation. (Mmm, desperation pie.) But to be fair, I need to give the gameplay a look, and the another-free-booster-for-finishing-three-games thing is really smart.

All we’re gonna say about the McCain thing

Mike Sugarbaker — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:36:42 +0000

…has been said better by Herculean RPG player and critic John Kim.

Edit: we should throw in a mention of this mildly amusing backpedal from the McCain campaign… which gets a little more amusing when you read that it predates the second anti-D&D slam. “Okay, nobody’s looking anymore… try it now!” Maybe someone should tell them that lots of D&D players are still who they were at the very beginning: Midwestern male armchair generals who distrust hippies.

Layoffs, restructuring at WotC

Allan Sugarbaker — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:45:24 +0000

Today Wizards of the Coast announced it would be restructuring, in order to “focus on key growth strategies for core brands.” (see release below) As you’d expect, this means layoffs, though an exact number or any actual names hasn’t been revealed (ICv2 has heard the total is less than 5% of employees). I wonder how many of the layoffs are Gleemax related - it’d be a shame not to use that labor to get D&D Insider up to speed more quickly. As always, if anyone knows more, give us a holler.

Wizards press announcement follows:

Wizards Announces New Organizational Alignment

Wizards of the Coast today announced new organizational alignment to focus on key growth strategies for core brands.

“As a company, we will continue to be the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer,” said Greg Leeds, President of Wizards of the Coast. “Re-aligning resources ensures we achieve this goal for our most powerful brands.”

While restructuring results in some job eliminations, Wizards of the Coast is actively recruiting to fill open positions in multiple areas of the company.

“Organizational change is always difficult on those impacted,” said Leeds. “But we will take great care in the transition, and continue to invest in the growth of the business, specifically innovation for our Magic and Dungeons & Dragons fans.”