Interesting sales figures
A while back, Time Magazine wrote that “Most attempts to re-energize board games are now garage-sale fodder.” In their latest issue, they instead announced that “For old-fashioned fun, many Americans are going back to family board games–sales were up 18% in 2005.”
It’s interesting to contrast this with the recent doom and gloom analyses of the pen and paper gaming industry:
If you believe their numbers, it’s not quite as bad as 2004, when the number of game stores dropped by 10% (ICv2) to 25% (C&GR); this year, the core market lost only 5% (ICv2) to 20% (C&GR) of its stores, net…
The “board, card, and family” game segment, per ICv2, was the only segment that actually improved its actual sales over 2004, perhaps as much as 15-18%, driven by strong German game penetration, the Ticket to Ride phenomenon, and the rise of major publishers like Fantasy Flight. The C&GR “miscellaneous” category, which I usually omit from these calculations, is where this stuff goes to live; “board, card, and family” game sales in the core hobby market might have totaled something like $30 million by their reckoning, but this is sheer and utter guesswork beneath even me.
It’s interesting to speculate why the family board game is on the rise: a desire for simpler entertainment? A retreat to family entertainment in a troubled, uncertain world? Overextended and overcomplex core gamer products? More distribution of family games in bookstores and museums and other such locations? Game stores suffering the same stigma as comics shops?
I don’t really know anything about those markets, so I can’t do anything other than ask the questions. All I know is that I’ve been buying a lot of board games over the last couple of years, and seeing a lot of “we get together to play board games on Thursday nights” things going on, and seeing them in more varied stores. A few years ago, Barnes & Noble did not have a giant pile of them on sale. Now they do.
13 Responses to “Interesting sales figures”
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Would the insane explosion and coverage of Texas hold-em give any credence to the rise “simpler entertainment”? I know standard hoyle card games are not exactly board games, but classic family games such as UNO and Milestones are only a step away from this. Maybe people are realizing that you don’t need a $500.00 system to enjoy games and see the benefit and enjoyment of playing in a face-to-face multiplayer environment.
This site http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ has a huge following and their podcast “BoardGameGeek” (formerly “GeekSpeak”) is widely downloaded (can be found at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamespeak.php).
Granted, these are the board game fanatics who are playing a bit more than “Chutes & Ladders” or “Life”
I am not in the same league as these guys when it comes to board games, but I do enjoy the good ol’ standard family games like Monopoly, et al. But if you are big-time into board games you should check them out. I did some freebie voice-overs for their podcast and listened to a couple of episodes. I actually found them quite interesting even though I’m not a huge board gamer.
I think this is partly answered by your quote:
Everyone I know who play board games are playing games like Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan (with some old games pulled out occasionally) many of which have excellent game play and replayability. Could it be that these games simply were not available until recently — “sell it and they will buy”?
Games have been popular in my local circle of friends for a while. A few friends of mine hosted regular “gaming nights” where a few dozen people would show up and play board games into the wee hours of the morning. We played mostly German board games, with some other stuff thrown in. Not much of the “Monopoly” types of games. Keep in mind that I was one of only two professional game developers that showed up on a regular basis, so you can’t necessarily write this off as “Oh, game developers will play board games.”
Ironically enough, we haven’t had many gaming nights. My friends just had their first kid, and a second is on the way if things go well. The whole “having a family” thing tends to disrupt gaming.
So, my guess is this: Perhaps we’re seeing people that were into gaming in the 80’s and 90’s finally getting back into the hobby after things have calmed down on the family front. Kids are now old enough that they can participate in games instead of merely being a distraction (or destruction ;). So, gamers that went into hiding when the family came around are now coming back out, and buying something everyone can play together.
My personal guess.
The most fascinating thing to me is the dichotomy that exists within the board game industry itself. There’s one side that thinks it’s a book publishing model, rehashing established brands and mechanics for a new generation that doesn’t know about it, mostly through the nostalgia the previous one remembers. Then there’s the other side that capitalizes on the still-unique aspects of board gaming which are more intrinsically social than any MMORPG has yet become.
Oddly enough, I consider the latter “niche”. Technology enables the shy, folks who want a quick-in-and-out experience, or those who are remote. Meanwhile, face-to-face (f2f 😉 ) gaming generally requires friends, interest in gaming and an ability to travel on spur or planned occasions. Computer and console games are played much more frequently than board and card games, but it’s the latter that seems to form the deeper bonds and memories. I think that’s mostly because of the other people.
There’ll always be a place for face-to-face gaming. Technology can enable interaction to a fairly broad degree too. It’ll be the companies that can keep up with the multi-tasking technology-enable world but still deliver the face-to-face our instincts sort of compel us to want that’ll capitalize best in the near term.
In my opinion 🙂
B & I have a group of friends we play games with about once/month. None of us are professional game devs, so I’d agree with Psychochild there. Usually it is mah-jongg or Cranium, but last time I introduced them to Settlers and it was a huge hit. We play board games every time we go over to the In-Laws’ — I always lose at our daily game of Breakfast Scrabble. As compared to PNP games… there is a lower barrier to entry, a lot less work, and you can see the end of the game when you start it.
That said, B’s best friend has recently introduced his kids to D&D. He’s DMing for them, and they (9 year old girl and 11 year old boy) are having a blast. Now they constantly ask, “when are we going to play again??”
Chabuhi, I read BGG from time to time…
Janey, seems like a LOT of people are playing Cranium.
On the other hand, I am just about ready to each my 9 year old daughter D&D too. 🙂
Bandit, great point on poker… part of the same general trend, I imagine.
Your only looking at the American picture of course – board games in germany, family board games, have been big for years. I should point out that I’m british so I’m mainly trying to apply roughly the same story I’ve seen being played out over here to the American situation.
It’s a complicated story in my opinion.
Firstly American games went off into increasingly complicated routes attempting to recreate in great detail war and battles (World in Flames or Homes before the leaves fall being two ridiculous examples). They became to require massive time commitment as well -which most people simply did not have. I consider them to be games most in need of a computer…..
At the same time German games were becoming more abstract – focusing on a core simple set of game rules, which could be grasped easily but still allow deep tactics.
For a number of years – those games have been slowly penetrating the American (and British markets). At first with translated games, then with small numbers of direct release of popular games – and now making it to the main stream. Of course not all of these games are ‘german’ of orign – but they belong to german as opposed to American design philosiphy.
Why are they penetrating? Partly it is the “if you sell it – they will buy it”, partially because a lot of these people would have brought the games if they thought it was avallible, partially it’s because the mainstream is fed up of quiz games but still wants to game and partly I think it’s a demographic thing. I love playing games – but don’t have a day to spend doing so. So quick games on an evening fit my life style now. Equally lots of my friends who used to play games are having kids – and looking forwards to the day they can sit down with there kids and play something. They know it will be a fun, educational experience that they can do as a family.
And finally – sure tehre is the “does not require a bucket load of cash” to play. I’m not sure my bookcase of games cost me as much as my PC. Also if I buy a game for £30 and play it once with 6 people for an evening – that’s not a bad cash for fun ratio for that many people. If like Vinci I play it 30 or 40 times then it’s a fantastic investment.
http://www.cheapass.com/
Disclosure: promoting Cheapass Games does indirectly promote my band (since we did an album for Cheapass) so my apologies, but it IS a GREAT company and relevant to the discussion, imo.
Raph – Agreed. However, my group of friends pretty quit wanting to play Cranium with me, because I am good ath the “Yellow” (word) category and nobody else is, which means we win the game every time. 😛
This kinda hit home with me. We have been playing many board & card games recently. Starting just after Christmas, my group of people started on a huge game kick…perhaps it’s just something that happens?
We started with Monopoly, then Cranium, then Settlers, then more simple games. Currently, the game of choice is dominoes … a very good dynamic when mixed with a porch and some beer 🙂
To quantify, most of the people I play with aren’t gamers (especially video gamers). The video gamers still play their video games, while the non-gamers do their non-gamer things.
It reminds me of the summer we spent playing Boche or the winter we spent with Foosball. People always love playing games, but they love playing games with their people. Which brings up an important point: it’s the community that makes the game fun!
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