#11 BOARD GAMES CREATORS - RECOGNISING THEIR IMPORTANCE & VALUE!

#11 BOARD GAMES CREATORS - RECOGNISING THEIR IMPORTANCE & VALUE!

I recently wrote an article on Board Games Inventing for Spielwarenmesse.de, the official Blog of the world's largest Toy trade show. The article was entitled: BOARD GAMES INVENTING: TOP 10 TIPS FOR BRINGING YOUR PRODUCT TO MARKET. If you would like to read that article, just click here:

https://spielwarenmesse.de/en/mag/toy-lab/board-games-inventing

That article is more of a 'HowTo' type article, for people engaged in the process of trying to sell Board Games concepts, but I also wanted to share some thoughts with my broader commercial audience on the importance of Board Games creators. Having been fortunate enough to have worked for Hasbro Games in Europe for some years in the early to mid noughties, I had the joy to work on some of the most iconic board games of all time including Monopoly, Clue/do, Trivial Pursuit, Risk, Jenga, Game of Life and many more. Most people in the business would recognise what links those mighty Board Games brands together - they were all created by independent or individual Game creators! Yep, every one of those Games came from outside Inventors.

But it isn't just those iconic Games which have been around for decades and sold millions of copies. A large proportion of new Games on the market each year come from Inventors still to this day. The reasons for this I guess are twofold:

Firstly, it takes a lot of time to produce Game mechanics and to playtest them to the point whereby they are ready to go to market with any chance of success and fulfilling play experience for consumers.

Secondly, Games companies and Game creators tend to have a particular style and approach to their craft. As such, even those companies with in house teams will see benefit from spreading their net more broadly for Games concepts & mechanisms.

Thirdly, every so often a hit Game comes along, and the more top level creators your company is talking to and reviewing concepts from the higher the chances of your company being the lucky company to have the next big hit product.

At the time of writing I'm seeing major signs of 'belt tightening' and cutting back from Toy & Games companies across the board. As consumer disposable income comes under increasing pressure from high inflation rates, and as retailers appear to have an ever more gloomy outlook our industry needs outside Inventors more than ever. The temptation in tough times is to cut back on anything which has a cost associated with it, but the system of licensing in concepts from Inventors is already heavily weighted against risk. Normally advances paid to Inventors are fairly modest, and royalties are paid after product has been sold and by the time Finance departments get around to paying Inventors, often after the full sales proceeds have been received by the Games company. This is exactly the type of back end weighted risk that companies should embrace in tough times. No offence to the very many talented product development execs in Games companies around the world - many are my friends and clients - but the reality is if you are an in house resource you have to be paid every month regardless of sales achieved and well in advance of your employer receiving payment in for the products you work on. Whereas Inventors primarily get paid after the fact - working with Inventors is already risk reduced for Games publishers!

And for those Games companies who are unsure about committing resources, investment and risk to new Games launches, don't forget that Monopoly became a massive commercial success during the toughest of times when people in some parts of the USA could not find jobs for years & many went hungry. In an industry like ours where we are basically selling social facilitation in a box, the need for that social glue never recedes.

If you would like to see more from me on the topic of Board Games, you can check out my Board Games business blog here: www.BoardGameBiz.com

OTHER TOY & GAME BUSINESS CONTENT

Ep 87 - The Future Of Toys: Part 2 - Product

In the 2nd in this series we take a look at the most fun part of the Toy business - Products! Most people who work in the Toy business do so because they love Toys, most of us have a collection of the Products we have worked on around us as we work.

This podcast episode looks at some fundamental factors of Toy products which are unlikely to change, even far out into the future, and we also look at how Technology will facilitate deeper play experiences and interactions with Toys.

https://playingatbusiness.libsyn.com/ep-87-the-future-of-toys-part-2-product

Ep 86 - The Future Of Toys: Part 1 - Retail

In the 1st of a series of podcasts looking at the future of the toy business we begin with a look at Retail - how it's evolved, how it affects the toy business today and what future changes we can expect to see.

Many fundamentals stay the same, we discuss these key areas in this podcast, but we also look at how technology is evolving constantly and affecting Toy Retail as a result.

https://playingatbusiness.libsyn.com/ep-86-the-future-of-toys-part-1-retail

WHAT IS 'FRIENDSHORING' AND HOW DOES IT APPLY TO THE TOY & GAMES BUSINESS?

Janet Yellen recently created a whole load of news headlines with her comments on 'Friendshoring' - in this article we take a look at what the phrase means & how it refers specifically to our industry:

https://www.toyindustryjournal.com/post/what-is-friendshoring-and-how-does-it-apply-to-the-toy-business

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AFFECTING THE TOY & GAME BUSINESS

Studying demographic trends may appear to be theoretical and academic, far removed from the usual fun and commercial pressures of the Toy & Game business. However, demographic trends have a major impact on the Toy business whether we pay any attention to them or not. Primarily the most fundamental factor which affects our industry is the number of new births, because this defines the size of our core target market for the next decade ahead. It also defines how many factory workers will be available to produce our toys when they hit working age.

To read the full article published by Spielwarenmesse, just click the following link:

https://spielwarenmesse.de/en/mag/markets/the-impact-of-demographic-factors

AND FINALLY...

TOY BIZ MENTOR

I'll be launching my new Mentoring program for up and coming Toy & Game biz people at the UK & Spielwarenmesse-Nuremberg Toyfairs in Jan/Feb, but for now we're in soft launch mode - if you or your team would be interested in Mentoring to help you or your teams gain a deeper understanding of our industry & the fundamentals for success, you can find more information here: www.ToyBizMentor.com

MY EMAIL NEWSLETTER:

If you want to receive my regular email newsletter on all things Toy & Games business, you can sign up here: https://forms.aweber.com/form/54/1325077854.htm