Game Publishing: Part Four

Starting Your Own Game Publishing Company Part Four

Okay, so I discussed passion in several of my previous gaming posts (three to be exact). Passion is the cornerstone of any entrepreneurial venture. We've established that. The next step is deciding what type of game publishing company you want, and what type of material you will publish.

Suffice to say, the type of games you want to publish, and hence the type of publishing company you start, will be heavily, if not exclusively, influenced by the types of games you enjoy. That and a large dose of reality.

Celebrity and renowned gamer, Felicia Day.

The first thing to understand is that there is no money in the board game industry. At least not when compared to the video game industry. Total sales for board games are in the neighborhood of $900 million per year. The latest concrete stats I could find were from NPD in 2009. The market is up, but sales aren’t consistent, they fluctuate.

By comparison, video games, in a down video game market, sold 3.5 billion in the FIRST quarter of 2013 alone. A mediocre video game will sell 100,000 copies, but that number is rarified air for a board game. Granted, it isn't an apples to apples (pun not intended) comparison. The average video game costs 15 million to make and market. My own America Conquered cost around 10 grand ($10,000). Bottom line, a video game publishing company has greater potential rewards, but also greater risk.

Still determined to make your mark with pen and paper (pun intended)? Okay, the second thing to understand is that there is no money in conflict simulations. You know, the type of games that Lock 'n Load Publishing creates.

Yes, that's a bit of hyperbole. I've earned a decent living for a family of five with Lock 'n Load Publishing. On the other hand, LNLP is the exception, rather than the rule. The company was founded on an established game system that had already won several game of the year awards. That helped.

The point is that conflict simulations, war games, whatever you want to call them, underachieve when compared to mainstream or European style (Euro) games. For example, Eagle Games once stated that The American Civil War sold 15,000 copies. That is a strong seller for a war game. On the other hand Apples to Apples has sold well over a million units, and Settlers of Catan is in the neighborhood of 20 million copies! Yes, Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) has sold between 200-250 thousand copies, but that is the dying breath of a bygone era. If introduced today, the complexity of ASL would seriously limit its sales. 10X is a semi-accurate rule of thumb. In other words, a Euro game will outsell a comparatively similar (in design and production quality) war game by a factor of ten.

Still want to start a war game publishing company? Then stay tuned for my next post, “Don’t Design a Game.”