Since this is the time of year to look back and to make lists, I came up with my 5 top events in the gaming industry for 2014. Here are three of them. I will post the final 2 on Wednesday:
Rise of the Munchkin
License—Games licensing properties from other areas of pop culture is
nothing new. Avalon Hill did it with Starship Troopers back in 1976 and TSR
produced the Marvel Super Heroes RPG in 1984. Various companies have produced
other licensed products with varying degrees of success over the decades (WEG’s
Necroscope comes to mind as on the lower end of success, the Buffy RPG from
Eden Studios on the higher), but those licenses have all come from outside the
gaming industry. This year, we saw Steve Jackson Games Munchkin licensed for
not one but two different games and a comic coming out in 2015.
Shortages of Hot
Products—As mentioned in earlier posts, hot products such as DiceMasters
and the Adventure Time Card Game proved incredibly hard to restock quickly
after their initial release. It took months for Alliance (the only source for
either to the hobby game industry) to get them back in stock. I have no idea how much we lost in sales or
potential players as a result of the ongoing shortage. At least both products
did get back into distribution prior to the holiday selling season. A full
quarter has passed since we received a restock of the base ships for FFG’s
X-Wing Miniatures game with none of the most popular ships (Millennium Falcon,
anyone?) available.
Start of TableTop
Season 3—Though most stores are not seeing the “Wheaton Effect” as strongly
as they did during Season 1 of TableTop, there is no denying the ongoing
popularity of the series, given that Wheaton & Co. successfully raised over
$1.4 million from fans wanting to see a third season of the webseries. It
appears that the new season of TableTop still helps drive sales as Tokaido, the
first game played, has proven almost impossible to find in distribution since
the show aired.
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