The Galactic Connections game from Topp's has all the earmarks of a “You
guys make collectable trading cards, right? Here, make us a Star Wars game, get
it in the store really fast and give people some reason to collect and keep
buying it. “ Topp’s, knowing a good deal when they hear it ( I knew a
manufacturer who once said that he could put tables of trash in the main aisle
of a Wal-mart and, due to their customer traffic, it would sell), likely jumped
at the offer, though their track record with trading card games isn’t that
great. Anyone remember Monsuno? Came out
from Topps in 2012 and died, oh about 2012.
Topp’s though may not be great in trading card games but the
collectability of trading cards and the creation of chase items, now at that
they are great. Galactic Connections
comes with common discs, uncommon ones, rare ones, ultra rare ones, ultra ultra
rare ones, ultra ultra ultra rarer ones and the rarest of all, the 14K gold
Slave Leia disc, plus discs only available at specific stores. All this while
ignoring the basic driver behind collectable games these days, Organized Play
and a place to run it. Wal-mart has not hosted an Organized Play program for
any trading card game since the original Pokemon boom back in the 1990’s when
Wal-mart stores actually did host Pokemon tournaments. In order to keep any
trading whatever game viable these days, a company almost has to have an OP
program in place. Not a whisper of one for Galactic Connections.
Possibly the plan is to reach out to the Local Gaming Store
and ask it to host tournaments. I
remember years ago a company launched a trading card game with product only available
in the mass market. The business model was to have the mass market, who buys
and moves a lot of product, sell the game to players and the local gaming store
got to run the tournaments. The plan, as the company saw it, was that store
hosted tournaments would draw players in who would pay tournament fees and buy
snacks and other products while in the store. A win-win for everyone, in the
eyes of whomever developed this plan. Needless to say, stores did not embrace
this idea, figuring their time better spent hosting tournaments and otherwise
promoting products they could sell in the store, rather than giving customers a
reason to buy more stuff elsewhere. Yep, that was a winning business plan.
I expect Galactic Connections to do decently for Wal-mart
and but not gangbusters, so no OP program put in place at the store and, once
the movie hype dies down, so will interest in the game.
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