Evil Hat Cuts Back

Evil Hat Productions announced this week that it is cutting back on both its production schedule and staff. Citing the publication of too many games that have not performed as expected, the company will postpone or take off the schedule a dozen or so upcoming projects. Also the company will let go of its Heads of Marketing and Business Development and Senior Art Director.

There are wayyyyy too many game releases coming out, both through regular channels of distribution, ie. us, and through direct to consumer platforms like Kickstarter for the current market to absorb. Monthly, we see something on the order of 200 plus solicitations for new games and supplements , not to mention all of the current releases. The market, as it is, cannot absorb so much product in such a short period of time. There is a vast market out there but the tabletop gaming industry needs to work to get into it.

The History of Role Playing in 4 Volumes

We received a pretty interesting book series this week:  Designers and Dragons  A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry, written by Shannon Appelcline and published by Evil Hat Games.  A four volume set, it covers the role playing industry from 1970 to 2009. Each volume runs about 450 pages and covers one decade with Applelcline discussing the history of the industry through looking at the RPG companies that got their start during that decade. For example, both major companies such as Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf and smaller companies such as Grey Ghost Press and Hogshead Publishing get covered in the volume looking at the industry in the 1990s. The series is very well written, surprisingly comprehensive and one I look forward to reading.