3 Things For Which I Am Thankful

Since this is the season in which we traditionally give thanks, not that we shouldn’t do it the other 11 months out of the year,  I wanted to point out four things (aside from health, friends, chocolate, etc) that make me thankful:

1)      WOTC finally pulled the plug on Kaijudo. Yes it was a good game. Yes, I know at least one store did really, really REALLY well with it. However, for every store doing good with it, I can point to 25, including us, that did not. Not for want of trying though, either on WOTC or on our part. We received more promotional material for Kaijudo than we did for Yu Gi Oh, Pokemon or Cardfight Vanguard combined. We ran events almost every week that the same 4-5 people attended but product sales were infinitesimal. Now, I hope, WOTC will take the promotional dollars it poured into Kaijudo and spend them promoting Great Dalumuti, Gullotine, Acquire or some of the other great boardgames in its catalog. Unfortunately, even now I can hear some marketing genius at WOTC say, “You know, if we just did this with DuelMasters…”.

2)      The Bits ‘n Mortar program.  Bits ‘n Mortar doesn’t get nearly enough publicity as it ought but this consortium of small RPG publishers still has their program in place, allowing registered brick and mortar retailers to give a PDF of their products to customers when said customer purchases a hard copy of the RPG.  We have customers who purchase Crucible 7 and Arc Dream RPG products specifically from us on a regular basis specifically because we participate in this program.

3)      Munchkin (and Steve Jackson Games). The base Munchkin game still sells reliably week in and week out over a decade after it first released.  Unlike some other game lines (cough-X-wing Miniatures, DiceMasters-cough), Steve Jackson Games manages to keep the almost the entire line in stock through distribution and, although they have run special sets through Target and Barnes and Noble, I have not seen them participate in any deep discounting or “Buy One, Get One Free” silliness such as appeared on the Target website last week.

And since ‘tis the season for giving:

4)      The “TableTop Bump”. Though the TableTop bump was more like a hiccup in season 2, it seems to have returned for season 3, though not to the levels of season 1. Most stroes reported Tokaido hard to find and our sales of Forbidden Desert increased significantly with the uploading of last week’s episode. Seemingly any TableTop show with either  Anne Wheaton or Felicia Day proves especially strong in selling the featured game as they play off Wil Wheaton so well.

Creating Your Own Category

As mentioned on Wednesday, the first way to create a successful product in a category already dominated by one or two other brands is to spend lots of money and time to try to push your brand ahead of the others. This is what WOTC tried to do with Kaijudo. Needless to say, this doesn't often work, as WOTC can now attest, both with Kaijudo as well as Hecatomb and Dreamblade (and Upper Deck with the Vs. TCG).

The other way to cause your game to dominate its category is to create your own category. Cases in point:  Dominion and Cards Against Humanity. Though to be accurate, neither company planned to create a new category, rather the game play did so.

Both games entered the very crowded board/card game category, which was dominated by games like Munchkin, in the straight hobby card game category, and Settlers of Catan in the hobby board game category.  Ergo, Dominion creates a new category, the deck building game and it becomes successful as shown by the number of deck building games that have hit the market in the years since Dominion released. Same thing with Cards Against Humanity. Yes, it is a risqué Apples to Apples knockoff, but it was a risque Apples to Apples knockoff that caught people's attention and created a new category into which other games (Personally Incorrect and Love 2 Hate come to mind) have moved indicating that these companies see this as a viable category.

In both cases, Dominion and Cards Against Humanity dominate their particular category, mainly because they are both good and have first mover advantage.. Unless superior games arise in the categories, both should continue to dominate their respective category and nether will have to fight to succeed in the much broader board/card game category. Create your own category and dominate it.

The Passing of Kaijudo

WOTC announced just after Gencon that the company would pull the plug on the Kaijudo game this coming October. In an interview with WOTC Sr. Brand Manager Re. E Dalrymple, much of the rationale for the game's failure to do well in the US was the weak viewer ship of the tv series, which in turn did not transfer to sales of the card game.

This is the second go round for Kaijudo, AKA in its previous incarnation as DuelMasters, which is still quite a popular game in Japan and has been for over 10 years but, despite giving away 1000s of decks and packs, the game never picked up here.

WOTC really needs to listen to Al Ries, who pointed out years ago that there is generally only room for 2 brands in a particular category and that "third place is no place". In the trading card game category, there are currently two top brands, Magic and, depending on where you are, Yu Gi Oh or Pokemon. Anything else is third place.

To get out of third place in your category, you have two options 1) Work really hard and spend money to supplant the second or first place brand or 2) create a new category and make yourself number one in it. WOTC opted for option 1, trying to make Kaijudo number 1 or 2 in the TCG category, which would be almost impossible. The game could likely not event take the 1 or 2 spot in the Anime inspired TCG category, since those positions are occupied by Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh. Neither could it take number 1 or 2 in the Kid's TCG category, since those positions are also occupied by Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh, which didn't leave a lot of options left.

It is possible to create your own category and dominate it. I can think of two examples of products that have done so successfully in the past 5 years and will discuss that in Friday' blog post.

The Future of Kaijudo (at least for the next year).

WOTC really put a push on Kaijudo at the show, much as the company has since announcing the (re) launch of the game with announcements of PTQ style events, a Duel Day in May or June and (non-specific) programs reaching out to Boy and Girl Scouts as well as boy’s and girl’s clubs.  It does concern me somewhat, when I asked about the release schedule for expansions, WOTC only has them on the schedule through the second quarter of 2014, since I was rather expecting to hear, based on the announced commitment to the game, a release schedule extending 2-3 years out.  Here’s hoping we are discussing a release schedule for Kaijudo for 2015 and 2016 at the 2014 GTS.

The Coming of Kaijudo

WotC is once again pushing the re-launch of Dual Masters, now called Kaijudo with a pre-release event for the set on March 16.  The game has not gotten much traction here but we will see how giving out free decks and promo cards does to jump start it (again).  WoTC first pushed Dual Masters back around 2000 with a huge promotional event including multiple free booster tournaments but the game quickly disappeared once the freebies did.

Pity, as it is a pretty good game, combining aspects of both Magic and Pokemon (making it one of the top selling games in its home country of Japan).  However, it lacks both the complexity of Magic and the cute factor of Pokemon, which may be why it didn't take off here the first time.  In general, marketing research shows there is only room for two top products in a category.  In the CCG area, those spots, in the specialty game channel, are held by Magic and Yu Gi Oh and in the mass channel, it's Pokemon and Magic.  Kajuido will find either one tough to displace.

Still , we will host the Pre-release event on March 16.  Come in and get a free deck of Kaijudo and a promo card.  Play Kaijudo and fill out your Achievement Card to earn a second promo card.