Looney Labs Pyramid Arcade Sales Policy

Looney Labs, the publisher of myriad editions of Fluxx, just announced a new sales policy for their upcoming Pyramid Arcade game. Essentially, the new policy does not allow online sales of Pyramid Arcade by any online retailer that does not have an agreement with Looney Labs .  Already, Looney Labs has posted a list of about 2 dozen online retailers not allowed to sell the game.

No More Pathfinder Softcovers

Unfortunately, after looking at Pathfinder sales for the past several months, we have decided to discontinue ordering any new release softcover Pathfinder books for the rack. They just aren't selling. We just ran a report on Pathfinder sales since the beginning of the year and found that hardback books, character folios, DM Screens, flip mats and combat pads accounted for all sales of regularly priced Pathfinder products.

 Soft cover books, with a couple of exceptions, only sold when we put them on clearance, which is not why we buy products. We will gladly bring in any books that you might want but will only stock in new hardbacks and specific flipmats from the company. There is just too much product coming out and not enough sells.

Go Pokemon Go

Scott's column this week on ICV2 looks at ways stores are using the Pokemon Go phenomena to get customers. 

Why No Sneak Peeks?

We have had a couple of people inquire as to why the store has not hosted the last couple of Yu Gi Oh Sneak Peeks. The answer is due to Konami policy.

In order to qualify to host a Sneak Peek, as well as other special Konami events, such as Yu Gi Oh Day, Konami requires stores to host at least one sanctioned tournament per month for the preceding quarter. If a store does not meet this requirement, it loses the opportunity to host Sneek Peeks until such time as it meets the requirement again.

We have not had turnout for our weekly tournaments which are scheduled at noon on Saturday. We tried moving them to Tuesday nights for a period to accommodate players, who said that was a better night for them to show up but after a couple of weeks, those players stopped showing up as well.

It is quite simple. In order for us to host special events like Sneak Peeks, we need duelists to show up and participate in the weekly tournaments, for which we charge $5.   We can run them for free if players would like but then we would only give out one pack of cards to the overall winner. Let us know if you would like this option. Be that as it may, until we have at least 4 players show up for a tournament once per month, Konami will not offer a Sneak Peek to players at the store.

Kittens and Mystic Vale

Scott's weekly column for ICV2, this week looking at the launch of Mystic Vale and the return after a two year absence of Kittens in a Blender.

Asmodee Acquiring F2Z Entertainment

ICV2 announced today that Asmodee NA will acquire F2Z Entertainment which consists of the gaming studios Z-Man Games, Plaid Hat Games, and Filosofia, which in turn publish the games Pandemic and Dead of Winter, among others. What does this mean to you, the game player? Not much really. However, in the overall gaming industry, it means that every major board game publisher, with the exceptions of WOTC and Iello, is now owned by Asmodee NA. Consider that Asmodee now owns Days of Wonder, which publishes Ticket to Ride and Small World, Fantasy Flight Games, Spot It and Catan Studios, not to mention the games it produces under its own brand.

There are still lots of small game studios out there but this consolidation is typical of a maturing industry. As companies get large, they are unable to grow their sales significantly by selling more product and they find it easier to do so by acquiring other companies, as happened here.

Hasting's Liquidating

Looks as if you better use those Hasting's gift cards soon.  According to this report, Hasting's plans to shutter all 120 stores by October. A good chunk of the company's problems came from attention to use a cookie cutter model for their product lines in all stores, especially in the field of comics and other pop culture items. The main office would order comics from Diamond Distribution and then allocate them to all stores, without taking into consideration the individual desires of the market in each area.  Especially in comics, one area may have heavy demand for DC while another area may have heavy Marvel presence. Assuming all comic fans like every line equally is a recipe for failure.