Plus, it’s sort of like a snatch ‘n grab operation where people may not have backed if they had known about the Retail version of the game. A deal of this magnitude doesn’t happen overnight. But when you keep something big like this under wraps until the last possible moment, it gives backers the impression that they were deceived. We want to be kept in-the-know! I’m sure people are generally understanding of delays, especially in the current market. The key to a good Kickstarter campaign, at least from a backer perspective, is effective and timely communication with the backers. But people are left with a sour taste in their mouth because ‘suddenly’ it seems Target is able to subvert the global supply issues while the average consumer takes a hit on the chin. It gets the game in front of infinitely-more people and helps to expand the hobby as a whole, which is awesome. I don’t mind that Stronghold cut a deal with Target. Plus, they communicated the news in the 11th hour of the 11th hour, literally the day before the launch onto Target shelves. Reading the update, however, they make it seem like there was no way of knowing that Target would get the game before the backers. Making games and sharing in the hobby is a vessel that takes them to that end-goal. Stronghold Games is a company, which means that their goal is to make money. CommunicationĪnother reason why people feel slighted, and this is the more important one in my opinion, is due to the way the news was communicated. Especially since you get to ride that wave of excitement and be a part of a the zeitgeist discussion while the game is still hot. Heading over to game night and pulling out a copy of Ares Expedition is sure to lead to excitement. Nerds like that feeling of being able to wow others with something that they discovered. People haven’t even gotten shipping notifications yet while other people browsing the shelves at Target can pick up a slightly different copy of the game on a whim. With this Target deal, people feel like they don’t get to have this shiny new game before everyone else. And, you’re also generally one of the first people to get the game in your hands. When you back a project on Kickstarter, you’re generally helping to unlock stretch goals and rewards that set you apart from someone who ends up purchasing the game in retail. From a planning perspective, preorders give a better idea of demand, and don’t leave publishers on the hook for ordering print runs that are too large.īut there’s another draw to Kickstarter from the consumer side, and that is the feeling of Exclusivity. There are several successful companies that still fund the majority of their games through Kickstarter. Nowadays, Kickstarter is much more akin to a preorder platform in the board gaming space. The original premise of Kickstarter was for people to get projects off the ground and provide funding, leaving a lot of uncertainty and faith in the system that they would see a return on their pledge. So, if everyone is aware that the global supply chain is turned upside down – it’s not a secret – why is Stronghold games getting such backlash about their update? There are a couple reasons why people are upset: exclusivity and communication. There’s a whole separate discussion that needs to be had about BGG ratings, but I’ll save that for another time. Review bombs hit the Ares Expedition page on BoardGameGeek, plummeting the rating into the mid-5 range. When the news of the Ares Expedition update came out, there was something of an uproar. This means that publishers are soaking up costs and losing profit that they were banking on. Suddenly the $50 that was provided by the backer needs to cover $70. Prices have double, tripled, or even quadrupled when it comes to shipping and production, which leaves publishers in a sticky situation if they’re utilizing crowdfunding platforms. As you can imagine, the board game industry is not immune to that volatility, and we’ve seen countless delays regarding upcoming projects. To preface this article further, the entire global supply chain has been absolutely wracked with delays due to demand spikes and throughput constraints over the past year.
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