Author Archives: admin

Licensed Board Games: Selecting Suitable Brand Licenses For Board Games

Licensed Board Games: Selecting Suitable Brand Licenses For Board Games

Licensed games based on an entertainment or content license represent a significant segment of the overall board games business. Classic games brands often launch a licensed version by way of a brand extension.

These types of licensed games are quite often ‘label slaps’ i.e. overlaying a brand license on an existing gameplay. As a result, many licensed games are either lacking in originality and/or authenticity. This type of game is very often given as an easy gift and are either never played with or rarely. There is a significant market for this type of throwaway gift purchase.

However, there is also a growing trend for new and innovative gameplays offering a deeper and more original experience on licensed games. The key consideration is to match a fitting gameplay to the license. Some gameplays and brand combinations are just not going to work very well. If the entertainment brand appeals to a target age of 8 or 9 years of age or older, then a super basic memory game version is probably not going to be as successful as something with a bit more substance. When looking at licensed games for adults, the same applies doubly. Many licensed games will sell well on the basis of being general merchandise and easily giftable to someone based on what TV shows or movie franchises they like. That doesn’t though mean that they will play well.

Whereas it is usual business for toy companies to develop large product lines for new movies which will only drive merchandise for brief promotional windows, for board games we can already fill our product lines with zero royalty own developed games brands. It makes less sense to launch ‘in and then out’ licenses with lower profitability and more complicated product development and approval processes. What makes more commercial sense is to focus more on evergreen licenses which will be around for years to come, and then to develop authentic bespoke gameplay for those games. This provides both better experiences for those who buy your games but also gives you a greater sales window to recoup your investment in the product.

We represent leading board game factories in China & India. We have saved our clients more than $10m over the last decade by connecting them with reliable factories with the right certifications who can offer more cost-effective board games manufacturing. For more information: http://www.KidsBrandInsight.com/services

Sign up now for our free BoardGameBiz newsletter offering insights, news and analysis of the business of Board Games. We’ll also send you a free copy of our book ’55 Features of Best Selling Board Games’ – just click here to sign up

The Important Role Of Board Games In Child Development

The Important Role Of Board Games In Child Development

Of the many areas where board games make a positive impact, none is more important than the role board games play in the developmental advancement of children.

On a very basic level, games encourage agreeable social norms such as turn taking, communication and competition. More than that though they can assist children at most stages of their development. Many games for instance support numeracy, from counting cash in classic family board games through to counting in traditional card games.

Use of language, geographical knowledge, deductive reasoning – for any kids or family game which has been in the market for a long time, a major developmental benefit can be identified.

Even classic physical games like Twister help to develop co-ordination and physical dexterity. We once research tested a selection of physical games for a small board games company, and were surprised to find just how quickly children developed key skills needed to be successful in the game, even if they had not been exposed to similar activities before. The trick though is to pitch the level of challenge at the right level for each age group, as abilities can vary wildly in just a few years.

For parents, one of the major reasons why they keep on buying games and playing them with their children is because of the understandable parental desire to have a positive impact on their child’s development, and board games are proven to offer significant benefits in this area.

For developers of new games for children and families, perhaps R&D efforts should include a review of the primary developmental areas for children. Here are the primary areas of child development:

Cognitive development
Speech and language
Social and emotional development
Fine motor skills
Gross motor skills (no, this is not playing with ‘boogers’!)

If you want to know more about these key areas of child development, you can Google each of these areas, but the key point to consider going forward is that if your new game doesn’t help in at least a couple of these areas, it may not prove compelling for children and parents.

Board Games: Bringing Together Different Generations

Board Games: Bringing Together Different Generations

Board games have a positive impact on society in many ways. One major area of beneficial impact is bringing together different generations of people. In an era when we might still have grandparents who grew up without fixed landline telephones in their houses, many of us take for granted the fully integrated technology which has only come about in recent years and radically revolutionised our lives, our leisure time and our social interaction.

One of the things which can be difficult for families is finding ways to spend time together doing something which is compelling for all, from the more senior members of the family through to busy parents working hard and their children who are more housebound than previous generations and perpetually stuck with their faces on a screen!

Board games offer a timeless play opportunity delivering fun, social connection and a game play format which is understandable and accessible to all these age groups. Teaching your children or your grand children how to play classic board games such as Monopoly, Scrabble or Chess is a true rite of passage. These perennial classic games are in many ways as appealing as they ever were, and in a world where generations are rendered ever further apart by technological advancements, they offer a truly offline experience which brings families closer together.

Covid lockdowns allowing, there will be tens of millions of families playing board games together this Thanksgiving and this Christmas. In 2020, the very definition of a horrible year, it should give us huge pride that so much of our work output is going to be enjoyed by people who really need some help to have a good time and to smile in a tough climate. We should also feel proud that despite humanity’s screen time addiction and all the economic and health damage resulting from COVID-19, our products will be used to bring together different generations and to create golden family moments this festive season.

The timeless appeal and positive social impact of board games has long since been proven, and this year more than ever our industry will be doing our bit to make the world a happier and more socially connected place. Moreover, our games will really help a lot of families to stick together and enjoy each other’s company.

The Future Of Board Games: Added Technology?

The Future Of Board Games: Added Technology?

If you stick around in the board games business for long enough you will see the recurrence of a number of topics. The annual ‘board games are back’ type article from lazy journalists who didn’t realise board games have been thriving for most of the current millennium is the most obvious recurrent theme! Another topic which keeps on coming back is adding technology to board games to ‘make them better and to bring new excitement into the category’.

There are many examples of technology being added to board games, but perhaps one of the best examples, both in terms of player experience but also in terms of reported commercial success would be the addition of an electronic banking unit into the game of Monopoly. According to www.BoardGameGeek.com, an electronic banking unit was first added into Monopoly in 2006. Fast forward to 2020, and one of the most prominent board games on shelf this year is the Monopoly Super Electronic Banking version.

With this tech addition to the classic and best-selling board games phenomenon that is Monopoly, the tech takes away the ‘faff’ of having to count the physical money. Now for some people that classic game play with real physical money will be compelling, but for some it will be an irritation, especially in today’s world where most of us could quite easily go without physical cash if we had to.

In this version of Monopoly, technology has been added and successfully enhances the game play (for some people). That is the key to adding any technology to board games. Board games aren’t broken, they are normally fun to play and offer a compelling way to spend quality non-screen time with friends and family. We don’t need to fix board games because the fundamentals are not broken and are working well. The opportunity though is to enhance the gameplay experience for players by adding in technology rooted in improving player experiences.

The type of tech added board games which tend to die a sad death in clearance outlets are those games where the technology takes over or fails to enhance the experience. The experience is everything. While a tech gimmick may help you sell a few games in the beginning, longevity is all about delivering great play experiences, and so if you add technology to board games make it experience enhancing whatever you do.

How To Diversify A Board Games Portfolio

How To Diversify A Board Games Portfolio

Trends in board games ebb and flow over time. Particular gameplay genres or sub-categories are strong sometimes and wane at some other times. Often when a particular game from one genre has been successful, many more of a similar ilk follow. That type of game then goes from driving huge sales and sku productivity to supporting a lot of ‘me too’ games which often erode the positive trend in that category over a few selling cycles.

This situation can be hard to manage for a board games company. They either jump on the bandwagon so they at least get a slice of the hot action, or they sit out and risk losing sales and market share.

Generally speaking, the best way to manage this situation for a board games company is mixture of balance and spreading multiple well performing ‘eggs’ across multiple ‘baskets’. A board games company which only has one type of game in their portfolio is at risk of suffering ups and downs as support for each type of board gaming sub-genre vacillates up and down. By playing across multiple categories the risk is spread and overall the business is more protected against exciting but unsustainable ‘Ups’ and the inevitable and painful ‘downs’ which follow.

One obvious example of how to manage this is to include both adult and child/family targeted board games in the product portfolio. Even if your preference or the preference of your development teams is towards one type of game – let’s say towards involved games for adults, then you can open up new distribution opportunities for those games quite often by also offering games which are more directly relevant to other retailers who may be more geared towards selling toys and games for children. Parents of children are also adults who may want to play your adult games with their friends.

You can also add balance to your board games portfolio by mixing up the types of components, price points, play occasions, level of game play complexity and immersion and by varying themes and gameplay dynamics.

For long term sustained success, the goal for all board games companies should be to build a balanced and ever green collection of known and popular games which get an easy retail listing every year because they are proven performers, and which sell through retail consistently over time. Alongside this stable of perennial games though should be a balanced product portfolio to ensure the latest fads in games can’t disrupt the apple cart too fundamentally.

BOARD GAMES MANUFACTURING: CREATIVITY NEEDN’T DIE AT THE FACTORY GATE

BOARD GAMES MANUFACTURING: CREATIVITY NEEDN’T DIE AT THE FACTORY GATE

It’s an old adage, but the thought that innovation often doesn’t get past the entrance to the factory is fairly prevalent in those trying to push new boundaries. These days there is always some new technology or social media platform coming through and pushing our expectations and experience of technology.

Technology though is also having an impact on established traditional product categories like the board games business. For instance, the whole area of cost-effective prototyping and manufacturing minimum orders is changing due to the impact of technology. Whereas it was once a deep skill to produce professional looking samples of new board games, technology has made this easier than ever, and now anyone can use technology driven services to develop really good prototypes to present their products. MOQ (minimum order quantity) has long been a barrier to entry for any consumer products industry, but this too is softening around the edges as humanity gets smarter and smarter at utilising technology.

These though are fairly functional movements, and while they may be encouraging more people into the board games business, which in the end should facilitate greater breadth of games out there, it isn’t necessarily helping board games creatives to push new boundaries.

Our team once playtested a game featuring heat sensitive ink. This allowed for an impactful ‘reveal’ mechanism whereby the player could rub the card and an image or text would be revealed, and then a second or two later would fade away again as the heat dissipated. We then took this concept into another game and then went through the process of trying to get the factory to replicate it. The end result was sadly a mess, so instead of offering a really great experience we served up something totally lame as the heat sensitive ink was such a different colour that the reveal wasn’t needed – you could clearly see the end result without having to rub the card.

This type of experience is fairly typical where an innovation which should help to deliver better experiences doesn’t make it successfully through the manufacturing process. This though doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep trying to move the boundaries, it just means that we need good factories and we need to give those factories some time for some trial and error to get the processes right if they haven’t used them before. Rushing through production on a board game featuring innovation in terms of manufacturing spec or processes is a short cut to failure and under delivering our innovation. So, in the end it isn’t always the fault of the factory when innovation in re-inventing elements of the standard spec of board games fails, sometimes it comes down to our process.

Four Proven Ways To Extend Board Games Brands

Four Proven Ways To Extend Board Games Brands

One of the best aspects of the board games industry from a business model point of view is that once you have established a successful board game in the market you can often spin off different versions of that game which stand a better chance of succeeding each time versus launching an entirely new game. This is because both consumers and retailers know and trust both the quality & experience that the brand will deliver.

Taking a quick look at the board games market, it is easy to observe four fairly straightforward ways to extend board games brands:

Spec/price point variance

This way of extending board games brands is simple. You add or remove contents to increase or decrease the price point. Obviously you need to adapt the gameplay & instructions accordingly! This method of brand extension can open up new distribution opportunities: for instance, if you have a premium brand, you may open up discount/bargain retail channels via a down specced version of your game. Or conversely, if you sell primarily in budget retail you might be able to secure listings in upmarket department store chains by creating a special version with a higher specification and higher price point.

Different gameplay format

If the original version of your game is a full board game, maybe you could extend via a dice game version or a cards only game. This way you can add some incremental sales opportunities. Beware though of cannibalisation with this method i.e. if you sell a new dice game version of your game successfully but people just buy that instead of buying the original version of the game that hasn’t necessarily helped you to move forward!

Themed/Licensed editions

The classic example of a board games brand with ‘themed’ editions would be Monopoly. Whether it’s a new version for the Olympics or for a new movie, Monopoly has long since proven that one board game brand can sustain many iterations with a different theme.

Digital versions

Digital gaming is a major business. Digital extensions of board games can be successful and bring new people into playing the original version of the board game. The major challenge though is that the digital world goes far deeper in terms of interactivity, depth and physical environments versus a board game. We’ve seen some dreadful ‘ports’ of board games which just take the same game & stick it onto mobile, console or online gaming. The game then tends to play badly because it is too shallow and basically not a compelling experience on a digital platform, so it can be easy to deliver a bad experience with a digital extension to an established board game.

We run a Consultancy business helping board games companies to grow. We have experience of most major board games markets around the world and our team has developed more than 200 board games including versions of classic games like Monopoly, Clue/do, Risk, Game of Life etc. For more information on our services (including our Export sales Consultancy) please just click here: https://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/services/

The Important Role Of Nostalgia In The Board Games Business

The Important Role Of Nostalgia In The Board Games Business

If you received a €uro for every news article you could find with a quick Google search promoting the idea that ‘board games are back’ or that nostalgia is set to see the board games business boom you would have at least €37 based on a quick Google search we conducted.

Board games have obviously never gone away, they have continued to sell as technology has creeped into most aspects of our lives. Nostalgia is such a big part of that longevity. Nostalgia is a sentimental view of the past based more on positive memories and emotions associated with certain past events or past times than actual reality.

Those golden family or friendship group moments that we remember based on playing board games either with our parents growing up or with our friends create a strong emotional driver for the urge to buy and play board games.

As the same Google news search would reveal, this is not just about those classic iconic board games like Monopoly and Scrabble though, it is the entire play pattern based on face to face social interaction in a world where we are all buried in screens most of the day, and certainly for much of our leisure time.

Future generations will probably laugh at how ridiculous our behaviour has been walking round staring at a tiny screen. Technology is heading towards some kind of cyborg humanity where the technology will be much more practical and physically less harmful and risky than staring at a tiny screen all day.

The more that technology ensnares us, the more that nostalgic feeling for the old way of interacting with each other over a board game becomes attractive. So, while many pundits and journalists have been predicting the end of the board games industry since video games came to the fore in the 1970s and 1980s, the board games category is a massive beneficiary of increased tech addiction and consumption.

Anyone who has been in the games business for a while will have discussed what they do with someone at a dinner party or social gathering and been asked ‘Does anyone still play board games any more’, and the answer of course has always been yes. The good news though is that technology trends are increasing the desire of human beings for real old-fashioned social fun, and that’s only going to help the board games business.

Why Board Games Sell Better In Some Countries Vs Others

Why Board Games Sell Better In Some Countries Vs Others

Board Games are a cultural product. Like books, movies or music they come from somewhere and someone. Therefore, each game is heavily influenced by the culture of the creator and of the company publishing the game.

Of the many reasons why board games succeed or fail, one of the most important is cultural fit. Board games are most often based on a combination of a). social interaction dynamic i.e. the process of playing the game and b). content. Both of these factors vary from country to country and from culture to culture. In terms of the gameplay dynamic for instance, we could compare the mass market gamer of Germany with the average person who buys and plays a game in the UK. In Germany, what would be considered a family game which children could play and enjoy is (taking a general view) far more complex than what would be seen as the right level of complexity in the UK. From a content point of view also, culture can have a massive impact. Games with trivia content for instance only tend to work on a global basis when they are based on a global entertainment franchise which is all about the show, or when the topic is universal…but even then the content may need some local tweaking.

Artwork is another cultural point of difference. Quite often when we work with companies looking to sell more games outside their own country we have to help them to understand that artwork styles vary a lot by country – the USA, the UK, Germany, France, Japan – these may all be markets in which you want to sell your game but if you are using an illustrated box front it can be quite hard to find a global pack design which appeals equally in each market and does not look out of place.

The media landscape also varies significantly by country and therefore by culture. This can have a massive impact – product placement for instance offers great opportunities to promote some types of board game – for instance advertising a gameshow based game during the gameshow itself or in the advertising break can be extremely effective in terms of driving sales. The challenge though is that media and advertising regulations vary by country.

Therefore, if one of your primary goals is to secure global distribution for a game, you need to incorporate this into your planning and product development process from the start to ensure you end up with a product which meets those goals.

Why Embracing & Managing Product Launch Failure Is The Key To Success In The Board Games Business

Why Embracing & Managing Product Launch Failure Is The Key To Success In The Board Games Business

It shouldn’t be news to anyone who has been the board games business for a while that most new games launched don’t stick around very long. Thousands of new games launch each year, and apart from a bit of stock residue most fade away into the distant memory or onto the web pages of Board Game Geek!

Dealing with product launch failure is a fundamental part of the board games business. If you are crestfallen and deflated, if your team are so mortified that they can’t move on and if your company is financially crippled by a single product launch failure then you are doing something wrong! Failure is a frequent visitor in this business, like it or not so you need to aim for the upside scenario while planning for and managing the downside.

Clearly we don’t intend to order ridiculously excessive quantities of stock, but when a game fails to sell off the shelf from the start, and retailers start to revise their forecasts down we can find ourselves looking at a considerable over stock and a suddenly reduced sales forecast.

One of the things we can learn from the major stock market listed companies in our industry is that they are absolutely brutal about managing inventory levels. If new products don’t perform they are exorcised and written off early so that the company can move on into the next sales cycle as efficiently as possible.

Practically speaking, if you are paying $4usd per unit for manufacturing costs, you can probably sell it via closeout and clearance channels for $2 or so (even on a disastrous flop). So in the end, aside from the opportunity cost and the reduced sales forecast you needn’t lose that much.

When launch failure becomes damaging and risky for a company is when they have invested way beyond manageable levels in terms of R&D, tooling and marketing spend. For each and every product, your company should be asking whether they can afford for the launch to fail – if the answer is no, then the product should never go ahead, because otherwise you are gambling not building a successful business. Smaller companies tend to lack the formal greenlight/milestone approval process within their product development that the bigger companies have, and as such they sometimes let things slip through that should have been binned early or end up taking risks by accident that should have been screened out.

Classic disasters include betting the house on a TV advertising campaign when that is not the usual model of the company or listening to retailers demanding massive stock orders on risky and unknown items – these two factors should be managed with extreme caution.

The reality is that most successful board games companies run a portfolio approach, with risk managed across a broad range of products. Understandably when you are starting out you won’t have that, but the sooner you can build a portfolio approach into your operating framework the more likely it is you will succeed over time.

Above all, painful experience from our side suggests that you don’t trust your own product success predictions. We have seen games we thought were rubbish to the core become perennial performers while many clear and obvious ‘winners’ have fallen by the wayside. There are so many uncontrollable factors affecting the success or failure of a new game that you really can’t expect to be right all the time, or even most of the time. Therefore, by presuming that there is a high risk of failure and managing accordingly you are more likely to build a board game business that lasts.

Board Game Biz

Board game business news, analysis and insights