~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Fine Games for Players & Collectors | | 2078 Madrona St., North Bend, OR 97459-2143 USA | ~~~~~~~~ 541-756-4711 10am - 9pm PST ~~~ M.Dean@FineGames.com ~~~~~~~~~ Quickie Games Update Newsletter 3 April 2001 Fine Games' Quickie Updates provide late breaking news to keep you up to date. Full details will follow in the next regular Update Newsletter. <<-------------------- Best viewed w/ fixed pitch font ----------------->> ***** C O N T E N T S ***** 1. BAD News. Very Bad: Berkeley/Top Line Sells Out to Alliance 2. Fine Games Digs Deep for its Semi-Annual Clearance 3. What's Happened to the Update Newsletter ? 4. Hasbro Has a Bad Year, Shuts its Online Store 5. Winston Hamilton, Prez of GRD, Passes 6. Happy Birthday to Us 7. Ongoing ISP Problems 8. TWO Big Releases: Axis & Allies Pacific & ASL Genesis '48 New Game Releases & Pending Releases Links (Feb thru Apr 01) Releases Pending Releases 1. BERKELEY/TOP LINE DISTRIBUTORS SELLS OUT TO ALLIANCE. Bad. Very Bad. Bad, bad, bad, oh so bad. It's the *other* shoe dropping. Berkeley, long the dominant west coast game distributor, and in our opinion the most customer-oriented, simply ceased to exist last Friday. All its inventory and most of its other assets and operations have been assumed by Alliance Distributors, the country's largest. At the same time, Alliance also bought Barchetta Distribution, a smaller southern California operation whose name-sake was a former Berkeley general manager. So why is this BAD? Alliance has historically maintained rather poor support for board gaming generally, and wargaming in particular. Tho they are the nation's largest game distributor, with 4 warehouses across the country, they have not carried either the breadth or depth of inventory to qualify as a primary source of game products, in our opinion. We can rattle of a number of smaller publishers' whose games they have never carried. In our experience, shortages of 25% of the line items on our orders are common, even when they confirm availability. Ordering itself is far more laborious due to their inventory being unevenly spread among 4 warehouses. And don't think that they will stock such esoterica as the Spanish La Bataille series games by SimTac, for instance, something that Berkeley did until last Friday. Beyond that, Berkeley's sale represents a potentially critical implosion of the distribution system. Our hobby has been struggling from many adverse factors. But here we have the immediate loss of one of the few full-line, full-service distributors. Both dealers and publishers will find it significant harder to receive or sell products thru the intermediary of a good distributor. Many small publishers will feel this pinch quickly. The future is always taking shape, but we see nothing positive in this. Nothing. 2. FINE GAMES DUG DEEP TO UNEARTH 500 ITEMS FOR SEMI-ANNUAL CLEARANCE We've completely updated our Semi-Annual Clearance Listing to give you nearly 500 reasons to check it out. You'll find that many games, mostly new & unblemished, priced to help our cash flow during tax season! You'll see a couple dozen main-line ASL titles, most of our Star Fleet Battles supplements, ALL of our Babylon 5 rules & supplements, all of our die Sieder stuff, all Disk Wars, all Button Men, Command at Sea/Harpoon, lots of Avalon Hill/Victory titles, plus dozens of other items that we have too many of. This sale is, of course, first-come, first-served, and most items listed are available in quantities of one, only. The sale will end on 30 April. 3. WHAT'S BECOME OF THE UPDATE NEWSLETTER? Fine Games has published its Update Newsletter for six years. Our last full issue was emailed about a full year ago. It wasn't our intent to stop, but business (and life generally) has gotten rather full. Time & energy had to come from somewhere, and this was where. More basically, we're no longer sure that the newsletter in its current format meets your needs for news about the games industry and game availability. We suspect that more frequent but shorter updates pertaining to specific subjects (like new game releases) may be in order. To that end, we'll propose some options in a future Update. For now, if you have any burning thoughts, please let us know; that's the best source of direction we can have. 4. HABRO HAS A BAD YEAR, SHUTS ITS ONLINE STORE Hasbro took a financial beating last fiscal year, losing $23 million (EXcluding larger losses from the sale of it's interactive division). Sales worldwide declined 10%; Pokemon lost its luster, it seems. So, Hasbro will be downsizing to lower fixed costs during 2001. And, if you've visited the Avalon Hill-brand web site recently with the intent of buying anything online, you've seen the curt notice that Hasbro's online store is closed. Apparently, the web designers were the first to get the axe. 5. WINSTON HAMILTON, PRESIDENT OF GRD, PASSES We note the passing of another luminary with a long involvement in the board and wargaming hobby. Winston Hamilton died on 18 March. President of Games Research & Design, he has been instrumental in maintaining the torch of the Europa game series. He also was involved in GAMA, the game mfg's association, for many years. 6. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US Fine Games turned nine years old on Sunday, April Fools Day. 'Nough said? Happy B-Day to us. What a long, strange trip its been. 7. ONGOING ISP PROBLEMS HERE AT FINE GAMES Our longstanding internet service provider (ISP) was bought by another ISP, then both were bought by Earthlink in early January. Life has been hell since. We've had the full range of problems from email that takes 3 days to be delivered, total inabilities to sign on, evidence that our web site wasn't functional for several days. Today, we received remarkably few incoming emails. We apologize if any of this disaster has affected you, our customers. We regret the inconvenience. 8.NEW & PENDING GAME RELEASES Last week brought not one but two long-awaited, big game releases. Hasbro published the sister game to Axis & Allies Europe, A&A PACIFIC ($35). Critical Hit put out its very long awaited, ASL (excuse me, Squads & Leaders) compatible kit about the 1948 battle for Jerusalem ($35). For details, see our New Release catalog, below. Fine Games' online catalogs, including listings of recently released games or games due for release shortly, always current and always available online. Visit these links to see current lists: Recent Releases (Feb-Apr'01) Pending Releases (thru June) Master Catalog Index of all 140+ online catalogs Michael Dean Fine Games