FINE GAMES UPDATE NEWSLETTER #38 24 May 2002 Fine Games for Players & Collectors 2078 Madrona St., North Bend, OR 97459-2143 email: M.Dean@FineGames.com ph: 541-756-4711 10am-9pm PST WELCOME again to another Fine Games e-newsletter. These Updates contain news and other info of interest to active board gamers. The latest issue is always available at . Subscriptions are available free when you submit complete contact info (home mailing address, phone # and email address). If you choose to unsubscribe, you may do so via a simple emailed request to do so. C O N T E N T S SPECIAL GAME SALES Gamers / AH / MMP Items at 60% off Many New Clearance List Items Fine Games NEWS .......... What's going on at Fine Games - Closed for Vacation 7 - 17 June - Mailed Catalog Due in Late June - Shipping Rates to Increase in July - Business is SLOW & More Costly INDUSTRY NEWS ............ What's happening in the Game Industry - Continued Contraction & Collapse - Steve Jackson Games Reborn - Hasbro Has a Good Year JUST FOR FUN A Undergraduate Thesis on Role Playing Settlers of Catan Online NEW Games ................ New & Pending Board Game Releases - Key New Releases * - Key Pending Releases CONTENT: Special Game Sales 1. Fine Games offers you a last chance to obtain most of the Gamers' games, plus selected Avalon Hill & MMP titles at 60% off the list price. Here's the deal: We're offering virtually the entire Gamers line, plus 7 AH titles, plus 6 ASL AH titles, each at 40% (60% off) their list price. See the complete price list at . These are offered on a special order basis only, and availability is subject to stock availability at MMP. Your order MUST be received by 10am PST, Friday, 31 May. Payment can follow in normal fashion. 2. Additional Clearance Items will also be posted next week. We expect to add several hundred items to our ongoing clearance list at . Check it out beginning Wednesday, 29 May. F I N E G A M E S N E W S 1. Fine Games will be closed for vacation between Friday, 7 June and Sunday, 16 June. We intend to answer emails periodically between that time, but no shipments will go out. As always, we will get every order possible out the door before we head out to the Oregon outback for fun & sun. 2. We aim to have another printed catalog in the mails to active customers by late June. This will be another 44pg monsters covering the bulk of our inventory. To receive this, you must have placed orders totaling a mere $60 ($100 internationally) since October, or send in $3 ($5 internationally) for a one issue subscription. 3. Be forewarned: our shipping rates will increase in July. Specific rates are yet to be determined, but may be on the order of +$1/order. The heavy/bulky item surcharge may increase +$0.50 to $2. Stay tuned. (See below for a discussion of the truly massive USPS rate increase coming up.) 4. Fine Games' business level this year has been SLOW! At the same time, business costs are rising in key areas. We mention this simply to inform you of what its like to be in the game business these days. 2002 has been an exceptionally slow year. Sales are perhaps 60% of prior years YTD. Further, 2001 sales were down 18% from 2000, and those were down from our peak in 1999. The writing on the wall just becomes clearer year by year. Worse, really, are the ongoing increases in the costs of doing business. After the collapse of several great distributors, the remainder have decreased their discounts such that our costs have effectively increased by 15%. Postal rates will increase by more than 60% (!!!) at the end of June. In response, we expect UPS rates to increase by more than the usual 5% next year. And energy and other sundry costs have climbed sharply since last year too. I N D U S T R Y N E W S 1. The board gaming industry continues its contraction nears total collapse, in our opinion. Since the beginning of the year, XTR/Command magazine has liquidated & is no more. The Gamers, which has been unprofitable for years, sold itself to MMP, which will continue it as a design division. (But note the massive inventory sell-off at the top of this newsletter.) Much worse, distributors are actively dropping nearly all of the smaller board gaming lines, esp. of wargame publishers. Udo Grebe, Operational Studies Group and other small line publishers are no longer stocked at all. Other once proud lines such as Australian Design Groups World in Flames products or GRD's Europa series are now rarely in stock. Distributors such as Alliance talk of their "strategic decision" to drop or cherry pick such publishers. These same distributors have dropped the typical discount by 6%, which translates to a 15% increase in our costs. Ugly all around. And if we stop & count the remaining active publishers, we have Avalanche, Columbia Games, Critical Hit, Decision Games, GMT, Hasbro, Mayfair, and MMP. Pretty thin for the industry that spawned the rest of gaming. 2. A funny thing happened to Steve Jackson Games since last year. In July, it laid off its entire staff as its accounting and inventory management system were in disarray, with cash flow problems. Since then, fortunately, Steve has picked up the pieces & resumed his publication schedule. Does anyone else see a pattern here? 3. Hasbro reported a strong year in 2001. The ultimate demise of the Pokemon line dragged total revenues DOWN over 2000; excluding Pokemon & Furby lines, revenues & profits increased in 2001. We're happy to know & report that... ...And that as of March of this year, Fine Games no longer has ANY Pokemon product in stock. Finally. J U S T F O R F U N 1. A Lindfield College student, Eric Swett, completed his undergraduate thesis on the subject of the role playing game sub-culture. He solicited assistance via the internet, and had to struggle to pull together hard info on this aspect of the gaming world. You can read his complete these, in web format, at . 2. Settler of Catan, one of the most popular board game series of all times, is now available in an online, internet version. Now you can get your fix in a 60-90 minute session at . Note that this is a free service, and explicitly in "beta" testing. So don't be surprised if you get bumped occasionally. N E W G A M E R E L E A S E S You can always view the most recent listing of New Game Releases at . Our recommendations from among the full list below are these: Box Est Cash Publsr / Game Title & Edition Typ Wght PriceEA Rels Date ------ -------------------------------- --- ---- ------- ------------ AMARILLO DESIGN GROUP (ADB) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST STAR FLEET BATTLES: FEDERATN FLEET LB* $29.00 02/ 5 BOX#2 STAR FLEET BATTLES: ISC FLEET BOX LB* $29.00 02/ 5 STAR FLEET BATTLES: OMEGA 4 MODULE Bk $16.00 02/ 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AVALANCHE PRESS, LTD. (Avalan) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST GREAT WAR AT SEA, V.7: GREAT WHITE Bk 0.6 $11.00 02/ 4 FLEET SECOND WW AT SEA, MIDWAY BC 1.8 $36.00 02/ 3 SOLDIER KINGS BC $29.00 02/ 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHEAPASS GAMES (CheapA) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST CAPT. PARKS IMAGINARY POLAR EXPEDITION SB 0.6 $6.00 02/ 3 DICELAND, DEEP WHITE SEA SB $12.00 02/ 4 PLASMAWORM SB $8.00 02/ 4 STRANGE ADVENTURES IN INFINITE SPACE SB $12.50 02/ 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COLUMBIA GAMES (ColumG) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST MASTERFRONT KIT Fo 1.2 $20.00 02/ 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DECISION GAMES (DecGms) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST BEYOND THE URALS zl 0.5 $18.00 02/ 3 OPERATION KREMLIN HC 0.8 $25.00 02/ 3 INDOCHINA, THE FRENCH IN VIETNAM #209 n 1.0 $15.00 02/ 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ EURO GAMES / DESCARTES (EuroG) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST CLIPPERS FB $24.50 02/ 5 FANTASY BUSINESS SB 1.0 $12.00 02/ 4 GOUDA! GOUDA! SB $15.00 02/ 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FAR FUTURE ENTERPRISES (FFE) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST TRAVELLER, COLLECTORS EDITION: JRNL Bk $21.00 02/ 5 1-12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES (FFG) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST CITADELS SB 1.0 $14.00 02/ 4 KINGDOMS SB $15.00 02/ 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GMT GAMES (GMT) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST FLAGSHIP, COYOTE STANDS SC 1.2 $17.50 02/ 5 FLAGSHIP, PROMETHEUS UNCHAINED SC 1.2 $17.50 02/ 5 PRUSSIA'S GLORY BC 2.0 $38.50 02/ 4 SANTA FE RAILS 2ND LB* $32.00 02/ 5 THIS ACCURSED CIVIL WAR 2ND BC 1.6 $38.00 02/ 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ KHYBER PASS GAMES (Khyber) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST TOGOLAND 1914 zl 0.4 $9.00 02/ 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MINDEN GAMES / PANZERSCHK (MinPzr) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST 1914, OPENING MOVES zl 0.2 $5.00 02/ 5 ST. GEORGE'S VALOUR / FALL OF ROHM #8 zl 0.4 $11.00 02/ 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ RIGHT STUF INTL, INC. (RightS) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST DIVINE RIGHT 25TH ANNIV [3RD] LB* 3.5 $39.00 02/ 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ RIO GRANDE GAMES (RIO) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST CARCASSONE: EXPANSION KIT SB 0.8 $9.50 02/ 5 HALLI GALLI SB $13.00 02/ 4 PUEBLO FB $29.00 02/ 5 PUERTO RICO FB $25.00 02/ 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SIMULACIONES TACTICAS (SimTac) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST IBEROS BC $35.00 02/ 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SIMULATIONS WORKSHOP, INC (SimWor) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST GREEN BERET zl 0.4 $10.00 02/ 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ STEVE JACKSON GAMES (SJG) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST FRAG: FIRE ZONE KIT Fo 0.4 $6.00 02/ 3 MUNCHKIN CARD GAME: UNNATURAL AXE KIT Fo 0.6 $13.00 02/ 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ USA-OPOLY (USO) (541) 756-4711 10am-9pm PST MONOPOLY, ELVIS EDITION LB* $38.00 02/ 4 P E N D I N G G A M E R E L E A S E S You can always view the most recent listing of Pending Game Releases (those due within a few months) at . You'll find a couple hundred titles listed, tho some may never actually see the light of day. We hope you enjoy this newsletter and welcome any comments you may wish to provide to guide us in what we provide in the future. Michael Dean Fine Games for Players & Collectors