The Business: Meanwhile, A Rumbling Across The Pond Grows

Wargamer Fritz asks a pertinent question.

Nevermind Fantasy Flight screwing up a license to print money (as they do).

What Fritz is talking about is that Stupid British Toy Company sees that they too are pivoting out of tabletop. No, this is not the same thing as what Wizards are doing, but instead it is a far more ordinary pivot that any fantastic property takes when it acquires enough of Official Setting Bible material to merit pivot to a more profitable (and thus more Normie-facing) medium.

Nevermind what is said. Pay attention to what is done, both by the IP holder and by its audience.

What matters more to the corporate office now, the tabletop game or the IP as a whole? The IP as a whole, duh. This is why there is such a high-profile push into tie-in media, both passive (books, primarily) and active (videogames) while (wisely) letting their biggest fans do the marketing and advertising for them (mostly- sometimes you see them shoot themselves in the foot like they did to SODAZ and Syema Peterson).

By letting the fan-run lore channels go at it, that attracts attention first to the tie-in media and related merchandise (like those Bandai-made Space Marines, which are great toys) and then (it is hoped) to the tabletop game.

But the trend is not to remain focused upon tabletop as the cornerstone of the business. The brand is the cornerstone now, and tabletop merely a major element of Brand Expression- one that will, over time, be depreciated in favor of videogames, books, comics, and video.

No, Stupid British Toy Company will not abandon tabletop soon, but once the MBAs get into the C-Suite they'll start taking that soft and slow pivot now underway and rachet it up to a hard and fast one. Videogames and passive entertainment media are miles more profitable than tabletop gaming ever will be; anyone looking to maximize shareholder value will see this and demand a transition out of tabletop to achieve that objective.

This, by the way, is how Wizards avoids criticism from the business press about what they're doing to D&D and Magic; this is basic-bitch MBA "Make line go up" stuff that all corpos and stock guys agree upon.

I estimate that you've got, at most, until 2040 and that is me being very generous; tabletop could be a vestigial business element by 2030 and gone before 2040.

What will the tabletop people do then? Do they have a plan? The fans do, which is why 3D Printing has already become too entrenched to root out, so you can bet that they'll keep the game going without the corporation also.

And the Clubhouse will play on without the Corporation.

Conventional Play people had better start figuring out a plan because their biggest pillars are going to rug-pull them sooner than later.

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N.B.: There's a crowdfunding campaign for a 40th Anniversary edition of Valley of the Pharoahs, Palladium's first boxed game from 1984. Check it out.