Comment Re:My prediction (Score 1) 131
The sources of the quoted info are either generally small surveys [under 100 game stores participate in the C&GR survey] and the ICV2 data seems to be mostly "word of mouth" material; there's no nice system for tracking sales in the gaming industry, as most distributors and manufacturers do not offer returnability, so there is no real way to know if a game sells out at the retail level or not.
The pen-and-paper gaming industry is certainly hurting, but things are improving for the companies that have survived and adapted over the last few years. There's certainly been a large contraction in the number of companies, but there was a large explosion of companies publishing d20 material, and most of those have gone away. The C&GR and ICV2 stats also don't take into account electronic book sales, which are growing for both companies that publish through the game and book trades, and for electronic-only companies.
Nobody is getting rich, but things seem to be stabalizing and in some cases improving.
The pen-and-paper gaming industry is certainly hurting, but things are improving for the companies that have survived and adapted over the last few years. There's certainly been a large contraction in the number of companies, but there was a large explosion of companies publishing d20 material, and most of those have gone away. The C&GR and ICV2 stats also don't take into account electronic book sales, which are growing for both companies that publish through the game and book trades, and for electronic-only companies.
Nobody is getting rich, but things seem to be stabalizing and in some cases improving.
