Steve’s prepping more video footage, so he asked me to point out Mike’s interview with Jason Mical, WizKids Marketing Director. Watch the video and learn more about WizKids’ current plans, including some tidbits on NASCAR Race Day and the Battlestar Galactica CCG.
Jason Mical of WizKids (Quicktime required)
If I had the time to sit down and research it, I would give you a real number, but I don’t. So I am going to say that this year, 10+ new CCGs will hit the market. By doing all this product testing through launching the game to the base, they are diluting customers, as their disposable income isn’t increasing to match the number of releases. Any _good_ game that might come out, loses potential players to these flash-in-the-pan “product test pieces” (read: Battlestar Galactica) and keeps diluting the market as well.
Another point I wish these guys realized is that, most of the time, they are competing with themselves. WK has a fairly nifty idea in their Poker CCG… so then they announce a second game before the first one even hits. People may just hold onto their cash, and wait for BSG. This in turn may decrese the buzz for the poker game, meaning retailers will order less, and overall pre-orders will decrease. Pre-orders decreasing means WK prints less. If it hits big… boom, everyone runs out, and we don’t see more for a couple months. That was OK for Pirates, which was actually a new kind of product, but not for a CCG. The shotgun method (which I applaud Jason for admitting to) may do them more harm than good. Dunno, that’s just me thinking out loud.