Magic: the Gathering Strategy Board Game

[Colorcrayons]

Originally Posted by Jim

How can selling a product for the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price be considered scalping in any way?

It is when its above msrp. Re: CSI @$33 & fun again @$46.
CSI corrected it, fun again has not.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Colorcrayons

It is when its above msrp. Re: CSI @$33 & fun again @$46.
CSI corrected it, fun again has not.

Time to get technical here.


1. MSRP stands for, as I said above, Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. The Suggested part means that it is not the price that it has to be sold for.
2. The right term for CSI's pricing would be something like "not discounting."
3. It is entirely possible that the distributers were mistakenly giving out the wrong prices to their customers. As you said, CSI corrected it. It is quite possible that Funagain simply hasn't yet. That being said, I don't even consider Funagain prices to be an accurate guage, since their normal prices are typically very much higher than every other OLGS.
4. CSI selling it for retail means that not everyone (as you said) is selling it higher.

[Colorcrayons]

An interesting article concerning the LGS pricing of the game.

http://icv2.com/articles/columns/vie...ng-times-three

[netherspirit]

I'm not sure what the target market for this game is. I can't imagine many of the Magic players I know/knew are excited about this nor many of board gamers I know because it's Magic branded.

[quozl]

Us.

[netherspirit]

Yeah, maybe. I guess I just dont see it doing well because, I feel like the majority of the Magic community isn't going to care and the a majority of the board game/miniature community might be turned off by the Magic branding. Maybe I'm wrong.

[chas]

Colorcrayons:

Its interesting that rather than stress the MTG link, the reviewer says "This appears to be a revamping of the Heroscape system." He also notes the reasonable cost of $29.99

[johnny139]

Magic has been trying really hard to expand their brand recently - releasing computer games, pushing into mass market stores, working on a big budget movie. Releasing a cheap, thematic board game with Hasbro backing made HeroScape a success, so I think they're hoping to get lightning striking again.

It's to attract outsiders to the Magic brand, not to sell a new product to Magic players.

[Dad_Scaper]

It's also something that a person's mother can buy for a person who plays Magic. It's within the realm of possibility that once it's been bought as a gift, *somebody* might try it, and enjoy it.

[AMIS]

I stay away from card games...except the standards (poker/blackjack,etc)...and I think you'll find there a lot of folks like me (ex-old D&D edition players but not really gamers) who may pick up something like this to try to understand why the card game is even popular.

[chas]

johnny139,

Ah, Corporate Gigantism in a tiny gaming universe. Yes, its pretty sad when they push a product that's already been super successful, expecting to somehow tweak another quantum leap in profits that cannot possibly be realized! But perhaps a certain designer is bending their intent to his own ends--a Saruman to their Sauron, if you will...(sorry about that, buddy--go for it, and thanks).

[Colorcrayons]

It's a strong brand, tied to a strong miniatures game engine. With a few tweaks. It's really not hard to imagine a company taking a risk to produce this. It'll sell out its initial print run.
The real question is, will be it be as successful as Hasbro wants it to be?

It definitely has potential. I think one of the most major bits of fanfare and hype will come from the Dice Tower. Vasal is a heroscape fan, and an MTG fan.
Once his word of mouth gets published, we'll likely see the beginning of some inertia.
He has already gone on record as being positively inclined towards it.

I hate cult of personality. But the fact is, such things sell games.