How will we know Wave 9 sales performance?

[Ace Histoli]

Sorry if my inadequate search-fu failed to locate a previous discussion. Also, if this really belongs in "Sales and Sightings", please feel free to move it.




How will we know if Wave 9 is selling well? If Hasbro/WOTC is making enough money to continue new releases? Or re-releases? …or, gods forbid, if it’s not making sufficient profit and they’re questioning future products?

I’ve just discovered Heroscape, and I’m absolutely loving everything about it. I’ve spent what can only be characterized as an embarrassing sum of money already (even Ebay-ing old games & possessions to acquire more plasticrack) and, of course, I’m still scratching the surface. It’s been a ton of fun so far, and I’m only just beginning. Here’s the deal, though: as psyched as I am about the present, I’m really excited about being able to play with my son (and hypothetical additional children) in a few years. I’ve lurked on the boards enough to read plenty of fiscal crystal ball reading, so I’m a little concerned. If Heroscape goes belly-up in three years, there won’t be as much of a scene (let alone tournaments, etc) by the time my son is old enough to really take part. Therefore, I’m highly interested in the financial health of the Heroscape brand.

I do understand that none of this should affect my behavior as an individual ‘scaper: mine is but to purchase (don’t worry, I did my part with Wave 9 and the Wave 1 reprint), play, enjoy, and evangelize*. And, hey, if this train does come to a stop, hopefully I’ll have amassed a decent enough collection to have fun with my kid(s) for years and years. Gotta admit that I’m curious, though. You guys who have been around for a while might have a better perspective. Is there a WOTC kabuki that will indicate if sales meet expectations? Or maybe a direct sales report from the admins in 6 months?



* Anybody else admit to watching “Jon and Kate plus 8”? Apparently the show’s power of product placement is just ridiculous. Last week’s episode with “Crooked Houses” led to the crookedhouse website registering 150k hits within 90 seconds of the mention on the show… so I’m having fantasies of somehow getting the Gosselin kids to play Heroscape. All it will take is one cut-away shot of the kids gathered around a map, and all of our worries will be over!

[Sherman Davies]

Even with WotC employees like Truth and The Guru on this site, I would not expect to get any official word on the sales performance of Heroscape around here. As you no doubt know, companies are very protective of figures like that. However, we as a community have a pretty good sense of whether things are going well or not. We knew generally what was going on when Toys R Us and Target dropped the game, and we knew what happened when Wal-Mart tried to strong-arm WotC into giving them a better discount. (The fact that they failed to do so and continue to carry 'Scape is in itself a pretty good sign of the game's viability.) We also observed on our own the Marvelscape and Nakita Gluts, and the changes that were made in the packaging of the game in response to those events.

The fact is, Heroscape will probably never be a Magic: The Gathering or a Pokemon, or even a Heroclix. Instead, I see it as a steady, reliable seller with a considerable and dedicated fanbase, not to mention the silent majority out there who may be supporting it just for the terrain. I have never agreed with the various doom 'n' gloomers and naysayers who pop up from time to time declaring The End of Heroscape. In fact, I'm going to go out on a (strong) limb here and say that Wave 9 will not be the final wave of the game.

Say it with me now: Heroscape Lives!

[jbbnbsmith]

Originally Posted by Ace Histoli

* Anybody else admit to watching “Jon and Kate plus 8”?

You mean "Jon plus four" and "Kate plus four"?

[DBC]

When Wave 9 was getting ready to be produced, we were told it would come out no matter how Wal-Mart reacted.
Since they bough up the majority of the production, I believe it is safe to say we'll see a Wave 10, no matter how good or bad Wal-Mart sells.
It is also worth mentioning that an English site like Gameslore is once again able to acquire Heroscape. They had trouble getting the last few expansions, but have now stocked up on both Master Sets and wave 9. The old distribution of the larger expansions also seems to have changed from containing 2 x miniatures + 1 x terrain, to 1 x miniatures + 2 x terrain, at least according to my FLGS in Copenhagen.
All good signs for the longevity of Heroscape.

But keep checking up on this site and I'm sure we'll hear something (positive) within in a couple of months.

[Kroc]

I'm glad to hear all this positive feedback to this thread. I've been kind of worried about the lack of even preliminary information about wave 10.

I would be so sad to see this game fail. I have to disagree with Sherman Davies, I hope that this game will be a household name in the long run. Maybe it hasn't generated the pashion of Pokemon, but it is such a solid GAME. I could never get my friends to play Magic, or Pokemon, or Heroclix. Those games have their own pre-packaged audience (the D&D crowd), this game has to create its own.

But then again, look around this sight. The audience seems pretty big and growing.

Welcome to the game and welcome to the boards, DBC.

[Hahnarama]

Originally Posted by Sherman Davies

Even with WotC employees like Truth and The Guru on this site....

Dudes we spend all weekend together gaming and you don't tell me that you got hired on my WotC?!

[ElvenEnvy]

If WotC is a subsiderary of Hasbro, a publicly traded company, common stock shareholder should be able to access that data. I bet that WotC is just run seperately but with Hasbro taking its profit and losses in which case they couldn't actually see.

If anybody with a porfolio wants to put down 100 dollars on stock and find out that would be cool.

[Bonecrusher]

Originally Posted by Kroc

Welcome to the game and welcome to the boards, DBC.

He joined July 1, 2008. But I think that Heroscape will be successful with wave nine. Always the optimist!

[Brownsfan82]

In general, heroscape has always sold well. There has been a few expansions that had trouble selling like the Nakita Pack and Warriors and Soulborgs packs. But all in all, heroscape has been a dependable seller online, at walmart, and local gaming stores. You can ussually tell what sells by whats in stock on internet gaming websites.

I feel that heroscape kind of sells with just enough production like the Nintendo Wii. Release a wave or two at a time and build up anticipation for the next release. It keeps peoples' interests.

[Onacara]

Originally Posted by Hahnarama

Dudes we spend all weekend together gaming and you don't tell me that you got hired on my WotC?!

They are not WotC employees. Truth is an independent contractor if I recall correctly. Guru used to work for Hasbro answering questions for folks about Heroscape on their gamers hotline/email.

[Sherman Davies]

Originally Posted by Onacara

They are not WotC employees. Truth is an independent contractor if I recall correctly. Guru used to work for Hasbro answering questions for folks about Heroscape on their gamers hotline/email.

Whoops, thanks for the clarification, Onacara.

[chas]

I have to say that, given all the means of advertising these days, even with its costs in some venues, it seems that Heroscape gets far less publicity in general than it should. It should be seen by marketing as a SUPER CROSSOVER DESIGN! After all, whatever your topic of interest, HS has got it covered to some degree. Someone interested in only one aspect could collect the figures for that topic and just play it to death (Asian military/martial arts, Horror, D&D, Hi Tech Agents and Robots, Superheroes, etc.) in one topic/genre alone, supplementing Classic figures with Customs (I have a Mongol army and Dwarf, Orc, Ancient Gladiator and Elite Roman armies for example).

Ah, for the days when I actually saw Heroscape commercials on the SciFi/SyFy Channel! Where's the love?