I do not know where I am going next, but at the moment I am focused on making sure I leave this job well.

Thanks all.

I need to announce that I am leaving my role overseeing the Board Game category at GTS.

It's been an amazing 3ish years and I'm very proud of everything WE have accomplished together (GTS team, Publishers, Hobby Stores).

Thank you for your support.

Just like a real family. There’s always one.

We’ve collated a list of every week of our Board Game top 5 trending titles across 2024. Some really interesting trends to look at here but one thing is for sure: Arcs dominated the year.
bit.ly/POTrendingHi...

Gather ‘round young TikTok users while I tell you about an “app” called Napster…

You just got way cooler to me.

I wish video games had a “revisit tutorial” mode to remind me the controls if I put that game down for a couple of months. How is this not a standard thing in the era of no rulebooks?

We’ll be posting our top sellers for November soon too. Sneak peak is Wyrmspan, Stardew Valley and Arcs all battled each other for the top spot. Any guesses as to which game won?

Top trending pre-orders on board games last week for GTS. I don’t know if it’s worth posting these but thought some people not normally looking at a Distributor website might appreciate the insight.

Many game publishers prevent stores from selling on sites like Amazon to protect against online discounters and counterfeiting BUT allow stores to sell games on their own website. This can be a great way to get the convenience of online shopping but also still support local small businesses.

‼️This weekend if you are looking to buy Board Games obviously the best way to support your local game store is to go buy in the store. BUT if you find yourself shopping online, consider hopping off Amazon and checking to see if your favorite local store has a web-store.

Wishing all my local game store friends much success this weekend and a little rest tomorrow before the insanity. I got your back, let me know if I can help.

Cheesecake

Oh and I should add this is for Hobby. For a game I’m placing in Mass your number is much more accurate.

So the solution (if you want to be in Distribution) is consolidators who are also going to take a small cut (which brings us closer to your number) but combine smaller publishers together to make it easier for a Distro to hit the free minimum ship amount and prevent outages. Hope I’m being helpful?

Of course if you’re a young single game publisher you just aren’t going to have the demand in the market in most cases for Distro to hit those free minimum ship numbers. That’s why going direct into Distro at the start can actually hurt a new publisher by creating outages on their game.

Just to make sure young Publishers aren’t getting “taken for a ride” based on that 30-35% number, most US Distributors buy at around 60% off MSRP (Net30) but expect some sort of free ship minimum. Alternatively if we’re bringing the containers over ourselves then 65% off MSRP is more accurate.

Here’s what board games stores are pre-ordering in the highest quantities over the last 2 weeks….or as we call it: “Trending.” Often a nice sneak peek of future hits.

It’s a small thing but a “Notify on Restock” button I’ve been working on for months went live on our website for retailers yesterday. So now if there’s a game retailers are after they can get a direct email notification when it’s back in stock.

Spring 2025! First try at a kids game and it was so much fun!

We do the like “this one present is from Santa.” They also all kind of know it’s a game but a fun game. The Santa presents are the only ones that “appear” Christmas Eve night.

Here’s the board games trending for pre-orders at GTS this week. With @cityofgameshq.bsky.social new 2-Player Isle of Cats: Duel on top.

2006. Our eyes were so wide open with delight and anticipation for where this might go!

Donate to In Memory of Amber Cook: A Fund for James's Future, organized by Paul Alexander Butler On October 25th, 2024, the world suffered a tremendous loss a… Paul Alexander Butler needs your support for In Memory of Amber Cook: A Fund for James's Future

Flying to Baltimore to pay respects to one of the most fabulous people to ever work in the game industry. If you didn’t know Amber Cook but love board games I guarantee her fingerprints are all over the modern industry. If you can, consider supporting her son:

gofund.me/fb15a355

He started at this new school this year. He came back from his first day like “yeah I pretty much made friends with all the boys in my class” then proceeded to jump on a Discord server with them and hop on Fortnite.

Yeah they all use Discord. Tiktok not so much. Curious to see if that changes as he gets older but current sentiment is negative. The REAL social network in his school is Fortnite though.

This next crop of kids (call it the post TikTok generation) are being taught social media is their version of cigarettes in school. Which calls to mind a future with teenagers sitting in the parking lot of the McDonalds next to their school scrolling through instagram memes with rebellious delight.

It’s fun that bluesky has some of that old school social media vibe but I also find it hilarious that my 12 year old son thinks social media is for the “olds.”

Thanks to @drayerink.bsky.social for asking lots of good questions about board game distribution. It’s clarified how I can maybe be useful and supportive on this platform. I mostly used Twitter just for sports and news.