Josh Wielgus
Thoughts (not judgments) on the Euthia situation (that nobody asked for) from a publisher of extremely large and heavy games. This is (really) long and possibly just stuff that's already been said by many, but maybe it will help give some new insights to a few folks.
1. Very few consumers have a great understanding of how much production and shipping (including ocean freight) of large board game costs right now. Amazon has spoiled us all. The costs have grown at an astronomical rate during covid. I'm not the first to say this. You've likely uttered it to other folks here yourself. I know everyone "knows" this intellectually, but few *truly* understand. Only now are we starting to see significant price increases from publishers to try to cover this increases. Frosthaven was one of the first big dominos to fall with a new MSRP of $250. Return to Dark Tower is releasing at a much higher price point than its campaign/original projected MSRP. This isn't just because they added a lot of content, this is an attempt to bake freight and shipping costs into the game itself.
2. We (Chip Theory) are about to fulfill burncycle next week. burncycle has turned out to be the most expensive to manufacture game we've made so far. Our average shipping cost per order to fulfill is going to come in at around $50 per order through Quartermaster Logistics (this, notably, may include things like Too Many Bones/Cloudspire that were added in the Pledge Manager - so it's not just burncycle items just to provide full transparency). We sold burncycle for $100 on the campaign (a $30 discount below MSRP) and charged a flat $15 for shipping. It doesn't take much math to realize we're not exactly printing money over here. We own those decisions (obviously) and are well positioned to accommodate them. They're decisions we made to try and really push a fresh IP that was early in development when it came to crowdfunding. But not all (most) companies are positioned to handle deep discounts of this nature.
3. What does that have to do with Euthia? Well, my assumption is they figured/hoped that the great reviews of the original + the free/significantly discounted shipping offer would cause it to feel like a no brainer, go viral, and explode in volume at a level that made the campaign a huge hit/sensation. I haven't played Euthia, but it certainly looks the part of a game that may have been able to do just that. Sadly, many great board games end up flying under the radar for a number of reasons these days. For whatever reason, this one largely did. They bet on themselves and (apparently) lost. Euthia really did need significant volume to make not just manufacturing, but shipping possible.
4. But the big question everyone is asking, why would they (or anyone) undershoot their actual goal my *so* much!? Well, in short, it's my fault. Also it's your fault. It's *all* of our faults. Yes, of course, every publisher (Chip Theory included) loooooooves to run with the "funded in X minutes!" line on their campaign. It generates hype. It generates excitement. But much, much, much more than that - we all just straight up don't bother backing games that don't fund on the first or second day anymore. I don't know what Euthia truly "needed" in their campaign. 6000 backers, I suppose, was in the $1.25 million range based on where they closed. But I can guarantee that their day one and two funding would have been lower had the game not funded in a hurry. Their typical mid-campaign lull would have also been more severe. And there would have been a chorus of folks in the comments belaboring the lack of stretch goals, waxing philosophical on why the game wasn't a success, giving them business advice on how to run the campaign better, etc. The comments may have gone completely toxic, which also can repel new backers thinking about pledging.
5. Why not charge *actual* shipping? Well, as covered above, *actual* shipping is wildly expensive right now. Most publishers are eating a considerable amount of shipping right now because it has a really bad psychological effect on the customer. The one recent publisher who decided to charge actual shipping in the last month...yeah I'm not gonna touch that one
6. Yes, campaign goals are often smoke and mirrors (to a point). But we, all of us, the consumers, feed that beast by rarely jumping on projects that appear to be experiencing only tenuous funding. We *all* do this. We want it all. We want the quick funding to assure us our investment is sound, we want exclusives because "otherwise why not wait for retail?", we want a price break because the product may be unproven and we'll be waiting upwards of a year or more, we want it deluxified, we want full transparency from the publisher, we want gameplay videos, we want 3D renders demonstrating how it plays, and we want gorgeous art. We want it all! And as a consumer - I want all those same things too. However, all of that stuff, aside perhaps from transparency, has a huge price tag. What I'm positing here is that transparency on *true* funding goal for most companies has its own price tag. A lack of hype, buzz, marketing sizzle lines, momentrum, funding, and guaranteed success after the first couple days of a campaign can be utterly crippling.
7. The TL:DR here is simply simply "Be kind to Diea games." There's no part of any publisher I know of who is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of their customers. Everybody is making decisions that they think will lead to both the best business outcome *and* the best product for consumers. A runaway success in funding will always mean a better product at the end of the day. They did everything they could to try and make that happen - it sucks that it didn't work out. Every publisher out there is struggling to deal with all the new realities that covid, the recent supply chain issues, and an unprecedented amount of competition have brought to the board game industry. This is a really expensive industry to be involved in - both from a publisher and consumer side. I hope that even through some smoke and mirrors, we can all assume the best in each other.