Why must the same, old games take up store shelves?

Party games.
Retreads on old themes.

There are some photos of Target shelves sprinkled throughout this post. I took these photos in May of 2010. If I were to take photos of the same shelves today, there would only be one difference that might be notable to those that would be interested in this blog: The Settlers of Catan is now a game on those shelves.

Players that have been in the hobby for a while and have discovered games like 7 Wonders, Alien Frontiers, Ticket To Ride, Dominion, and etc. are probably not very excited about that. They already have Settlers of Catan. They may even have many of the expansions. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon that they are already bored with not only the original Settlers of Catan (which is what Target carries) but the expansions as well.

So, what is notable? Well, as noted on boardgamegeek, Settlers Of Catan came out in 1995. Moreover, it can reasonably be argued that it is one of the primary success stories that has made board games rise in popularity as they have. As noted in the Wikipedia article, "The Settlers of Catan was one of the first German-style board games to achieve popularity outside of Europe." One analyst, Stewart Woods, basically told a Wired Magazine reporter that it was a pioneer for all the great games that board gamers enjoy today.

I got sick of Apples To Apples.
Target hasn't.

However, that means that it took about 15 years before it achieved enough appeal for the publishers to push it on to supermarket shelves like that of Target. Now, as the Wired.com article alludes to, Catan has been on major retail shelves for a while (at least since 2009 when the article was posted), but it still took another 2 years before I saw it on shelves at my local Target.

There may be multiple reasons that it did not hit shelves until now. First and foremost, it is very difficult to get a product on supermarket shelves. This article on smarta.com gives an idea of just how much work and thought goes into it. For example, one has to be willing to supply each and everyone of there stores with product, and that is expensive. A company better be darn sure they can afford such a deployment. The price of the shelf space alone can be a major deterrent for companies as well. It is hard to pin-down the price of shelf space, since each contract can be different, but if this forum post is correct, shelf space could cost up to $25,000. Therefore, even if Mayfair Games could get Settlers on mass market shelves sooner, one could see why they might hesitate. If they did think about it earlier and hesitate, I wonder how long they kicked the idea around. It still amazes me that the game has been a huge hit since its release, and yet it still took them 15 years to get it onto mass market shelves! For old businessmen, that may not be a surprise, but for a newbie used to the instant publishing of the internet, that is ages. Think of it this way: Windows 95 was a brand new operating system in the same year; the Windows IE browser had a brand new feature "built-in support for dial-up networking and TCP/IP!" (See this microsoft.com article.) I know that tech and board games are like apples and oranges, but the point/idea still holds.

Blokus is relatively new. (2000)
Good, but lighter strategy than Settlers.

When I look at Target shelves and see no new strategy board games on it until a year later when I see Settlers of Catan finally make it, I can't help but extrapolate to the rest of the board game industry. After all, "It has become the first German-style title to make the leap from game-geek specialty stores to major retailers like Barnes & Noble and Toys R' Us" (Curry). If we take Settlers of Catan as example, we can expect Dominion to be on Target shelves around 2023. Maybe things will accelerate and more strategy games will be able to follow the path that Settlers blazed and, thus, get on shelves sooner. It would be fun to be able to drive to a nearby Target and pick up a copy of the newest board game hotness while picking up shaving cream or towels just like I can when video games are released. However, while the popularity of board games has been rising in recent years, I don't think it is likely that it will ever reach quite the mass market appeal that video games, movies, & etc. have achieved. I think too many people still think board games are for kids while others just don't want to try any game that requires much thinking. I have no basis for that; it is just my gut feeling. Nevertheless, more and more people are getting interest in great board and card games and the size of the market is rising. So, while the industry experiences growth, I will revel in its success and still be happy to purchase games from hobby stores and Amazon.com.