Edit: Before kicking me in the teeth for posting this, allow me to say this: I was wrong about RftG in my speculation.
Before not reading this, consider, I might have something thought provoking to read. Cheers.

Race for the Galaxy has seen a meteoric rise in popularity and rank on BGG since its publication in 2007. At 3,000 users rating the game, it is unlikely to shift downward significantly in the near future. Yet, for all of the praise that Race has received, it is strikingly similar to the lesser ranked San Juan. Race is higher ranked than San Juan for a variety of reasons; however, few of them have anything to do with the quality of the game. Rather, the board game community has become subject to the same marketing forces to which larger consumer markets are; Race for the Galaxy exemplifies this.

Brand Familiarity
The marketing tactic of utilizing brand familiarity is certainly not new and clearly effective within the frameworks of board games. Race for the Galaxy is the reimplementation of an already successful game. While there are differences between San Juan and RftG, the primary mechanisms are the same. Both card games utilize nearly identical mechanisms for drawing cards, playing cards, and creating, notating, and consuming resources.

Because RftG so closely mirrors San Juan it is clear that it purchases some of its popularity by association with an already popular game. This can be seen with a number of other games that re-theme or re-implement an older, popular game. This has been notably demonstrated by other game pairs such as Wallenstein and Shogun, Risk and Risk 2210, Twilight Struggle and 1960, Settlers of Catan and Settlers of Canaan, Carcassonne and all of the different Carcasonne games, etc…

Many of the game pairs feature at least two common elements. Primarily, each game is tweaked mildly in order to make it different from its predecessor. RftG has a simultaneous action selection mechanism that San Juan does not (and more, as well, such as a greater diversity of cards and mechanisms), 1960 is thematically different yet the mechanisms that drive the theme do little to differentiate the feel of the game from TS, etc…

Changing an Image
Broadening market appeal by changing a logo or an image has long been utilized to reach a new market segment (think women in film smoking cigarettes). Each game has been re-themed in order to appeal to either a new market or a more popular market (with maybe the exception of Canaan). Race’s re-theming is representative of the popularity of space as an alternative genre. RftG’s theme is arbitrary. However, despite being a game about farming, it has been injected with exciting space concepts like space combat, exploration, alien races, and the such. Yet, for all of its attempts to be associated with space, a common complaint of the game is that it fails to invoke a space-like feel with the exception that everyone is all alone, billions of miles away from being able to affect the next nearest player.

Because space appeals more broadly than agriculture on the island of Puerto Rico, it is clear to me that San Juan’s re-theming was specifically targeted at broadening the audience of San Juan without substantially investing in the development and promotion of a new game with entirely new mechanisms. The same re-imagining can be seen with Dirk Henn’s Wallenstein turned into Shogun. As the West learns more about the history and culture of Japan (and other Asian countries), it has become an increasingly popular genre to explore. Simply renaming Wallenstein as Shogun sparked new interest in an already respected game, assisting marketers to further saturate the market with the same game. (Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the next game we see is Settlers of Japan).

Sequel Power
Mirroring the video game industry, many sequel games (Twilight Imperium, Risk, RftG, Fury of Dracula) have higher production values and are often considered better games than the original. For all of the similarities between RftG and San Juan, Race has a number of additions that are notable improvements. Aesthetically, RftG looks better than San Juan because each card has unique artwork. As far as game improvements are concerned, the complexity and uniqueness of each card tends to keep RftG from feeling as there are no new or good cards remaining in the deck during the late game. Furthermore, the addition of a mechanism for obtaining victory points and diversity of cards provides more methods by which points can be earned. These additions can be generally thought of as improvements because they add richness, depth, and replayability to the game.

Niche Appeal
As a marketing tactic, increasing quality (and cost) is not necessarily an ideal tactic unless targeting a niche market. Race for the galaxy, for all of its appeal to lovers of the space genre, is a niche game. Compared to San Juan it is much more challenging to learn how to play. The large amount of information on each card is almost guaranteed to overwhelm many gamers who are unwilling to invest the cognitive energy into learning and then mastering the game. As a result, RftG is a more challenging and variable game but has less appeal to the previous market of San Juan. This isn’t a large problem as San Juan has already approached saturation within its target audience. RftG will soon reach its saturation point within its own niche market.

Race for the Galaxy is a copy cat game at heart that has borrowed popularity from San Juan and Puerto Rico. While it is a solid game, it is clearly a product of intelligent marketing which will, no doubt, continue to appeal to a large number of BGG users. Still, I can’t help but feel a little used, knowing that the two games are so similar. It feels as though prestige marketing has been introduced to the board game market. Instead of driving a board game of sugar and tobacco, you can soar into the new millennium at the head of an alien battle fleet!