Some game industry news I should pass along to all you boardgamers:

Games Quarterly Magazine's publication has ceased.
New Owners for Games Quarterly Catalog.

Games Quarterly Catalog (GQC), the 16 year old standard reference for the games industry, is now under new ownership. The acquisition was completed today. The previous owner Matthews Simmons Martketing (MSM) sold the catalog to Richard Hartnett and Richard Martin Leep.

Mr. Simmons further announced that MSM is closing after 16 years of service to the games industry. He noted the closure was forced by mounting bad accounts receivable through the past eighteen months and recent losses due to the launch of Games Expo 2007. Games Quarterly Magazine's publication has ceased.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Regarding Games Quarterly Catalog Contact:

Games Quarterly Catalog Company
12568 Tammywood Street
Broomfield CO 80020

Argh, terrible news. And I just paid for a two-year subscription.

Is there an official press release somewhere?

Feels like a pump and dump stock. I think many of us subscribed.

I don't know if there is. I received an industry insider email about it from MSM.

Their website has no mention of this.

Any announcement made about refunding subscription fees?


....and now I'll NEVER get those damn game expansions!!!!!

Yeah, same story for me too. I only subscribed to get the "free" expansions. So that's 2 expansion for $25 bucks - not a great ROI. I guess the reported flop of that recent Games Expo must've sunk the whole thing.

I also think the Games Expo killed off MSM. As for expansions, Spielbox magazine is healthy, but in German.

But how easy/expensive to get here in the US?

You can subscribe to Spielbox for one issue, 3 issues or for a year, 6 issues. The English language order page is:

http://www.spielbox-magazin.de/sbbest072e.php

The current issue has an Age of Steam expansion.

Thanks for the link.

Unfortunately, it's expensive: $69.59 a year for US subscribers ($11.60 per issue). A single issue is $7.36 plus shipping, and the three-issue "test subscription" is not available outside of Europe.

I am certainly glad that you don't kill the messenger bearing bad news! I just wanted to get the news out to all you folks before more people sent their subscription money to Games Quarterly Magazine.

Yes, thanks for the heads-up. Makes me very happy I got my Die Katharer from Spielbox afterall! FYI, Gaming Report has a few more details:

http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=23413&mode=threa...

There usually no difference in artwork between the original German game and the US reprint. The english language reprints are usually just ganged onto the original german run, it saves a lot of money for guys like Jay at Rio Grande.

The language obstacle is the big problem for US gamers.

I too have lost some $$. I feel though, that I have just dodged a bullet as I was seriously considering taking my boys to the Games Expo. I decided, instead, to take them to Gamestorm 9 in Portland. Had I gone to the Expo I don't think I would have ever gone to another con. As it happens, it will take a stampede of camels to keep me from Gamestorm 10 (and whatever other con I can get me greedy little free weekends in).

So there are silver linings after all.

Hopefully they will contact subscribers about this. I got the 2 year one as well.

    Wow. Although I'm sure BGG wasn't aware of the insolvency issues, it looks a bit suspect that the mag owners put a big push on for subscriptions just before going belly up. Has the new owner indicated they would try to find a substitute product to the new subscriber base? Presumably if they bought full interest in the company's assets (such as they are) they also purchased the company's obligations.

    Will "Richard Hartnett and Richard Martin Leep" also be making a formal statement here on BGG? I would very much like to see if they will be trying to find a way to establish a positive relationship with those who just lost out on their investment.

             Sag.

I had the subscription on my Christmas list - I now feel fortunate that no one actually bought it for me (and I didn't get around to ordering it for myself). I think the source of the delay (for my ordering) was the fact that I had already picked up the expansions that were already announced via Spielbox and the magazine itself wasn't terribly compelling. Now I am starting to think that I need to serious consider just biting the bullet and subscribing to Spielbox. Hopefully, there won't be a BGG tie-in for Spielbox, as it seems to be the kiss of death for publications...

Richard Hartnett and Richard Martin Leep bought Games Quarterly Catalog, not Games Quarterly Magazine. GQC is a US trade journal, GQM a consumer mag, not at all the same thing.

Knucklebones Magazine is pretty good and they just had a brand new issue come out. You can check them out at www.kbones.com. One year subscription is $24.95.

This is bad news for the industry though as I know Games Quarterly was thought of pretty highly.

LA

I think that the major thing that people were interested in with Games Quarterly were the mini expansions that they had started including (The Great River of Catan, The Mini-Carcassonne expansion). Having read a couple of issues of Knucklebones, I can safely say that it is a much better magazine.



Actually, most people have not been terribly impressed with the magazine - it was mostly a set of press releases, not really good objective writing. Again, if Knucklebones were to pick up the expansions that were planned to run with Games Quarterly, I suspect that they would add a good number of subscribers.

If one is mostly interested in objective english language writing about boardgames, Counter magazine is the established benchmark. Sorry, no color pictures or expansions, just plenty of solid objective commentary.

I honestly got my sub only for the game expansions. The "magazine" was mainly just adds.

I'd skim through it and toss it out. It wasn't anything I got much enjoyment out of.

I did enjoy the expansions though!!

I wonder if BGG ever got their cut (just wondering if GQM fulfilled their obligation, I wouldn't expect anything from BGG if they did)

Hah. You think you Americans got burnt on Games Quarterly? Try having paid the International rate.

I had initially subscribed for the little games expansions they had announced, but I found that I enjoyed the articles. I took the obvious marketing with a grain of salt, but I enjoyed the content on education and James Earnest's stuff.

This is disappointing.