The dollar lost significant ground against the euro and yuan today: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4460aa54-cc6f-11dd-acbd-000077b07658.html
This may impact the gaming world, especially U.S. gamers who like euro games and/or nice bits.
On the other hand, European gamers may find US products a bargain for a while, so long as they don't include too many Chinese-made parts.
I wonder if they'll be any repeats of anything like Axis & Allies: Anniversary Edition anytime soon. I'd expect a price increase for things like Axis & Allies miniatures or BattleLore as well.
Buying products from Europe is likely to become especially expensive as the dollar to euro ratio moves towards 2 for 1. Will people pay twice as much for a German game as they do now? On the other hand there may be some nice bargains the other way.
The eurogaming world has been struggling with this for some time, atlhough to be honest so many of the games are published by US companies (and the parts such a small part of the price after you take cuts for the distributors and retailers) that I don't think it's been as big an issue as it normally would be. Over the last ten years, I've seen a big shift from imported games to mostly piggy-backed print runs from US publishers (like Rio Grande), and very few games on my radar are actual imports from Europe.
ReplyDeleteI think the real issue will be the economy. Boardgames are great, but how many do you need to stay entertained? We've been in a belle époque for the last ten years (arguably, the eurogame peak hit about five years ago), and it's rare when people in such a period both notice *and* understand that it will end at some time. I think wargames are in a similar position, with the peak hitting right about now. Most of these companies operate on a knife edge, and I worry that those without deep pockets behind them will start to drop off of the map as people can't afford to buy a couple of $80 games a month anymore.
You've already shown that the cheap parts from China have been the result of a confluence of factors that is unlikely to be repeated, that will only drive the plastic and bit-oriented games out. Expensive paper is the other problem.
My feeling is that we'll see a decline over the next several years until the economy finally recovers, and then we'll all be playing games on smart paper or a holographic game tank that sits on your table. Enjoy the last days of the empire.