Steve Jackson Games Releases Stakeholder Report for 2023

Steve Jackson Games released their annual Stakeholder Report for 2023. As is is privately owned by Steve Jackson, the company report to shareholders as a corporation would but still releases the annual report to the public as they consider their employees, business partners, and customers to all have a stake in the company.

In summary, Steve Jackson games had gross revenue of $3.5 million and posted a loss for the year. The company’s TTRPG offerings GURPS and The Fantasy Trip both fell under the “Ehhh” category for products with GURPS having no physical releases for the year and The Fantasy Trip still underperforming in sales. The big sellers for the company were Car Wars and Munchkin Digital. The only failure listed for the company involved delays on an unannounced product.

Big perfomers for the year were the board game Car Wars 6th Edition and the digital version of Munchkin from Dire Wolf Digital. Both the company’s big tabletop RPG lines were listed under “Ehhh”, with GURPS having no physical releases and only PDF and POD offerings while The Fantasy Trip not catching on in the wider market despite continuing to “please its fans”.

Staffing changes also impacted the company with new CEO, Managing Editor, and Marketing Directors joining the company and some key personnel leaving such as ex-CEO Phil Reed and ex-Chief Creative Officer Sam Mitschke. At the year end, the company had “30+ full-time staff including contractors, plus a few part-timers”.

The report also comments on the state of the industry, calling it a “golden age for gamers, with more variety and sheer volume than ever before”. This comes with challenges as distribution issues continue despite lowered shipping costs as printing and shipping costs haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Distribution issues meant schedules slipping with Q3 2023 releases not shipping until 2024 and retailers expressing difficulty getting product from distributors.

In summary, 2023 was a rebuilding year for Steve Jackson Games. Priorities for 2024 include ensuring the release schedule is met and “don’t get crazy about adding other things just because they would be neat”, designing a strong 2025 release schedule for new Munchkin products, and for the “Seekret Projekt” mentioned earlier as a “failure” for the company to be in shape for an announcement (not a release, just an announcement) by the end of the year.

 

[Von Ether]

TBH, though, solo play is on the rise again as we discovered that while there are more players than ever sometimes we still can't get schedules or personalities to align.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

TBH, though, solo play is on the rise again as we discovered that while there are more players than ever sometimes we still can't get schedules or personalities to align.

Granted, but there are far more ways to game solo than there were when TFT first appeared. Even post-COVID it's not a terribly well-served market for tabletop play, but there are so many solo CRPG options out there now that's not a tremendous surprise. Death Test's fun, but it doesn't compete all that well with (say) Baldur's Gate 3, which is just as solo as it is.