If you've ever struggled to find a copy of a niche strategy game through normal retail channels, a new platform wants to fix that. BoardGameCommerce, launched on 7 April by French publisher Fentasy Games, offers a P500-style distribution system designed for publishers of complex games with smaller print runs.
The idea borrows from GMT Games' long-running P500 pre-order model, but with a twist. Where GMT waits for 500 pre-orders before committing to production, Fentasy Games founder Florian Gigot absorbs that risk upfront. "We don't ask the community to carry the industrial risk," Gigot told BoardGameWire. "We carry it ourselves because we believe in the project."
The problem BoardGameCommerce aims to solve is real. Traditional distribution can squeeze indie publishers through trade discounts and middlemen cuts, and for games with print runs of 500 to 1,000 copies, those margins can be fatal. Gigot notes that "even a popular game can become a financial failure" once distributors take their share.
The platform connects publishers for localisation partnerships with zero commission on deals, and offers retailers up to 55% margins with deferred payment until shipment. For gamers, the appeal is simpler: a single place to find complex titles that would otherwise slip through the cracks of traditional distribution.
Irongames' Papyria, a civilisation-building exploration game for 1-4 players, is the first title live on the platform. More notable is what's coming next: Martin Wallace's Casus Belli, a 4X space strategy game for 2-4 players, and Masaki Suga's Bean to Bar, a chocolate-making worker placement game, are both listed for later this year. Wallace is best known as the lead designer of Brass Birmingham (the number one ranked game on BoardGameGeek) and Age of Steam, so seeing his latest work land on a platform built for complex games makes sense.
If you're the sort of gamer who hunts down heavy euros and asymmetric strategy titles, BoardGameCommerce is worth bookmarking.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Fentasy Games
