FAQ BGA + Asmodee

[Earth Lord]

To say that you don't get any profit or only a ver small profit from the free accounts is like saying the Pokémon Company gets no money from the people that play Pokemon Go without paying. The fact that BGA is always full of people willing to play lots of different games even if they can't/don't want to pay is a huge part of its success, I've had a free account for years, and yet I've played and brought friends who eventually bought a premium account, all because I, a free user, have played and loved the site.

I don't like the decision you made in general, but that's for you to decide as a company, but to say you get nothing or almost nothing out of your free games is just deceiving yourselves.

[Benoit314]

The biggest question that I have seen asked remains unanswered. Why was this deal never talked about with your current stakeholders before it went through.

I think you can answer this one yourself.
Companies usually don't do open negociations process, it may influence the outcome. How many acquisitions did you heard about before it went through? Not much.

And about the fact that BGA didn't contact all the stakeholders before the announcement seems normal. There is so many, at that point just make a public announcement! The information would've have come out from someone at one point.

[Mondongo]

I don't like the decision you made in general, but that's for you to decide as a company, but to say you get nothing or almost nothing out of your free games is just deceiving yourselves.

Deception surrounds all of this deal. Well, they also said:

"We understand that some of you had some bad experiences with Asmodee and/or think it is the "big evil"."

and it's not "some of you" ... the industry in general has suffered under Asmodee, but BGA (BGAsmodee, as they would like to be called now) chooses to deny it or to play dumb.

And it makes perfect sense! They have been toiling for 10 years and now they get their payday and I think nobody on this site would do otherwise. And they cannot say "yeah Asmodee is evil, we sold out" because they would get in legal trouble.

So it's clear that talking about it does not serve any purpose other than venting our frustrations. Nothing we do will change anything. It's just a matter of starting to look for another site until that one, in turn, sells out. Such is capitalism.

[moliere59]

"Nothing we do will change anything. It's just a matter of starting to look for another site until that one, in turn, sells out. Such is capitalism."

Quite simply, we must now find an alternative ...
For the moment, we will not find such a rich and functional site! however, by using more than one of them this can ensure the transition.

[NCJeff]

"We understand that some of you had some bad experiences with Asmodee and/or think it is the "big evil"."

and it's not "some of you" ... the industry in general has suffered under Asmodee, but BGA (BGAsmodee, as they would like to be called now) chooses to deny it or to play dumb.

That's quite a bit of hyperbole. First - the industry isn't "under" Asmodee, they're just a part of it. Second - from what I've seen posted the near irrational hate on Asmodee doesn't appear to the case in Europe. Third - the industry is doing just fine, better than ever.

Asmodee has bought some publishers. To the best of my knowledge there were no hostile takeovers, they paid willing sellers a mutually accepted fair price. As owners of the company they made some changes. Yeah, they are in it for the money. And I don't work for a non-profit and I suspect neither do you. Maybe you do. Maybe some of those companies wouldn't have survived this long without being bought. Look at Tasty Minstrel Games, rumors of their pending demise have been out there for a while. What's Your Game has struggled to get one Kickstarter completed and hasn't put out much lately. CMON had had chatter that its auditor noted doubt that it could survive.

Biggest hit Asmodee takes is their part replacement policy. I've bought over 350 games and have only had parts issues with one of them. Bought a Webcam that was missing a part, contacted the Mfg and they said take it back to the store, we have agreements with them to manage those issues.

We'll all see what the future brings. Right now BGA is one of the best deals out there and the service is the same today as it was last week. No need to panic.

[Mondongo]

Thank you for your words. I’m not panicking. But this does not come as good news to me.

I have paid premium up to 2022 to support the site. I feel cheated. I wouldn’t have paid that money to Asmodee.

[Stroom]

"the service is the same today as it was last week"

Yeah, like they would immediately start making changes after the announcement. These things will be gradual so most people won't notice until it is completely different. I'd suggest copying the games list and showing which ones are free or premium... Then how much premium actually costs.

I'd predict that more games will become premium and that in turn drives up the premium cost. The free games will not be as fun so you either pay for premium or go away. Pretty sure Splendor will not be free to play.

[ViolentSilence]

That's quite a bit of hyperbole. First - the industry isn't "under" Asmodee, they're just a part of it. Second - from what I've seen posted the near irrational hate on Asmodee doesn't appear to the case in Europe. Third - the industry is doing just fine, better than ever.

Asmodee has bought some publishers. To the best of my knowledge there were no hostile takeovers, they paid willing sellers a mutually accepted fair price. As owners of the company they made some changes. Yeah, they are in it for the money. And I don't work for a non-profit and I suspect neither do you. Maybe you do. Maybe some of those companies wouldn't have survived this long without being bought. Look at Tasty Minstrel Games, rumors of their pending demise have been out there for a while. What's Your Game has struggled to get one Kickstarter completed and hasn't put out much lately. CMON had had chatter that its auditor noted doubt that it could survive.

Biggest hit Asmodee takes is their part replacement policy. I've bought over 350 games and have only had parts issues with one of them. Bought a Webcam that was missing a part, contacted the Mfg and they said take it back to the store, we have agreements with them to manage those issues.

We'll all see what the future brings. Right now BGA is one of the best deals out there and the service is the same today as it was last week. No need to panic.

I agree with you for the most part. I don't think Asmodee are harming the industry, especially since they own distributors in several parts of the world from what I'm lead to believe, carrying multiple companies lines of games.

I'm a bit less forgiving on their ownership of publishers as it seems like a few have been diminished by it (FFG feels like it's being broken up in to separate companies and has lost it's identity, Plaid Hat have bought themselves out of the deal), but that's a problem for those companies, not about the industry.

The replacement camera part thing is a bit different as those components may have a much more significant replacement cost. I'd compare boardgames to something much closer to Lego who will send out replacements to missing or damaged components. It makes much more sense to do it that way because of the number of variables they have to control on the manufacturing and packing process. I've had maybe 1-2% of the games I've bought require replacement parts, and a few others I've just accepted the damage and sleeved the cards (as I sleeve everything to relax about the environments I play games in). I feel their failure rate is too high, especially for an industry that uses a lot of online sales which makes returns a lot more cumbersome.

My biggest concern is what happens with the app titles - BGA is a superior platform because it already attaches to a community, and because you can look for multiple games simultaneously in real time or asynchronous. You can try out titles without needing to buy anything, and the chat options give a way for players to help new players looking to learn a game. The only thing that apps offer is AI play for people who want that. I would not be surprised if this is a precursor to them shutting down app production, and even if that is the plan, the role of BGA as a platform is strengthened by the presence of multiple publishers as long as it can be made to work for both parties.

It'd be interesting to see what would happen if GMT allowed Commands & Colours to be created on here, since it's mechanically really close to Memoir 44, that could be a fascinating discussion

[ufm]

After reading this thoroughly I'm worried more than ever.

BGA posted New Year's plans on the front page in Dec. 31.
No visible change, but it was a great news, and it received positive responses.
This news is perhaps the most important news ever in BGA, but I had to search through other websites to know what was going on.
For every corporation the owner has the final say. Therefore the change of ownership shapes the new future.
It is not a trivial thing to be covered with a mere forum post, especially if BGA saw this acquisition as an opportunity to grow further.

"As explained in the previous question, this is not even sure that there is a money benefit for BGA with the volunteer work, as these games are proposed for free."
No direct income means no value? Well, this sounds like a self-defense from a corporate spokesperson. What a bad statement.

With no doubt meta sites has been developed exclusively by BGA team, and admins really deserve this for the long run. 11 years!
Also, assuring financial sustainability with the acquisition is totally acceptable.
Where will BGA go after Covid-19? Users going back to their real-world game tables? Or staying here? No one knows.
However packaging this as a pure opportunity? Not so plausible. This is a deal with the devil, not a dream come true.
Even now, Asmodee is treading the path of EA in board games. You know, FFG and other stuff.
Of course Asmodee didn't try to 'kill BGA' in the past or is not trying to do it now, because they just didn't or don't have to.
But... I have seen so many services or entities acquired by mega-corps degrading gradually.


We shall see and hope for the best.

[Ahla]

Chipping in my two cents...

I have no idea about the economics behind this site. Sure, I understand the income is from premium subscriptions, and costs are mainly salaries, game licenses and server/hosting costs, but I have no idea about the amounts. Maybe some of the numbers are out there. Haven't bothered to check, because in part I don't really care. I get a great service for free, so why bother how it works?

The fact that anyone buys BGA tells me it is actually profitable, or at least could be made profitable. Maybe I should have realized it was profitable, but since I haven't given it much thought, I didn't. And for the record, I don't have any problem whatsoever with anyone making money offering me a good service, especially if it is free.

I would guess that there are a lot of people who, just like me, thought BGA was non profit (that founders and other employees have a salary is not profit), and that many of them have been supporting the site to make sure it stays online. I also have no idea what percentage of the premium members chose to be premium because of the benefits, and how many did so just to support the site. Will some of latter stop their premium subscription now, when they feel BGA won't disappear anyway, and that their money will end up at Asmodee? If they don't like Asmodee in the first place, I guess some will stop being premium.

To some extent, I think the same applies to various forms of volunteer workers. Working for free to improve a service you use and enjoy, maybe adding your favorite game, is a thing people often do when they believe there are simply no money to pay them with. Some might keep this up, but others will start asking why a big company should make money on their work, without paying them. Again, if you dislike Asmodee, that of course influences the decision.

There is still clearly an incentive to have your games on BGA IMO. When I go on my post pandemic game shopping spree, most games on my wish-list are games I have been able to play online. Eminent domain (mentioned as example in the other thread) is a game I consider, and if it wasn't on BGA I wouldn't even know it exists.

Let's hope BGA stays great. After all, there is no point for Asmodee to destroy it. What I fear is that after a few personnel changes in their hierarchy, someone decides BGA isn't profitable enough and starts raising premium costs and try to "force" free users to premium.