Fantasy Flight Games has announced across the board price increases on its board and card game lines of from 10% to 25%, and averaging around 20%. Citing energy, commodity, and labor cost increases, the company is implementing new prices as of November 1st, with new prices on upcoming products to take effect immediately. One exception is Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, which will ship at the originally planned $39.95 in October, then go up to $49.95 for the second wave, scheduled for late November.
The price increases take MSRPs on FFG’s highest-priced board games (World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Twilight Imperium) to $89.95.
FFG is also eliminating the net pricing system it has used on select products, such as Rackham, Starcraft, and War of the Ring, going to a system based on discount off MSRP instead.
The FFG price hikes follow by only a couple of weeks price increases of roughly 20% announced by Games Workshop, for similar reasons (see “Games Workshop Announces Price Increases”). Of course, price increases by game companies are not infrequent events, but the size and breadth of these changes are eyepopping. Entertainment value has been a primary reason why game sales have been holding up well despite economic conditions, and price increases can cut into the value proposition that games offer. But FFG CEO Christian Petersen believes that the company's value is sound. "Even with the price increases that we announce here today," he said, "I still think that our customers will find FFG products among the best values in the industry."
