Have you ever backed or bought a game, only to see a few months later that the publisher is launching an updated version of the game? I’ve found that how the publisher entices, respects, and retains their existing early adopters can make a big difference.
Eveline from Mighty Boards contacted me earlier this week about her approach–which I quite admire–to welcoming back those original backers during the new campaign for Hamlet: By the Lake. Here’s what she shared:
The Hamlet Kickstarter was a massive high point for Mighty Boards. Response for the game was great. Essen was incredible. But there were also a few things that we found out later we could have done better. The upcoming Kickstarter for us has two goals. One to create Hamlet: By the Lake, and make the game in many ways better, and second, to improve on Hamlet in general, and fix a few things that we have found can be done better, and can be fixed.
We’re offering all returning backers a completely free kit with a new wooden church, a new set of tiles with updated graphic design and a new set of resources.
I think this is a fantastic approach, especially considering that the upgrade pack isn’t free to make. Mighty Boards is simply making it right, retaining the trust of their early adopters and probably converting quite a few of them to expansion backers now or later.
On yesterday’s livecast, I posed this question to viewers: When a company updates a previous version of a game (or any product), what do you hope to see from them? This could apply to any new edition, big box, or deluxe version of a game.
For context, a few relatively recent examples of games in this category are Shards of Infinity, Gloomhaven 2nd Edition, Oathsworn, Obsession, and Snowdonia (the latter two are mentioned in the linked article).
- upgrade packs: Universally, people said that they like when publishers offer an upgrade pack, whether it’s a free addition for returning customers or even just a low-cost option.
- expansion: Upgrades and fixes can be included in an expansion; the downside is that the publisher is pairing the updated content with new content that some people might not want. This is still often the most economical option that serves many early adopter customers, especially if the updates are minor.
- special pricing and timing: Instead of–or as an alternative to–an upgrade pack, one option is to offer a special discount to early adopters. Shopify makes this easier than crowdfunding, though I think it’s feasible on Gamefound. The impetus for this depends on timing, in my opinion. For example, if you just received your crowdfunded first printing of a game a few weeks ago and now the publisher announces a new edition, a discount and/or upgrade pack is a very reasonable expectation. If, however, the new edition is released years after the original, hopefully you’ve gotten plenty of value out of the game between then and now (which is also a reflection that the original was perfectly fine even though the designer has decided to revisit it).
- marketing transparency: Communicating what has changed and why is really helpful for returning customers. The designer of Hamlet, David Chircop, wrote an excellent blog post about the changes, and the Hamlet project page highlights them too.
- rulebook transparency: If you release an updated rulebook, highlighting the changes via text boxes can serve early adopters who would prefer not to hunt for the updates. While Clank Catacombs isn’t an updated version of Clank (it’s a completely separate sequel), it does a great job of highlighting what’s new in the rules for those who are already familiar with Clank.
- art consistency: People mentioned that they appreciate when the art is consistent with previous versions of the game. I agree in some cases, but I also think sometimes the art is the point of the update, and sometimes the publisher of the new edition doesn’t have access to (or the rights to) the original art.
- general compatibility: People also said they prefer for updated versions of the game to be compatible with previous versions in terms of mechanisms, icons, and components. Again, sometimes changing those elements are the entire point of the update, but I agree that when it’s possible to keep, say, a card the same size and cardstock, that’s a nice way to include early adopters.
- entice: What’s the reason to try the new thing (or buy something you already have)? That’s a question for the publisher to answer in their marketing, pricing, and product composition. One of the recent examples is a game I love, but I already own the game and most parts of the game–I need a compelling reason to back the campaign even just for new promos, much less for an entirely new edition.
- target audience: The target audience for a new version of a game sometimes isn’t people who already own the game, especially if the original is fun and functional. Hopefully you can still include early adopters, but if they’re happy with what they have, your primary focus may be on welcoming newcomers.
What are your thoughts on enticing, respecting, and retaining early adopters when a game is updated? I’d love to hear some positive experiences in the comments below!
***
Also read:
- The Deluxe Dilemma
- 10 Brand Extension Strategies for Tabletop Games
- Should You Crowdfund a Reprint?
- Reprinting a Game: How the Process Works
- Is There Such Thing as a Price That Is Too Good?
- 10 Ways to Support Your Backlist
If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.
14 Comments on “Enticing, Respecting, and Retaining Early Adopters When You Make Updates”
Leave a Comment
If you ask a question about a specific card or ability, please type the exact text in your comment to help facilitate a speedy and precise answer.
Your comment may take a few minutes to publish. Antagonistic, rude, or degrading comments will be removed. Thank you.
Bad Crow games who produced Company of Heroes launched their 2nd edition Kickstarter with an update kit that includes everything you need to upgrade your previous 1st edition elements. It was released at cost price and I think it was an amazing thing for them to do!
It pretty much made every returning backer happy and not feel cheated.
I really like when a game designer has found a need to upgrade a game. No playtesting will ever be as complete as the thousands of people who purchase and play the game. I just want an option to get those upgrades in some way. Gloomhaven was purchased just prior to pandemic and took us a long time to get to the table. Sadly the difficulty in the scenarios, the frustrating personal goals and other factors has conspired to put the game on the shelf of shame after maybe 4-6 plays. The 2.0 version really seems to have addressed the majority of our issued and if I could get that kit the game could possibly return to rotation. But knowing their is an upgrade and not being able to get the kit without buying the whole game over has soured me on the game even more.
So, the idea here is I love the idea of upgrades but there needs to be a way for people to access them in a manner other than buying the full game over.
The game whose second edition soured me to the publisher was Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy. I sank a lot into First Dawn for the Galaxy, both in official expansions and in third party accessories. Before I was able to locate the last of the First Dawn expansions, I heard about Second Dawn. I earnestly hoped for some kind of upgrade pack, but the publisher decided that the changes were too extensive for that. That is their decision to make, and I respect that, but it leaves me with a game which didn’t hit the table often when it was the current edition (Twilight Imperium scratches the same itch for the players in my group). Second Dawn looks great in videos, but there’s no incentive for me to get it, and I haven’t heard of anyone in my group getting it (and that group has at least four copies of TI4).
On the other side was the old Fantasy Flight. When they acquired the license for Talisman, they revised the Games Workshop Black Industries fourth edition. Yet despite not having any direct benefit from sales of the GWBI edition, FFG made an upgrade pack available, with the cards and minis from their revision, to replace the existing cards and standees. Usually when I see one company republish a game previously made by another company, the new publisher makes an effort to make the new version incompatible with the old. FFG took a different path, and it resulted in my purchasing all of their Talisman expansions.
A third path, I suppose, is being walked by 999 Games, with Mega Civilization and Western/Eastern Empires. Despite releasing the split and slightly revised Empires games, they’ve made the parts and expansions compatible with their earlier Mega Civilization, to the extent of making the advancement cards available to replace those with errata. That said, they aren’t entirely on my positive side, as they’ve resisted making the 3-4 player variant available for purchase even as print-and-play.
So what I’m trying to say is that I don’t expect a publisher to give me things when they release a revised edition. But if there’s going to be a revised edition, it either needs to be enough of a revision to merit purchasing on its own, or there needs to be a way to use the old with the new.
Mine was with Castle Panic. I really wanted the expansions for awhile and I even pre-ordered the Castle Panic Big Box when I heard it was coming out. Then less than a year later the publisher was launching a completely new version of Castle Panic with artwork redone and a new expansion. I was going to back it, and I even commented a few times with my concerns about the big box compared to the new edition and was ignored. If I remember correctly, there were some upgrade kits available, but none that supported big box owners which was the issue. I felt completely disrespected to have bought the big box after a long wait to have them pretend like it didn’t exist in less than a year. Needless to say I didn’t end up backing, got rid of my big box, and don’t plan on supporting them again.
We ran into this conundrum with our recent campaign for Good Cop Bad Cop 4th Edition. The new edition has changes to most of the components so it’s very difficult to do an upgrade kit that would almost be a whole new copy of the game without the box. The campaign wasn’t successful and we have heard from a lot of previous backers that they didn’t back because of the absence of an upgrade kit, so that is one thing we’ll try to figure out how to make happen for a relaunch.
When we have done new print runs of Good Cop Bad Cop outside of crowdfunding, we’ve been able to make any changes we wish, but when we bring it to crowdfunding, we are reminded that we have less flexibility with changes. There are plenty of benefits to crowdfunding, but that’s just one of the drawbacks.
For Castles of Burgundy: the anniversary version was my first version and I prefer the way it looks to the Awaken Realms version. I’m disappointed, because I don’t expect there will be support for my version in terms of the new expansion. So I sort of feel preyed on. I was tricked into buying copy A and now I have to get copy B if want to play the expansion.
Like COB I got 7 Wonders a year before the new edition came out. And now I’m irked because I can’t find expansions for my edition. Maybe publishers need to forecast they are going to have a new edition as soon as possible so fools like me don’t buy their old copy. But why would they – since they need to offload the old stock. So that made me feel like a fool.
The New Everdell: I didn’t buy the Complete Collection and when I saw the announcement for the New Everdell, I said to myself, this is why you don’t buy the Complete Collection – because publishers will find holes in your life you didn’t know needed filling. That said, I have Everdell fatigue and I won’t be buying New Everdell either.
Gloomhaven 2.0: I have no interest in playing either version, but I feel bad for people who have 1.0 and never got to playing it, especially because Covid happened. And I wish there was an upgrade pack or something to help those customers who if I were them, I would feel left in the dust.
I think Mighty Boards is doing right and I hope its fiscally feasible and won’t tank their company. I got the collector’s edition and I thought the game was OK but I was ready to sell it because it took too long for a 3 player game and the solo is annoying. But I’m willing to wait and try the improvement pack.
I appreciated Osprey Games sent out replacement card decks for free for Undaunted instead of making a new edition. It cost them, but it buys customer loyalty. I don’t even enjoy the game but I want to get the other games in the series – and I know Osprey Games will do right and take care of its customers.
In summary, I see all these new editions and it makes me less willing to buy games I’m not going to play right away because a new edition is going to happen anyway.
I don’t think any of the games that I own received updates after I got them, but I know that one of my favorite games has received several rules revisions over the years – Root. I played with the copy that my friend had for years before getting my own copy, so I didn’t follow the entire revision process in detail, but it sounded like the publisher made the rule changes available online. I’m not sure if you could print or order an updated rulebook, though. Also, some of the new rules affected the text on the player boards, so I know they eventually made an update kit that could be purchased, and it was also possible to download these changes for free. All this sounded like a great way to handle revisions. The rule changes were freely available, and when components were changed, there was both the option to purchase new components or print out the changes as overlays for free.
I’m loving these examples! Thank you all for sharing.
I think most publishers’ goal is to build a long term relationship with their customers. Relationships are built on a foundation of respect and communication. As long as a publisher clearly explains their reasoning and makes a good faith effort to make things as fair as possible for their customers, im happy.
I was an early adopter of the 3DS a long time ago. About a year after launch, 3DS sales were awful and Nintendo that they hadn’t correctly priced the console so gave it a pretty massive discount- from $250 to $180. To try to make things right for those that bought at $250, they gave anyone with a console before the price drop date 20 free digital games from their back catalog. I think that was a pretty generous way of handling the situation and they did a great job of clearly explaining 1) What was happening. 2) Why it was happening. And 3) What they were doing to make it right.
Two games come to mind, Dominion and Battle for Greyport (technically Red Dragon Inn Battle for Greyport)
In Dominion, the designer decided he wanted to rerelease the first few sets, but with a revised card pool. For those of us that already own those sets, they released upgrade packs for very cheap, these gave us all of the new cards!
In Battle for Greyport (a co-op) the designers realized that the game was extremely hard, and they wanted to redo a few things from the base set. Not only did they put a rules revision for everything online, but printed versions of the rules and of the changed cards were included in the first expansion, which was not very expensive.
Both of these felt like excellent ways to keep me, an existing customer, happy!
Everdell: Spirecrest included plastic saddles that made dents in the meeples, making them less desirable to use. Mine stayed in the bag after one bad experience with one. Since then, Tabletop Tycoon has made more flexible, rubbery saddles, and if you contact them directly, they will send them to you for free.
Good to know, I’ll have to check my saddles.
Roxley Games and the latest Kickstarter for Santorini did something similar (although the upgrade kit was not free).
I was an original backer of Hamlet, and really enjoyed the game. I shared some of the concerns with the components, but I thought it was fine. When I heard about the expansion coming, I planned on backing it. Then, when I went to back it, I learned about the upgrade pack for free and was thrilled to see it! Bonus! I would have backed the expansion regardless, but this is an added perk, and definitely goes a long way to earning respect.