The following figures are provided for your interest. They reflect the operations of this and most other small game companies in a way that I haven't seen since SPI in the seventies. I used to enjoy greatly the facts and figures given to me then in S&T and since no other truthful facts of this type are being given to the gaming consumer, I thought you might be interested.

These are provided to all as a measure of what I believe is fairly normal in small wargame publishing. They represent the straight facts and are not "edited for effect" in any way. These can be used to give meaning (or expose falsehoods) to the many wild claims we all hear. A good dose of reality is useful sometimes. Especially for those of you with dreams of grandeur about starting your own companies.

A common refrain I hear is "I would pay the extra buck for (fill in your pet idea here)." The concept that an extra dollar of production costs can be compensated by another dollar of retail cost is simply invalid. While we would love to provide such extras in our games, prudent business sense dictates against it. As you can see below, an extra dollar in production costs must be compensated by no less than $6 in retail price for us to maintain our already skimpy safety levels. To do otherwise would be irresponsible.

And, I do not agree that games are free from price considerations. Games are expensive enough without tacking on a bunch of gold fixtures to drive their price through the roof.

Each $1.00 spent on gaming is divided as follows:

(Based on sales and expenses in 1990)

To Stores and Distributors 54 Cents
Actual Cost of Production 16 Cents
Boxing/Shipping/Postage 4 Cents
Salaries and Royalties 18 Cents
All other expenses 7 Cents
Profit 1 Cent

Units sales for us are as follows:

Year	Year Total	1-01	1-02	1-03	1-04	2-01	2-02	2-03	3-01
1988	1674 units	942	732	-
1989	2687 units	263	719	106	-	1599	-
1990	4684 units	-	248	1497	-	588	1073	-	1278
1991 (to Oct)	4899 units	1188	-	251	1376	250	325	1183*	326
Total to date	13,944	2393	1699	1854	1376	2437	1398	1183	1604

*To be fair, Omaha's numbers are only based on pre-pubs and the initial distributor shipment. The game isn't even one month old as of this writing.

For what its worth, as of mid-October 1991, here is: "The Gamers Best Sellers List"

Game	Units	Notes
1. Bloody 110	2437	First 2500 print run game, handful of games remain (< 100)
2. In their Quiet Fields	2393	2 Editions (first of 1205, then 1200, both all but sold out)
3. August Fury	1854	Very heavy initial distributor orders
4. Thunder at the Crs'rds	1699	Short run-more than 800 countersheets ruined by die-cutter
5. Force Eagle's War	1604	An underdog from the very start
6. Objective: Schmidt	1398	Slow, yet steady, seller
The following do not have enough track record to be rated fairly against the above.
Barren Victory	1376	Only 3 months
Omaha	1183	Less than 1 month

Be very wary of figures touted by others which seem radically different from the above (unless speaking of Avalon Hill or TSR.) I am a cynic by nature and my four years in the game biz have made that only stronger. If I may paraphrase... "beware of small game companies shouting of good fortune." Actually, what the wargame consumer needs is Mark Twain's 100% shock-proof crap detector!

As always, if it sounds too good to be true, it isn't.