Super Meeple to shake up distribution amid retailer “reluctance” to stock expert games

French board game publisher Super Meeple plans to step up its own direct sales this year after struggling to get individual retailers to stock more than a handful of copies of each of its heavier games through 2024.

Super Meeple said that although it scored early success last year with deduction game Kronologic: Paris 1920 and lighter euro World Wonders, some of its more complex titles such as Bardwood Grove and Kraftwagen “did not conquer”.

The publisher said in a Facebook post detailing its 2024 performance that “often cautious” retail stores “limit their expert game orders due to their high cost and competition of lighter games and TCGs”, adding that the majority of orders for Bardwood Grove, Planta Nubo and Kraftwagen were limited to one or two units per store.

It defined ‘expert’ games as those with a 14+ age recommendation, or with price points of €60 or more. Planta Nubo was its “biggest failure” in 2024, it added.

Super Meeple said, “A shop does not need new expert games to live, and the large supply of new games also contributes to this decline in deployment,” and pointed out that its profitability even for localised games rather than self-created titles was “weak”.

The publisher said that for 2,000 copies of a localised game sold for €70 in a store it makes a gross profit of just €7, falling to about €5.5 after accounting for costs such as translation and transportation – meaning it would need to sell 1,600 copies to break even.

It claimed a retailer makes a gross profit of €23.3 under that example, the distributor €7 and the French government €11.70.

For its own creations, rather than localisations, Super Meeple’s gross profit would double to €14, but it pointed out that those games require a much longer development time, eating into its revenues.

Super Meeple said, “If the gaming world wonders about the future of the ‘expert’ game, so do we! It is important to note that the market is trending and sales are declining overall in this category.

“So stop the expert games? Surely not! We will probably be more demanding and difficult in choosing our games but it remains our DNA and what we prefer to do. But we need to rethink our distribution system if we are to survive these more tense times.”

It added, “Super Meeple is a company, and like all others, we need to rethink how to operate to last for as long as possible.

“But the previous conclusion is quite clear: we bear all the financial risk, with the lowest gross profit, and the success of the game depends primarily on our ability to convince the community of the interest of the game.”

Super Meeple said its new strategy for its ‘expert’ titles will come into force from April or May this year, after the release of localised games including Sankoré and Beyond the Horizon.

The publisher said it plans to run more pre-orders on its site for its more complex games, which it says could increase its margin to up to €20 per game.

It also hopes to “strengthen engagement” with retailers by allowing them to pre-order during a commitment period defined by the distributor, with the remaining games sold through its own online store or other online marketplaces.

Super Meeple said, “We must act if we want to be able to continue offering you expert games. It was important to highlight the risk taken at each exit vs profitability.

“We completely understand the reluctance of shops to engage in the big game and secure their business with safe values, and that’s good because we understand that we also need to secure ours.”

The publisher said that although it was too early to gauge the success of some of its other ‘expert’ level 2024 release such as Pirates of Maracaibo, Endeavor: Deep Sea and Black Forest, “the returns for these three games have been excellent and the stock has gone very quickly”.

Paris-based Super Meeple was launched in 2014, and initially specialised in French localisations and minor reworkings of existing games. Its early successes included games such as Mexica, Tikal and Amun-Re.

Some of its more popular self-created games include Colors of Paris and Virtu.

Late last year the publisher raised more than €209,000 from over 1,700 backers for Tikal Legend, a deluxified 25th anniversary edition of Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer’s 1999 release Tikal.

In February last year Hachette Boardgames agreed a deal to distribute Super Meeple’s games in the US, taking over from Asmodee USA.

Asmodee USA had previously signed an exclusive worldwide English language distribution agreement with Super Meeple in the summer of 2021, bringing the company’s entire library of titles into the Asmodee catalogue.