Wayland Games + Beasts of War

[Chern Ann]

[h=2]Reproduced from TGN:-

Wayland Games “acquires” Beasts of War[/h]December 16th, 2011

According to their site and their new property Tabletop Nation, Wayland Games is partnering with Beasts of War on a new project with a view to completely fold Beasts of War into the new entity.

While discussions are advanced for Beasts of War to become a wholly-owned but journalistically independent media subsidiary of Tabletop Nation, for other partners such as local stores it is important to understand that what is proposed is not a franchise-type arrangement: it is anticipated that for most commercial organisations, being “part of Tabletop Nation” will build on a common vision through some sharing of branding, purpose and delivery.
We can confirm that from March next year Tabletop Nation will have its home located just to the east of London, where it will be served by excellent rail, road and air links. Facilities will include a showpiece store, a modern gaming centre, and a media and production studio.
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It’s not immediately apparent what Tabletop Nation is from the site:

For gamers there’ll be more news and reviews, better product access both in-store and on-line, and more events and opportunities to enjoy your hobby, all captured within a global brand with local flavours.
For stores and gaming centres there’ll be better merchandising, faster access to more stock, support for EPOS and on-line merchanting systems to reduce overheads while widening the range of products that can be offered, and training opportunities and participation in industry-wide initiatives.
For manufacturers and developers there’ll be access to a bigger and faster growing market, that will be increasingly open to new ideas and genres, with more opportunities for unified and targeted promotional activities, and support for new products and ventures including market research, game development and marketing support.
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Some kind of hybrid news, distribution, turn key retail store not-franchise operation? This editor is both confused and excited.
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[Chern Ann]

This is interesting news. Wayland Games is one of the larger GW discounters in the UK, and of late has started distributing a number of product lines.

The PR is a little short on details though, it sounds like Wayland via Tabletop Nation wants a stronger brick and mortar presence via a loosely affiliated network of stores. This model has been used successfully before to improve buying power of individual shops, but if they are all buying through Wayland as distributor that does not appear to be a possible advantage in this case for the individual store owner.

It'd be interesting to see what kind of new retail/marketing model Tabletop Nation is proposing.

 

[Master of fact]

This sounds ace. Are you going to keep this page up to date with information?

 

[Chern Ann]

No comment from Beasts of War yet, save that BoW will stay the same for the immediate future, just that manufacturers like us will have additional opportunities.

It remains to be seen though how comfortable UK retailers will be buying product from an online discounter. I can't help but think there are cons as well as pros for the new entity to use the Wayland brand name so prominently in the announcement.

 

[supervike]

Hmm...I guess I had assumed they were already linked together, given the way some of the previous announcement/web info looked.

Interesting indeed.