Hobby gaming is an expensive proposition. It always has been, but in 2007 and 2008 in particular it seemed to become even more proportionally expensive. For many years, fifty bucks has been kind of a standardized “buy in” price for most big box hobby games barring some more expensive, niche wargames with small print runs. I remember when I bought an import copy of EUPHRAT & TIGRIS sometime in 1998 I thought it was outrageous that the game was $65.

And when Fantasy Flight Games started releasing games with an $80 retail price I was shocked- it kind of felt like when Neo Geo came out and the cartridges were over $100 a piece. That was twice the price of Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo game. Of course, once I broke the ten or so square feet of shrinkwrap on TWILIGHT IMPERIUM 3rd EDITION I felt the price was completely justified given the tremendous component density and outstanding production and I have yet to see one of the “Epic” box games that did not deliver at least $80 worth of play value and quality. But now, in 2009, those $80 Fantasy Flight titles have become $90 Fantasy Flight titles and $60 has become the new $50.

Last year, Fantasy Flight announced an across-the-board price increase to its entire line. Admittedly, the price increase felt like a long-overdue correction more than an indiscrete money-grab but it still felt pretty shocking to see five and ten dollar increases throughout the catalog. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA was initially announced at a very mainstream-friendly $40 price point but shipped at $50- even though many felt that the overall production quality was a step down from FFG standards.

There’s no doubt that the problem is the flagging dollar fighting an uphill battle against increasing overseas manufacturing costs, transportation, and other rising overhead expenditures necessary to bring a professionally printed and produced board game to market. But it’s not just the plastic figures- strictly pulp and pressboard titles are more expensive today than similar productions were last year. Prices also went up at Mayfair (publishers of SETTLERS OF CATAN), Days of Wonder, and most other publishing houses.

Probably more damaging to the industry than the price hike among larger games is that the idea of the “Great Game Under $20”, an attractive incentive for new gamers, impulse buyers, and curious browsers, is quickly vanishing. A great card game like CITADELS in early 2007 could be had for $20 retail (or $13-15 at any given online retailer). Now, the game retails at $25. Rio Grande Games’ popular series of two player games have suffered a similar fate and now LOST CITIES feels like an even bigger waste of money for a deck of cards and a superfluous board.

What’s worse is that simpler, shorter games are being deceptively packaged by companies in order to make the customer feel like $50 isn’t too much for a really simple, light card game like DOMINION. Pack the cards in a big, empty box with a two-cent plastic tray (or a one cent cardboard one) and a card game that should be $20 in a small box is suddenly selling for the same price that ARKHAM HORROR was retailing at just a year ago today. It’s an illusion of value. And it doesn’t matter if you play DOMINION 500 times, the game simply should not be packaged and marketed as a $50 title because of standards set by its marketplace and price point competition.

Of course, that $50 price point means something different today than it has for the past ten years or so. It isn’t that games have suddenly become more (or less) well-produced or that publishers have suddenly cut corners- although it’s hard to miss that Fantasy Flight’s games have a little thinner cardstock and less plastic. And I’m even OK with the noticeably lower quality that Chinese-manufactured games have been cited for- we’re still seeing some tremendous productions with great components. It’s that when I have to spend $60 for a new game that just recently was $50, I feel that we’ve gone somehow from point A to point C. And this was in 2008- before the Second Great Depression. I have to wonder what is going to happen if and when the bottom really does fall out and the thought of a Middle Class American buying a $60 board game becomes as ludicrous as me blowing my Gameshark.com check on jellybeans while I’m laid off from work.

I have to admit though, that for all of this criticism, I think I have a pretty moderate view of the situation. It’s impossible for anyone with any understanding of capitalism, economics, or running a business in any moneymaking capacity to come down too hard on publishers who are increasing retail prices. If I’m the CEO of Funtime Games and Holdings, Inc. and my production costs have gone up, then I either cut into my margin or I transfer some of that increase to the consumer. Sorry Mr. Entitled Internet Guy who is outraged at spending a couple of extra dollars to pursue a hobby but that’s how it works. You can’t blame FFG, Rio Grande, or any of the other firms for increasing prices- particularly if it means the difference between success and failure for these businesses.

It is kind of scary to think that a lot of game companies live and die by tiny sales figures supported by the sales of scant thousands of games. If average prices reach a certain tipping point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more and more gamers taking up that “buy less games, play what I already own” on an even wider scale. I joked in last week’s article about how that mantra was sort of the “lose weight” resolution of the board gaming community but for my part I know that I haven’t purchased a single game in 2009 and I likely will not until something comes out that I believe is an absolute must-own. And what is that going to mean if a thousand other gamers play it closer to the vest in 2009 than they ever have before in terms of spending money on games for the small companies that are doing 1000 print run games?

So there seems to be a dangerous collision down the road, right at the intersection where rising costs meet declining consumer willingness (and ability) to spend on frivolous entertainment purchases. I think any publisher in the business today that isn’t looking at strategies such as extending value and brand longevity with expansions or by diversifying into hobby niches and genres outside of established parameters is courting disaster. We’re looking at companies that have small markets and audiences within a small market and audience. For too long, it seems that many publishers such as Rio Grande Games have ridden along on the rails of the bizarre, “gotta catch ‘em all” consumerist attitude and title churn that the internet board gaming community has created within the hobby.