Review copies of games
You're reading Mikko Saari's blog Life and opinions. This entry was written 11/18/2003, at 10:11.
If you want read more of my entries in the same topic, this entry belongs to the category of Games.
Previous entry: Secret Santa
Next entry: PlayStation 2
I thought I could try to get review copies of games. After all, I maintain several board game web sites and reach a large audience, especially Finnish gamers. I'm some sort of opinion leader, really.
So, following game companies got an e-mail from me: Plenary Games, Looney Labs, Cheapass Games, University Games, Endless Games, Winning Moves, Enginuity, Fiendish Games, daVinci Games, Days of Wonder, Laughing Gravy Games, Jolly Roger Games, Winsome Games, Doris & Frank, Eurogames Descartes, Krimsus Krimskrams-Kiste, JKLM Games, Adlung, Out of the Box, Eagle Games, Columbia Games and Kronberger Spiele.
At this point (20.11.2003), I've heard from Winsome Games ("thanks, but we only hand out 10 review copies of each game" - they are a very small company) and Winning Moves (polite "we don't give games to people" reply). Days of Wonder contacted Safe Haven, their distributor in Finland and that might result in something. Jolly Roger says "sure, but we're small and can't afford shipping". So it's fine, if I pay the shipping, and that should be better than paying the whole deal. Columbia Games asked for my favourite - sounds good to me. Out of Box said "maybe next year". DaVinci sent me a box full of their games! New: JKLM Games sold me Kogge with a big discount (they're small company, so they can't send free review copies). Kronberger sent me some games and asked if I could do translations to them.
So, this far nine replies out of 22 e-mails. It would be great to get even a "thanks, but no thanks" reply from each company, but I'm not expecting that much.
Watch this space for updates.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.melankolia.net/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2686
Comments
Good luck with this endeavor. I write for a videogame review site that has expanded into board games. I've found that the vidogame companies, due to their wealth, I suppose, are far more likely to be responsive to requests. We receive review copies from around 90% of the major videogame producers and are even heavily courted by those companies. On the other hand, after blanketing the industry with requests, only a handful of board game companies even responded with a polite denial. Out of the Box, Cheapass, Columbia, Eagle Games, and a couple of smaller companies did send copies. Cheapass and Out of the Box have been very professional in their behavior and my respect for their companies has really grown.
Posted by: tolendante at November 18, 2003 5:04 PM
Columbia is usually quite easy to get along with and they're up to promoting their games via gamers themselves, especially in the roleplaying sector. Probably it's the same situtation with the board/block games, since Tom and Grant run those too.
Posted by: Merten at December 2, 2003 10:05 AM