CCGs are collectible card games (aka trading card games or TCGs), such as Magic: the Gathering and Pokemon.


According to market data firm The NPD Group, annual retail sales of toys in the United States declined 2 percent from 2017 to 2018. For games, that decline was 1 percent.

Against that backdrop, Hasbro has reported that 2018 net revenue fell 12% compared to 2017, mostly due to the Toys “R” Us bankruptcy. The retailer was Hasbro’s third largest customer in the United States, second in Europe and Asia. Additional earnings pressure resulted from other retailers moving to leaner inventories and from political-economic events in Europe (particularly the U.K.).

The failure of Toys “R” Us meant not only the loss of a major retail outlet for Hasbro but also competition from a large amount of inventory being liquidated at significant discount. Excluding Toys “R” Us, however, sales at existing U.S. and Canadian retailers were up slightly, “mid-single digits” for the games category.

While Hasbro recorded an overall year-to-year drop in revenue of 9 percent in its franchise brands category and 12 percent in its gaming category, Beyblade, Dungeons & Dragons, Monopoly, and Magic: The Gathering all grew in 2018. Also on the upside among games were Jenga and Don’t Step in It, offset by downturns to Pie Face and Speak Out. When viewed as a broader category (MtG and Monopoly are normally counted in franchise brands), games were only down 4 percent to $1.4 billion compared to 2017.

Again, 2018 was a record year for Dungeons & Dragons. Regarding the future, CEO Brian Goldner said, “Our plans for an expanded universe of gaming behind D&D is taking shape in analog and digital game play.”

Noting that Magic: The Gathering Arena is still in the beta-testing phase, Goldner also revealed that the so-far-PC-only platform saw 350 million games played in the 4th quarter. Viewership on Twitch doubled. And Arena users are averaging 8 hours played per week.

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Game Bandit - Scouring the net to find the cheapest discount boardgames and best free boardgame prizesAmazon deals:

Emily Reviews is giving away Are You Dumber Than a Box of Rocks? from University Games.

OSR-style roleplaying games are featured in DriveThruRPG’s Good Ol’ Games Sale.

Current offers at Bundle of Holding include Mutants & Masterminds Earth-Prime, with the Basic Hero Handbook in the Starter Collection and full core rulebook in the Bonus Collection, Shadowrun 5E Essentials, with the rulebook and key supplements, and Shadowrun 5E Runs & Guns, with additional supplements.

Zatu Games (U.K.) is giving away Duelosaur Island from Pandasaurus Games. Enter with a picture of game night-date night.

The Inside Voices group is giving away a package of board game accessories, including a game tracker from Daft Concepts, a Quiver card case, and a game bag from Board Game Tables.

Handelabra’s digital board games, including Bottom of the 9th and Sentinels of the Multiverse, are on-sale for $1.

The Call of Cthulhu video game is 25% off on Steam.

Brawlin’ Brothers is giving away The Big Score from Van Ryder Games.

GJJGames is giving away five copies of The Board Game Designer’s Guide audio book.

Mayday Games’ Winter Sale runs through the 15th with buy-one-get-one on Poetry Slam and Bad Doctor, and other games up to 60% off.

Making Time for Memories is giving away two Harry Potter games from Pressman: Triwizard Board Game and Magical Beasts Game.

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Troy University in Alabama is looking for adjunct faculty with tabletop experience to teach online Game Design and Development classes.

Along with several sales and distribution positions, Learning Resources has an opening for a Marketing Coordinator to handle social media and influencer campaigns and support trade shows.

At Educational Insights in Gardena, California, there are opportunities for an Associate Marketing Manager, to manage PR, social media, and the company’s customer loyalty program, and a Product Manager, to lead conceptualization, manage vendor relationships, and collaborate with functional teams as required in the development of new products.

ThinkFun in Alexandria, Virginia has an opening for a Human Resources Manager.

Wizards of the Coast in Renton, Washington is recruiting for:

Tabletop Tycoon in Londonderry, New Hampshire needs an Accounting & Bookkeeping Lead. Responsibilities include developing budgets, reviewing invoices, and managing workflows.

Games Workshop has many openings in sales and retail, also one for a Trainee Citadel Miniatures Designer and a one for a Visual Merchandising Manager. The former will sculpt minis. The latter will create product displays.

An unnamed United States board game manufacturer is looking for a UK Marketing Director, among who’s responsibilities will be managing two PR companies and an advertising agency.

Bezier Games is in need of an experienced, full-time Social Media Manager to generate buzz. The position is based in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Renegade Game Studios is seeking a Development Coordinator to manage the playtesting process from its San Diego office. The company is also looking for a Video Editor to help with 1-2 projects per month.

Atlas Games has an opening for a Marketing Coordinator in Duluth, Minnesota. The successful candidate must have industry knowledge, as well as skills in writing, editing, analytics, and task management.

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Game Bandit

Game Bandit - Scouring the net to find the cheapest discount boardgames and best free boardgame prizesGet a free Bones Black Owlbear figure for every $40 of order from Reaper Miniatures. Similar deals will apply through 2019 with a different figure each month.

Hasbro games are on-sale at Target.

Modiphius Entertainment’s January Sale includes deals such as the Star Trek Adventures Gamemaster Bundle with a 15% discount on the rule book, map, GM screen, player reference sheets, dice, and tokens.

Game tables are 20% off in Geeknson’s Winter Sale.

In 18 days, Meeple Gamers will give away North Star Games’ Evolution on Android or iOS to 25 winners.

Follow and retweet, today, Pandasaurus Games for a chance to win Machi Koro 5th Anniversary Edition.

To celebrate 3 million podcast downloads, HappyJacks RPG is giving away a set of Ancient Dragon Dice from Easy Roller Dice.

Mister Tarrasque has arranged for a 10% discount on anything from Kobold Press.

At Bundle of Holding, the Oone Dungeons offer features a generic dungeon maps.

Get free promo cards with preorders of Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth from Osprey Games.

Get a set of alternate ship cards with any Blood & Plunder ship order from Firelock Games.

Miniature Market has instituted a new daily deal system, where the price of the item on-special is dropped each day by 5% until it sells out.

Erica Ever After is giving away Mastermind from Pressman Toy.

Super Samar is giving away two game bundles, one for the United States and one for the United Kingdom.

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Score Board - Boardgame tournaments, competitions and championships results and scoresA group of senior high school students at the American British Academy in Muscat set a new record for computer processor built from dominoes. With 15,000 dominoes, they constructed a 5-bit adder that can sum numbers up to 63. [For a fascinating explanation of how this works, I suggest this video from the person who built the 4-bit adder.]

Keisuke Fukuchi of Japan took home the trophy at the World Othello Championship held in Prague, Czech Republic. At 11 years of age, he’s the youngest champion ever in the tournament’s 42 year history. On his flight home via All Nippon Airways, a congratulations was announced by the pilot, Kunihiko Tanida, the previous record holder for youngest Othello champion (which he had held since 1982).

The World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis reclaimed the record for the world’s largest Chess piece. It previously held the record with a 14 foot tall king from 2012 to 2014 but was then eclipsed by a school in the town of Kalmthout, Belgium. The new record-making piece is a 20 foot tall black Staunton king with a base of 9 feet 2 inches and a weight of 10,860 pounds. It was hand carved from African Sapele Mahogany.

Magnus Carlsen of Norway successfully defended his World Chess Champion title against Fabiano Caruana of the United States by intentionally playing for a draw in standard time controls and then winning three straight in rapid tie-breaks. At the World Rapid Chess Championship, though, Carlsen tied with three others for second place. The winner in that event was Daniil Dubov of Russia. Following that was the World Blitz Chess Championship, where Carlsen again came out on top.

With a win at the London Chess Classic, Hikaru Nakamura of the United States secured first place in the multi-tournament Grand Chess Tour series.

Among artificial entities, Chess engine Stockfish won both Rapid and Blitz categories of the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship. Houdini came in second in Rapid, where the final match took place over 200 games, and Komodo came in second in Blitz, where the final was 300 games.

Nigel Richards won his fourth World Scrabble Championship with a final game score of 575-452, that achieved with such words as “groutier” (68 points), “zonular” (100 points), and “phenolic” (84 points). His opponent managed “maledict” for 95 points.

A new edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary makes legal play out of “sheeple”, “ew”, “OK”, “yowza”, and “zomboid”. It also adds another q-without-a-u word, “qapik”, a monetary unit from Azerbaijan.

Javier Dominguez of Spain, who last year finished in second place, managed a win in this year’s finals, taking home $100,000 and the trophy for Magic: The Gathering World Champion.

Akiko Yazawa of Japan, cancer survivor, won her second World Backgammon Championship title.

Topping a field of 76 contestants from 46 countries, Quetzal Hernandez of Mexico won the Catan World Championship in Cologne, Germany.

Elena Short of Ukraine finished first in both the women’s classic and women’s blitz sections of the World Championship in Draughts 64.

Wu Yiming, 11 years old, of China became the country’s youngest female professional Go player.

In late December 2017, thirteen year-old Que Jianyu appeared on Chinese television and solved three Rubik’s Cubes while continuously juggling them, and did so in a world record 5 minutes 6.61 seconds. Then in December of this year, he went on Italian television and broke his own record by just over 4 seconds. Between these two events, he also broke speed records for solving three Rubik’s Cubes simultaneously with hands and feet (1 minutes 36.39 seconds) and solving a single Rubik’s cube while hanging upside down (15.84 seconds).

At the Cube for Cambodia event in Melbourne, Australia, Feliks Zemdegs solved a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube in a world record 4.22 seconds.

Max Park of the United States set four new Rubik’s Cube world records. He solved:

Several new world records were set for solving Rubik’s Cubes while blindfolded. At the end of the year, the records stand as follows:

  • 16.55 seconds for 3×3 blindfolded, set by Max Hilliard at the Puget Sound NxNxN in Tacoma, Washington.
  • 1 minute 26.41 seconds for 4×4 blindfolded set by Kaijun Lin at the Please Be Quiet Beijing in Beijing, China.
  • 3 minutes 1.01 seconds for 5×5 blindfolded set by Stanley Chapel‎ at the Shaker Fall in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

Grégoire Pfennig of Belfort, France built the largest order working Rubik’s Cube puzzle, 33×33. Imagine how long it would take to solve that!

A group of four in Moscow set a world record for the number of escape rooms attended in 1 day, 22.

At the World Rummikub Championship in Jerusalem, Kohei Numajiri of Japan came in first place, Sasha Erlich of Israel came in second, and Matthijs Delvers of Netherlands third.

Ankush Khandelwal of the U.K. won the Pentamind World Championship, a tournament that consists of matches in Quoridor, 7 Wonders, Acquire, Liar’s Dice, and Chess 960.

Brain Games held its first ICECOOL World Championship event at BaltiCon in Riga, Latvia, where Khanh Hung Dong of Canada took home the trophy and a prize of a weekend for two at Snow Village in Lapland.

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Game Bandit - Scouring the net to find the cheapest discount boardgames and best free boardgame prizesAt Bundle of Holding, the Adventures in Middle Earth offer gets you six products for Middle Earth roleplaying with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition for $30. And the Doctor Who RPG offer includes core rules and six supplements for $32.

At Humble Bundle, the 5E Dragons, Dungeons, Maps & More bundle includes dozens of third-party D&D adventures, supplements, and print-and-play products, everything for $15.

Digital board games from Acram Digital, including Instanbul and Steam: Rails to Riches, are up to 60% off in the company’s Winter Sale.

Save 10% through tomorrow at The Broken Token with code “TREATYOSELF”.

Warlord Games’ Bad Santa Deals means selected Gates of Antares products are 50% off, ebooks are 20% off, and among other deals you get a free plastic box set with the purchase of any core box.

Discounting 12 RPG ebook titles 99% off regular retail price is Skirmisher Publishing’s Holiday Festivity bundle at DriveThruRPG.

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Game Bandit

Game Bandit - Scouring the net to find the cheapest discount boardgames and best free boardgame prizesStreamer PlayingBoardGames is giving away Sonic The Hedgehog Crash Course from IDW. Tweet and follow required.

A Games & Puzzles bundle at Humble Bundle includes …For Dummies books on Poker, Chess, Dungeons & Dragons, and more.

Everything is 30% in Victory Point Games’ Christmas Sale.

Mom’s Choice Awards is giving away Blurble from North Star Games.

Family-friendly RPGs are discounted in DriveThruRPG’s Teach Your Kids to Game Sale.

Pangea Games on Facebook is giving away Scythe from Stonemaier Games.

Iello is giving away Decrypto.

Save on a variety of games in Eagle-Gryphon’s Stocking Stuffer Sale, plus an additional 10% with orders of $50 and 20% with orders of $99.

The Family Gamers is giving away the Home Alone Game from Big G Creative this evening.

Bundle of Holding has two Cyberpunk offers from R. Talsorian Games, Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Boost. The latter includes the game’s third edition core rulebook. Also at Bundle of Holding is a Warhammer RPP 1E offer with this game’s first edition rulebooks and Enemy Within campaign.

Board game deals at Walmart include:

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Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have announced a major new esports initiative for Magic: The Gathering, one that seeks to more closely integrate the game’s tabletop and digital competitive scenes. The companies are launching a Magic Pro League (MPL) with 32 people being offered play and streaming contracts totaling $75,000. Another part of the initiative is a new series of flagship competitions, Mythic Championships, for both tabletop and electronic play.

Mythic Championships will feature Magic Pro League players facing challengers qualified through play on Magic: The Gathering Arena. Details on how the ranking system will work are promised for January.

The first of the new tournaments, a $1 Million Mythic Invitational, will be held at PAX East in Boston (March, 2019). For the whole of 2019, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are more than doubling the overall prize pool to $10 million across digital and tabletop platforms.

Pro Tour events previously scheduled for Dallas and Sydney are being cancelled, while those in Cleveland, London, Barcelona, and Richmond will become part of the Mythic Championship series with prize pools of $500,000 each.

Nationals, World Magic Cup, and Team Series events are also being eliminated. However, the 2019 World Championship will bring together players from both MtG Arena and tabletop. And partner-organized tournaments, such as the Grand Prix circuit run by ChannelFireball will continue with increased prize support.

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Game Bandit - Scouring the net to find the cheapest discount boardgames and best free boardgame prizesFrom CMON, save up to 80% on select items through Monday.

Save 33% on more than 47,000 items at DriveThruRPG.

Academy Games’ Be Thankful You Are Not Being Invaded by Vikings Sale pairs 878 Vikings with various other games for bundle discounts.

Through Tuesday, all in-stock boxed games from Flying Pig are 50% off.

Also through Tuesday, in-stock games from Tiny Battle Publishing are 25% off.

Subscriptions to the Magnus Trainer mobile Chess training app are 25% off.

Amazon deals:

Avalanche Press’ Black November Sale applies to Gold Club members, giving them 30% off 37 different products and 50% off two others.

The first 15 orders save up to €1,000 on Altar gaming tables in Rathskellers’ Black Friday Sale.

Save up to 20% in The Broken Token’s Black Friday Sale.

Meeple Source’s Thanksgiving Sale features discounts of 25-75%.

For 25% off in Firelock Games’s Raise the Black Flag Friday Sale, use coupon code “raisetheblack”.

For 20% off in Breaking Games’ Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale, use coupon code “BFCM2018”.

For 40% off most books from Goodman Games (excluding leather-bound and third-party products) and 20% off everything else (including the leather-bound books, as well as dice and other accessories) use the following coupon codes: “GGblackfriday2018”, “3PPblackfriday2018”, and “LEblackfriday2018” (multiple codes are accepted).

Mayday Games’ Black Friday Sale includes discounts on various board games, 35% off card sleeves, and free domestic shipping on orders over $50.

U.K. retailer Zatu Games is offering double rewards in its Victory Points loyalty program.

Save 20% in HasbroToyShop’s Friends & Family Sale with promo code “FF20”.

Top Shelf Gamer is offering discounts up to 25% on select products and bundles and free gifts ranging from stickers to dice bags to gift cards, depending on the size of the original order. This Black Friday Bling Weekend Event ends in the early hours of Tuesday.

Save 30% on orders from Renegade Game Studios with promo code “BFSALE”.

All Jon Brazer Enterprises’ Pathfinder PDFs are 75% off. Ends Tuesday.

Discounts are in the 20-45% range in Van Ryder Games’ Thanksgiving Week Sale.

Monte Cook Games’ Cypher Monday Sale starts Monday. Already active, though, is the gift code “2018MCGHolidayGift”, good for $5.

German retailer Spiel Zeit Shop is holding a sale on used and imported games.

Troll & Toad’s Black Friday Sale (discounts up to 60%) end Sunday night.

Drinking Quest games are 20% off.

The Game Crafter’s Turkey Day Giveaway of store credit and parts ends December 4th and will have seven winners.

Coupon code “BlackFriday2018Cards” is good for 10% off card decks from Superior Print on Demand, and “BlackFriday2018Photo” is good for 10% off photo products.

Bundle of Holding’s Indie Cornucopia 6 bundle features Dusk City Outlaws, Spire, and a few more.

90 Second Nerd is giving away Captive from Van Ryder Games.

Sign up for Iron Crown Enterprises’ newsletter for a chance to win $10 off at RPGNow.

To save 33% on purchases from Precis Intermedia, use coupon code “9WAZXMNUYN”.

JasonTDnDDM is giving away the alternate-art Dungeons & Dragon core rules gift set. Retweet by December 12th.

ShimmerwindIsle is giving away a dragon miniature and polyhedral dice set. Twitter stuff required by November 27th.

Cassandra M’s Place is giving away three games from Tactic Games.

Sahm Reviews is running many giveaways, including Dungeon Raiders from Devir, Hero Realms from White Wizard, Blue Lagoon from Blue Orange, and more.

Syrinscape is offering a 30-day free trial to all of its gaming soundsets, including Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, and more.

From Corvus Belli, save up to 50% and get free shipping with orders over €150.

Eagle-Gryphon Games’ Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sale includes discounts up to 50%.

Alderac Entertainment Group is doing bundle deals for its Black Friday Sale.

Greenbrier Games is also doing the bundle thing, plus on Monday, get 10% off with sale code “2018GAMES”.

Hexbug’s Black Friday special BattleBots Championship Bundle is good for $25 savings.

Harn World PDFs from Columbia Games are 33% off with coupon code “thanks”.

Dog Might Games’ Black Friday deals include free dice at orders of $100 and free gift cards at orders of $250. Purchased gift cards are 20% off.

Games listed in Compass Games’ Holiday Catalog [PDF] are 30% off. Get the same discounts when ordering online with coupon code “HOLIDAY18”.

Update (4:00 PM ET, 11/23/2018) with late additions:

Osprey Publishing’s 30% off Black Friday Sale includes Gaslands, Frostgrave, Bolt Action, High Society, and more.

Steve Jackson Games’ Warehouse 23 Hauliday Sale has discounts of 23-75% and free gifts with orders of $25 or more.

Rogue Genius Games has bundles all 117 of the company’s Pathfinder PDFs for just $10 (normally more than $400). They’re calling it the Not Done With This Path Yet Sale.

Kenzer & Company’s Hack Friday Sale includes many items at 50% off.

For 20% off all board games from Capstone Games, use coupon code “HOLIDAYS20”.

The Open Gaming Store is running a Real Stuff Sale on print roleplaying products.

The Infinite Black Friday Sale means 20% off playmats from Infinite Black.

Save 30% on Beasts of Balance with coupon code “BFSAVE30”.

Use the “CRITHIT” code for a $5 savings at Hero Forge.

Everything is 20% off in Litko’s Black Friday Sale.

For 20% savings on Jenga Giant, use code “JengaGiant2018”.

Most things from PSC Games are on-sale for 25% off.

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This Saturday is Neighborhood Toy Store Day, an opportunity to support your local toy and game retailer before the peak of holiday shopping pressure. Organized by the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, Neighborhood Toy Store Day also has participating shops running family-friendly activities and offering in-store specials.

Take the opportunity to support a small business in your community.

 

 

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