Growing adult, girl's categories add luster to board game sales

Discount Store News, Jan 7, 1991

Growing Adult, Girls' Categories Add Luster to Board Game Sales

Driven by strength in the new adult and girl categories, board games appear to have at least held their own in 1990 and perhaps even recaptured a bit of the ground lost in 1989.

Unit sales of board games fell 7% in 1989, with dollar volume shrinking 13.3%, estimates the NPD Group in its Toy Market Index. The average price of a board game slipped to $9 in 1989 from $9.67, 1988, the TMI found, suggesting price- cutting to clear unsold stocks.

Although no sales figures are available yet for 1990, toy retailers and board game makers alike believe that the Nintendo juggernaut lost some momentum last year. They blame Nintendo and other video games for siphoning off dollars that otherwise would be spent on board games and other toys.

Board game makers developed an entirely new category, girls' games, such as Mall Madness by Milton Bradley, and Girl Talk by Western Publishing, in response to Nintendo inroads.

"Boys play Nintendo," a Parker Brothers spokesman said. "Girls play board games," such as the vendor's new Careers for Girls.

Another new category, adult games, such as Scattergories, also Milton Bradley, is the fastest growing of all.

Although adult games lack a blockbuster hit such as Trivial Pursuit, which established the category, Milton Bradley will sell more than 1 million, and possibly 2 million, units of Scattergories. That game was the top selling board game in both dollars (see accompanying chart) and units in October, reports the Toy Retail Sales Tracking Service of the NPD Group. November figures were unavailable at presstime.

Indicating the importance of adult games, NPD will start tracking them as a separate category for the first time in its 1990 survey. NPD defines an adult game as any one that sells at least 50% of units to those 18 years old or older.

As another indicator of its prominence, Barnes & Noble, the off-price book chain, took out a full-page ad in The New York Times prior to Christmas to promote adult games. They included: Trivial Pursuit, Parker Bros. $31.46, against list of $34.95; Taboo, MB, $26.96, against $29.95; Read My Lips, Pressman, $18.95; and Scattergories, MB, $26.96, against list of $29.95.

Perhaps the ultimate adult game is An Enchanted Evening, $25, from Games Partnership, San Francisco. Merchandised in lingerie departments of department stores, rather than toy stores, the game promises to "enrich intimate relationships."

Barbara Jonas, a founding partner, said her infant company has sold 230,000 copies of the game. About 30 hotels help promote the game through An Enchanted Evening weekend getaways featuring champagne and do not disturb signs.

Jonas said she is open to discount and toy chain distribution. At $12.50, the game provides keystone margins (100%), compared to the average of 25% for games overall.

At Toys "R" Us, top-selling adult board games are Scattergories, Taboo, MB, Read My Lips, Pressman. Other board game winners include: Monopoly Jr., Shark Attack, Claim to Fame and Mall Madness.

At Kiddie City, the Lionel Leisure chain, the best-selling adult games are Scattergories and Taboo, each about $20. In the girls category, the best titles are Mall Madness, about $30, Girl Talk Date Line (one of four versions), $15, and Baby Sitters Club, MB, also $15.

Board game sales were "slightly up" in 1990 over 1989, said Debbie Kaplan, a Lionel spokeswoman. "The category is strengthening."

At Toy & Sports Warehouse, White Plains, N.Y., Monopoly Jr, $7.99, is the No. 1 seller, said buyer Marc Langus. All juniors are "hot," Langus said, including Clue Junior and Trivial Pursuit Junior. Scattergories is doing well, along with Thin Ice, Pressman, he said.

Board game sales were flat last year from 1989, Langus said. But he expects sales to rise in 1991 now that Nintendo is slowing down, especially in cartridges.

Industry opinion holds that board game sales stabilized last year following the decline in 1989, said Diane Cardinale, a spokeswoman for the Toy Manufacturers Association, New York. TMA figures on industry shipments will be released next month at Toy Fair, Feb. 11 to 20.

Last year wasn't necessarily a bad year, even though it lacked a "new and really dominant game that blew away the rest," said Ed Roth, toy analyst for NPD.

Sometimes retailers overlook the obvious, he said. Some of the best sellers have been around for years, he said, such as Candyland, age 40, which ranked No. 10 on the TRSTS report for October.

The trend in children's and family games is to "add exciting action features to flat board games," said Jim Pressman, president of the company that bears his name.

In Shark Attack, for example, a battery-powered shark follows players as they progress around the board, he said.

In Pressman's Thin Ice, about $10, players are challenged to see how many marbles they can play on a dampened tissue before it breaks, Pressman said.

The extra features make for a larger box and warrant higher prices, he said.

Margins on some of the hot new games, such as Mall Madness, $30 retail and about a $25 cost, actually are less than on more conventional traditional games, Pressman said.