Jenseits?!

Oh, yeah, baby… way to go, Jay!

I’m still hoping Queen does some development work on it (maybe an “advanced” version to reduce some of the unnecessary luck factor), but I’m probably in the minority.

Well, as we probably all know by now, Queen is the black box of the gaming world. We won’t know what we get until someone peels off the wrap…

Sheesh… the two of you are The Depression Twins. It’s a great game that I _think_ they won’t be able to screw up.

Well, that used to be my feeling as well, Eric, but Queen’s been doing pretty well lately.  Their series of two-player games have been almost uniformly excellent.  Maybe they’ve been putting some of their revenue from the Alhambra cash calf (it’s not quite a cash cow) to good use.  Sure, I would have been happier if a company like HiG had picked Jenseits up, but I’ll take my chances with Queen.  My real fear is that they’ll just keep it as it is, which will be fine from a production and availability standpoint, but will seem like a missed opportunity to me.

And I really do like Jenseits, Mark.  Its fidelity to theme is amazing.  But with a little development, I think it could also be quite a good gamer’s game as well.  I don’t want them to mess with the digging mechanic, just tweak some of the values.  I don’t think it would take much.

Guys, I didn’t mean that Queen titles stink—only that the company releases almost no information about its products. The latest news item on the Queen website is from Oct. 2006; the three upcoming titles are Shogun, Alhambra: Das Würfelspiel, and Thief of Bagdad. The Bush administration should take lessons from Queen about how to conceal information.

Jay’s grabbing of Jensiets, Khronos, Guatemala, Hermagor, and the Thurn un Taxis expansion is an amazing coup and fabulous boon for us!

Highest Kudos for Jay.  (As long as another Industria fiasco doesn’t occur)

If he could also latch onto Balam and Graenaland, my world would be sublime.

Ray, I contacted Patrice Vernet (designer of Balam) and here’s what she said:

“Balam will not be available by another editor.
I understand that the cost is high.
Well, we do not sell any more this product, but we can all the same treat special orders (5, 10 ex), at advantageous conditions, but with some times… If you know somebody able to diffuse them, thank you to transmit this information to him.

In all the cases, thank you for your interest.”

The Neuroludic website still lets you order the game, so it’s strange that she would say Balam is not sold anymore. Order lots of copies and turn yourself into the U.S. Balam connection…

This is a totally naive question.

Is there room for a US distributor for obscure Euros?

Are the online retail vendors already serving this market, or is there a potential for a profitable business is getting and distributing foreign games like Balam, Neuroshima Hex, Prophecy, etc?

Jonathan, Prophecy is the only one of those three titles carried by Funagain and Boards & Bits, the two American online retailers that seem to carry the most non-American titles, but Zev at Z-Man is picking it up, so clearly he thinks there’s a market for it.

To answer your question, I think importing these titles would take a lot of work and not be that financially rewarding. You’d be doing it for the love of the games and the adulation of a few hundred gamers who would trumpet your name in the street in appreciation.

Thanks for mentioning Neuroshima Hex, by the way. I hadn’t even heard of it previously!

I also just found an online distribution model, that is already doing something similar to what I was imagining:

http://key20.com/home.php

To return this thread to its roots:

In recent memory, Roma, Aton, Rat Hot and Timbuktu, have been better than similar releases by other major publishers.

Other games that could use US versions/importers:
Return of the Heroes expansions (Pegasus)
Vitrail (Interlude)
Carrousel (Asmodee)
Santorini (Gord!)
Vesuvius (Gord!)
Vampir (same as Neuroshima Hex)
Schildkroetenrennen (Winning Moves)
Warumono series
Lineage II
JungleSpeed Expansion & FlowerPower
Familienbande (Winning Moves)

Ray Smith passes on the following note about Balam: “For those of you who were hoping for Balam to be ferried over to the States, it ain’t happenin’.  In trying to order a copy, I contacted Neuroludic for clarification, shipping details, etc.  Their response is that they have none remaining in stock and have no plans on reproducing it nor permitting it to be picked up by anyone else.  Apparently, what’s out there is all she wrote.”