Game stores often have a poor reputation. Often thought of as dark, damp crevasses located in strip malls filled with males with poor personal hygiene throwing cards or pretending to be wizards, the advent of gaming cafes and brighter, clean stores has made game stores a go to place for areas that have them. Privateer Press has announced a new free rider policy to help out those game stores with much success.
Privateer Press is pleased to announce that all of its North American distribution partners have signed Privateer’s new distribution contract and agreed to support the company’s new free rider policy, which seeks to discourage high-volume online retailers that do not offer meaningful services from undermining the growth and sustainability of the industry.
Privateer’s free rider policy discourages the sale of products to a category of online retailers recognized as harmful to the industry. Thanks to the universal support of Privateer’s North American distribution partners, the policy will help ensure that honest, hard-working retailers—including online retailers that are not in violation of the policy—will be able to compete fairly and without the predations of crippling and anticompetitive practices. In doing so, the policy also safeguards the brick-and-mortar retailers’ role in providing players with access to the worldwide community of players who enjoy the friendly competition, hobby experiences, and casual and competitive organized play for which Privateer Press is a recognized industry leader.
Privateer’s North American Distributors consist of ACD, Aladdin, Alliance, E-Figures, Gamus (GTS), Golden, Lion Rampant, Peachstate Hobby (PHD), Southern Hobby, and Universal.
“We greatly appreciate the support and commitment to the health of brick-and-mortar retailers shown by our North American distribution partners,” said Sherry Yeary, president of Privateer Press. “Change won’t happen overnight, and eliminating free rider practices will be an ongoing issue that will take time and a united effort between publishers and distributors to overcome, but we have already seen the positive effect of instituting this policy, and we remain committed to its success, no matter what it takes.”
Since Privateer announced its new free rider policy, over 200 brick-and-mortar stores who do not currently stock WARMACHINE and HORDES have committed to carrying the new editions of the games because of the policy. All launch kits for the new editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES are sold out at the manufacturer level through presales to distributors.
With the update to Warmachine and Hordes coming soon, having their games in more stores is great news for Privateer Press. This sounds like a huge push for Privateer Press to give Games Workshop a run for their money, and hopefully this will get more gamers into miniatures games.
While not working as a Database Administrator, Keith Schleicher has been associated with Gaming Trend since 2003. While his love of video games started with the Telestar Alpha (a pong console with four different games), he trule started playing video games when he received the ill-fated TI-99/4A. While the Speech Synthesizer seemed to be the height of gaming, eventually a 286 AT computer running at 8/12 Hz and a CGA monitor would be his outlet for a while. Eventually he’d graduate to 386, 486, Pentium, and Athlon systems, building some of those systems while doing some hardware reviews and attending Comdex. With the release of the Dreamcast that started his conversion to the console world. Since then he has acquired an NES, SNES, PS2, PS3, PSP, GBA-SP, DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One S, Gamecube, Wii, Switch, and Oculus Quest 2. While not playing video games he enjoys bowling, reading, playing board games, listening to music, and watching movies and TV. He originally hails from Wisconsin but is now living in Michigan with his wife and sons.
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