• The main distribution channels for board games are retail stores and online stores. Retail stores include mass-market stores as well as specialty stores.
• In the United States, the increased participation of Walmart, Costco, Sears, Target, and Best Buy has led to a rise in revenues from the sale of board games.
• The structure of the boxed game industry is formed by the publisher, the manufacturer, the freight shipper, the distribution broker, the distributor, the retailer, and the consumer.
• Examples of game pricing show that the components of the game such as the type of board (if any), moving pieces, and even instructions set are determinant for game pricing.
• A sample of the production of a complex game showed that the total cost of production and transportations for 1,000 units of the game would be $27,650, of which production cost represented 81.1% of the price while transportation cost represented 18.9% of the price. However, this sample did not include the retailer or the consumer on the price breakdown.

Summary of Findings

• During our initial hour of research, we were able to identify information regarding the distribution and structure of the boxed game industry. We also found information about the market for board games and trends in the distribution system. Further information on the organization of the industry and current distribution trends could be found with further hours of research.
• However, we were unable to find a breakdown of the pricing of boxed games in which it was detailed how much each part of the supply chain charges or earns from the production and sales of a boxed game. We searched through the websites of boxed game distributors, where their pricing is not listed, which is probably because it is considered market-sensitive data. Furthermore, we looked through publications about the game industry, which allowed us to identify pricing for manufacturing games of different sizes, but no information on the entire supply chain was available.