This website doesn’t typically don’t cover industry news, but there’s one recent item that may be of interest to Goodman Games fans. Earlier this week, Impressions Game Distribution Services announced that it is being acquired by Flat River Group. Some of you may have seen our recent web update where we visited the Impressions warehouse. So how is this relevant to Goodman Games and you as our fans?
Way back in 2002, Goodman Games entered into partnership with Impressions Game Distribution Services. In fact, Goodman Games was one of the very first companies to sign with Impressions, at a time when both companies were new on the scene. Now, many years later, Impressions has over 80 clients and is the leading distribution services provider for tabletop games.
Although this is invisible to most fans, it becomes apparent when you think about where you get our products. Goodman Games is one of the very few RPG publishers to be represented in hundreds of game stores worldwide, and the only dedicated RPG publisher to appear at all the major distributor open houses. All of this has been facilitated by our partnership with Impressions. There are certainly opportunities to improve distribution, but many of those are our own fault. Our books keep selling out and we constantly have to reprint them—and during that down time, retailers are often unable to find them. (Many fans have noticed this lately with the DCC hardcover and our dice sets, all of which are sold out at our end.) With remarkable consistency over the years, Impressions has ensured that Goodman Games products remain easy for retailers to carry.
Impressions is also the creator and organizer of Free RPG Day. Many of you may know the story of this event: Joseph Goodman originally conceived of “Free Adventure Module Day” and pitched it to Aldo Ghiozzi of Impressions to organize. Aldo brought it to market as Free RPG Day. Goodman Games sponsored the first year with more than 50% of the first year’s box contents, and now, more than a decade later, hundreds of thousands of RPG fans have benefitted from free products every year in June. Goodman Games remains the only publisher to have participated in Free RPG Day every single year since its inception.
Impressions being acquired by Flat River Group will only mean good news for Goodman Games fans. It will further improve our distribution reach and expand on the great base that Impressions has built. We’d like to offer a hearty congratulations to everyone at Impressions for this positive news!
