Tor Gaming – Maker of Relics – is Shuttering
The 7 year old company based in the UK announced its closing its doors.
Tor Gaming started offering Relics 2010, and over the years has added several expansions to it. The most recent, C’thu, was launched with a successful Kickstarter campaign. But, it’s gotten difficult for smaller, more niche manufacturers to keep a toe hold in the current crowded market. The owners of the company announced their intentions to close on Friday; not too long after Spartan announced they are closing.
Unfortunately, the last few years have been a difficult trading time for Tor Gaming. Running a business in a niche market is never easy but the gaming industry has become very crowded in the last few years for a number of reasons. As such, I have made the difficult decision to close Tor Gaming and sell off the Relics IP and product range.
The reasons for Tor Gaming closing are many faceted but as I mention above the gaming market is a much more crowded than it was when I started out. The arrival of crowdfunding platforms certainly shook up the industry and made it even easier for new companies to appear and vie for the limited funds our customers have to spend in this hobby of ours. I have made use of them a number of times for Relics and whilst they are good for raising funds I have found each time I ran a project I had a nasty taste in my mouth afterwards.
Coupled with the fact that the traditional ‘distribution model’ of selling product to end users through retailers is a difficult task in this industry as retailers have only so much shelf space and as such are less inclined try out every range that comes along makes continuing to trade in this industry as a producer is difficult.
Over the last couple of years we have seen a steady decline in sales and as such Tor Gaming no longer has the resources to spend on the marketing and advertising required to make our voice heard over all the other voices in this industry. This has ramifications on our ability to develop and produce new products to support the Relics line. We could continue by making use of more crowdfunding projects and moving away from the more traditional ‘distribution model’ for selling but I feel that would be the wrong decision as I am not happy putting the financial risk on to the shoulders of our customers.
AdvertisementIt’s been a fun journey but as with all journeys, there has to be an end. For Tor Gaming, that end is here. The journey has been fun and exciting, even frustrating at times. But along the way we have met some great people in this hobby and I am proud to call many of them friends now!
They are looking for a new home for the Relics IP, which is filled with whimsical creatures and has a fair amount of lore behind it, and 28mm skirmish game. Those interested – and players with questions – can find contact information on the Tor Gaming website.
Friday proved to be a bad day for tabletop gaming. Hopefully this won’t start a trend.
