How successful was HeroQuest?

[Blackthorn]

Just how successful was HeroQuest from a commercial perspective? I saw it in the stores for a breif time in the early 90's and found Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord in the Toys R Us close out bin right after it disappeared from the shelves. One can conlude that the game was a success from the fact that several expansions and ancillary products were produced. The Battlemasters box even said "From the makers of HeroQuest" accross the top, implying the game was well known and liked. Then there's the loyal fan base as evidenced by the many webpages and active fourms that still exist. It must have sold well as there is a steady supply of games and components on eBay.

Yet, if it were truly successful it seems like it would have stuck around for a while. Plenty of games have been in production for several years, even failry complex wargames like Axis & Allies that don't appeal to the typical Monopoly or Scrabble player. Could it be that several similar games came on the market soon after? I know the current Dungeons & Dragons and Descent board games bear some similarity to HeroQuest. Was the game too expensive to produce or sidelined due to legal battles (which can't be settled with combat dice)?

[shy-design]

I would say it was pretty popular. I have no idea how many units were sold, but I'd bet it did pretty well despite its short production window. It was introduced at a good time though. Well at least the commercial was bad ass. "Im unna use me broadswword"


I've always wondered myself if and when fantasy flight games will ever reboot Heroquest. being that they have brought several games back "form the grave" in recent years... talsiman, wiz war, netrunner, descent, even a new version of blood bowl... not sure how Id feel about that.. I personally like having heroquest out of print for some odd reason. But introducing it to a new market wouldn't be so bad after all.

[Goblin-King]

A lot of my friends bought Hero Quest. The expansions were more rare. I saw a KK here and there.
No idea how many were sold worldwide.

[Daedalus]

I seem to remember it being stocked on the shelves of US anchor stores like K-mart and Venture for two years; perhaps others have more accurate information. It definitely was a hot game for it's first year of release--lots of shelf space and TV advetising that I don't remember. I also don't remember HQ being present in those few hobby stores that I frequented.

As to why it didn't stay, you have to consider it was marketed towards 10 years old and up. That market is very fickle. Damn few games stay on the shelves more than a couple of years because of that, and those traditional cash cows that do stay are largely there because they are so strongly supported by the toy companies that make them. Milton Bradley (now part of Hasbro) saw sales decline as the next batch of kids moved on with the cult of the new. The suits decided that HQ didn't have legs and set shelf space for The Next Big Thing.

I feel things might have been stretched out a couple more years with better expansions. The first two expansions, KK and RotWL, worked well enough, and they didn't even require new production molds. The next two in North America, the Barbarian and Elf Quest Packs, [-edit] were largely failures due to poor support. They apparently weren't playtested, and availability was next to nil. I remember waiting in vain for them to hit the shelves. In retrospect, I should have mail ordered them with the flier info that came with KK or RotWL. Hindsight and all that.

I don't believe legal problems with GW was the issue. The break was pretty clean.

Maybe Axis and Allies remained in production because of its market of 12 years old and up. That success may be attributed to a more mature group of buyers that weren't so swayed by fad advertising. Maybe they shopped at hobby stores as well, deepening the market and profits for MB. I don't really know, just speculating.

[knightkrawler]

Like Daedalus said, I think it was a market thing. Just target group issues.
Comparable with Masters of the Universe.

HQ was a money cow as proven by the later expansions not being tested and thrown on the market immaturely.

[Blackthorn]

HQ was a money cow as proven by the later expansions not being tested and thrown on the market immaturely.

I've heard that said about the later expansions which I've never played. Is this a known fact, or an assumption based upon their difficulty or imbalance?

I also notice that much of UK literature describes HQ as "the best/top selling board game" so I wonder if it didn't sell better over there.

[knightkrawler]

I know for a fact that it was HUGE in Germany.
As for the expansions having never been playtested: there are errata in the maps, and I've read about contradictions and other faults in Wizards of Morcar and Against the Ogre Horde.

[Patroclus]

Well, actually they do create games like HQ. I am talking about the wizards of the coast who is Hasbro(=ΜΒ). They’ve made some d&d boardgames (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, and The Legend of Drizzt) 65$ each and a lot of expansions called “dungeon command” with more miniatures and tiles (40$ each). Of course the gameplay is totally different if you ask a fan of HQ but I don’t think they have the same opinion. From the creators of the card game magic the gathering it is very expected to want a product with an open system and the action based on cards and skills. It is expandable and does not need quests and scenarios which I believe is the hard part. Also these games are an introduction to their AD&D… I am not sure that they want to make a so tough competitor for their own games.

Of course this is just a theory, I don’t know what they really thinking. If you ask me, a totally new HeroQuest clone will bring them a LOT of money. Maybe a kickstart can convince them, I don’t know, but only they could start it. Maybe a poll in their forum could give some answers…

In Greece I remember the advertising on TV which was very impressive but I was small to buy what I want. My mother was afraid to buy me a game with a “pagan” content so I played it about 2-3 years later with my cousin. But I know it has many fans and it was a success for sure.

The only blank spot was the cooperation of GW and MB. GW always want to sell miniatures and they fight their own product by making the advanced HQ right after, and a lot more products trying to earn from the big success of HQ... And this was the end.

[Patroclus]

There is a group in wizards of the coast forums for HQ. It is not active but maybe it is not a bad idea to make an account and join.
http://community.wizards.com/heroquestgame

[shy-design]

interesting find partroclus.