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Magnate: The First City - Buy now!

Created by Naylor Games LLC

Magnate is an exciting property/city building strategy game for 1-5 players. Make as much money as you can before the market crashes! Add-ons and the Tycoon expansion only available direct from Naylor Games!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Our new game - 21X - is LIVE!
6 months ago – Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 04:15:27 AM

If you didn’t know already, we just launched our new game on Kickstarter!

It’s very different to Magnate but we think it is no less unique. It's another thing that we believe to be a “Forever Game”: A game we felt surely must exist already - but didn’t. Check it out!

Retail promo available to backers, localised Magnate and more
almost 2 years ago – Sat, May 07, 2022 at 05:39:27 PM

Hi everyone,

We've got a whole lot of updates that I thought you might like to know about, including how to get retail promos, localised versions of Magnate and more besides!

Retail promo now available to backers

As promised, I always want backers to be able to get everything we make. So we've been working away to make the retail promo available as a separate item to backers through retailers (we won't be selling it direct until 1 year after retail release). I am happy to say that two listings are now already live:

Lots of conversations with retailers are going on in general, so I am hopeful to announce more of these soon! Overall many, many more games have now gone into retail than were sold through the KS, so I am very upbeat. 

To those in other regions or looking for a wider choice of retailers, please bear with us while we get all this set-up: I know this has been a bit frustrating for some. Our retailers have really valued this promo, so its something we want to be able to do in future projects (where it makes sense). But we recognise that it would have been much better if these were available at the same time as the retail release so backers don't have to wait to get their hands on them. This is just one of many things we can improve on for our next campaign.

Magnate - Soon available in Korean and German

Back in April, I got to share the most exciting story of the year for me: that Magnate will be published in both Korean and German languages. 

I never thought we'd get this far. Its such an incredible vote of confidence from my fellow publishers that they are spending their money on producing them!

Prestigious independent publisher Spielworxx - who just launched a new Uwe Rosenberg title on Gamefound with great success - will be making the German version. Fast-growing new studio Monday to Sunday Games will be producing the Korean version: which is currently planned to launch with a crowdfunding campaign on Korean platform Wadiz

The production of these localised versions will be timed to coincide with an English language reprint: Now a necessity to keep up with demand we're facing, especially in the US and across Asia, where - in many different locales - we've been out of stock for a while.

Thank you so much again for your support in making this a reality. It's going to be especially wild for me to see Magnate re-rendered in Korean script! I cannot wait to see those boxes. 

Tycoon Expansion now available as a standalone item

Due to popular demand, we've made the Tycoon box available as a standalone product. So if you backed the core pledge and want something more, you can now upgrade by buying it from our new and improved website! 

Lastly...

Magnate has continued to climb the BGG rankings and is closing in on the top 4000 all time games. Massive thanks to everyone who has rated the game on the site. As a premium hobby title and with the limited marketing budget we have, this score is really important to us. So if you are enjoying it and haven't rated the game yet, it would be great if you can!

That's all for now. As soon as there is relevant news, I will share it. 

All the best,

James

Magnate - Retail release & new promo - Do you want one? Multiple "best of" lists and more!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 02, 2022 at 05:07:50 AM

Hi everyone,

I hope you are well and enjoying your copy of Magnate! From now on, I won't be doing regular updates. Instead, I'll be just firing occasional important news your way. That big news today - with all copies well and truly delivered - we're officially released to retail! Plus your help requested on our new retail promo, "Best of 2021 lists" and more besides.

Fulfillment complete

To my knowledge, every pledge has now been received so this will be the last time you hear about fulfillment. For those that haven't received their games, they are definitely on the way. If you're having any issues, do let me know. 

BackerKit is now well and truly closed: so if you pledged $1 but never upgraded your pledge, you have now missed your chance. However, we are still selling games direct from our webstore to customers around the world! 

And that's not the only place you can buy it. Speaking of...

Magnate is now released globally

I didn't want to make Magnate available everywhere till we'd fulfilled the campaign. Given the state of supply chains remains strained, that's been a long time coming, but it's more important that we do this right.  

What we did have was a limited release to customers in North America and the UK. And that has gone very well: We've already sold a lot more games to retail in those markets than we did during the Kickstarter itself.

Now it's the rest of the world's turn to get in on the action and make it officially available everywhere: although given the way bigger demand than we expected, its already the case that we're struggling to supply every market and are looking to push the button soon on our first re-print. 

To make this event as successful as possible, I'd really appreciate any signal boost you can give on your social media channels!

A fancy new promo & a request for your favourite retailers

While the Tycoon edition remains exclusive to us, I didn't want people buying at retail to feel left out. So we also crafted a fun little promo which - so far - most retailers have wanted to get their hands on. It's called "The Boardgame Economy" and it lets you move boardgame themed businesses into your city: 

Right now it's only available from retailers and, mostly, with a new copy of the game. So my question is:

Is this promo something you'd like to get as well? 

I've agreed with them not to sell this direct for the 1st year. But there's no reason you can't get it from them!  If so, can you let me know who your favourite retailers are? 

I'll give them a call and see if they'd be interested in stocking these as stand-alone items for you to get your hands on!

Magnate is rising on BGG and making multiple "Best of" lists

We passed a major milestone just recently and entered BGG's top 5000 games. That might not sound that impressive...but it means we're almost 6000 places up from where we were in October (when fulfillment really got started), passing many fine games on the way! Indeed for several weeks at the start of this year, we were among the fastest 50 rising titles on the site!

Along with this, we've had more media coverage which has remained overwhelmingly positive. We made multiple top 10 games of 2021 lists including on Charlie Theel's Player Elimination and game-as-art magazine, Senet. We were even named game of the year by Dan King over at the GameBoyGeek

How cool is that?!

I like to think we're not done yet.  We've got a very solid average rating on BGG next to our similarly ranked peers. This is very encouraging but as a small business we rely on word-of-mouth to drive sales, so if you haven't rated the game on BGG yet, it would be great if you could.

And that's all for now. When we have some more exciting news to share, I'll fire another update. Until then, thank you so much again for making this dream a reality.

Yours,

James

Last update of 2021: Fulfilment, Magnate rising fast & best wishes for 2022!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 05:08:42 AM

Hi everyone,

This is it: The last update of 2021! Magnate has got an absolute ton of brilliant coverage since the last update and we've got more fulfilment news before we say goodbye to 2021 and hello to 2022. 

Progress update

We entered December with most orders fulfilled. But there were some regions that hadn't seen any games at this stage. Unfortunately, we're not done quite yet. 

I've been told EU/Norway/Switzerland fulfilment has now - finally - started. Owing to sitting in customs for ages it took more than SIX WEEKS to get the games from Norwich to Paris: absolutely ludicrous. The games made it from China to the UK quicker than this. I've been told that other items Magnate was shipped with had to be investigated: that's why our games got delayed despite all our paperwork being correct. Once again I mourn for the UK's membership of the Customs Union! Sadly this means very few of you in this region will get your games before Christmas, which I had thought 2 months ago was close to certain. I'm so sorry about this. At the risk of repeating myself from last time - I think that's a lesson for us to just directly ship from China to all hubs for future projects. This sort of forwarding was once fairly standard practice. The reality is that while the supply crunch is less than it was, it seems expensive, slow freight could be with us for years. Indeed: A big part of all the recent MSRP and RRP price increases that games have seen is literally just paying for this. 

Across Asia and Australasia the game has been landing in even more places: I don't get notifications from VFI when packages are shipped as I do from most other providers, but I've seen emails from backers in Australia, tweets from Japan and How to Play videos from Thailand! Judging from the estimates I was given the game should now be with the majority of backers in these regions. Much the same is true for the rest of the World. But there are still a few of you who may not see your games till January, unfortunately. 

Magnate in more media... and rising rapidly on BGG!

I've lost track of the number of different outlets that have now covered Magnate - and have done so overwhelmingly positively! So if If you're reading this and I missed off your content, my apologies. Some selected highlights:

  •  Dan the GameBoyGeek gave Magnate a phenomenal review and dubbed it "the sleeper hit of 2021" (we are certainly starting to sell very well in the US and Canada!), giving it one of his Sax Serenades no less! I hear we may even shortly see it on his games of the year list!
  • One of my personal favourite game writers, Charlie Theel, called Magnate "a debut cut built to last" and a "remarkable game" in this absolutely beautifully written review from his site, Player Elimination.
  • Dale Yu of Opinionated Gamers praised the quality of the components, overall production, game flow and the sense of a city really emerging that it gives you, recommending it for city building enthusiasts as well as fans of financial games!
  • The team at Boardgame Gumbo also penned a glowing written review of Magnate, being yet another review to praise our tutorial deck - its great to see that part going down so very well!
  • We've seen several more great playthrough videos, including this excellent one from How It Plays and our first ever Non-English playthrough from Zemaki Gaming in Thailand! 
  • We made another top 10 of 2021 list, this time from Games Night Guru who'd also previously posted a glowing review on BGG.
  • We were mentioned on yet more unboxing vids, a ton of different podcasts - to different degrees of detail, including this first impressions look from No Pun Included - who I hope get to play it again soon!

All of this seems to be being reflected in broader player reaction too. Right now we're among the top 50 fastest rising games on BGG's ranking system. If you look at the company we're keeping in that list: well ...the vast majority are bona fide hits from big names. It would be amazing if we could keep that momentum up! But you never know what's going to happen. So if you've got the game and you haven't rated it yet, please do - it really helps as you can see!

Overall, it's just so great to see so many people enthusiastic about the game. Here's hoping we continue to see this kind of positive response once those games have been out there for a little while across Europe and Asia! 

And finally...

Thank you so much again for supporting me and the team on this journey. It's been so wonderful to start seeing backers really enjoying this game and to already be seeing very strong retail sales across the markets we're released in (as well as retail pre-orders elsewhere!). 

After an utterly mad year, the whole team will be on a very well-earned break from tomorrow to the 4th of January. But rest assured, we will answer any questions you have on your return! 

To all of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a very merry Christmas indeed. To everyone, I hope you get to have a little time off too and wish you all a very happy New Year!

Yours,

James

Fulfilment now complete for majority of backers, more press and RETAIL RELEASE on the 25th of November!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Nov 22, 2021 at 11:46:31 PM

Hello everyone!

Earlier than usual, it's update time. Lots and of news: Fulfilment updates, more press for Magnate, a new team member and a regional RETAIL RELEASE DATE is announced for Thursday the 25th of November!

Progress update

The majority of backers now have their games and fulfilment has now completed entirely for backers in the US, UK and Canada. If anyone is still waiting on their game from these regions, please let me know! Something is amiss somewhere if this is the case. 

EU Fulfilment is still taking longer: apologies to all our European backers. Just getting the goods from the UK to France where our EU distribution hub is proving a frustrating and lengthy process. However, I have been advised that fulfilment should actually start from the hub around the end of this month, going into early December. That’s far longer than was originally planned but it’s just the reality of the global shipping situation right now, especially with the shortage of UK HGV drivers. All of this was planned before the current supply chain issues, but for the next one we’ll explore getting the goods directly from China into the EU so we in the hopes of making it simultaneous and spreading the risk out. 

For Asia and Australasia, things are also quite delayed as I warned in the last update. Due to a technical problem, we had to pause some deliveries: this also meant entire consignments bound for some countries also had to be paused, which means we missed some shipping windows. Slow shipping times on-top of this has resulted in further delays to regional hubs. Everyone will get their game (quite a few will have already) but it may take us a little longer. It’s very much the same story for the rest of the world - some games are already well on their way. If the gods are with us, nearly everyone should get their games by Christmas/end of December. But with what’s been going on, that’s not something I am in a position to 100% guarantee for everyone, unfortunately. Rest assured we are trying our hardest and I continue to appreciate your patience in this regard. 

Retail release: 25th of November in UK, US, CA

Now that fulfilment has completed for the majority of backers - and all backers in some regions for a little while - we’ve decided it’s fair to formally release the game for everyone to enjoy in those regions. As a result, the game will be officially hitting the streets of the US, UK and Canada this coming Thursday, the 25th of November. 

Release dates outside these areas are yet to be established. We want backers to get their games first. Realistically that means giving-up on some Christmas revenue, but it's a price I have decided to pay in the interests of being fair to you. 

The good news though is this: We’ve sold a lot of copies direct to retailers and already have one distribution agreement in place. We’re in negotiations with many other companies too. I have always believed that this game has a great future beyond you lovely backers and its wonderful to see this being gradually borne out; even further supported by the ever more extensive press coverage we're getting. 

If you're a retailer and you'd like to buy stock, just drop a line to [email protected]

More great press for Magnate

As people get a chance to actually play the game, we’ve continued to see a great response. 

In just the last three weeks, it’s been lovely to see lots of reviews, blogs and comments on BGG (please leave your rating if you haven’t already - it really helps people find the game!), Reddit and at major outlets.  In addition to magazine coverage in Tabletop Gaming and Senet last month, this has included (but is not limited to):

I do not like to “count my chickens before they’ve hatched” but I do think this is a good sign for what’s to come. 

New team member - Alex Lolies

As we move to the next stage of Naylor Games and begin shifting focus increasingly to our pipeline of new games, it's been critical to make sure we have the time and expertise to do them it justice. That's why I was very excited to announce this week that Alex Lolies, formerly of Dicebreaker and Big Potato Games has joined us as Head of Marketing. She's already taken over the social media accounts, launched a new Naylor Games twitter and is helping me with getting the word out about our new game: Boardgames: The Boardgame (the Gard Game). Myself, Jaya and the wider team are really looking forward to not only getting our games out there but having even more time to focus on product development!

And that’s it. Thank you so much again for helping make this dream of mine come to life. Onwards and upwards!

All the best,

James