2022 – A Year of Changes

by Ariella Lehrer, CEO of Legacy Games

Despite the fact that Legacy Games will turn 25 years old in 2023, there have been so many changes this year that I like to think of Legacy as a startup business. We’re questioning everything we do, and experimenting all the time. It definitely makes for an interesting end-of-year summary, so let’s get started.

While our digital store, at www.legacygames.com, is only 2 1/2 years old, it’s working remarkably well. We sold more than twice as many units in November 2022 compared to the previous year!

At the start of 2022, Legacy had 66 casual game packs to sell. Guess how many we have now? We have a total of 114 game packs, with new ones coming every week. Thanks to our great business partners who trust us to sell their games ethically and profitably. One of our new game packs includes Ancient Aliens, a Legacy Original title, based on the popular History Channel TV show, and of which we are very proud.

What was just a possibility became reality in 2022. We opened PC game stores on both Walmart.com and Amazon in April and started to sell DVDs with bonus digital codes. Customers can play with or without internet access, with or without DVD drives. Ecommerce sales have grown rapidly since then, increasing approximately 20% per month.

Also starting in April, in partnership with Amazon, we launched monthly Amazon Prime Promotions. The impact of this monthly promotion cannot be overstated in terms of the increase to Legacy’s website traffic and new customer accounts from all over the world. This caused some long days and nights as our team worked to increase our server capacity. If you noticed some technical issues with our website in the past few months, you now know why.

In October, we launched our first FTP (free-to-play) mobile and PC game ever! Pearls of Atlantis is a unique game, described by one reviewer as “an upside down bubble shooter with physics.” It hooks you immediately. There is a sharp learning curve associated with designing a FTP game, a crash course in confusing acronyms like LTV, DAU, ARPDAU, CTR, CPM, etc. While there is lots more work to do, the early results are promising, with new features, live events, and game levels planned by our wonderful development partner, Alder Games. Try it on PC or mobile, and let us know what you think!

We have 15 boxes on the shelves at Walmart stores this Christmas, but each year that business becomes more challenging. COGs (cost of goods) rose rapidly in 2022 and together with supply chain issues caused our retail profit margins to decline. Our crystal ball is a little cloudy about this channel of distribution, so stay tuned for more news in 2023.

So here is the $64,000 question. What can you, our esteemed customers and business partners expect from Legacy next year? Besides more great game packs of course…

1. Our successful cloud streaming partnership with Google ended in October, with the closing of their Stadia platform. We disagreed with and were devastated by that decision. But stay tuned. We’re big fans of streaming technology, which allows customers to play their games on almost any device they choose, and we expect to announce new streaming partnerships in 2023.
2. Legacy completed a 1000-person marketing survey after the massive influx of Amazon Prime customers. They said, by a wide margin, they they would prefer to buy games on our website that are downloadable from Steam. As a result, Legacy will be offering Steam codes on our website in Q1. Look for different types of games, like platformers and action adventure, in our new Steam section, still packaged in our signature game packs.
3. We’ve been watching with interest how browser based online games have improved over the past few years. Newer games offer deeper gameplay, and can be played on a phone or desktop. They are free to the customer, with ads. We certainly don’t think they will replace downloadable games anytime soon, but they offer a casual, quick, and social experience that appeals to a lot of game players. We plan to add some well-curated online games to the Legacy Games website in early 2023.

It’s surprising to me, after 35+ years in the games business, that I continue to enjoy what we do at Legacy Games – finding new and better ways to entertain our customers. And our small but mighty team overcame every challenge this year, with talent, hard work, and grace under pressure. I am grateful to each and every Legacy employee.

I am also deeply grateful to you, our customers and business partners, for your ongoing support. On behalf of the amazing team here at Legacy, may you, your friends and family stay healthy and safe this holiday season. I hope you start the new year recharged and ready for 2023. Thanks for being part of the 25-year story of Legacy Games.