Steve Jackson,the company that publishes GURPS and Muchkin (if that’s news to you the rest of this is going to be helleboring), has just released their “Report to the Stakeholders: 2010” that gives an overall look at how they’re doing.
The good news: They’re doing well. 28 staff, profitable, $3M gross revenue.
The bad news: All their goals revolve around “sell more Munchkin.” They only released one print GURPS release in 2009, mostly they’re going PDF. Kinda sucks – 80% of their revenue is from Munchkin and 20% is from GURPS but there’s no GURPS goal…
The RPG company list on my blogroll keeps getting smaller as these companies eschew RPGs for board games. Ah well. I hear White Wolf might be giving it up as well and sunsetting RPGs for other stuff.
Props for the transparency though – did you know SJG openly lists how many units they sell on their e23 PDF sales site?
Geek Related 
Sell more Munchkin — Love it. I play RPGs with a select group, but Munchkin, I can get almost anyone to play it. I never played any GURPs so maybe it is a good deal for them.
Interesting take.
Please could you post up a link to where I could read more about “White Wolf is giving it up as well”.
That’s speculation based on a variety of inputs. Like a Web site going quiet with almost zero RPG related traffic, refusal to print an upcoming print release schedule, and general dropping off the map. May not be true, but it’s what I’m hearing. (WW reps do confirm that “print is dead” as far as they’re concerned, but aren’t owning up to whether traditional RPGs are going out too.)
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Important clarification on numbers: GURPS is not 20%. We have other games, many other games, than Munchkin and GURPS. We released three new games in 2009, had a new edition of Frag, old reliable Deluxe Illuminati, and several more games.
What percent is it? The report said “The GURPS roleplaying system is the other main component of our sales, and the mainstay of the e23 PDF library,” so it seems like it’s the bulk of the remaining 20%, especially as the report admits the new Frag was basically a marketing fiasco.
I don’t have the exact number handy, but between 10 and 14% is a safe number. Deluxe Illuminati, for example, is a strong seller for us.