New Game Concept Has Owners Cashing In Their Chips

By Mark Hoerrner

Peter Adkison and Jesper Myrfors are cashing in their chips. Rather, they are cashing in on their chips. The two former Magic:The Gathering™ bigwigs have developed "Clout Fantasy," an innovative game that combines traditional strategy ideas with poker chips to create a new concept in collectible strategy gaming.

The game, which was released September 6, consists of casino-quality poker chips printed with elaborate artwork featuring various fantasy entities such as elves, undead creatures, centaurs, goblins, and more. All of the chips are imprinted with special statistics governing the purpose of the chip and how it can be used in the game’s head-to-head competition. While this is nothing new to strategy games, there is one new concept unique to Clout. The act of integrating a physical component—the throwing of the chips into position—creates a very distinct and different game.

Adkison, who served as CEO of Wizards of the Coast Inc., the company that brought Magic: The Gathering™ collectible card game to the market, had actually gone into retirement before Clout. After developing the game concept, Myrfors approached Adkison, who thought enough of the idea to step out of retirement and create Hidden City Games (www.hiddencitygames.com), the company that owns Clout Fantasy. Myrfors was the original art director for the Magic line from Wizards, and he’s brought a similar feel to Clout. The pieces feature individual artwork from new and established artists that give the chips a feel reminiscent of Magic:The Gathering™.

While the game is barely 60 days old, the company has had an exceptional run of luck. Adkison raised nearly all the start-up capital for the company within three days and managed to set up a multinational distribution and marketing network in short order. "The response from the industry has been above and beyond what we had anticipated when we decided to launch this game. Not only did we have a great response from investors, raising 1.5 million dollars in three days, but feedback from our marketing partners has been outstanding," Adkison stated in a recent press release.

Certainly, Adkison’s support of the game has created a larger industry buzz than most would expect for the game. The concept, while unique, takes a bit to get past. Clout faces the past failures of Pogs and Diskwars, two franchises that never really seemed to create a lasting space in the market. Still, industry pundits are positive about Clout. The game is already gaining ground among gamers with tournaments held at GenCon, the biggest gaming convention in the United States, and in regional tournaments scheduled for conventions across the nation.

"By mere association with the game, [Adkison’s] name will get distributors, retailers and consumers to try it no questions asked," said Aldo Ghiozzi, editor of GameBuyer magazine. "Combined with the marketing power of AEG in North America, Clout is going to be the game to beat for sales."

The true hurdle with any game, however, is whether it will be on the shelves again this time next year or whether it will be in the discount bin. "The biggest problem with any game is convincing people to try it," Ghiozzi said, "and with all the promotions behind Clout, chances are even the most skeptical of gamers will give it a try."