Ares Games SRL

Helpful Information and Free Demo Games

to Support Retailers

by Jim Long, Manager, Ares Games LLC

War of the Ring, Wings of Glory, Sword & Sorcery, Last Friday, This War of Mine… when Ares Games travels to conventions across the country to support our games, we often hear, “I didn’t know you published or distributed this game!” We often joke that Ares Games is the biggest game company you’ve never heard of. As an Italian company it might not be unusual to think of us as a European-based company, even if, in fact, we have offices on both sides of the Atlantic.

You may have not seen a lot of advertising from us until now. However, we have a full-time team focused on providing our retail customers support for our board games, card games, miniature lines, and role-playing games.

Central to our support is our retailer-focused newsletter. This is an opt-in process, and we are committed to sending no more than two e-mails each month. Short and sweet, the newsletter focuses on new products releasing in the immediate future (no later than the following month). It provides retailers with a synopsis of our newest releases, as well as the links to gather more information as needed.

In addition, 10 to 12 times per year with our Ares Games newsletter, we encourage retailers to request free demo games to create in-store events, increase customer traffic, and introduce our recent (or classic!) games to your customers. It’s simple to do: just click the button in the newsletter and let us know you want the free demo game. What could be easier?

Not only does Ares Games provide free demo copies of our own games, it is also the We publisher of the English edition of games by Ludus Magnus (Black Rose Wars, Dungeonology) and Pendragon Game Studios (Last Friday, Diabolik – Heists & Investigations, Last Aurora). It’s also the North America distributor of games published by several European publishers: Galakta (This War of Mine, Waste Knights), PHALANX (Rocketmen), Nuts! Publishing (Mini Rogue), Hexy Studio (Star Scrappers), Quality Games and Acheron Books (Lex Arcana, Brancalonia RPGs), and others. We can offer demo copies of the games from these other fine companies as well!

Ares Games also provides monthly product sheets with information regarding upcoming releases and reprints. It’s all the information you need to know to work with distributors on your product orders. Between the product sheet and retailers’ newsletter, you have two great sources of information on products to support your store.

Last, but by no means least, is the growing list of Retailer Spotlight Videos on Ares Games YouTube channel. These videos dive a bit deeper into the specifics of the covered game with information on price, play time, release date, and other topics. The videos also outline selling points and compare our games with similar titles, so you can easily target them to the appropriate customers.

On top of the newsletters and videos that are specially targeted to retailers, additional resources are available to learn more about the games and find ways to promote them on our website, aresgames.eu. There are complete rulebooks for download, preview articles, designers’ notes and so on.

And of course, it is always possible to meet the friendly Ares Games LLC staff at the major trade and customer shows – GAMA Trade Show (where we are proud to include our content in the Retailer boxes and give them away at our booth), the open houses of major distributors, GenCon, Origins, PAX Unplugged … If you attend one of these shows, come and meet us in person!

With all these different communication channels, helpful information is always at hand. To receive our newsletters and request support for events in your store, contact Olivia Long at events@ aresgames.eu. Let us help provide the content, and free games, you need to increase your sales!