Wyrd production schedule.

[Myyrä]

Now is a good time to brush up on those model finding skills from the previous edition change. Luckily many of the stores I used back then are still in business, and still carrying the weirdest stuff in their inventories.

[dope_danny]

On 9/24/2019 at 9:58 PM, Qracy said:

Of course the delays are annoying, but I cannot understand all the storys, that people quit playing Malifaux because of the delays.

I play a game because I like the rules, the miniatures, the community, the setting and the storys.

If you quit a game just because you can't buy some products right now and you have to wait, I don't know how seriously you wanted to play that game. Because a tabletop always means a lot of time invest - learning the rules, the meta, building and maybe painting the miniatures and so on. I don't change a game like my underwear.

In my area, there are some new players who are really interested in Malifaux; I had some demo games with them and now, they just started with the stuff that is available or just wait until the products are at our LGS.

And the established players, who played Malifaux for a longer time, are also not struggling, because they own some Crews from M2E, just bought the Faction Packs and enjoy the new edition.

Don't get me wrong, I am also not happy; because of the delays, I will not be able to play Lucius / Agent 46 at the German Championship, but I just want to relativize the problem...

 

And after all, Wyrd's concern is to sell as many products as possible and therefore, they will try to do what they can to get the products to the markets. That's for sure.

Theres a saying by Stan Lee about the ethos to his work that was "every issue i write is somebodies first comic book so i have to grab them on page one" and television has a similar idea of "if you don't catch the viewer in 30 seconds you never will" and i think theres a similar element to tabletop games. Its very easy for any of us from 2nd to go "eh i got my existing figures already and can play, clearly those people aren't TRUE FANS like me" but the whole crux of that brand of high horse is A: already being monetarily invested, B: already having possibly multiple years of good experiences built up and C :this is a bump in the road and not your first experience.

There are people i know from 2nd that have not given up on the game but shelved it for something like Warcry or Bushido until the problems resolve. Because they have prior experience to suggest it will and its no skin off their back just to wait. However there are also people that were interested for the first time and their only experience is little or no stock depending on where you ordered from, months of delays with repeat apologies that keep blaming different third parties and no starter kit so they need to gather up all the stuff like fate decks and minis and cards while also hoping they have someone else who has done or will do the same.

Thats a bad first consumer experience. Lets just rip the bandaid off and call it what it is. It was an attempt to grow the audience and it shit the bed. Not enough to have people saying its the death of the game like you hear folks talking about Guild Ball or Warmachine nowadays but there is absolutely no reason to get angry with people whos only experience with malifaux has been a poor one. Thats on the product provider. Doesn't mean Wyrd is in the shit pile from now on forever, leave that binary thinking to the outrage/cancel culture crowd online, but they had a chance with new people and blew it with many of them. Thats an objective fact and to blame a consumer for getting burned after putting money down and deciding they want to find greener pastures is a bit of an overreaction in terms of brand loyalty. You can't force people to stick around with promises it might get better. Because they can always come back when it does, but its up to wyrd to convince them the problems are solved by solving them at the end of the day.

[dope_danny]

37 minutes ago, Harlekin said:

Thing is, it happens every day. It does not happen when you already caught the fire and have at least some of the stuff you want. But if you are starting to build up some interest for a game and then try to pick your first few boxes and no matter where you are looking you just can't get your new toys, well, then it's absolutely understandable that you go for another game where you know that you will get everything you wish with ease. 

Exactly right. Case in point i was super excited for Monsterpocalypse. Trouble is i live i England and Privateer Press does not really support regions outside the US with new stock. They do one wave and then its individual blisters or nothing. I shopped around and eventually found a shop in whales with the two starter kits. I legitimately am not exaggerating when i say i honestly think i found the last two copies in my country. The game had been out for a few months and that wave was gone and a new wave of stock never arrived.

So i played the game with friends at my FLGS and lots of people badgered the owners for orders for it. But there just wasn't any to be had. The only option was import from the US which before the import tax was 60 quid shipping which totalled over 100quid/nearly 130 bucks for 6 minis in a starter box and having to hope someone else had a starter, god forbid buying two!

 

So now the game is dead here. There are no new models and people that desperately wanted to jump in got burnt and moved on. At least unlike PP Wyrds odds of sorting their issues out are a hell of a lot more likely to happen.

[Toqtamish]

13 hours ago, Myyrä said:

Now is a good time to brush up on those model finding skills from the previous edition change. Luckily many of the stores I used back then are still in business, and still carrying the weirdest stuff in their inventories.

Exactly. I've gotten a shit ton of models in two months of starting. More than I can use already. And was easy to do with people moving stuff around for the edition change. Miniature market is having a sale on some stuff too. 

[pyremius]

On 9/23/2019 at 8:20 AM, Toqtamish said:

http://www.meeplemart.com/malifaux-3e-guild-faction-pack.aspx

 

 

Why should I re-buy the cards I've already paid for?  Half my July pre-orders are still out of stock at the distribution level.

For that matter, there seems to be plenty for purchase through Wyrd, but it never seems to make it off the webstore and into the hands of the LGS's that provide the gaming space for recruiting new players and running events.

[theamazingmrg]

7 hours ago, pyremius said:

Why should I re-buy the cards I've already paid for?  Half my July pre-orders are still out of stock at the distribution level.

For that matter, there seems to be plenty for purchase through Wyrd, but it never seems to make it off the webstore and into the hands of the LGS's that provide the gaming space for recruiting new players and running events.

There's a theme to both those comments: "out of stock at the distribution level" and "never seems to make it off the webstore into the hands pf the LGS's"

 

My question would be why is it out of stock at the distribution level, causing problems for LGS's, if Wyrd have stock for sale?

 

There are two possibilities that I can think of:

• Distributors aren't restocking efficiently.
• Wyrd are intentionally withholding stock to keep sales for themselves.

 

The way distributors work is that there's no real loss to them to screw up with one game as they can always sell another one and make money that way.  Wyrd, on the other hand, might get a short-term sales boost by being the only source in town, but that's at odds with their stated desire to have people buying from LGS's, which is supported by things like the Alternate Spit Hog promotion, an initiative that would surely eat into their profits from direct sales.

 

Sounds to me like your distributor is awful, unfortunately.

[whodares]

Has there been any news regarding the Faction Card Packs?  I still haven't gotten my hands on any packs whatsoever, just like most of the people in my group. It seems our country only got a couple of packs in total, which effectively killed the entire scene here. At first we played with self-printed cards, but it's just not thesame ...

 

I've been trying to get the packs for Ten Thunders and Neverborn from several shops here and in the UK, but none of them can provide any sort of timings on actually getting them. I've even gotten orders refunded because they timed out on delivery time.

[dope_danny]

On 10/30/2019 at 9:54 AM, whodares said:

Has there been any news regarding the Faction Card Packs?  I still haven't gotten my hands on any packs whatsoever, just like most of the people in my group. It seems our country only got a couple of packs in total, which effectively killed the entire scene here. At first we played with self-printed cards, but it's just not thesame ...

 

I've been trying to get the packs for Ten Thunders and Neverborn from several shops here and in the UK, but none of them can provide any sort of timings on actually getting them. I've even gotten orders refunded because they timed out on delivery time.

I ended up having to go to ebay for mine. Theres still folks i know waiting on their June preorders for lots of stuff.

[s0ule55]

On 10/30/2019 at 5:54 AM, whodares said:

Has there been any news regarding the Faction Card Packs?  I still haven't gotten my hands on any packs whatsoever, just like most of the people in my group. It seems our country only got a couple of packs in total, which effectively killed the entire scene here. At first we played with self-printed cards, but it's just not thesame ...

 

I've been trying to get the packs for Ten Thunders and Neverborn from several shops here and in the UK, but none of them can provide any sort of timings on actually getting them. I've even gotten orders refunded because they timed out on delivery time.

Where are you located? My LGS has some of the faction packs. Not sure if they're the ones you're looking for but I can check Saturday and if you're in the US I could mail them to you.

[McCabe]

I find it painful only because A- the game is incredible B- people LOVE the new sculpts are awesome and C - the reception and uptake has sky rocketed. I refresh the upcoming page daily and harrass my LGS for shipping updates. While these teething issues are a hastle its on the back of an amazing game, company and asthetic (minis, fluff ect) I am sure Wyrd are painfully aware of this predicament but at the end of the day release is sluggish because its overwhelming success. You cannot blame a small company from not ??tripling?? an investment on the back of a hope it would do well - breathe, let them catch up - all will be well - and stick it out because lets face it, you'll be back anyway...

[whodares]

4 hours ago, s0ule55 said:

Where are you located? My LGS has some of the faction packs. Not sure if they're the ones you're looking for but I can check Saturday and if you're in the US I could mail them to you.

I'm from Belgium, so that's Europe. Thanks for the offer, but we're not gonna pay customs and shipping from the US just for a couple of card packs. The extra costs will outstrip the pack cost

 

 

1 hour ago, McCabe said:

I find it painful only because A- the game is incredible B- people LOVE the new sculpts are awesome and C - the reception and uptake has sky rocketed. I refresh the upcoming page daily and harrass my LGS for shipping updates. While these teething issues are a hastle its on the back of an amazing game, company and asthetic (minis, fluff ect) I am sure Wyrd are painfully aware of this predicament but at the end of the day release is sluggish because its overwhelming success. You cannot blame a small company from not ??tripling?? an investment on the back of a hope it would do well - breathe, let them catch up - all will be well - and stick it out because lets face it, you'll be back anyway...

While I agree with you on this, even something as small as the card packs have been sold out. It's not just for a month or 2, it's already 4 months (and counting). There doesn't seem to be any sign of actual product, besides the announced new releases per month, that's being delivered. A niche game like this might have problems, but not getting the actual playing cards is rather ... special.

 

[Vangerdahast]

@whodares: As you are in Begium, this shop in France has all the faction decks except the Neverborn one: https://www.philibertnet.com/fr/8469-malifaux

(the Bayou one is only shown on the Bayou page). They also have some M3E models.

 

[McCabe]

3 minutes ago, whodares said:

I'm from Belgium, so that's Europe. Thanks for the offer, but we're not gonna pay customs and shipping from the US just for a couple of card packs. The extra costs will outstrip the pack cost

 

 

While I agree with you on this, even something as small as the card packs have been sold out. It's not just for a month or 2, it's already 4 months (and counting). There doesn't seem to be any sign of actual product, besides the announced new releases per month, that's being delivered. A niche game like this might have problems, but not getting the actual playing cards is rather ... special.

 

I am not aware of the ongoing stock issues with cards in your jurisdiction - but I'm in Australia - a country that is notoriously slow to stock and we have had surplus card packs since the second wave which was many weeks ago now and as far as I can tell as a Henchman running events here we have as much M3E interest as anywhere else. You must have a very unique card stocking issue in Europe. My guess is the second wave, despite being 3 times larger iirc was still insufficient to cover demand in the UK? In that case the reception was underestimated again - but this would obviously have been well in excess of the first batch - which in that case brings us back to point one - it WAS a niche game, but transition out of this would require enormous internal structural overhaul... these are all problems i agree but they're problems cause by hugely positive reception. Honestly the alternative was that M3E was released as a sub-par game - in the long term this will all be worth it.

[pyremius]

My LGS (Indiana, US) has been unable to get any word from distributors about when rulebooks or faction packs will be available again so pre-GenCon orders can be filled.

[Nagi21]

4 hours ago, pyremius said:

My LGS (Indiana, US) has been unable to get any word from distributors about when rulebooks or faction packs will be available again so pre-GenCon orders can be filled.

It's really a crapshoot at this point.  One store near me has been waiting on my Dreamer "preorder" for almost two months now.  Meanwhile a store 60 miles south has had multiple dreamer boxes for almost the same amount of time.  

What really irritates me is the people who forget we did this exact same thing in the 1e to 2e changeover where Wyrd didn't get it's ducks in order, put the cart before the horse, and that release went about as well as this one.  It's not a one time thing, this is par for the course for the first year-ish from Wyrd.  Last time they blamed the distributors and the factories as well (admittedly that was a changeover from metal to plastic so issues should be expected), so you'll have to forgive me if I see the root of this all being a lack of planning and trying to rush release again from Wyrd.

[Toqtamish]

This article gives good insight in to the gaming industry overall. Even though it is by a different company. 

 

https://home.privateerpress.com/2019/11/12/addressing-product-availability-delays/

[Michael Curran]

Ok, I was going to ask about preorders, and regular orders and out of stock product being available for the Christmas holiday, but after reading this chitter chatter it seems highly unlikely.

- sigh -, frustration, - sigh -

[solkan]

On 11/13/2019 at 1:18 AM, Nagi21 said:

It's really a crapshoot at this point.  One store near me has been waiting on my Dreamer "preorder" for almost two months now.  Meanwhile a store 60 miles south has had multiple dreamer boxes for almost the same amount of time.  

Short version:  You’re bitching about the distribution chain being broken.

Long version:

As far as I know*, retailers get faced with two different kinds of terrible ordering interfaces:

• The distributor shows them an interface with what’s in stock, and they can order from that.  If it’s not in stock, there’s no way to know when it will be reordered, so you just have to try again each week.
• The retailer puts in an order, and at the end of whatever period, the distributor ships whatever of that order is in stock and bills for it.  Will you ever get the rest of the order?  No one knows.  You’ll either just eventually get a shipping notice (and bill) or a cancellation notice and possible future relisting.)

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a store able to say “We got X, the distributor back ordered Y and expects it to arrive ——“.  

In other words, stores end up ordering from distributors the exact same way you order from the store.  And it’s terrible because you can’t  operate a demand driven supply chain like that.  But you can’t get more transparency than that (“How many copies does the distributor or Wyrd have left, and how long until they order a new lot?”) in the system because it’s a bunch of individual businesses and random customers who all want to know this.   And then put a three to four month turn around on production runs if nothing goes wrong.)  Which just leads to situations where a company becomes big enough to become its own distributor (Wal-Mart.  Amazon.  Does Azmodee qualify yet?) or the Diamond Comics monopoly.  

Disclaimer:  At the moment, I’m 400 miles from the nearest game store, and 700 miles from the nearest good game store.  About 1200 miles away is the nearest store that had walls of both Malifaux and Privateer Press boxes.  But it was a pain in the ass getting new releases on time two or three years ago, during M2E, at the good store.  If you had a big store that ordered regularly, you might be able to figure out what the cutoff dates were each month, but for a small store just doing special orders.  Not to mention if you’ve ever ran into “You want three boxes.  We haven’t hit the minimum order yet.”..    

That retailer 60 miles away had three copies of the Dreamer box for the same reason you can find stories about “Raiders of the Lost Wal-Mart” or people hunting through local stores for specific Transformer/Star Wars/whatever toys.  Or, for that matter, trying to find a store that still has cans of Mountain Dew Pitch Black left over.

The distribution system hasn’t really worked since people stopped ordering things by filling out a form, putting it in an envelope, putting a stamp on it, and waiting six to eight weeks.  😕 

Edit:  And people wonder why there's a prominent Spanish company with an entire science fiction product line in metal in 2019; while a certain UK company produces limited run plastic games that sell out and then stay out of production.  🤷‍♀️

[Nagi21]

On 11/25/2019 at 2:32 PM, solkan said:

Short version:  You’re bitching about the distribution chain being broken.

I'd have more sympathy if 1) this wasn't Wyrd's first rodeo with this and we've heard the exact same spiel for the last 10 years with their stuff, and 2) people still weren't waiting on the things they ordered at Gencon (in August... 4 months ago).  If you can't fulfill it, don't offer it.  Don't offer it after you take the money, then pay lip service for nearly two quarters.  This is why I have such little goodwill to offer for this distribution nightmare.

[Regelridderen]

I signed up for this game 3 years back.

Love the minis, love the rules - the concepts are great, the fluff is... adequate.

I've never seen Wyrd being able to efficiently bring their goods to market. There's always a shortage... Although with M3E its more of a shutdown – and unfortunately the boxes they are letting out, doesn't coincide with those, I'd put on my list, so of course I feel the effect more pronounced – but I still see most of the new stuff on 'pre-order' which has a broad meaning in Wyrd context.

Still... M3E is a great game, even if you can't get new players on board.

But my wish for Christmas would be, that Wyrd looks into hiring people to streamline their production and distribution. It's what they need to take their product from good to great.

 

[dope_danny]

So its December, its now been 7 months since i was told stuff like the rulebook i preordered didnt show at any uk retailer i use and i had to rely on a pdf that means dragging my laptop to game stores or trying to play the pinch and squint game on my phone "until new stock showed up". I've been willing to wait patiently since its really just giving money to support a game you love when technically the rules are free but at the same time over half a year is a long time and the people i tried to get into the game with 3rd have gone beyond "dont worry it will get sorted out" a few months back to full on "fool me twice, shame on me" and its actually harder to find people to play with now than in the drought at the end of 2nd.

 

Has there been any news about rulebooks? it just seems so odd trying to sell someone on a game going "oh but theres no rulebook you can buy yet" and getting a blank stare and a comment of "i thought you said this came out in june, how can i not buy a rulebook when even stuff like bushido has them and thats a game made by like four people" and what can you even say to that at this point?

[ShinChan]

On 12/7/2019 at 8:04 PM, dope_danny said:

So its December, its now been 7 months since i was told stuff like the rulebook i preordered didnt show at any uk retailer i use and i had to rely on a pdf that means dragging my laptop to game stores or trying to play the pinch and squint game on my phone "until new stock showed up". I've been willing to wait patiently since its really just giving money to support a game you love when technically the rules are free but at the same time over half a year is a long time and the people i tried to get into the game with 3rd have gone beyond "dont worry it will get sorted out" a few months back to full on "fool me twice, shame on me" and its actually harder to find people to play with now than in the drought at the end of 2nd.

 

Has there been any news about rulebooks? it just seems so odd trying to sell someone on a game going "oh but theres no rulebook you can buy yet" and getting a blank stare and a comment of "i thought you said this came out in june, how can i not buy a rulebook when even stuff like bushido has them and thats a game made by like four people" and what can you even say to that at this point?

Well, you can print it. I printed it in color, and bounded, less than 13€

First time that is a problem not being able to buy something but having it for free. And I'm one of the ones that have it preordered and paid in June.

[Cleezy]

On 12/8/2019 at 1:04 AM, dope_danny said:

So its December, its now been 7 months since i was told stuff like the rulebook i preordered didnt show at any uk retailer i use and i had to rely on a pdf that means dragging my laptop to game stores or trying to play the pinch and squint game on my phone "until new stock showed up". I've been willing to wait patiently since its really just giving money to support a game you love when technically the rules are free but at the same time over half a year is a long time and the people i tried to get into the game with 3rd have gone beyond "dont worry it will get sorted out" a few months back to full on "fool me twice, shame on me" and its actually harder to find people to play with now than in the drought at the end of 2nd.

 

Has there been any news about rulebooks? it just seems so odd trying to sell someone on a game going "oh but theres no rulebook you can buy yet" and getting a blank stare and a comment of "i thought you said this came out in june, how can i not buy a rulebook when even stuff like bushido has them and thats a game made by like four people" and what can you even say to that at this point?

Where did you pre-order the rulebook from that didn't have it in the UK?

My group ordered from 4 different retailers and had no issue in receiving the goods. A few didn't bother and took the same route as @ShinChan getting them printed and bound.

As for peoples reactions when I have told them about the rules being available for free they have said 'why is there a rulebook if I can just get them for free' and a similar response to the app. Mad how different groups react to things differently.

[dope_danny]

17 hours ago, Cleezy said:

Where did you pre-order the rulebook from that didn't have it in the UK?

My group ordered from 4 different retailers and had no issue in receiving the goods. A few didn't bother and took the same route as @ShinChan getting them printed and bound.

As for peoples reactions when I have told them about the rules being available for free they have said 'why is there a rulebook if I can just get them for free' and a similar response to the app. Mad how different groups react to things differently.

i tried element games, firestorm games, wayland games and another i hadn't used before. On release day i got the Youko Box and a Fate Deck. I ordered 1 of everything bar the crew boxes.

Its a wierd situation where the customer is going "i know this is free but let me give you money anyway!" but this isn't some industry giant like GW so its got to be a more impactful absence when they aren't selling stuff and giving it away for free. 

Personally i just prefer hardcopy rulebooks you can pass around at the table and sure i can pay to have it printed off by a 3rd party but thats just wyrd losing money i would rather give to them.

[ebolazaire]

I have 1 shop in my country that brings in Malifaux product, he hasn't been able to order anything since August... The game is slowly dying out here, we've been running demos and sharing our minis with new players, but it's hard to get people to buy into the game when they literally cant buy into the game