And with three product lines and only so many full time staff, FFG's not going to be able to churn out books quite as fast as they used to when it was just EotE they had to worry about.

They have a bit of a Wii problem here. Back when the Wii was The In Thing and you couldn't find one for love nor money, everyone was saying "Well, just set up more factories for faster production" - totally impractical from a business sense, since demand for the product WOULD (and did, as judging by the cool market reaction to the Wii U) level out. This would leave them with way more production facilities than demand.

Same thing here. FFG could bring more staff on, dial up the production rate and increase the stream of books (and other Wars Swag), but there's only so much shelf space for new product and they only have so much lag in the production schedule. Once all caught up, they'd have extra staff and be in the same boat as Hypothetical Nintendo.

I'd love a production stream of a Book A Month, but I realize that this is unsustainable from a business prospective.

With respect to boats, has there ever been any solid facts surrounding transit times and why the seem to vary so widely?

The trade winds aren't constant, and cargo ships don't tack very well.

Nah, I'm assuming it has more to do with which printer they use, waiting for the boat to arrive, waiting for the boat to be loaded, etc. A lot of variables with shipping in general.

And I would be thrilled if any other lines had three titles in the works right now. Only one book in development for 40K. So count your blessings, guys. I want the BH book as much as everyone else, but I'm just glad that they're so invested in Star Wars... even if I wish Only War would get another book or two...

With respect to boats, has there ever been any solid facts surrounding transit times and why the seem to vary so widely?

Honestly I would take the upcoming page with a huge grain of salt with respect to where things actually are. Those things may not actually be on the boat but in the warehouse and they may not be ready to ship them for whatever reason. Maybe they are too busy with the new X-wing core game.

For instance the Star Wars the Card game cycles on the boat and at the printer mean nothing except as a timer to let people know how far off before they are going to ship things. We know that they actually ship and receive the entire cycle of six force packs all at the same time before they release a single pack. Throughout the cycle though they show the first one as shipping and the second one as on the boat and the third one as at the printer even though all three of them are sitting at the FFG warehouse.

If you look at the toy lines for EPisode 7 they are already begun to launch to stores this month... so that precludes a black out.

With respect to boats, has there ever been any solid facts surrounding transit times and why the seem to vary so widely?

Honestly I would take the upcoming page with a huge grain of salt with respect to where things actually are. Those things may not actually be on the boat but in the warehouse and they may not be ready to ship them for whatever reason. Maybe they are too busy with the new X-wing core game.

For instance the Star Wars the Card game cycles on the boat and at the printer mean nothing except as a timer to let people know how far off before they are going to ship things. We know that they actually ship and receive the entire cycle of six force packs all at the same time before they release a single pack. Throughout the cycle though they show the first one as shipping and the second one as on the boat and the third one as at the printer even though all three of them are sitting at the FFG warehouse.

Any evidence to support this?

With respect to boats, has there ever been any solid facts surrounding transit times and why the seem to vary so widely?

I think it has to do with limited storage space on the US side, so things ship out very quickly after they come in. Essentially as soon as it is here it goes out.

However the shipping process from China is very inexact. Even then, there is no guarantee how long it will take it to get through customs at the port.

Another game company likes to announce specific release dates for their products. Every. Single. Time. They end up moving it back by 6-8 weeks. Sometimes they have to delay it again, one or two weeks before it is due out because of a delay at the port.

There just isn't a precise way to figure out the timing.

Ocean currents, wind, where the container is on the ship, Customs, dock workers strikes. These all effect on the boat time. When it arrives at FFG it goes right back out to distributors.

With respect to boats, has there ever been any solid facts surrounding transit times and why the seem to vary so widely?

Port of LA routinely backs up just because of capacity. Ships can wait days and weeks to off load. Last years longshoreman labor dispute caused the biggest hiccup as the port management stopped paying OT for the workers to work on the weekends and consequently product backed up.

Loading droids can't come fast enough....

With respect to boats, has there ever been any solid facts surrounding transit times and why the seem to vary so widely?

Honestly I would take the upcoming page with a huge grain of salt with respect to where things actually are. Those things may not actually be on the boat but in the warehouse and they may not be ready to ship them for whatever reason. Maybe they are too busy with the new X-wing core game.

For instance the Star Wars the Card game cycles on the boat and at the printer mean nothing except as a timer to let people know how far off before they are going to ship things. We know that they actually ship and receive the entire cycle of six force packs all at the same time before they release a single pack. Throughout the cycle though they show the first one as shipping and the second one as on the boat and the third one as at the printer even though all three of them are sitting at the FFG warehouse.

Any evidence to support this?

In their State of the LCG presentation that they gave at worlds 2014 Fantasy Flight has come out and said that they ship their entire cycle by boat all at the same time before they release it.

Thus: at the beginning of the cycle which lasts six months, everything is sitting in the warehouse while they show up as on the boat or in development on the upcoming page.

With respect to boats, has there ever been any solid facts surrounding transit times and why the seem to vary so widely?

Honestly I would take the upcoming page with a huge grain of salt with respect to where things actually are. Those things may not actually be on the boat but in the warehouse and they may not be ready to ship them for whatever reason. Maybe they are too busy with the new X-wing core game.

For instance the Star Wars the Card game cycles on the boat and at the printer mean nothing except as a timer to let people know how far off before they are going to ship things. We know that they actually ship and receive the entire cycle of six force packs all at the same time before they release a single pack. Throughout the cycle though they show the first one as shipping and the second one as on the boat and the third one as at the printer even though all three of them are sitting at the FFG warehouse.

Any evidence to support this?

In their State of the LCG presentation that they gave at worlds 2014 Fantasy Flight has come out and said that they ship their entire cycle by boat all at the same time before they release it.

Thus: at the beginning of the cycle which lasts six months, everything is sitting in the warehouse while they show up as on the boat or in development on the upcoming page.

That is some pretty solid evidence!

Loading droids can't come fast enough....

Loading isn't the only problem, flying trains would help a lot more.

Loading droids can't come fast enough....

Loading isn't the only problem, flying trains would help a lot more.

They are called planes. It even rhymes!

I look forward to the day we have transporter technology and can simply beam the books from the printer to the distributor.

Loading droids can't come fast enough....

Loading isn't the only problem, flying trains would help a lot more.

They are called planes. It even rhymes!

Way too pricey, and planes need airports.

I look forward to the day we have transporter technology and can simply beam the books from the printer to the distributor.

At that point why have a distributor? beam straight to the customer.

I look forward to the day we have transporter technology and can simply beam the books from the printer to the distributor.

At that point why have a distributor? beam straight to the customer.

You just revealed why we don't have this technology yet! Distributors are conspiring against it!

I look forward to the day we have transporter technology and can simply beam the books from the printer to the distributor.

At that point why have a distributor? beam straight to the customer.

Essentially we already do. Its called a PDF, the internet and this modern technology called a personal printer.

Seriously if there was a good way to self bind and high quality print... Possibly it's the printing companies that are holding us back!

Or licensing agreements drafted a couple of decades ago...

i was talking more broadly than FFG SW RPG, but yes, in this case we are living in the 80's

I look forward to the day we have transporter technology and can simply beam the books from the printer to the distributor.

At that point why have a distributor? beam straight to the customer.

Essentially we already do. Its called a PDF, the internet and this modern technology called a personal printer.

Seriously if there was a good way to self bind and high quality print... Possibly it's the printing companies that are holding us back!

Actually there is a machine that will print and bind a book. they cost around 20K last a checked. Some do hardbound and some do perfect bound. It is what drivethru RPG uses to print books on demand.

http://ondemandbooks.com/

20K

20K

Don't worry. It will be 10k in 5 years and 5k in 7 and 2K in 10. If not faster.

ill probably have jacked into the Matrix willingly before then!