Imperial Veterans was available in the UK since early last week. Brexit vote took place on Thursday and the pound dropped considerably. I propose that there is sufficient cause to believe that Asmodee may have manipulated the handling the Imperial Veterans release to take advantage of the Brexit vote. Knowing that a vote to leave the EU would seize up the UK economy for a time I believe that Asmodee may have orchestrated a plan to move what product they could through the UK as fast as possible.

FFG news goes cold and creates a sense of urgency among consumers about the pending release of an overdue product while reports of Imp Vets being available in the UK begin to surface. Limited quantities mean that not everyone can get Imp Vets and so less stable markets are shorted and the product sent to the UK. Why? Brexit. There may have been sufficient cause for Asmodee to think that the Leave Vote would win and they guessed the effect on the local market and the global one as well. Asmodee isn't going to be selling toy spaceships in the UK for quite some time now as this whole Brexit thing pans out, but if the UK has a weaker pound then perhaps online buyers can be persuaded to buy from the UK before release? Before the Brexit Vote I'm sure you will be able to see that a large quantity of Imp Vets were sold there, taking advantage of the strong currency. After Brexit, I'm sure those number will increase due to the relatively increased buying power of foreign currencies. This is a short window of opportunity for profit but it exists nonetheless as once the product is released the synthetic demand for it will taper off. But I ask you, how many of us are on our way right now to buy Imp Vets early from a UK website?

Long story short, FFG and Asmodee saw the writing on the wall and enacted a plan to take advantage of the Brexit Vote to sell toys online in direct opposition of their previously stated goal of protecting Brick and Mortar game stores. Not exactly high treason, but I think the customer base has been duped royally and the guilty parties should at least come forward and admit their mistakes. It is unethical to take advantage of political upheaval to sell toys. It is especially unethical to do so when you have made statements saying that you are a caring and compassionate company whose interest lies in the enjoyment of the game and the Star Wars universe in general.

Perhaps FFG should remember that when Han Solo tells his erst-while copilot to 'Fly Casual', he is doing so in the interest of deceiving their enemy!

Fly casual FFG, fly casual!

alternatively, the plastic spaceships dont control the economy or w/e you wrote after the first paragraph i stopped reading

I don't think you can get mad at distributors who hedged this bet. Why shouldn't they?

If you voted in the referendum did you by any chance take a pen with you to use?

It is especially unethical to do so when you have made statements saying that you are a caring and compassionate company whose interest lies in the enjoyment of the game and the Star Wars universe in general.

I like to think of myself as a caring and compassionate player who will support the store that gives him space to play. I'm even strongly considering not buying anything at GenCon so I can support my store, but I think that might border on fanaticism.

Here, I have something for you:

Wow.

cool, it's a real life conspiracy theory. I feel like I'm at the zoo. now popcorn & *munch *munch *munch

What? This is pretty far-fetched I think!

Also,reptilians .

Totally .

So... let me get this straight... Imperial Veterans shifted the meta so much, it brought about a cataclysmic fall in the British financial system, Asmodee secretly created Brexit, and FFG are the Illuminati?

Or is Asmodee the Illuminati and FFG pushed Brexit? I'm not certain on that bit.

So... let me get this straight... Imperial Veterans shifted the meta so much, it brought about a cataclysmic fall in the British financial system, Asmodee secretly created Brexit, and FFG are the Illuminati?

Or is Asmodee the Illuminati and FFG pushed Brexit? I'm not certain on that bit.

He's not saying that Asmodee and FFG are behind the Brexit thing, he's saying that when Asmodee became aware of this movement and saw where Imperial Veterans was, they pushed to get it into British stores as fast as possible while telling FFG to not let American stores sell it, all in the hopes of getting some extra profit before the British pound fell.

Considering this whole move to leave the EU won't happen for another TWO years, I don't necessarily think there is some sinister motive behind Asmodee and FFG selling when they did.. Yeah, the pound has crashed. It will likely rebound though in short order..

That's some nice tin foil you have there on your head. Because is couldn't be as simple as human error due to constantly shifting release dates...

This is a conspiracy theory where a company tries to desperately acquire a currency moments before it's collapse? Uhhhhh

I love how FFG/Asmodee's models were able to predict that UK would vote to leave the EU, when most observers, polls and stock market watchers were all thinking they would vote to remain.

Then again, we're talking about the people who invented green dice. The stuff they do to probability borders on witchcraft.

I need a "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" button to go next to the like button, just for posts like this one...

It's also possible that Asmodee acquired FFG in order to access their behind-closed-doors MathWing assets and information in order to predict the Brexit outcome in order to make a quick, albeit small, profit (yet, it is a profit nonetheless) off of the desperate players within the X-Wing community by exploiting their impatience to force-choke the market into submission.

Seems to me that ffg and asmodee got their money when they were ordered by the stores and distributors in question, and so would have had their money for a while now. I could 've wrong though.

It's not as far fetched as it sounds. Back in the 70s several US banks were found guilty of manipulating currency exchange rates.

Depending on when the fiscal year for FFG ends this move, if true, makes a lot of sense. Get as much money as possible by selling as much as possible. Then when the pound drops, the amount of taxes you pay on warehoused material is reduced. If it's true they may have saved themselves a bundle.

So... let me get this straight... Imperial Veterans shifted the meta so much, it brought about a cataclysmic fall in the British financial system, Asmodee secretly created Brexit, and FFG are the Illuminati?

Or is Asmodee the Illuminati and FFG pushed Brexit? I'm not certain on that bit.

He's not saying that Asmodee and FFG are behind the Brexit thing, he's saying that when Asmodee became aware of this movement and saw where Imperial Veterans was, they pushed to get it into British stores as fast as possible while telling FFG to not let American stores sell it, all in the hopes of getting some extra profit before the British pound fell.

Ok so Asmodee are the Illuminati, and FFG are kind of like the aliens in Battle: Los Angeles? And Brexit is more of a Jungian emotional construct than some kind of giant battlemech?

Illuminati confirmed

HEY!!! GET YOUR @#@#&$# POLITICS OFF MY GODDAMN LAWN. Seriously. This is not the internet you're looking for. We're here to push plastic, not politics.

It's not as far fetched as it sounds.

It really is though.

There's a lot to address here, but I'll restrict my response to a single item.

The Brexit will likely have little or no impact on trade with the UK, aside from temporary currency valuations based on speculation and market manipulators. The main trade impact will be between the UK and the rest of Europe, and even there it will likely only be a bit deal if the EU goes out of its way to try to impose punitive trade terms on the UK. Obama is already backing off on his threats about pushing the UK to the back of the line, and without the Senate being on board there'd be serious limits to how much he, or whoever succeeds him, could do to punish the UK for reclaiming some degree of sovereignty.