https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1393280000737226&id=107657929299446

So this is great news!!

Currently have no audio. What's the news of the video?

Weird, the audio is coming through for me. Unless you meant you're in a place where you can't turn your audio on. I'll summarize.

The big hits: The single print run each of SoR and Set 3 are going to be much, much bigger than the Awakenings initial run. More starters will be on shelves March 30, 2017.

The detail: FFG walks through the timeline of SWD from last fall with the low pre-order numbers and then the moderately successful launch event and then the popularity explosion. Also acknowledges and discusses the production issues and talks about how they have worked with the manufacturing companies and expanded production capabilities and lowered the misprinted die rate. Definitely looking positive for the future.

28 minutes ago, ketemycos said:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1393280000737226&id=107657929299446

So this is great news!!

Just finished the video and it does sound positive. I DO wish this kind of information was given out and discussed directly with the fan base more, but at least they are having an open discussion with the distributors. They likely have a long way to go in the customer service department, but at least they are making headway on making things right as quickly as possible. Once they smooth over these issues, I hope they will devote the time/energy to enhancing the overall community for their products as a whole though, not just smoothing out relationships with their chief distributors. A 'bootleg' video link is great...but not exactly the best way to hear from the company on such important matters for something they (seemingly quite literally) bet the company's future on.

2 minutes ago, ketemycos said:

Weird, the audio is coming through for me. Unless you meant you're in a place where you can't turn your audio on. I'll summarize.

The big hits: The single print run each of SoR and Set 3 are going to be much, much bigger than the Awakenings initial run. More starters will be on shelves March 30, 2017.

The detail: FFG walks through the timeline of SWD from last fall with the low pre-order numbers and then the moderately successful launch event and then the popularity explosion. Also acknowledges and discusses the production issues and talks about how they have worked with the manufacturing companies and expanded production capabilities and lowered the misprinted die rate. Definitely looking positive for the future.

The only real negative thing to point out (and I'm trying NOT to be negative, since that has been the overall vibe for quite awhile) is that although the speaker did say higher print run and did say higher production numbers...he also made sure not to say anything definite. No solid numbers and no way of really judging if it was 2x the Destiny print run or 100x. We're still in a vague state when it comes to how many is enough and how many per wave and when the wave ends - etc. So...for those who are massively pre-ordering because of what happened with Destiny, they are probably going to get their product...but that doesn't mean everyone will, especially if people overreact to Destiny. We could end up in the same situation with the few getting 5-10 boxes and the average person still not being able to find it at stores at all...and no future print run like Awakening to look forward to.

I'm going to avoid thinking about that though and hope that won't be the case. I'm going to say these are just some bumps in the road for anyone who would be switching business models for the first time (or first time in a long time) and believe that the manufacturing process and factories will get the yield issues all worked out and ramped up to meet demand. All we can do is wait and see. It definitely seems like they know and acknowledge the issues many have brought up in the forums here and elsewhere online. One problem at a time, but as previously mentioned - I just hope that (going forward) they can figure out how to not just tell major retailers these things, but also the common customer who (ultimately) is their bread/butter.

finally ffg recognizing the elephant, hopefully this will fix things

Thanks for posting. Good to hear this news even though I have Awakenings, glad to hear the logistics of the process and to know everyone will be able to get product. Funny to hear some European territories preordered less than a single store! So beginning of April SoR will be essentially spoiled, Apr 19 LtR will be spoiled, and May I get my hands on SoR, exciting days ahead!

For those of you that had Audio issues / don't feel like listening to it, here are the highlights:

-Awakenings was in production since June, with heavy production issues. Awakenings would've shipped around October or so to reach stores in Dec 1 (assume production continued up to Nov or so before shifting to SoR).

-Awakenings original print run was the largest print run of a game in FFG history

-Pre-orders were abysmal. It sounds like one store (guessing Team Covenant) pre-ordered more boxes than all but one of the DISTRIBUTORS did. FFG thought the game was DOA.

-SoR went into production in Nov/Dec.

-After game took off, production team was working with China factories 24/7 to increase production lines and multiply the amount of production they could do

-Reprint of Awakenings is NOT a small reprint. It's a "huge leap of faith" and a gigantic print. Will it satisfy demand? They don't know, due to the game being a "runaway train"

-SoR print run was also increased big time due to the demand for Awakenings

-You will be able to play with just SoR cards

-SoR releases in waves, just one print run (assuming they are still printing more SoR for later waves of SoR)

-Set 3 will be available in early fall

-Holiday = Base set. Always will be in print in both starters and expansions to get people into the game

-Preview event for set 2 didn't go how they wanted, they planned not to do it due to logistics. When product was being loaded on ships, they realized they had a brief window to air ship a tiny amount of product for preview events. They decided some product will be better than none. They weren't able to do the preview event to their standards and FFG apologies for it and says it's the last time something like that will happen.

-Starters in store on March 30th - they were headed for mid April, but they managed. New reprint of starters already happening and starters will be printed until Base Set (Set 4) comes out

-SoR was going to be smaller at first, but they have ramped it up and is significantly bigger than Awakenings

-1-time reprint of Awakenings is because demand caught everyone off guard. Numbers in November was a pathetic

-SoR Preview Kits are being re-printed and will be allocated so stores can host "launch" events with the promo cards and their Wave 1 allotments of SoR

-FFG says Set 2 is very balanced and it's a good entry point

-Only 160 / 162 cards in SoR

-SoR shipping in 2 /3 waves

-Future starters may be tournament legal (30 decks) and they may evaluate not incentivizing players to buy 2 of each (hello Force Throw / Mind Probe)

-SoR print run "dramatically" bigger than Awakenings (which itself was the largest print run that FFG has ever done)

-FFG does have rights to Episode VIII and plans to exploit those rights

-Customer service on messed up dice / cards / mis collation will be changing. Announcement coming soon, tons of product being sent over for that purpose

-More quarterly kits coming --- store championships, nationals and regionals coming soon too

27 minutes ago, pstalker said:

For those of you that had Audio issues / don't feel like listening to it, here are the highlights:

-Awakenings was in production since June, with heavy production issues. Awakenings would've shipped around October or so to reach stores in Dec 1 (assume production continued up to Nov or so before shifting to SoR).

-Awakenings original print run was the largest print run of a game in FFG history

-Pre-orders were abysmal. It sounds like one store (guessing Team Covenant) pre-ordered more boxes than all but one of the DISTRIBUTORS did. FFG thought the game was DOA.

-SoR went into production in Nov/Dec.

-After game took off, production team was working with China factories 24/7 to increase production lines and multiply the amount of production they could do

-Reprint of Awakenings is NOT a small reprint. It's a "huge leap of faith" and a gigantic print. Will it satisfy demand? They don't know, due to the game being a "runaway train"

-SoR print run was also increased big time due to the demand for Awakenings

-You will be able to play with just SoR cards

-SoR releases in waves, just one print run (assuming they are still printing more SoR for later waves of SoR)

-Set 3 will be available in early fall

-Holiday = Base set. Always will be in print in both starters and expansions to get people into the game

-Preview event for set 2 didn't go how they wanted, they planned not to do it due to logistics. When product was being loaded on ships, they realized they had a brief window to air ship a tiny amount of product for preview events. They decided some product will be better than none. They weren't able to do the preview event to their standards and FFG apologies for it and says it's the last time something like that will happen.

-Starters in store on March 30th - they were headed for mid April, but they managed. New reprint of starters already happening and starters will be printed until Base Set (Set 4) comes out

-SoR was going to be smaller at first, but they have ramped it up and is significantly bigger than Awakenings

-1-time reprint of Awakenings is because demand caught everyone off guard. Numbers in November was a pathetic

-SoR Preview Kits are being re-printed and will be allocated so stores can host "launch" events with the promo cards and their Wave 1 allotments of SoR

-FFG says Set 2 is very balanced and it's a good entry point

-Only 160 / 162 cards in SoR

-SoR shipping in 2 /3 waves

-Future starters may be tournament legal (30 decks) and they may evaluate not incentivizing players to buy 2 of each (hello Force Throw / Mind Probe)

-SoR print run "dramatically" bigger than Awakenings (which itself was the largest print run that FFG has ever done)

-FFG does have rights to Episode VIII and plans to exploit those rights

-Customer service on messed up dice / cards / mis collation will be changing. Announcement coming soon, tons of product being sent over for that purpose

-More quarterly kits coming --- store championships, nationals and regionals coming soon too

This is a huge announcement. It sucks they couldn't release anything earlier, but I think this pretty much addresses every common complaint we've seen on these boards. So it sounds like people bitching about not getting enough product will have an embarrassment of SoR and Awakenings reprints in a few months. Patience, padawans.

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that FFG both thought the pre-orders were "abysmal" and yet did the largest print run of any game ever with it. Why would you print a game you thought was DOA in such large numbers? And if you did, why did it vanish within days?

5 minutes ago, DailyRich said:

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that FFG both thought the pre-orders were "abysmal" and yet did the largest print run of any game ever with it. Why would you print a game you thought was DOA in such large numbers? And if you did, why did it vanish within days?

To your first question, they printed at least 3 times what was pre-ordered. Market research probably showed what percentage of players pre-order a game, and they went from there.

To your second question, it's now well-documented how the initial reception showed a much lower interest than it turned out to be. I don't understand how this is still a point of confusion.

59 minutes ago, DailyRich said:

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that FFG both thought the pre-orders were "abysmal" and yet did the largest print run of any game ever with it. Why would you print a game you thought was DOA in such large numbers? And if you did, why did it vanish within days?

They made the initial buy before the preorders came in and it was the biggest buy in company history. The panic came after the lukewarm reception and low preorder numbers. Then in regards to SoR they had to decide whether to believe in their product or believe the low interest being shown in Awakenings.

6 minutes ago, Starbane said:

They made the initial buy before the preorders came in and it was the biggest buy in company history. The panic came after the lukewarm reception and low preorder numbers. Then in regards to SoR they had to decide whether to believe in their product or believe the low interest being shown in Awakenings.

Oh believe it baby =) Come June or July, Destiny's going to explode even bigger, when we have larger communities with easy access to all the Awakenings and SoR their little hearts desire.

3 hours ago, pstalker said:

-Pre-orders were abysmal. It sounds like one store (guessing Team Covenant) pre-ordered more boxes than all but one of the DISTRIBUTORS did. FFG thought the game was DOA.

It's a new game. No one knows what is going to happen. All these people saying FFG should have known better, well guess what, no one has any way to know these things until after the fact. They could very well be putting tons of money into a game right now that people only went crazy about for a couple of months and then stopped caring about it. It is still not a success and there is no way to know if the amount they are printing now is even close to enough to satisfy demand or just way too much and they are about to lose their shirt.

Best of luck FFG, hope you are enjoying the craziness.

I'm just so surprised that people don't believe in the power of Star Wars. It's everywhere and everywhere that it is makes money. I'm very surprised that FFG just looked at the POs for the game and not the overall Star Wars culture.

Hasbro, Sideshow, Gentle Giant, Anovos, Disney, Kotobukiya, Mafex, Funko, eFX, Medicom, all make a killing and sell out of nearly every Star Wars item they make. And they all make varied products. Even amongst FFG own Star Wars games, like X-Wing, SWLCG, IA, and the RPG, Star Wars just sells like printed money.

They never said the Awakenings print was based on initial preorders.

they ordered the biggest print run for a game they have ever done, confident it was going to be big. THen, the initial orders were dismal. That's why they didn't do something to get more earlier, it was looking like they had already ordered too much. But they remained confident it would be big and pressed ahead.

Then in late November/ December they it took off massive and then ordered a second larger run.

That's great news, such a fun game but hard to get other people into it when stock just doesn't exist.

why don't they put all that info in an article, I would still be not happy with the way they handled it but it would have show they actually cared and were trying if they were more vocal to there playerbase.

5 hours ago, Hawkman2000 said:

I'm just so surprised that people don't believe in the power of Star Wars. It's everywhere and everywhere that it is makes money. I'm very surprised that FFG just looked at the POs for the game and not the overall Star Wars culture.

Hasbro, Sideshow, Gentle Giant, Anovos, Disney, Kotobukiya, Mafex, Funko, eFX, Medicom, all make a killing and sell out of nearly every Star Wars item they make. And they all make varied products. Even amongst FFG own Star Wars games, like X-Wing, SWLCG, IA, and the RPG, Star Wars just sells like printed money.

Thats completely wrong tho. Look at Rebellion that just came out months before that. The game is not good and has done terrible in sales. Just bc it has SW in it, doesnt mean that its going to be great.

How people want to still bash FFG after they stated that they went all in on Destiny with an initial order bc they had large hope in the game. Then they paniced bc preorders werent what they expected. Had preorders been good, they prob would have started reprinting sooner.

But at the end of the day its better they are panicing about the Awakenings print bc its selling so well.

~D

Very happy with this video. Wish they would just address the public like some said but I get it. This actually all makes a lot of sense now. Six months lead time! I was very sceptical of the game when it was announced and didn't decide to get in until I played with a friend.

1 hour ago, HoodieDM said:

Thats completely wrong tho. Look at Rebellion that just came out months before that. The game is not good and has done terrible in sales. Just bc it has SW in it, doesnt mean that its going to be great.

By what metric? It's #5 on BGG. Even with the "cult of the new" factor, that's pretty high for the BGG community, and already has 12k owners on BGG alone. Maybe they printed a lot more than they needed and haven't sold them all yet? Regardless, one issue w/Rebellion is maybe that it's a 4-ish hour game, which puts if off many people's playlist (for very understandable reasons), but I'm pretty confident we'll see Rebellion be a popular title for years to come a la Twilight Struggle, Battlestar Galactica, War of the Ring, etc.

Sorry to derail the Destiny subject!! - I'm just passionate about my "Rebellion"

Rebellion was the #1 selling board game from hobby retailers when it released. IA never got that high. I checked back to 2013, no FFG board game has reached higher. FFG even said it was one of their best selling new products.

Where are you getting the idea it didn't sell well?

Finally. I know I an jump on board now. So starters in March?

20 minutes ago, DJRAZZ said:

Finally. I know I an jump on board now. So starters in March?

This is a great way to get into the game. Buy one of each and play with those 20 card decks. Then see if this is your cup of tea. If so, start buying crack boosters.

10 hours ago, HoodieDM said:

Thats completely wrong tho. Look at Rebellion that just came out months before that. The game is not good and has done terrible in sales. Just bc it has SW in it, doesnt mean that its going to be great.

How people want to still bash FFG after they stated that they went all in on Destiny with an initial order bc they had large hope in the game. Then they paniced bc preorders werent what they expected. Had preorders been good, they prob would have started reprinting sooner.

But at the end of the day its better they are panicing about the Awakenings print bc its selling so well.

~D

Rebellion is a great game! For those of you who haven't tried it, I highly reccomend it. I can't speak to sales, but for a game that reqires at least four hours to play (4 player) I never have a problem getting enough people to play. Everyone I've introduced to it wants to play again. Perhaps part of the sales issue is that the game is one and done. There isn't even a dice expansion for it, and I don't see any reasonable room for expansions.