Retailers are receiving emails from their distributors announcing that FFG will be releasing the first six packs of the LCG in six weeks, one pack a week.

That... would come as a surprise, and not a terribly pleasant one. That said, they haven't done any previews for sets beyond Tears of Amaterasu, so I'm hopeful there's some miscommunication here.

I thought this thread was going to detail some accelerated Crab workout program. "You want that oni slaying physique? Then try our Six Packs in Six Weeks program."

There must be some mistake. The whole LCG format hinges on a once a month release to keep people invested in the format. They may be receiving the packs from their supplier all in one go for the cycle to avoid delays due to international shipping, but I sincerely doubt they are distributing them to the stores all at once. No way to really control people leaking packs out months ahead of schedule.

Yep. L5R will have as many cards as a CCG core set. Probably good for the game in the short term. It will be interesting to see if FFG keeps this up for subsequent cycles

Retail Notification

I would believe the next pack will be our in about six weeks.

Maybe the first of six packs for this cycle?

A pack will be released every 6 weeks? With 6 packs, and 2 deluxe boxes, that is about a year of product

One pack per week beginning November. Eager to see how FFG will manage logistics here

" Rather than releasing one Dynasty Pack per month over a period of six months, the release schedule for the Imperial Cycle will be compounded and concentrated into a shorter period of time. Beginning in early November, one Dynasty Pack will be released every week for six weeks."

I think it's more likely they are saying 1 pack every 6 weeks as Shu2jack suggests. Or the new pack comes in 6 weeks and then once a month after that and there was some sort of miscommunication.

Just now, phillos said:

I think it's more likely they are saying 1 pack every 6 weeks as Shu2jack suggests.

Seems pretty clear to me:

This is not a good idea if that's true. Talk about accelerating the barrier of entry and the cost of the game for new players. What a baffling decision. It's exactly what people are not asking for from an LCG.

Either that's a fake email, or they really plan on rushing that first pack out by end of year. Six weeks from early November is by Christmas. Interesting choices...

That would leave room for a Deluxe box for Christmas!

This can't be right. That's an insane thing to do.

2 minutes ago, Ser Nakata said:

That would leave room for a Deluxe box for Christmas!

With Yoritomo Santa maybe?

Edit: I'm kidding of course, adding a Deluxe on top of that would be totally crazy (and I wouldn't bet on the Mantis so soon either) but that would be fun.

Starting from the assumption that this is true, then they must already have the next cycle planned and ready for release. Perhaps they're long term goal is not a drip drip of new cards, but a flood every six months with these packs.

Or they're hoping for a Christmas boost to sales with this first cycle.

Assume they do a pack a week. That would have the entire first cycle out by the end of the year. When do they start the second cycle? April when would have been if it was month per pack? January? Maybe FFG is trying to go to more CCG release schedule while still being an LCG. Two to three 120 card sets a year (released over 6 weeks) vs twelve 20 cards sets released a year

Just now, RandomJC said:

Starting from the assumption that this is true, then they must already have the next cycle planned and ready for release. Perhaps they're long term goal is not a drip drip of new cards, but a flood every six months with these packs.

Or they're hoping for a Christmas boost to sales with this first cycle.

Who knows what lurks in the minds at FFG? I've already heard from people in my area saying that if this is true it's effectively eliminated any interest in the game. If I had to guess, this is a one time thing unless it proves wildly successful. As a Thrones player, it's annoying to see my game just now reaching the point of a good card pool after two years...while L5R gets an immediate boost.

wow,my wallet can cope but I wouldn't want this to be the standard.

a good thing is that the card pool will be much bigger allowing bigger deck differentiation.

I hope that they just intend this as a thing to help get the game off the ground, and just resume as normal. I think the $10-15/month was a big selling point on the LCG model.

1 minute ago, qwertyuiop said:

Who knows what lurks in the minds at FFG? I've already heard from people in my area saying that if this is true it's effectively eliminated any interest in the game. If I had to guess, this is a one time thing unless it proves wildly successful. As a Thrones player, it's annoying to see my game just now reaching the point of a good card pool after two years...while L5R gets an immediate boost.

I would honestly guess that it's either flood every six months. or a hope of increased Christmas sales.

I'd bet it's just for the first cycle to both give a boost to the small cardpool and profit on the Christmas sales. The following cycles will come back to the usual schedule. And I'd bet on the next cycle beginning in either February or March if a Deluxe comes before it.

If true (I think it might be) I see this as a one time boost, to prevent the stale core only meta for 3-6 months that developed with other LCG's.

It says it's a special event, so you can read this as a "one time thing."

Personally, I think it is brilliant. People have dove in head first into this game and are hungry for more. Deck building is limited, and a slow trickle will not sate that hunger. Official Organized Play starts in Q1 of 2018, and I am sure this is being done to catapult into Organized Play and to help ensure its success.

2 minutes ago, RandomJC said:

I would honestly guess that it's either flood every six months. or a hope of increased Christmas sales.

I'm kinda ok with either. Just that initial money sink of buying the rough equivalent of two booster boxes in 2.5 months doesn't keep up with the LCG "cheaper and easier to access than CCGs" mantra.

I think they're trying to build hype for early tournaments and event by having lots of new cards coming out.

Early LCGs can get a bit stale with such a small cardpool, hopefully this helps with that. Once the early excitement grabs people, they may be more likely to stick around once steadier releases start.

They might be expecting CCG players to help drive sales with the new method, since we're used to having larger card pools early on and spending $210 in a quarter can seem paltry in comparison to a traditional CCG.

I don't know about sales figures, but maybe they're finding LCGs have a lot of drop off from launch to the end of first cycle.