i know for a fact that Ascension is out and Borders whom i just called said it isnt out until April 30? FFG have you not sent it to them? or is Borders just being stupidly belligerant about this?

I think FFG prioritizes local gaming stores over chain stores like Borders or big corporate outfits like Amazon.

The thing is, most of these chain stores (and bookstores in general) buy from secondary vendors instead of direct from FFG. I know for a fact that at least one of those vendors, Ingram, doesn't get their shipments from FFG until at least a few weeks after we see them at our FLGSs.

My order from B&N isn't being shipped till Tuesday. Another reason to support your FLGS.

FFG ships to local game stores about 3-4 weeks before big retail chains get them. Found this out when I pre-ordered a crapload of stuff last year for the game line and then got to sit impatiently while others already had copies.

Today's lesson: Buy novels, DVDs and whatever from Borders, Amazon and so on. Buy games from the game store. It helps keep the place open so you have a place to hang out, browse mineatures and tell total strangers about that totally awesome thing your character did 13 years ago...

It's not really a problem with Borders.

FFG seems to not release their products to the major providers until the buzz has died down some. I'm not sure why, it seems like the opposite of what most companies do with their sales strategies. But I've had Ascension on order via Amazon since December (they actually flagged the order to ask me if I still wanted it), and it also still lists April 30-somethingish as a release date. The Warhammer Games Masters Kit, which the site here has announced as released, shows on Amazon as not being released until June sometime.

The problem with this strategy is that by the time the products come available more casual gamers have forgotten about them, or products with less than optimal reviews, like Ascension, have time to suffer from word-of-mouth. I wonder what the sales would be like if the product was actually available at the time of release, and not months later?

It's possible that larger chain book stores need a longer lead time to get books out to their smaller stores. Where most local game stores order their products weekly, book stores, being larger may need to have a longer lead time to ensure they have the right amount of material to support their chain stores and be able to ship out to them from a central warehouse hub. It could add quite a bit of time. This could explain why, but I'm just guessing here.