So, I like me some FFG stuff. However. The thing that's always chapped my behind about them is these vague release dates, IE, Q2, 3, etc.

Like, if you don't know when stuff is going to hit store shelves, fire your supply chain managers, because they stink at their job.

Especially nowadays, gamers have a lot of demand on their hobby dollar, and I'm more likely to throw money at a company that tells me when stuff is going to happen than one that's like 'Lol IDK Q3?'

End salt stream.

There are far worse companies, for keeping customers in the loop and informed on when things are coming, than FFG.

As far as corporations go (doing stupid corporate things), I’d say FFG isn’t bad, not amazing (by any count), but not bad.

But there’s always room for improvement in every company.

Edit: I can say their local distributors are HORRIBLE, though.

The catch is, how does ffg keep hype AND deliver on time?

If they didn’t tell us until a few weeks out, they could always get the date right...at the cost of the hype leading up to it, and quite possibly the salt of forum goers “man that’s what I wanted! If I had known I’d have waited rather than buy...”

They can’t win. They can simply do their best. I’m ok with a 3 month window of when product is coming.

will say this its not FFG FAULT AND they aren't responsible for deliver time either

17 minutes ago, joewrightgm said:

Especially nowadays, gamers have a lot of demand on their hobby dollar, and I'm more likely to throw money at a company that tells me when stuff is going to happen

That doesn’t influence my purchases.

Also. If anything all the free online stuff puts less demand on our dollars now.

Just now, TauntaunScout said:

That doesn’t influence my purchases.

If anything all the free online stuff puts less demand on our dollars now.

Clarity on 'free online stuff'? Are we talking about free to play games, or games with their rule sets online for free?

1 hour ago, joewrightgm said:

So, I like me some FFG stuff. However. The thing that's always chapped my behind about them is these vague release dates, IE, Q2, 3, etc.

Like, if you don't know when stuff is going to hit store shelves, fire your supply chain managers, because they stink at their job.

Especially nowadays, gamers have a lot of demand on their hobby dollar, and I'm more likely to throw money at a company that tells me when stuff is going to happen than one that's like 'Lol IDK Q3?'

End salt stream.

100% agree. FFG marketing is the worst I've seen.

Honestly it doesn't bother me that much that ffg doesn't provide exact release dates that far in advance because they reveal what's coming down the pipeline so far off. Really nice to know 6 months in advance what to expect. What would be nice however is more accuracy say a month in advance of a release, it would be nice to know say beginning of August that shoretroopers would drop at the end of the month.

Excuse me.

*Ahem*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

*Gets back up off the floor*

I have dealt with so many board game companies now that promise certain release dates (especially kickstarters) and don't deliver. Sometimes indefinitely. FFG is a breath of fresh air comparatively.

in terms of product releases I feel the model is GW. GW only provides a release date two weeks in advance. they do this because thats the only time you can really put a date on it and GW is adept at handling their own distribution and logistics.

FFG spreads their product releases so thin across so many lines that doing this would lead people to think all their games had died. and they are just now trying to figure out self distribution. so we get vague dates.

Given how Asmodee own almost the whole industry including distributors these days they really have no excuse :) All they need now is to buy the factories that make the games.

After the fiasco with X-Wing Wave IV, they'll hold back any kind of precise launch dates...

10 hours ago, joewrightgm said:

Clarity on 'free online stuff'? Are we talking about free to play games, or games with their rule sets online for free?

Free PDF gaming books, free gaming blogs, free printable paper minis, free 3D printer files. With online rules and paper minis you could game a long time for free.

Plus stuff you pay for, is largely cheaper and easier to find. Dice are cheaper and easier to find, bigbox art store chains make painting way more accessible, the internet lets you find out about games. I used to find out about very old supplements to my favorite games by stumbling on them in the store. Historical minis are undergoing a crazy expansion that makes human factions for fantasy games cheap. Collecting the "real game" for Legion is actually cheaper than it was for my old D6 game.

FFG actually tells us stuff and gives us more information than anyone off the top of my head. If that makes them so awful, I don't understand the criteria. If you want a hard release date that you know will be met, only GW does that (that I know of, I don't follow release dates too much) and they wait basically until the release date to tell you that the product is even in the pipeline. I hated that, it made it impossible to plan my discretionary funds.

I would rather FFG be imprecise but accurate than precise but inaccurate.

From working in gaming logistics before.

It's really tough to promise release dates now. The reason we get a "shipping now" about two weeks before release is because that's the day (or a day or two after) the item showed up on their figurative doorstep. They unload a container, repack for distribution and start chucking them on Fedex trucks. Now that demand is so high at Factories that produce game materials for the US, it's pretty hard to promise by a certain day, they make them as fast as they can and put them on a ship that spends a decent amount of time on the ocean, then sits in dock for a while too. These things don't get unloaded in one day.

If your container JUST HAPPENS to be on the same ship as something customs or another agency wants to investigate, you might well be SOL until they are done investigating. They sometimes hold up the whole ship just to make sure all their suspicions are cleared/confirmed. When done, they'll release the goods, they ship to FFG (or whatever game company) and then they get sent to distribution.

Too many factors play into the release date for them to give you an accurate date. And they would rather not lie to you with a date that gets changed over and over again, when they can just tell you when they start going out.

Shorter announcement to street date times would be preferred... Instead they start building hype six months ahead with only vague dates.

5 minutes ago, GreatMazinkaiser said:

Shorter announcement to street date times would be preferred... Instead they start building hype six months ahead with only vague dates.

It's not just hype though. It helps me plan. Knowing something I want is coming eventually keeps me from buying other Legion stuff.

Am I right in remembering that Thursday is FFG's referred release day? Miniature Market says that the Shoretroopers are due in August, should we expect them tomorrow? Or is that an old estimation?

5 minutes ago, CaptMook said:

Am I right in remembering that Thursday is FFG's referred release day? Miniature Market says that the Shoretroopers are due in August, should we expect them tomorrow? Or is that an old estimation?

It used to be Thursday but shifted to Friday as official release dates about a month ago.

Just now, FSD said:

It used to be Thursday but shifted to Friday as official release dates about a month ago.

Thank you! So does this Friday seem likely for Shoretroopers? Sorry if this has already been talked to death.

Yep. Friday is the assumed day.

8 hours ago, devin.pike.1989 said:

Excuse me.

*Ahem*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

*Gets back up off the floor*

I have dealt with so many board game companies now that promise certain release dates (especially kickstarters) and don't deliver. Sometimes indefinitely. FFG is a breath of fresh air comparatively.

Kickstarters are a whole other animal. I've had a game be a year late. I'm waiting on one that's nine months late at this point. However, the creators of both games kept me informed.

There's prolly not a good solution for the OP's complaint. And I'm still salty about my dewbacks. But at least they're fixing the base issue.

1 hour ago, TauntaunScout said:

It's not just hype though. It helps me plan. Knowing something I want is coming eventually keeps me from buying other Legion stuff.

Or buy other games. If I don't know the release date, then I spend my money else where -> decreased FFG sales.

It's just bad for the company in general, but this is how they do releases..

1 hour ago, GreatMazinkaiser said:

Shorter announcement to street date times would be preferred... Instead they start building hype six months ahead with only vague dates.

It’s also planning. Knowing what’s coming allows me to prioritize and decide what I’m buying instead of whatever is the latest hotness every month. Not all of us are “all the things” blindly and immediately upon release day.

For example - knowing that I will soon have more ways to play with my existing stormtroopers or rebel troopers in the form of the upgrade packs helps me make better choices today. I’m not going to rush out and buy 2-3x Vets and/or Shores because I don’t need those. Especially when I can get more out of my old toys with the new upgrades. I’m probably buying a single Vets box. I may skip Shores for a while since I don’t want to buy multiples for the mortar spam and I’m not seeing much utility in them when I have 5x imperial corps units already of storm and snow variety.

This isn’t about my specific example though or is this or that good. My point is, I cannot have this meaningful discussion with myself without knowing what’s coming long before it’s here.

Lots of good points here. But, here’s the thing: another game company that I play their game (not GW), that is direct competition for my money with FFG, is a small(ish) game company, across the world, and they have been able to (within the last year, they’ve had their share of issues) provide release windows narrowed to the week.

So for example, they say this will be available first week in September, mid September, last week of September. This not only allows them some ‘slop’ if things get pushed around a day or so, but also let me plan stuff out.