One of my local X-wing dealers…. I mean game store owners gave me the heads up that preorders by stores are due early the first full week of February and the expansion is being shipped by the end of the month. Thank you Fantasy Flight staff for busting your butts to get this out as quick as possible; I don't know how much more time I could have waited. In March, when I am playing and testing new lists I hope Fantasy Flight starts pushing info on Expansion 3.

Come to papa!

These are the ships I'm looking for.

Well thanks for giving me hope. I still haven't heard anything from my local game store so it probably means FFG still hasn't released an official date. Plus on this FFG website there is no exact release date posted. It just says early 2013. This is why I am skeptical about this news. It did say in the Millennium Falcon news that is was due for February. My birthday is on the 5th so I am getting gift certificates and what not from my local game store to be used this month only. Please FFG let us know when the exact date they will be released so people like me don't waste my certificates on stuff I would consider second choices to xwing. I don't see why FFG has to be so **** secretive and illusive about publishing a release date more than 2 weeks before the release. At least video game publishers have the courtesy and common sense to reveal their release date several months in advanced. That way the consumer can prepare for it and not just sit around and speculate on when a much desired product will reach the shelves. I just simply don't see the need to beat around the bush about it. It's just good marketing to release an official release date on these expansions…I mean common man!

Wow, it's almost like they are not in the video game business, and instead in some smaller segment of the gaming industry and subject to all sorts of unexpected supply issues over which they have no control and can't just throw resources at to resolve.

Actually, now I think about it, if it was the video games industry, they would have released the sub-standard product in December just to meet the target date, to ensure metrics were met.

Moans like this make me all nostalgic for the days when they did try to predict release dates accurately, and every change was accompanied by 3 pages of childish rage-quit posts. Happy days.

yeah,
Fabs, your so enlightened, I'm so happy for you, your just better than us.

I just want to know when I'll recieve stuff I paid for and preordered back in October.
Shame on me.

Panic…

And what, their current answer of aiming for the end of February (the same time frame they have said since the delay late last year) isn't good enough for you? They even have a web page so you can see where in the supply chain it is. All they won't do is commit to a street date, due to variables outside of their control that may affect delivery.

Panic said:

I tend to ingnore rants with more than 2 spelling errors anyway. If you can't put in the effort to check your spelling, I won't put in the effort to care what you have to say

Actually, FFG is pretty darned good about keeping us up to date on their products. They even have a specific section of the site dedicated to letting you know how it's coming along.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_upcoming.asp

You can see that a specific item is in developement, when goes to print, then it gets on the slow boat from China, followed by when it gets through customs and is shipping to retailers and distributors, and finally when it is in stores.

FFG doesn't have any control over printing/manufacturing delays, and anyone who has any experience with shipping from China knows that once it hits the US ports, it could be delayed indefinitely for inspection without any explaination. All these things are out of their hands, and they're good about keeping us up to date about it. Once you see that it's passed inspection and on trucks, you know it'll be in stores really soon.

And if for some truly insane reason you believe FFG wants the products that they've spent so much money licensing, developing, manufacturing, and shipping, you've got to be completely insane. Every week that goes by without these products being sold is hurting their bottom line. As much as we're all going crazy waiting, nobody wants the next wave to get out sooner than FFG.

As someone who does ship product in from China on a monthly basis, 20ft or 40 ft containers, hold ups due to customs are not that common.

Of course, there are certain flags that can tigger a delay… IE, LCL (less then container load), but those only delay things by a day or two.

Now don't get me wrong, there are horror stories… but 9 times out of ten it's not related to a problem on the shippers or customs end. It's usually a problem with the freight broker or the customer themselves.

Not to defend China, but they have the whole manufacturing process and international shipping down to a science.

-Stile

Now it says they are being released in March in the Upcoming section.

I was desperately looking for a site to pre order 3 tie interceptors (9.99 -they are sold out in most places and miniature markets shipping is like 11 bucks to Puerto Rico ) and I found in one of them (dont remember) that it will ship march 1. So at least one store has an exact date.

I think it is quite understandable that people are desperate to get their hands on wave 2 ships.

The problem is that the first pics came up months ago and the Kessel runs were in December for most parts. That's quite a long timespan for people to understand that they are not yet fully released. The Boxes, cards and models are done as people can see on the tube. But producing them in sufficient numbers takes quite some time apparently and if quality of models stays as good as now i have no problem waiting a bit.

LedZep said:

FFG does not specify release dates. Any store or site giving a date is only speculating.

ForceM said:

Wave 2 ships were on display at GenCon and Celebration last year, so we've known about them practically since the game released.

hothie said:

You could even call it since before the game released if you don't count the convention sales as the game's release. If I remember right, it didn't show up in stores until a month or so after GenCon.

I finally noticed that they released a date for March 2013. Still no specifics yet and I am anticipating another delay soon. I guess my certificates and gift cards from my birthday that expire in February will have to go towards card protectors and not a shiny new Millenium Falcon. It would be nice to know what the source of these delays are instead of keeping us in the dark, and letting us speculate how they possibly can be delayed for several months.

Fabs said:

Regardless of the product type, this is still poor planning and forecasting.

paradox23 said:

If FFG has no control over printing/manufacturing delays they need a new lawyer. Contract penalty clauses are there to ensure that if delays occur it costs the manufacturer with a capital C.

When production delays occur, the customers with penalty clauses in their contracts get bumped to the top of the production list and those without get shuffled down (okay it sucks to be the other guy, but if you want to cut costs on legal expenses, expect to get tucked up by your supplier in favor of the other customers).

I'm sure FFG are as desperate to see the product released as we customers are to have our (looooong awaited) pre orders fulfilled. This doesn't mean that FFG are not responsible for poor planning and forecasting.

wikkid_devil said:

I don't have any particular stake in defending FFG here, but what makes you think their contract has been particularly nice to the manufacturer over the past few months? Do you know someone in either FFG or their Chinese suppliers?

Vorpal Sword said:

I have no inside knowledge regarding FFG or their suppliers, I'm just talking about the principle of protecting supply chains involving third party manufacturers and maintaining control over manufacturing delays.

These delays may be costing the manufacturer a bomb.

From experience I know keeping your customer base fully informed goes a long way to mitigating complaints arising from delays.

I understand that retail is very different from my experiences in engineering/logistics, where I would be dealing with clients individually as part of the account management role and not in a public forum like this. However FFG do not seem to have the capability to answer individual queries (via email, or their own contact us facility) in a meaningful amount of time (i.e. within 48 hours) or at all for that matter. If FFG are being swamped with information requests from customers and do not have the resources to deal with them, then perhaps using this forum to provide accurate updates would be more reasonable.

Failing to answer the concerns of their customer base just seems short sighted to me.

Well I'll just wait and see what arrives and when. At the end of the day these are only my opinions, feel free to ignore at your leisure.

As I was once informed by a customer:

"Opinions are like ****holes, everyone has one, I'm only interested in mine".

That put me in my place lol.

FFG does use third party production partners. Unfortunately, that means less information passed to the customer, not more. There are liability issues involved in revealing private business goins-on to the public.

Also, Star Wars (along with many other FFG products) is a licensed property. It would not suprise me at all to find out that there are contract stipulations which forbid them from disclosing any pre-release details beyond promotion of the product itself.

Lastly, and this is factual, FFG does not impose "street dates" on its suppliers; they don't have the size or clout of WotC in order to do so. When they get it into their warehouse, they turn it around as soon as possible. Unfortunately, while you can then ship to your most distant regions on Day 1, and your most local regions on Day 2, you could still have instances where one supplier gets it a day sooner or a day later. Plus, certain stores get direct sales from FFG, which is an additional layer of material to manage.

Given all the factors and moving parts, I'm not surprised that they don't give an exact dates. "Street Dates" are for companies with vertically integrated supply chains and enough bulk to have their product wait in the back rooms of stores until zero hour. FFG has only about 100 employees and relies on third parties at every stage of production. They just don't have hands on control everywhere, and if they blamed every delay on their business partners, they'd lose those relationships.

Grimwalker said:

Some good points well made, which I had not considered.

It is good to know there are games distributers out there who do not try to strong arm independent retailers (such as the aforementioned and a certain workshop based in the UK)

However, I'm sure I'm not alone in that I have been brought into the FFG customer base purely off the back of the Star Wars product and have little interest in the company beyond this point. This may not give me a rounded point of view regarding FFG, but it does result in frustration.

Short version, if I want this product (which I do) I have no choice but to put up with the level of service on offer (which I will). I still reserve the right as an Englishman to whine about something and the subject of British weather is now boring.

Stile2112 said:

Remember when Japan was the red-headed step-child of the manufacturing world? They are now home to some of the most respected companies in the world: Honda, Toyota, Nintendo, and Sony, just to name a few. I have a feeling that China will eventually be on par with Japan, as far as international perception of their production capabilities is concerned.

As you say, they are great about hitting production and shipping deadlines. However, in my experience, the delays usually happen once the containers are in port in the US. If a ship comes in with 2 containers from a Chinese company, US Customs will arbitrarily drag their feet on one container while letting the other one go right away.