Well, They should stop using Chinese Manufacturers. Move the operation to America. I don't think there would be delays then.

odinfellhammer said:

This is true, but then you would see a massive cost increase per model since labour in North America have higher pay rates than China and the manufacturing cost would be higher as well. China is used now because it's dirt cheap compared to other countries to get virtually anything made there.

So reading between the lines (strictly only my opinion) delays due to national celebrations (I understand China effectively closes down for a week for Chinese New Year).

QC issues (both from the point of view of FFG and the licensors)

I don’t object to delays under these circumstances, but it would have been nice to know without having to ask…

I hope this helps.

I'd have thought the occurance of Chinese New Year was probably pretty predictable though.

That said, I don't think anyone has the right to be too cross with FFG. As I understand it they've done no more than share their estimated shipping times with people. They haven't made any promises and they haven't taken anyone's money under false pretenses.

odinfellhammer said:

Well, They should stop using Chinese Manufacturers. Move the operation to America. I don't think there would be delays then.

This is true, but then you would see a massive cost increase per model since labour in North America have higher pay rates than China and the manufacturing cost would be higher as well. China is used now because it's dirt cheap compared to other countries to get virtually anything made there.

I'm sure that is indeed the reason for manufacturing in China, but I don't really understand it. Isn't most of it done with machines? I figure the bit done by hand is probably just gluing together the two or three peices, hence the odd angles they sometimes come out at, while the paintjobs are always identical and are therefor likely to be done by machine. If that's the case then one person could probably do a hundred ships an hour, so at minimum wage in the UK that'd add, what, 6p to the price of the unit, assuming chinese workers work for free. Even if several other people are involved, say five per ship, that's still less than 50p per ship. I'm guessing minimum wage is lower in America, so it'd be even cheaper there (correct me if I'm wrong).

I'm sure there's more to it than this or companies wouldn't do it, what with the cost and time involved with shipping, but what exactly is it?

I just noticed the ship icon and the explenation on the right side of the "Upcoming" page. Seems like Wave 2 is on the cargo ships heding out for distribution soon!!

yeah,
I'm starting to think that FFG either gave us a false release date to gauge pre-order interest and work out the quantities required?? Or the pre-orders blew their original stock numbers out of the water so they had to push the release date back.
Either way I think the Issues are with FFG.

Honestly I think with the next wave, they should slow their info release.

At the design phase - some splash art to get hype started.
At the factory getting made - Limited Card & ship previews. (don't ruin wave 3 with another Kessel Run!)
Stuffs on a Boat - set Release Dates and take Pre-orders.

Panic…

This is actually pretty typical for Fantasy Flight. The thing is, they announce what they are going to make and tell you when they hope to have it. When things delay it, they tell us. Other companies are not nearly this open and I'm glad they give people straight answers when there are delays.

odinfellhammer said:

I work for a company that gets products from the USA first (if we can find a company that produces it here), other countries second, and China last. But, even then over half of the items we have are made in China. Why? Because in many cases USA companies are either a) uninterested in making it, b) charge too much, c) want guaranteed production runs in 10,000+ unit increments, d) do not manufacture a product that can match the quality that Chinese manufacturers acheive, or e) some combination of all listed factors. If they tried to make these in the USA, they would be cheaper quality with less attention to detail and cost $100 for the small ships and $150 for the big ones. Also, good luck finding a small enough manufacturer that is set up to do small enough runs so that FFG doesn't end up with 10 times the inventory it would ever need.

Panic said:

To me, it seems pretty clear that it's a manufacturing issue, and not something that's particularly under their control.

Well my pre order from where I ordered wave 2 online just went from "awaiting payment" to "processing preorder". Has to be a good sign.

Panic said:

yeah, I'm starting to think that you're a whining little snot with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement who doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.

FFG designs this stuff and sends it out to third party manufacturers, and after that they're at the mercy of happenstance. The delay could have been anything. Could have been a quality control issue--I had to get a replacement game board for Game of Thrones 2nd Edition because the entire first print run was afflicted by a warping issue caused by humidity. If something like that is caught early on, you can turn it around before it impacts the consumer.

There could have been some other issue with the factory. There could have been design notes from Lucasfim that came back late in the development cycle. Target and Barnes & Noble sold the heck out of the base game prior to the holidays; maybe the print run for Wave 2 had to be put on hold to fill those big retail orders.

The fact is, I don't know and neither do you. It's definitely a fact that FFG *never* commits to release dates for *any* of their products because so much of the supply chain is out of their control. As near as I can recall, this was originally slated for "Q1 2013" and they're still on track to make that.

Grimwalker said:

Actually originally slated for Q4 2012. They announced a delay until February 2013 at the same time they announced the Kessel Run events (as the Kessel Runs were set up because of the delay). They did not "announce" the delay to March per se, but did change the Upcoming page to show that.

dbmeboy said:

If that was the case, then I'm going to bet even moreso that they decided to focus their production on broad market sales through the mainstream retailers for the holidays. I know I got into the game because Target had it on sale for $29.99 two weeks before Christmas. It would have to be the smart move, to broaden the player base as much as possible before releasing Wave 2 so that they have more customers overall, even if certain panicky individuals might get their undies in a twist.

Grimwalker said:

Ouch harsh!

Disagree by all means, no need to be rude though.

Grimwalker said:

Just to be clear, you're now thinking that the original release date was changed for reasons other than those explicitly stated by FFG? Kinda makes it hard for you to justify exploding at somebody else who had a similar train of thought.

Side note: I personally think that FFG is just bad at estimating release dates in general as this seems to be a trend across products, not an isolated occurance with the wave 2 release.

I wasn't aware that they had stated anything explicitly. I poked around the newsposts and the only thing I saw was them ascribing it to "a slight delay at the factory," which could mean anything.

I also saw the announcement that Wave 1 was on sale only as recently as September 14, which is fantastic for a holiday release. By all accounts, the game was a huge seller. I could easily see a scenario in which the printer came back to them and said "if you want to restock all these retailers before Christmas, we're going to have to retask the Wave 2 capacity to make that deadline." I work in project planning and scheduling for a living; that sort of thing happens all the time. The implication was that FFG said "ship us what you have already and we'll decide what to do with it," and from that we got the Kessel Run event.

And yes, I'm speculating. The difference is I'm trying to understand and apply my own knowledge and experience, rather than speak from a position of ignorance and indignation and bring everybody down. Plus it just rubs me the wrong way when the poster's own signature portrays someone who's not especially calm and needs to cool down.

yeah,
FFG should have waited till they had a more firm release date before pushing the wave online and via distributers.

My sense of snotty entitlement comes from pre-paying for something and then being told twice that it's delayed.
I think taking peoples money and not delivering the goods is a terrible way to treat customers/fans.

Panic…

I agree. That's why I have never preordered for X-wing; not wave 1, and certainly not wave 2.

Panic said:

If they had taken your money and then failed to deliver within a reasonable term, that would be one thing, but they haven't. You were willing to pay for the product despite the fact that there has never been a firm release date (again, so was I), and someone was willing to take your money, but that doesn't reflect on FFG.

Parakitor said:

Completely agree with you here. I haven't pre-ordered anything in ages. Unless I'm offered some sort of free shipping or discount or something, what's the point?

As such, I'm not all that put-off by the Wave 2 delays. Would I like to be messing around with a Falcon? Oh for sure! But nobody's holding on to my $30 as they keep delaying it.

yeah expantions are coming ,man I can't wait for the slave 1 and all the other goodies. Got my two core sets to get started,this is one cool game.

Cid_MCDP said:

With a ship like the Falcon, I decided to not risk waiting. And since I was pre-ordering that one, I decided I might as well order the others. The thing with the Falcon is, I bet you people will buy the ship who have never/will never play the X-Wing simply because it's so nice.