GW Release Schedule - slowed and having hiccups?

[RikuEru]

So, now that it came up in a handful of threads as side-notes over the last few months...

 

...what's up with GW's Release Schedule?

I feel, for the start of a brand new, substantially different Edition, bringing us a new Era for 40k fluff and Rules, it kicked off very slow and still isn't fully up and running.

 

We had one (or even two?) Saturday with no pre-orders at all.

The Primaris line feels "stretched out" over months on end - meanwhile the DG were teasered very early and are still waiting, as it looks right now, even another week longer than we anticipated.

(This is NOT MEANT TO DISCUSS FACTION BIAS of ANY kind! Go öeave that outside the door. It is meant to portray how "slow" the release is now.)

And going by the WD leaks, September will bring little more than Mortarion and the Codex. ...so it looks like the DG's release qill be similiarly spread over the rest of the year up until Christmas.

 

Of course it takes time for new-edition Codices to roll out. That's natural.

...but has a new Edition's Release always caused such a disruption?

 

 

To me, personally (as in: My thoughts. Not rumours or some such, nor any industry-knowledge), it feels like something substantially happened that demanded GW to stretch out their production & release schedule.

And it can't be the new Edition and its Rules and how much work were put into them - because the Rules Team is responsible for them, not the Modellers and Production Team.

 

What do you think about the matter?

Am I seeing things? Or are you seeing similiar hints?

[Kastor Krieg]

This makes me giggle, remembering how sporadic and sudden GW releases were quite recently (3-4 years ago) and how now THERE HAVE BEEN TWO WEEKS WITH NO PREORDERS! TWO WHOLE WEEEEEEKS!" is the new "sky is falling".

Nothing personal, mate. There's just nothing happening out of the ordinary. This is the way it flows now.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Kastor Krieg

[joschlumpf]

Although I hate the schedule of teasing something and than waiting for month to release it I guess it is on purpose.

As we heard from rumors, DG had to come during October.....as it seems with the first spoilers of the WD, they actually get released at October. Non of the 40k players has thought that this could be true, but it shows us, that GW planned at least the minitures releases until October if not for the whole year.

 

I don´t know what the feth GW had in mind with this. Many people had hopes (like another Triumphirat or the 20th anniversary of the sisters) and all we get is two months of Space Marines and releases they could made together with other ones. (Did we really need a whole month with more or less nothing than the White Dwarf Mini?)

 

@Krieg  I personally don´t think the sky is falling and have no problem, if the releases would go back to one in a month or so but the change in the schedule together with the strange plan of what is released is just that. Strange. They could have done more with the time they took and after they told us "we are the new GW" and the teaser output many estimated and hoped that they bring cool things (noone thought that from teaser to release will month be passed)

GW had the time on opportiunity to bring some long awaited things and cool new stuff but they decided it would be better to release the stuff as slow as possible....that´s at least how it feels for me

[Black Cohort]

I remember a time when GW would only release a few codexes a year regardless of where in the edition cycle they were. Compared to those times we are moving like lightning now.

[Ordo Machinum]

The 'Old Timer' Rashbold sat on a porch, rocking his chair slowly. A few tumbleweeds rolled slowly by.

 

"Yessir, I 'member when we could go a whole season without hearing any word from GW. The stagecoaches would pass through town with nary a new model release or codex. Some codexes took years to get new editions. Ol' Man Chaos would sit in a dark corner at the saloon and cuss 'n swear for weeks on end. Couldn't blame 'im though. We all had our share of things like that. Suddenly a new model would show up 'n cause all sorts of ruckus - people either loved or hated 'em, just like today. Then it would go back to the dismal quiet. 

 

Kids today, they have it lucky with this new GW. I hear they can expect 10 new codexes by the end of the year since the "new" edition came out. BY YEAR'S END?! Hah! And new models several times in a few months? Tarnation! How these new armies... oh, sorry, FACTIONS... expect to build character? It's all "gotta have it all and have it now". 

 

Let 'em have their whirlwind for now. I can wait. New squats will be coming in for my army any day now. Any day now."

Edited August 28, 2017 by Rashbold

[Kastor Krieg]

Remember when we had to play with the same codex for three editions? Templars remember.

[Ordo Machinum]

Remember when we had to play with the same codex for three editions? Templars remember.

 

"Yes, indeed. I 'member that. Young Blackie got a codex and was the biggest hotshot in the town. No one dared cause any trouble even if they didn't see Blackie. He had a way of knowing who was up to no good and would find you no matter how far you rode away. Then GW took his codex away. Some blame on it on his Zeal. Nothing wrong with zeal, no matter what anyone says nowadays. This town could use some of that kind of Zeal now."

[Arkangilos]

Well you also have to remember they are releasing more than 40k stuff, so while those two weeks have been quiet for us, they haven't been for AoS.

[the jeske]

Remember when we had to play with the same codex for three editions? Templars remember.

And each edition it was getting more and more OP, because of updates to the sm books, or lack of nerfs to a BT book that did not get an update?

 

...but has a new Edition's Release always caused such a disruption?

 

when the rules were drasticly changing? yes each time, I can remember. The small difference between 2ed to 3ed switch was A the index was free B there was no where near as much FW stuff to imbalance the game C WD had  articles giving extra rules to sub factions without a new codex.

 

 

As for slow vs fast. Now I remember the start of  3ed and the updates were being done fast, at least as far as loyalist marines goes. Now the question should not be if GW is today faster then they were 20 years ago. The question is are they [and should they] be faster in todays world. And is good, both for them and for us. Fast update is not always good for players, I expect more then a few players banked on slow GW updates and bought 2-3 ravens, and now struggle to find buyers for those. On the other hand we all know that with each codex, the gap between armies with one and those without one is going to be getting huge, specially for those non imperial factions [no idea what the tau codex is suppose to do to not end up as codex hive tyrant 2.0 for example].

In the end I think it boils down to two things, a GW can milk people money[nothing bad in that imo], if the sells are stretched and "leaks" are more open. People will save up money to buy GW stuff[knowing how much it costs] and those that do not have the will to do it, are probably going to crack and buy some other GW stuff. Then if w40k follows the AoS rule book update patern, in 1-2 year the update pack willf orcep eople to rebuild their armies in a big way, while on the run to that 2 year mark they are going to be forced in to smaller updates by FAQs, getting a codex and other factions getting codex. Having a good army may mean for future w40k, buying stuff over and over again. No more oblits being the only hvy support you buy  for 8 years etc

[Wargamer]

Remember when we had to play with the same codex for three editions? Templars remember.

The Dark Eldar find your whining adorable.

[Wargamer]

Actually, speaking of 3rd I wonder if we'll see a repeat of some of the antics from that era. After all, 3rd saw two codices get reworks (DA and DE) and two complete revisions (Guard and Chaos). 3rd also saw two new races added, something which hasn't happened since.

 

It seems that if this kind of major overhaul happens again, this is where it'll happen.

[Corswain]

GW is going to do whatever makes them the most money. Spreading releases out like this might actually be better as people have a chance to make lots of "small" but more frequent purchases instead of saving for that one massive purchase every few months.

Always felt that A Tale of Four Warlords was a little bit of a marketing stratagy in that regard.

[Kinstryfe]

According to the FLGS's in my area, part of the problem had been GW not being able to physically produce enough of certain products to keep up with demand, and with multiple weeks where their shipments were shorted and new product shelf space was completely sold out, I can believe that that's part of the problem. If that's the case, cutting back on releases while you shore up stock of recent releases makes sense.

[Gentlemanloser]

I remember having the daemonhunters codex for over a decade.

 

While some other armies has multiple codex release in that time.

[Arkhanist]

They're having to make two full new lines (primaris and death guard), the DI box, plus the recent releases for AoS and new getting started sets. My DI box had 3 D sprues but was missing an E sprue*, which is the sort of thing that's normally an indication of pushing production hard. There's been stuff going in and out of stock quite a bit even on the GW webstore - landraiders, for example - and my FLGS have also not been getting full stock deliveries recently; well, more than usual anyway.

 

Given the lead time to physically make product, box it and ship worldwide they have to estimate demand some way in advance. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did delay death guard for a couple of weeks more than they'd originally planned while they build enough stock in the chain for launch because they've had staff and plant tied up keeping up with above-expected demand in other lines. How many kickstarter releases are delayed for months and months because the creators underestimated how hard manufacturing and shipping really is?

 

All that wouldn't necessarily delay codexes directly, but when it's tied to a new line release and you've already said that one is next, you don't really want it hanging out on its lonesome too long or you lose a chunk of marketing momentum to sell the big wave of new minis to new-army starters which is where the real money is. That's one reason GW used to keep schtum about new releases, as it's a lot simpler if you release when ready rather than having to keep up with promises you've already made. It's not terribly fan-friendly though, thus the new GW aproach - even if it does lead to disappointment that the new shiny does take a bit longer than hoped.

 

I'll be surprised if GW has any more big model releases up its sleeves in the rest of this year; they'll likely slot in the odd new thing here and there (maybe a boxed game), but they'll be building stock to meet demand for xmas, that's always a huge spike in demand for younger players relying on parent purchasing.

 

 

* GW support sent me the missing E sprue within a couple of days of asking for a swap even though I bought from my FLGS, so no complaints there - I ended up with 10 extra poxwalkers

Edited August 29, 2017 by Arkhanist

[joschlumpf]

GW is going to do whatever makes them the most money. Spreading releases out like this might actually be better as people have a chance to make lots of "small" but more frequent purchases instead of saving for that one massive purchase every few months.

 

On the other hand they will lose money with this. I want every Codex, not possible this year if I want models too (not everyone has thousands of € to spare). Together with the cost of the characters (one model costs as much as a whole squad...) it´s hard to start a new army. (You have to wait two month to get the models and at least half of your budget will be characters)

Personally I bought less and less this year and if GW continues like this I am not sure if they will get much money from me in the future (I am not mad at them or anything, I just don´t see a reason to invest much).

 

I remember having the daemonhunters codex for over a decade.

 

While some other armies has multiple codex release in that time.

 

Look at SoB, their codex is nearly as old as I am :O (no two-page WD-articles don´t count as Codex)

 

They're having to make two full new lines (primaris and death guard), the DI box, plus the recent releases for AoS and new getting started sets. My DI box had 3 D sprues but was missing an E sprue*, which is the sort of thing that's normally an indication of pushing production hard. There's been stuff going in and out of stock quite a bit even on the GW webstore - landraiders, for example - and my FLGS have also not been getting full stock deliveries recently; well, more than usual anyway.

 

Given the lead time to physically make product, box it and ship worldwide they have to estimate demand some way in advance. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did delay death guard for a couple of weeks more than they'd originally planned while they build enough stock in the chain for launch because they've had staff and plant tied up keeping up with above-expected demand in other lines. How many kickstarter releases are delayed for months and months because the creators underestimated how hard manufacturing and shipping really is?

 

All that wouldn't necessarily delay codexes directly, but when it's tied to a new line release and you've already said that one is next, you don't really want it hanging out on its lonesome too long or you lose a chunk of marketing momentum to sell the big wave of new minis to new-army starters which is where the real money is. That's one reason GW used to keep schtum about new releases, as it's a lot simpler if you release when ready rather than having to keep up with promises you've already made. It's not terribly fan-friendly though, thus the new GW aproach - even if it does lead to disappointment that the new shiny does take a bit longer than hoped.

 

I'll be surprised if GW has any more big model releases up its sleeves in the rest of this year; they'll likely slot in the odd new thing here and there (maybe a boxed game), but they'll be building stock to meet demand for xmas, that's always a huge spike in demand for younger players relying on parent purchasing.

 

 

* GW support sent me the missing E sprue within a couple of days of asking for a swap even though I bought from my FLGS, so no complaints there - I ended up with 10 extra poxwalkers

 

But the rumor a year ago said release of DG during October and it looks like the DG will come during October. That would mean they didn´t delay them and planned it long ago.

Also a wrong packed sprue means nothing, I had one years ago in a FW Stormblade which was at that time just a repacked Baneblade were one sprue got out and the FW stuff got in. These things just happens sometimes, but lucky for you to get the extra sprue, I had to give it back although I had assembled parts of it already.

[ERJAK]

 

Remember when we had to play with the same codex for three editions? Templars remember.

The Dark Eldar find your whining adorable.

Sisters would like to remind all you adorable people that you will NEVER win this particular contest.

[Gothical]

According to the FLGS's in my area, part of the problem had been GW not being able to physically produce enough of certain products to keep up with demand, and with multiple weeks where their shipments were shorted and new product shelf space was completely sold out, I can believe that that's part of the problem. If that's the case, cutting back on releases while you shore up stock of recent releases makes sense.

 

I read something similar from the FW Open Day - apparently the late popularity of AoS and community engagement completely took GW by surprise (look at their financials for the last year - all that growth is BEFORE 8th Ed 40k) and they can barely keep up with current demand. For those familiar with the Nottingham site, they are supposedly looking into acquiring the nearby timber yard to give them more room for additional casting operations.

 

I only read this after I had made it home from the event so I couldn't confirm it with any of the production staff there.

[plastic_slug]

I think a lot of has to do with the 8th launch going pretty well. They have only so much molding capacity, and to get some things done,something else has to wait until there is an opportunity. The way they chose to release multiple starters has hurt, too. While great for gamers having a choice, the Dark Imperium and Know No Fear starters share sprues, but the Know No Fear ones are molded in blue...so you can't just run 20000 copies, and stuff whatever into what box. Even though the sprues you got were the same, the ones for Know No Fear starters had to be run separately from the other Dark Imperium work. 

Edited August 30, 2017 by totalfailure

[Antarius]

Well. As frustrated as I am by the wait for DG, the release schedule is still faster than ever before.