Vague release dates, delays...disarray?

FFG’s ‘upcoming releases’ page contains a bit of a surprise: Sovereign Sight is ‘at the printer,’ yay, but Down the White Nile is…‘in development.’

In development? They can’t mean that literally, can they? Snark aside, shouldn’t the entire Kitara cycle be a bit further along given the supposed Q4 2017 release target for the first two packs?

X-Wing’s dev team is hilariously slow to issue FAQs, but they’ve been good and precise about release dates (perhaps making plastic models requires more heads-up than printing cards). Was Netrunner’s release schedule equally haphazard and vague under Lukas and Damon? Are there rumours out of FFG of turmoil or delays?

I’m looking for perspective, here, beyond ‘Boggs is new, these things take time.’ Have any of the playtesters mentioned how far along Kitara is, instance?

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I’m inclined to see the embarrassing situation w/Organized Play and the tourney kits, say, as evidence of confusion backstage.

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I don’t think any Netrunner product has ever had a release date more specific than Q4 2017.

It’s widely said that entire cycles are printed and shipped to Minnesota at once, which is why we see delays between cycles rather than in the middle of them. If true, then the upcoming statuses for all data packs that aren’t the first in a cycle are lies.

We do know that cycles are designed all at once, so no, it’s not likely that Down The White Nile is actually still in development.

I’m hopeful that we’ll see the Revised Core before Christmas, but at this point I don’t expect to see any of Kitara until the new year.

ETA: Also, the release date given in the announcement for Down The White Nile is Q1 2018, so they aren’t actually late yet. Unless they’ve edited the article or something.

Also also, I’m kind of surprised to hear that X-Wing gets release dates in advance. I thought this problem was FFG-wide. For Netrunner, it used to be even worse: stores were allowed to sell packs whenever they arrived, rather than having to wait for a specified release date, so there weren’t release dates even for products that had actually been released.

Also, I looked up the latest X-Wing wave announcement and it gives a release date of Q4 2017, which is no more precise than Netrunner release dates. Is there a more precise release date somewhere else?

The sets are designed and printed all at the same time, and playtesting is usually at least a year ahead (i.e. they are now or will soon be starting to test the cycle or deluxe after the cycle after Kitara)

I think I remember reading that there was some production delay with Kitara and that the first pack won’t be arriving until January, but that’s just my memory :slight_smile:

The main thing I am concerned / shocked by is that we don’t know where and when Store Championships will be, and as far as I can tell FFGOP hasn’t even provided anyone with what the prize support is going to look like. Heck, I don’t even know if stores have been offered the chance to host one! There’s something going way off the rails there, as that season officially “started” on 11/25, according to their own documentation.

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According to this Reddit thread, they took Store Championship kit preorders at the usual time, but they only announced them in the OP retailer newsletter, and it sounds like there are numerous stores that missed the announcement.

On the bright side, while I was looking up that thread I found this one which reveals that the Revised Core Set is shipping soon.

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Y’know, I’ve heard 7 December for a few weeks now, but even if that were true, it’d still only be about a month’s lead time. Perhaps my impression of precise release dates is only a private, retrospective one. :slight_smile:

Just tryna get a head start on moaning about the Corp during this holiday season.

@hypomodern already mentioned one point i wanted to make about being in development doesn’t actually mean they’re still working on it

but also, Boggs only developed and tested this cycle. it was all designed beforehand by Damon before Boggs came on board. things are taking longer because of the transition from one designer to another who did not previously help design, not because Boggs is new or whatever.

I’ve been scouring reddit and facebook to try to find any stores in the US that have an SC listed and it seems like there is one, in Oakland. The UK stores seem well scheduled and running, at least! Does anyone know if they have kits or are just winging it, I wonder?

Perhaps their distributor is better than FFG at promoting announcements, or someone there who saw the announcement spread the word locally somehow, and as a result more of them have kits ordered?

But other Reddit threads have claimed that the kits haven’t actually arrived anywhere yet, so I suspect they’re just winging it in terms of actually having the kit present for the tournament. :worried:

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I’m organizing the one in Oakland. They’ve not received the prize kit afaik and @Absotively’s timeline is accurate. We just wanted to get things scheduled ahead of time and to ensure there aren’t multiple SCs on the same day in our area.

Apparently there was no prize kit for the UK Brighton SC at the weekend.

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My theory is the DP are blocked in a translation process.

In France, Terminal Directive wasn’t translated.
The continuation of the french version had no clear “yes” or “no” answer.
After Edge fr, Asmodee seems to be plainly in charge now. Before, only bipartite FFG / Edge contracts was defining the NR products market conditions, and their translation (+es, but I don’t really know how Edge fr / Edge works).
Now, in France at least, Asmodee seems to show will there. Also, last sells of NR in France doesn’t seem to be a very good reason to continue translation of NR products : their hesitation is perfectly understandable.

So maybe they are translating it (and maybe not). If they are, FFG’s policy on this game would apply a.k.a. no .en release before other langages.

Also if Edge asked say 4000 Cycles and Asmodee disagrees and only say french market can ony absorb 2000, maybe FFG disagree and want fr to buy 3000. Price / DP changes, then. And the translation of these might not bring money. Therfor, would only sell 1500 because France is a lot less fussy about games that comes with a foreign langage than UK/US, but still.

(random number and random though : that’s just a theory anyway).

It’s a casual card game, not a humanitarian response to a public health crisis. No need to make it sound like Kosovo.

If it’s a bit delayed, it’s a bit delayed. We will endure as a people.

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FWIW, the owner of my FLGS just called me to let me know that his distributor was expecting the SC prize kit in “the midwest warehouse” on Friday, December 1st. We are having our SC on the 2nd, and we’re planning to just mail out prizes to people that travel.

Also, shameless plug: if you’re in the DC metro region, come on down. Our regular meetup is normally around 8+ people, and we expect a strong turnout among less-regular players. Should be a fun time.

edit: “them” = the prize kit, not Revised Core or kitara

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I don’t understand the “you sound like a Kosovar” statement. I don’t ask for anything there.

Kosavoh was a major humanitarian crisis that was worth getting worked up over.

I don’t think anyone is getting that worked up about things, so I don’t think it is especially productive to suggest that people are doing so.

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Plus I don’t ask anything. I just tell this might be a reason, because late french translation WAS a reason for latence in world release in the past (O&C, if mem serves).

If we have to wait for our localization while the world enjoys new cards, it’s fine by me.

I don’t think anyone made it sound like anything other than mild corporate dysfunction…?

The other day I was reading about the quite abrupt departure of one of the L5R designers, who was also lead dev on SWLCG – and I thought of Boggs’s comment that he showed up for work on his first day to find that Damon had already gone and he was shocked to find himself steering the ship. FFG sounds, by all accounts, like kind of a terrible place to work, and I was wondering whether that had any bearing on what looked to my untrained eye like schedule slippage and so forth.

It’s all very ‘meh,’ I admit.

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