After over a decade of retailing tabletop gaming products it is becoming harder and harder to trust the assurances of manufacturers and suppliers. Although far from exclusively one brand or even our industry, there has been a consistent pattern of failure to deliver on time and under delivering on reasonable expectations over the last few months.
The most recent of these is for Warhammer 40,000 Leviathan. As of writing this statement we are not expecting any further production of this brand new edition box set, if something does materialise it will likely be after launch. This release has taken a toll on the whole team as I’m sure it has across the hundreds of retailers who actively promote and support a variety of games, none more so than Warhammer 40,000. This new box set is the most highly anticipated release of the decade and it will be several years before a release even considers beating it in terms of marketing, demand and excitement.
We have seen several new edition launches, hundreds of new games and thousands of products, nothing has come close to this.
To that end, the team at The Outpost have been working tirelessly to make this as stress free a release as possible, working extra hours, creating new systems and responding to emails and messages at a pace never before seen, and we aren’t the only ones.
As you may have read, many stores including ours have been hit with a huge cut in allocation, despite multiple assurances at all levels that there was plenty of stock to go around. Demand had been anticipated and stock had been produced to fulfil demand. Phrases like “we’ve never produced so much of a product for launch” and “this production dwarfs what we did for 9th” – legally binding? No. Repeated multiple times with certainty and reassurance that there would be no stock issues? Yes.
Post pandemic the tabletop gaming industry has needed a win or two, and miniature gaming even more so. The lack of face-to-face gaming for nearly two years has spelled doom for hundreds of stores up and down the country and this continues even today.
This release, even before it has started, has been lauded as the BIG release, the release without stock issues, the release without hiccups or problems. This release was supposed to make up for the months of delays and lack of production on new releases.
I am angry and frustrated that this release will not help those struggling stores who have faced severe difficulties with the shortages on restocks, who have held out until this release to help them get “back in the game”, the stores who despite all the increased costs and reduced spending have stuck it out to this point only to be given (in many cases) no additional stock.
I am sad for the customers who were looking forward to this release, excited to get back into the hobby or rely on this hobby for an escape from circumstances that may be tough. We know personally that this release and marketing around it have been a ray of hope for many people who suffer with mental health issues and wholly use this as their only outlet, their opportunity to forget their problems for just a couple of hours and roll some dice.
I am grateful for the team members who have worked tirelessly to ensure a celebration of Warhammer 40,000. They have worked on plans, launch events and beyond. They still continue to work now, managing customer expectations and handling thousands of queries.
This industry is one fuelled by passion and love for a hobby. A hobby which is fuelled by a shared sense of enjoyment, competition and creativity. Today stores will be struggling to reconcile how they can be treated so poorly.
We have worked as a company to build trust and reputation and for many months we have backed suppliers and manufacturers when they have delays or other issues. As a company, we actively encourage our customers to continue supporting the manufacturers in spite of the problems we may face and defend (where possible) taking the brunt of any negative backlash when a product is underproduced, delayed or otherwise unavailable. On this occasion however the blame must be placed squarely at the feet of Games Workshop who have drastically overpromised, underproduced and currently are not providing a solution to the problem. A problem they can fix by producing more of their own product, in their UK manufacturing facilities.
This is a personal plea to be patient with all team members, our store and even our competitors, who are working to address the fallout, you may see similar statements from stores.
We are all hobbyists, we all love the tabletop gaming hobby and we understand your frustrations because ultimately, we are our customers.
– Chris
Founder, CEO and lover of all things tabletop.
