"Given the slim to possible negative margin on the set, I find it unlikely that Games Workshop will end up making more of them - though if they do it would be a really favorable gesture on their part in an effort to improve relations with their customers."Today on Warhammer Community, there is an announcement revealing that Indomitus will now be "made to order." I can honestly say I'm glad I was wrong in my pessimistic view of their making more sets, but I'll certainly stand by the second half of that statement as the goodwill on web already seems to be spreading.
The post from GW opens with a very accurate and professional assessment of what happened over the weekend, and indicates that things clearly didn't go to plan at all:
The box is now available (1 per customer) for a "limited time" (which hasn't been specified) for the original $199 price as made. The only catch is it may take up to 120 days for it to get shipped, and they advise anyone who needs it "soon" to try and hit their local stores on release date July 25th. The lead time seems fairly in line with a point I made on Saturday when the debacle first unfolded:
"The most obvious thing for Games Workshop to do would be to actually bite the bullet and schedule a second run of the boxed set - or at least offer an equivalent Necron and Marine product with the miniatures from the set. Unfortunately production campaigns like this are typically scheduled months in advance, so re-setting up the production tools and getting more (or new) boxes printed would not happen quickly without a Herculean effort from the team in the UK."To satisfy the made to order demand it's clear that GW is going to have to fit the "reprints" into the production schedule, and they're still working on how to do that. The stated lead time of 120 days implies that they're already got most of the production campaigns for Q3'20 scheduled and the new boxes would have to be slotted in after those. It is, however, clear they seem to want to get things going sooner.
Winners and Losers...
Honestly I see this as a "win-win" for Games Workshop and the Warhammer 40K community at large. Sure, Games Workshop isn't making a lot of money on the box itself, but the goodwill they are engendering in their customers is priceless. In fact, there's only one group I see losing from this turn of events - the scalpers in the secondary market.
For the unlucky individuals who have already purchased product at drastically elevated pricing, hopefully they can get their money back. To the scalpers who thought they'd be fleecing the gaming community, I leave them with the words of Nelson:
Rather than just picking one up on the 25th, I went ahead and ordered myself a box. I likely won't get to my Necrons until later this year (and I intend to use the marines as Space Wolves, which are behind those). I picked up a stand alone rule book that my son and I can share until the second book comes in for him. I'll keep everyone posted as to when it shows up!
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