D&D (2024) Hobby Store Exclusive (Special Cover) PHB Pre-Orders Cancelled

[Argyle King]

The lack of trust in WotC is of their own making, but it's also extremely overblown.

I think that comes from two things: 1) The passion of the fanbase, which blows hot and cold; and 2) YouTubers have found that rage fuels clicks and clicks = cash. In this particular thread, there's no direct YouTube influence, but social media has created a culture of rage in fandoms across the board, using point 1's passion (and how it blows hot and cold) as a revenue stream.

It's a sad state of affairs, really. WotC would be smart to hire someone who is actually skilled at modern PR. It's a minefield, but I think it can be navigated with the right skills. Hiring is not their strong suit ATM, though. The company is better at firing. Such is the nature of manipulating stock.

I agree with much of this, especially the bit about PR.

 

[Imaro]

I'd still like to know more. Does anyone know if Gameology is considered an online store? When I looked it up it came across as an online vendor vs. a brick and mortar/FLGS. Also has any other store reported cancelled orders?

Edit: It also appears the Gameology is still accepting pre-orders for the regular handbook with the later shipping date.

 

[Chaosmancer]

nothing? the post already said they are not responsible for this… they are responsible for deciding to not have a reprint however and therefore not honoring the preorders

The post also had an entire footnote I included that talked about how it might actually be their fault if they didn't switch printers, or if they did switch printers. Which was what I was addressing.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I'm inclined to believe that part of the current state of WoTC's relationship with the community is of their own making.

Does that mean that a portion of the community will now have confirmation bias against the company? Yes, probably.

Do I believe that means their policy going forward should be less communication? No, and I think that's a poor way to handle it.

A lack of communication won't change the confirmation bias. Instead, the silence will be filled with negative assumptions and harsher voices.

Textbook example of why having a good dedicated PR person is worth the investment for a company. A lot of companies make the mistake of skimping on PR to save money. It costs more in the long run.

As for communicating, I would rather be pro-active and have a voice than be reactive in silence.

I have no interest in whose fault the state of the relationship is. That just leads to "well, it is your fault so you deserve it". And, honestly, why is the silence any worse? If they speak up immediately, their words are twisted around and used to confirm the negative assumptions, and the harsh voices have "And WotC said!" in their arsenal. Silence leads to confirmation of the negative assumptions... but without anything to back them up other than silence.

If you are getting a black eye either way... why bother giving them ammo?

 

[mamba]

If you are getting a black eye either way... why bother giving them ammo?

because staying silent is not giving them ammo...

 

[Chaosmancer]

because staying silent is not giving them ammo...

It isn't

 

[Chaosmancer]

As for updates on my end of things. The local stores around me didn't get nearly enough stock to cover pre-orders, and no one got any Alternate Covers that I could find. Most of them think things might come in later shipments, no one had specifics to give. Seems this is happening on the distributor level though, none of these people have spoken to WoTC.

 

[John Lloyd1]

This is an announcement from an Australian FLGS on facebook (Ronin Games Belconnen):

We've just been informed that Wizards of the Coast have significantly reduced their Limited Edition Player's Handbooks. We always sell less than we order in case our allocation is less than our order amount, but unfortunately we have received far less than we ordered (about 15%). Despite ordering some from other suppliers it's still not even close to making up the shortfall.
It seems despite demand being high, WOTC isn't printing any extra copies.
We are incredibly disappointed by this news, particularly with it only just being delivered now, and after there have already been delays until October. We also understand that this will be very frustrating and upsetting for those of our customers who will have their orders cancelled. We will be giving out copies to those who ordered first, with a maximum of 1 per customer.
We will be emailing out all customers tonight and tomorrow to notify you if your order cannot be fulfilled.
So far as we know there are no fuether iissues with the regular copies, but all other limited edition covers will be in very short supply. We no longer have them available and will be doing everything we can to get as much allocation from our suppliers to fulfill them.

 

[Hussar]

sometimes a ‘we are aware, we are on it’ is better than radio silence, I’d even argue it frequently is

Better for who?

A bunch of self entitled fans who have absolutely no dog in the race demanding explanations for something they have zero investment in?

If you didn’t pre-order and you are not affected in any way by this, WotC owes you nothing.

 

[SteveC]

So we're not sure if this is a manufacturing issue, a distribution issue, or both, is that pretty much correct?

Back when WotC said they were taking all of these issues in house and ending the relationship with Penguin/Random House I (and a lot of other people) raised concerns about possible problems. I remember a chorus of "nah, it'll be fine." Guess it wasn't.