So which companies got hit by the printer fiasco?

[Scribble]

wait... Mage was only released this past weekend?

Because I swear I saw it at a game store nearby a couple of weeks ago...

Is that possible? Did they send out store copies early asking them not to stock it yet per chance???

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Don't know if it's the same printer problem, but Blue Devil Games was talking to their delivery guy who went "to get the rest of the books" and was never seen again. So much for the Dawning Star adventure being there. The book sold well though from what I understand.

 

[Ghostwind]

By my estimate, about 10 publishers were affected by the problems of a single printer.

 

[Crothian]

wait... Mage was only released this past weekend?

Because I swear I saw it at a game store nearby a couple of weeks ago...

Is that possible? Did they send out store copies early asking them not to stock it yet per chance???

You must have seen something else. Its a bright blue cover and its not being released to the public for a for weeks.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

One of the gentlemen at the Sovereign Press booth told me that the "Serenity" game book sold out the first day, all 500 copies. Not certain if they expected to sell out that quickly or not, but he seemed pleased by that level of sales.

I don't know if it is typical of GenCon, but there were numerous game products released in limited quantities at the convention, such as Mutants & Masterminds 2nd edition (300 copies, if I recall), Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick prequel (1,000 copies), etc.

I saw the line for Serenity and thought they must have had a hit on their hands based on the amount of people who wanted a copy. Shadowrun, on the other hand probably had hoards of people lining up merely based the popularity of the game.

 

[Crothian]

By my estimate, about 10 publishers were affected by the problems of a single printer.

Is this just really bad coincidence or are printers starting to be a problem do you think?

 

[Ghostwind]

Is this just really bad coincidence or are printers starting to be a problem do you think?

It's more just a matter of the reality of a big convention. In order to do well with sales, you literally have to have a new release there. So everyone is hitting printers up at the same time and the printer with the best prices will usually get the most orders. In this case, the individual printer responsible was hit with two separate medical issues (putting both owners in the hospital) and the mechanical breakdown of two of his three machines. This left him with a single machine and the necesssity to make a judgment call as to who's print jobs got priority. Unfortunately, that meant some publishers would not be getting their stuff, which likely hurt them badly at the show.

 

[eyebeams]

I think Mage had problems with their print run, which was why they backed off a couple of weeks from their planned GenCon release, and only had time to get a couple of hundred corrected copies printed in time for sale at the con. I saw an announcement beforehand that they would be selling like 75 a day. So I don't think it was related to whatever other print problem you guys are referring to.

Mage was delayed so that it could be expanded to 400 pages.

 

[0-hr]

"Fires of War", the new M&M supplement from BlackWyrm Games ( http://www.blackwyrm.com/ ) was not at the show due to printer failure.

Serenity had 500 hardbacks and were counting on softcovers to fill orders beyond that. Only a handful of said softcovers arrived from this same printer however.

 

[JohnNephew]

Printer delays aren't at all unusual, especially at a large convention in which a relatively small number of printers handle the work for a relatively large number of publishers.

A constant problem in the game industry is that a lot of the smaller publishers use the exact same printers, usually because of cost. So when GenCon or another important date hits the printer is flooded with work and when print comes to shove the printer will fulfill the largest job orders/clients first and then the little guys.

Phil is correct. Our printer here in Minnesota, which does work for numerous game publishers (as well as all kinds of small press operations), was hit hard with work in July, they told me. As a result, the three books they were doing for us slipped a little -- a couple of days to a week later delivery than was originally scheduled.

Fortunately, we had sent them to press with plenty of time-cushion for problems like this, prepress difficulties, lost files, misplaced parcels containing proofs, and what have you. As a result, the two Northern Crown books shipped on July 27 -- three weeks before Gen Con -- in spite of the problems at the printer. And the other book, Realms of Power: The Divine (for Ars Magica) arrived late the week before the show, allowing it to be shipped to stores before we left for Gen Con.

Problems arise for publishers at every time of year, but it's just more apparent to the consumer when a book is expected at Gen Con and misses the date.

-John Nephew
President, Atlas Games