Reply To: BattleTech: Mercenaries – CGL does a shipping booboo? Internet rages!

[jamescutts 7032xp 0]

Heres the full KS update

Hey there backers,

Here’s our update for the week:

All items have shipped from the manufacturers!

International with Hubs: We’ve learned that most shipments have arrived at UK and Asia and are getting checked in.  Both have started sending address verifications and are eager to get started!  EU and Australia are largely still in transit, but we are expecting news any day.

The Australian distributor asked us to let you know that fulfillment will not be able to start in AUS until January due to their approaching holiday closures.  As soon as the new year kicks off, they are excited to hammer these shipments out to backers as soon as possible.

Domestic, CAN and RoW (without hubs) continue to fulfill as short shipments arrive.

We have had a few issues reported where game stores have been able to order several Kickstarter items for pre-order.  Each instance we have tracked down, and corrected the distributor’s incorrect release dates.  Those distributors are contacting their stores to hold those items until street date.

A few weeks ago, we communicated the release dates for the next several months.  We keep pushing those dates every month dependent on the Kickstarter fulfillment news.  We will continue to track erroneous releases, and correct the workflows with our partners, as we are committed to completing fulfillment before retail release.

We’ll see you next week with more news.

source: BattleTech: Mercenaries by Catalyst Games — Kickstarter

I think thats a pretty reasonable update myself, it could have been a bit more specific on the estimated timings of in transit goods to EU and Australia but based on the previous update of them saying things are expected soon and us then seeing the initial seteps of UK (Norway and Switzerland) distribution with address confirmations I’d expect these would not be too far behind.

The Australian situation is a complete nightmare through, and for everyone including CGL who now have a major headache on their hands as if they keep the initial promise of no retail until after all pledges, we wont be looking at a retail release based off Aus until March at the earliest. Thats going to result in a lot of unhappy retailers who will miss christmas, a lot of unhappy distributors who have had stock sat around for getting on 6 months and also over christmas and a lot of unhappy fans who just cant get the stuff if they missed the Kickstarter.

Theres not much CGL can do about Australia either, their subcontractor, QML have decided to subcontract Atherworks for Aus, they are well know to have issues, and have a lot of ongoing KS projects, despite CGL not wanting to use them again QML have decided to so theres not much that can be done. Its probably also been hit by the delays, Atherworks where probably contracted for distribution mid this year, but the project delays now cause clashes they cant deal with.

I’d be reasonably happy saying I think you’ll get stuff by the end of the year sundancer and limburger, if the UK has it the EU cant be far behind, if it was sea freighted its probably the same ship that called at the UK first.