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

[tankkommander 6454xp 1]

It seems that they have the rights, but zero sign off an the board game. So backers are expected to pay £40 for this sight unseen, and trust CGL to produce something good.

Looking at how they half-arsed the Leviathans minis and the ‘special’ Shadowrun packaging (a tatty cardboard box) I would not put too much trust in CGL to come up with anything worth the money.

Looking at them right now they are spreading themselves very thin with multiple projects and product lines. Battletech seems to be the cash cow keeping everything else afloat (for now) but the way they have alienated a lot of fans with recent actions and the kickstart debacle that may not hold true for much longer. Time will tell.

 

[limburger 22095xp 1]

Without a sign off on the boardgame they may as well not have a license to do a boardgame. That will be the end result no matter which excuse they’re going to use. Heck, with the way communications for this kickstarter have gone they may not even have the license at all, because they’ve been consistently wrong about the actual status (like claiming stuff had shipped when it hadn’t left port or hubs not having stuff that they should have had ages ago … ).

I guess CGL are completely unaware of the long term damage they are doing to Battletech as a brand for their company.

OTT has already shown an alternate source of minis … and there’s bound to be a ton of 3D printable variants as well.

So once this kickstarter is delivered the people that want more battletech don’t need CGL any more to expand their hobby in the most literal sense of the word.

Or maybe CGL are aware and that’s why they started the Voltron kickstarter to secure funding for the inevitable dip in sales that will follow as the folk buying into this have no need to buy more after it is delivered.

 

[tankkommander 6454xp 1]

And despite the warnings and red flags they have raised nearly £70,000 on the Voltron KS.

Gamers really can be a silly bunch of suckers.

[limburger 22095xp 2]

The problem is that ‘investing’ / ‘betting’ on a kickstarter doesn’t cost a lot of money.

So if it fails you won’t have lost much, but if there’s fraud or related shenanigans then there’s no legal way to get your money back that’s profitable for you either.

That’s why I keep saying : don’t back crowdfunding projects unless you can afford to literally burn the money you are pledging.

Anyways … I wonder when/if we’re getting an update before Christmas about the state of things in general and EU/UK/AUS shipping specifically.
I kind of doubt we’ll be hearing anything before 2025 and maybe we’ll have to wait for Chinese new year as well.

[grantinvanman 6665xp 0]

Year of the Rat upcoming! 🐀

My spouse is Chinese.

[dawfydd 12586xp 1]

I mean that’s why I tend to only either toss a quid at a KS to stay updated or just click “Follow” nowadays. I’ve been fortunate though, 1500 projects backed in 15 years and maybe 10 of those have crapped out? And even then I don’t think I’m down more than a couple of hundred quid at most. Not saying those failed projects don’t irk me, but I’ve seen folks take far, FAR bigger swings and get properly riled up when projects have failed

[limburger 22095xp 1]

I think only a handful projects actually failed in the long list of things I’ve backed. I never back at the 1$ level, because if I’m not interested in it I might as well wait for retail and save me the headache.
And pretty much all of the failures were the result of messy/non existent project management combined with the need to spend more money than planned (despite fully funding). The only exceptions were projects that wanted to do stuff no one had done before.

In other words : exactly the kind of things I’m seeing in this one.
Even if this one delivers (eventually) CGL are living on borrowed time.
Their systems simply are not set up efficiently enough to make this work. You simply cannot run a company that needs to rely on so many third parties at critical parts of the processes like logistics, communications / marketing and production.

They get to be really lucky with the continuing sales of Battletech funding daily operations. Any other company would have been dead in the water a long time ago.

[jamescutts 6937xp 2]

Weirdly I think as a campaign this one has gone pretty well in terms of deliverables but terrible as a project for BattleTech.

There’s quite clearly a sizable, though still a minority of the overall fan base who have been increasingly alienated. Starting with the lies about local shipping through to forgetting the rest of world exists to the current hefty delays to EU and Australian distribution the events themselves are nothing too out of the ordinary but they way they have been handled and communicated to backers is incredibly poor. Couple that with Leviathans I think CGLs reputation has taken a massive hit.

[sundancer 43745xp 1]

So….. new Update with the deceptive title

Asia is Complete!

US/CAN/RoW: Other than Company Store freight shipments that are being picked up this week, fulfillment of Wave 1 and Wave 2 is complete. Shipping will be considered complete by December 22, which puts us on track for the exclusivity period to end on January 22nd, 2025.

UK: We expect an update after the holidays from the UK Hub, as week 5 of fulfillment begins on Wednesday. Once we get word that fulfillment is complete, we’ll assign the official public release dates for the UK. As a reminder, unless you have a specific issue that needs addressing, please avoid reaching out to QML or the UK hub for status updates prior to Jan 1.

EU: CGL is working directly with EU customs. There’s a lot of back and forth between both parties regarding documentation and as soon as we get word that it’s through we’ll let you know.

Australia/NZ: Ship traffic delayed docking to December 27th. This shouldn’t affect the hub’s fulfillment timeline, which is still scheduled to begin in January.

Asia: Packaging is complete.  Shipping is pending (see clip below for how Asian shipping works).  We will not be providing further updates on this region. Backers in this region should reach out to QML for updates specific to their orders, at https://www.qmlogistics.com/contactUs.html

Yeah. If at all EU will get stuff Q1/2025. Perhaps even later.

“Shipping is pending” flocking w*nkers.

[sundancer 43745xp 1]

And just in case it gets flagged I’ll document my comment on that update here

[pagan8th 13383xp 1]

If ks evee changed the terms to something like ‘companies have a legal commitment to fulfill withing a certain time limit’ then I’m certain that very few companies would dare risk using the platform.

Only one ks I ever back failed to deliver and that was an adventure book for Hollow Earth Expeditions by Exile Games Studio. It’s annoying, but not a massive financial loss. It is frustrating because there was never an apology, or explanation.

[limburger 22095xp 2]

It’s still up there.

But then it’s not like CGL are actively monitoring this kickstarter.

They’re far too busy looking at all the dollar signs for that Voltron kickstarter.

[tankkommander 6454xp 1]

They seem to be losing interest in Voltron already. Slow to reply in comments. They usually wait until they have your money before ignoring backers.

[limburger 22095xp 0]

I’d argue that by being fast to reply they’ve painted themselves into a corner as that creates expectations for future interactions.

Any delays will cause friction …

I bet they haven’t answered any real questions about the boardgame that’s part of that kickstarter.

Anyways … I pity the fools who pledged support for Voltron. I don’t know the license, but it seems a lot of people do want to see a rpg set in that universe.

[tankkommander 6454xp 0]

They finished on $139k

Proving that there really is a sucker born every minute.

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