We’re currently wrapping up worldwide fulfillment for the Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest preorder that began 2 weeks ago, and one of the recurring topics I keep thinking about is the size of the gap between the initial announcement/reveal of the game and the preorder itself.
Here’s the timeline for Libertalia:
- February 2: Announcement
- February 3-11: Product reveal via design diaries
- February 12: Advance-copy content creators started to share rules, component photos, and playthroughs (they received their advance copies via airmail in December)
- February 15: Advance-copy reviewers started to share their reviews
- February 17: Early-copy reviewers (thanks to units that already arrived via ocean freight) started to receive their review copies.
- March 2: Preorder launch on our webstore
- March 3-18: Fulfillment
This may seem like a pretty tight timeline, but think about a key part of it in comparison to what this would have looked like if it were a standard Kickstarter campaign:
- many months in advance: Announcement, advertising, and some reveals
- late February: one or two previews and advance reviews
- March 1 (through late March): Kickstarter campaign, launch with 3-6 reviews/previews
- one year later: Fulfillment
The key aspect there is how close the reviews the previews and reviews are to the actual launch, many of them releasing on the day of the launch itself. I generally think this is a good idea: People get excited about a product and are able to act on that excitement right away.
Now, we’ve actually tried to have the reviews go live on the preorder launch date (see Tapestry back in 2019), and while it was our most successful preorder ever, the feedback we got was that customers felt rushed to make a decision. They wanted a little time to watch/read/listen to a few reviews.
That’s when I changed to the current method. However, I really think the excitement gap was too long between February 17 and March 2. Sure, not every review went live on February 17, and having early review copies available before the preorder also helped, but it really felt like the excitement spikes during the original reveal and the first week of reviews had dissipated a bit by March 2. It was crucially important that we had a way for people to sign up for a preorder launch notification during that time.
Given what I learned from Libertalia, here’s how I’d like to proceed for the big upcoming Viticulture expansion (exact dates pending based on freight shipping, some of which is still in progress):
- April 13: Announcement (and reveal a little more than I normally do on announcement day–it seems to be a recurring problem that people really want more than just a name and box image at the beginning)
- April 14-22: Product reveal via design diaries
- April 23: Advance-copy content creators started to share rules, component photos, and playthroughs (they received their advance copies via airmail in February)
- April 25: Advance-copy reviewers started to share their reviews
- May 4: Preorder launch on our webstore
- May 5-20: Fulfillment
From announcement to preorder launch there would be 3 weeks (instead of 4 weeks), which I think might tighten the excitement/anticipation gap and boost the performance as a result.
This isn’t all to say that the Libertalia preorder didn’t go well (and that there aren’t other reasons why it didn’t perform better–lots of opinions out there about the aesthetic!). We sold a little over 4500 units during the 4-day preorder, along with a bunch of metal doubloons and promo realms for Rolling Realms. But I think a shorter excitement gap would have boosted the performance.
What do you think about these methods and the excitement gaps?
Also read:
- Should You Advertise and Preview Pre-Launch?
- The Psychology of Anticipation
- Price: Secrecy, Flexibility, and Patience
- Our Current Approach to Board Game Reviewers and Content Creators
If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content!
43 Comments on “Evaluating the Announcement-Review-Preorder-Fulfillment Gap”
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[…] like examining publishing decisions related to timing and anticipation. For context, the standard method for Stonemaier Games is to (a) produce a product we love and ship […]
[…] April e-newsletter for our April Fools products. Second, I’ve been thinking a lot about the announcement-review-preorder-fulfillment gap, and I wanted to experiment with a tighter gap between the reveal and the preorder. Third, because […]
Oh I can’t wait!! But… I am in Europe, and I have to buy my boardgames from European sources, or else pay loads for importing from US. I hope the new extension will be available here soon after the release
As with all of our inventory and new releases, we ship from 4 different fulfillment centers: The US, Canada, Australia, and Europe. You can find our European webstore (ships from the UK) here: https://europe.stonemaiergames.com/
Great! Thank you!
Jamey, if Libertalia did 4500 units during its pre-order, do you mind if I ask what Red Rising did?
The games share a number of similarities:
1. though there are other components, they primarily feature cards
2. they are similar in complexity (2.18 vs 2.27) and identical in playcount (1-6) and playtime (45-60)
3. both games are based on a previous IP (though one was a book and one was a game)
From a gaming perspective, I assumed LIbertalia would sell more than RR, but the existing fandom for RR might be bigger than the existing fandom for Libertalia.
Also, I really like both the card art and the overall graphic design in both games.
Jeremy: We sold 9535 units during the 4-day preorder period for Red Rising.
Lots of great comments here. The only thing I would add, is that perhaps a longer amount of time might be required for a new game than an expansion. Libertalia was funny as it was a reworking of an existing game. But the upcoming Viticulture expansion is aimed, primarily, at people who have the base game, and are excited to get new content for it. A new game needs more time for people to examine it and see if it’s a good fit.
I mean, obviously there will be people who don’t have Viticulture, that will use this release to buy the game. But if people know there is a new expansion coming, they can be examining the base game right now.
That’s an excellent point about an expansion vs a new game and the extra time needed for the latter!
Just take my money! As soon as I hear about about a great new game I want to order it immediately. I don’t mind waiting months for it to arrive. I just want to order it when I first hear about it. Having to wait a few weeks to preorder means I might forget to order when it becomes available. This happened to me with the latest Tapestry expansion. I have it now and wish I ordered it sooner. It’s awesome!
So, I request that you consider allowing us to preorder starting the day you reveal the game. Of course, there could be plenty of statements telling customers that their game will not arrive for several weeks or months.
The reviews are nice, but usually not necessary for me to make a decision to buy a game and especially unnecessary to buy an expansion.
Thanks for asking for our opinions. That’s one of the many things I love about Stonemaier!
Thanks Christina! We’ve tried to address that with the preorder launch notification, as there are too many issues involved when we accept preorders before we’re ready to start shipping (cancellations, address changes, etc). Do you have any thoughts about why the preorder launch notification option may not work for you?
Hallo Jamey,
I think like most people I would like getting the games faster at my doorstep, so yes closing the gap is ok for me ( if it doesn’t intervene with quality control )
About Viticulture, love the game, but since I came from a drunken family I kinda hate alcohol. I only like water, thea and fresh juice, so you think it’s possible, just like Scythe children’s version, get a water, thea cartoony version of Viticulture ?
Bye, bye 👋
Megas: Thank you for sharing that about your family’s history with alcohol–there’s alcoholism in my family too. I would say that despite the thematic integration in Viticulture, it doesn’t encourage or glorify drinking. We don’t have plans to make a kids version of it.
I also thank you for sharing your story. I was thinking ( very hard indeed ), maybe you are correct about the kid’s version.
But what about a bee worker placement game ? You as the Honey bee-queen sending your worker bees to different flower fields ( some next level gorgeous 3D game board with nature, flowers ) and on your personal board you build up bee-houses, factory and honey production. You seemed to be interested in brining more women into your games, so after Wingspan, maybe more flower, nature stuff ?
And guys also like bees, strategy, management and some cool bees and gorgeous cool artwork, the color yellow with flashy bright modern green and some purple tins and golden details. Good weekend.
oh yeah I just played Libertalia with my Mother and we both really liked it, I was kinda surprised she liked it more than Wingspan, I think too many new random cards, actions in other games makes it too much thinking for her, she is not a thinker type.
She doesn’t like Scythe, but noticed that she liked looking at the cloths of the women in Scythe, made me thinking ( here we go again with the thinking )
What about a reskin, worker placement game as a cloth shop owner, placing workers and bulling up the store with better cloths.
Bye 👋
Megas: That sounds just like Honey Buzz, a great game from a designer here in St. Louis. I’d highly recommend it!
Sorry, I only buy from Stonemaier games, YEP !
At the table,
When I breathe in, it’s Stone.
When I breathe out, it’s maier.
All the rest doesn’t even exist, if I close my eyes. 😂
…
Thank you, I’ll check it out and maybe sue them.
( It’s my idea, ok )
I can see why you might want to reduce the gap. Even with a shorter gap, there would still be enough time to make an informed decision. I really appreciate this respect you show for customers. By publishing the design diaries and supporting content creators/ reviewers you enable everyone to confirm whether or not this product is right for them. A shorter gap wouldn’t have affected my decision about Libertalia (I did preorder it) but I can see there might have been others affected. On your comment about the new Libertalia art style: I have read a lot of comments about it, but rarely seen my opinion which is that I infinitely prefer the new art. As an older female gamer the original bunch of grizzly blokes and buxom wenches with a slave character was never going to be a game I would ever consider buying: give me bright colours and sky pirates any day!
Thanks Lesley! This is my favorite comment of the day so far, especially about the art. :)
I’d echo this. I’m a middle aged bloke but I tend to only buy games with great aesthetics now as it’s so much easier to play with wider groups. I have no real interest in bird watching but Wingspan has a permanent place in my collection due to the artistry involved.
Libertalia looks great and I’d be really interested in a lighter and brighter viticulture.
It’s hard to understand the predominantly grumpy, white, old male rearguard huffing and puffing about the new Libertalia art that’s fresh, fun and inclusive. Until one realises that cabal has made a career out of being grumpy.
Is it possible that a longer preorder period makes more sense? I knew from day one that I was going to preorder Libertalia, but I was a little worried that I would forget to circle back on March 2 and actually do it. Similarly, I know I’ll preoder the new Viticulture expansion, so I wish I could do it as soon as you officially announce it (or now). I don’t know about the stock and logistics it would take to open preorders on the announcement date and leave them open for two or three weeks while reviews and other details roll out, but that’s really what I would prefer. You’ve done enough to earn my loyalty that I would happily preorder most of your new products sight-unseen, especially for reimplementations of games I already wanted (Libertalia) or expansions for games I already love (Viticulture, Scythe, Tapestry, Between Two Cities, Wingspan).
Ron: Thanks for your input. Technically, the preorder period is even more than a few weeks–like, even though the preorder started on March 2, people can still continue to preorder Libertalia now. We just don’t want to accept preorders until we’re ready to start shipping, as that leads to a whole host of other complications.
For your latest announcements I have definitely felt a lose of steam between first reviews and the day I can pre-order so your new schedule looks great to me.
I think you are on the right track when you say that a reveal should answer the what’s and leave the why’s to Design Diaries. That feels like a great balance on how to bring excitement and still leave room for the diaries to be interesting.
Also very excited that you said the Viticulture expansion is “big”! I love the game and I’m interested in what this will bring to it.
It’s amazing that you are always thinking how to improve and checking with your audience for feedback!
Carlos: Thanks! Yeah, I’ve been feeling that gap for a little while, and I think I just needed to remind myself that we can send the monthly newsletter whenever we want–it doesn’t need to be at the very beginning or end of the month. :)
I think 3 weeks is the sweet spot. I was always going to get Libertalia, but by week 3 I was ready to make the purchase. I’d read the design diaries, seen a ton of reviews, unboxings and playthroughs. Then there was nothing to do but wait which made week 4 kind of frustrating. Or maybe I’m just impatient. :)
Thanks John! I appreciate the feedback.
I think that the biggest change for me that I’m excited for is getting more info about a game on day 1 reveal. Especially for a product that’s already been revealed, like the upcoming Viticulture expansion, but not officially announced. It seems a little silly to have a “reveal” that only shows the box.
That being said I do like the way the games are revealed with the design diary’s. Really allows to get more in depth with yours and the designers decisions on the product.
I like the way you said that, Jacob. It’s a good reminder to me that I can always reveal a lot of stuff up front and then spend time on design diaries for those who want to dig deeper into why we made various decisions (basically, what vs why).
I really appreciate you giving this matter some thought and making sure people don’t have to FOMO in. Having at least 1-2 weeks of time between a review/playthrough video and preorder is really important, imo.
It might be very useful to take into account that a very major global event took place between the start of Feb announcement and March sale day. This on top of the economic issues we’re seeing.
Perhaps a short survey on social media, newsletter and the mail list that signed up for Libertalia release notification would help paint a better picture.
Claudiu: That’s a good point, these preorders don’t happen in a vacuum–that’s great input.
I also think that the schedule was a bit too long for Libertalia and the one for the next Viticulture seem to be the right amount of time to keep the excitement up, but still giving people enough time to do a decision about the game.
But where I would invest a bit more time to improve the experience is in the fulfillment part of the timeline even though I know it’s not in Stonemaier Games’ direct control. It’s really fun to be able to order the game a few weeks after the reveal, but the time gap between the order and the game reception is often too long, and it’s another time period where the excitement goes down. For exemple, for Libertalia, I preordered on March 2nd, and it only shipped March 16th (Canadian Champion) and I won’t receive the game before March 23rd according to the current tracking. Thus, this is another 3 weeks (21 days) between ordering and receiving the game, almost as long as between the reveal and the order. And it’s not because that we receive the game that it will be played so we can lose another week there before our first play.
So I think that one point where there could be improvement, is synching with all the fulfillment partners for them to be ready to ship your products when you plan for it to ship it. This should be easier than KS and GF projects, since they often don’t really know when they receive these products and just ship them when the have it and when they have shipped other project that they received before that. But in SMG case, this could be planned to shorten the delay to the minimum.
For information, I have preordered 7 games/expansions (always was a Champion) and the mean time between orders (all ways first day) and receiving the item is 21 days, but with extreme from only 8 days (Wingspan) to waiting for 47 days (Red Rising). I think you should be aiming at maximum 14 days in order for the excitement to stay up after the order.
Francois: I 100% agree with what you’ve said here. The truth is, we’re now 100% synced with all four of our fulfillment partners well before the release. They have the products in advance, they know exactly when the preorder will happen, and they know how many they’ll need to ship and the packaging necessary to ship them.
But some of them simply aren’t doing a good job. And we have been VERY direct about this with those partners, especially with Libertalia.
To be clear, GTG has done a good job in the US (particularly with how many orders they needed to ship–magnitudes more than the other 3 fulfillment centers), as has Spiral Galaxy. But Aetherworks and Hubtrotter have been really slow, way slower than they should be with only a few hundred orders each. That could have been done in days.
I’m trying to have empathy for them–they’re people, and they’re struggling with the same issues that many industries have as related to COVID and retention. But my focus is on customers like you, and when a partner isn’t doing their job to delight our customers, it’s a problem. I wish it were more in my control to fix it directly, but I’m doing what I can, and I appreciate your patience in the meantime.
FYI I preordered on the 3rd (local time in Australia) and my game shipped on the 8th. However, I didn’t get a shipping notification from Aetherworks. I got a shipping notification from Stonemaier a week later on the day that the parcel arrived, which is how I know when it shipped.
IME having had a score or more of games fulfilled by Aetherworks, they will never alert you when they ship your game. Indeed, the wheels have fallen off their fulfillment in the last year or so.
@Jamey: I completely understand that the fulfillment part is not really in your control (and acknowledged it), but it’s the only aspect of the Stonemaier Games reveals that I find that there could be some improvement. For the rest I pretty like the format and wouldn’t change a thing to your current Viticulture expansion plan. Can’t wait for this one (we love Viticulture my wife and I) and for Wingspan Expansion 3 and the Nesting box. Thank you!
There’s a lot of rage and frustration at Aetherworks. TBF Sydney and NSW (as much of Australia) has coped with lockdowns but the malaise at your Australia distie seems deeper and more structural. Aetherworks is late with everything and not just SG games. They don’t communicate with backers and end-customers, are non-responsive to enquires, and have even switched off comments on their FB page, which was the only avenue left (not that they ever responded but there was a hope they would at least read them). They still do a good job of packaging the games (although there’s room for improvement there, too) but their stakeholder engagement and on-time fulfilment is in the toilet. From a group that used to deliver superior service they are now a great disillusionment. There’s an Adelaide distie who might do a better job, so it may be time to let the contract to someone structured to deliver on the SG promise.
I think you paced it just right. You cannot use Tapestry as a baseline. There were so many of us on auto-buy at that time. We were not in the middle of a inflation spike. It came right off of Viticulture/Scythe/Wingspan. This time, the last big three were Tapestry/Pendulum/Red Rising. Not bad at all, but nowhere near the universal acclaim of the big three. Games are more expensive, and people are more careful, that’s all. To be honest, I would have waited for retail myself if I had not been ordering a bunch more from the web store.
The Viticulture expansion will sell to insane numbers no matter what, don’t overthink it :-)
I wanted to echo this comment as well. the Tapestry preorder was occurred an age when I think the Stonemaier brand was at it’s zenith (at least, accordingly to my subjective sense of reddit/BGG/IRL anecdotal evidence). There were fewer titles, and nearly every one was rock solid. This might have encouraged people to pre-order a game that otherwise didn’t seem to match their interests.
Since then, there have been a few SM games that haven’t quite had the same impact, which has taken many people (myself included) off of auto-buy. Even though I still follow each SM game announcement with interest, it’s increasingly less common that I place an order. That said, I think the Viticulture Expansion will almost certainly get a buy from me, as well as many others.
These factors are really important to consider when evaluating your methods from campaign to campaign.
Thanks for your thoughts, Ben and Kyle! It’s hard to hear that we’re not at our zenith, but I’ll use this as motivation to try to return to a new high. The goal is to bring joy to tabletops worldwide, so if we’re delivering less joy instead of more, than I need to do a lot better.
Viticulture, Scythe and Wingspan seemed to capture a gaming zeitgeist and, as Ben said, the global economic situation was different. That doesn’t mean that every game you release needs to be the next Wingspan. Surely the financial and critical success of those games gives you the opportunity to develop games that may be more niche – a passion project like Red Rising or something that hasn’t really been done before like Pendulum? If bringing joy to tables worldwide is your goal, then you have have reached the zenith with Libertalia – publishing a grail game, with more inclusive artwork, a great price point and tweaks to make it pandemic-friendly like great two player and solo modes.
I thought the timing between announcement and preorder day was fine but could have been a few days shorter.
Thank you, Sarah! I’m glad there are different types of zeniths to aim for. :)
Few notes:
1. I love the idea of revealing more that name and box on announcement day. Those announcements should have more meat, without of course revealing everything.
2. I think the Libertalia timeline was close to perfect, and it seems like the Viticulture expansion is going to be even better.
3. I am very much against established companies doing Kickstarters, especially for expansions (ahem, Ares expedition) for all the obvious reasons so I just want to say kudos to you and Stonemaier Games of this release cadence. I think it builds trust with customers and most importantly, people are getting their desired products quickly.
Thanks Nir! For recent projects, I’ve featured a more detailed description of the product on Day 1, but I agree that I need to dig deep into at least one aspect–I’ll try that for the Viticulture expansion to see how it works out.