Missing the Christmas target date - again - is not going to do sales any good. I think it's 3 years in a row now.
Wings and Sails of Glory aren't like the usual boardgames Ares sells, and I don't think they really have much clue as to how they should be marketed. By selling many sets at the Christmas period, it enables further sales of expansions - aircraft/ships throughout the year. Miss that deadline, and sales collapse. Most other games you have an initial release, perhaps one major expansion the same size a year later, then a reprint a year or two after that.
There's nothing magic about the 4 different planes each in 3 different colour schemes format. It is traditional, the system was set up for that by Nexus based on conditions that were in effect nearly 10 years ago now. Only having 4 different designs eases costs of manufacture. If I were an Ares employee, I'd be looking at perhaps 8 or 12 aircraft designs in a release, each in only just one colour scheme. Reprints would have a new colour scheme for each, released at 6 monthly or annual intervals. That way retailers don't have to keep massive stocks on the shelves. A new set of 12 designs every year, timed for October, to have them in stores over the late Nov to early Dec pre-Christmas period, possibly sold as a box set as well as individually. RRP $120 for the box, or $15 each, to be in line with costs of boardgames.
I'd also be looking at a massively increased advertising campaign, with traditional as well as social media means. Gaming magazines for example. Museum shops.
But as it is.. we will have the
BoB set possibly in Feb, when shipping is cheaper and more reliable after the Christmas production frenzy, and warehouses have room for such a niche game now the big sellers are all sold, either at Christmas or in the post Christmas remainders sale.
Will there be another
WGS release after that in 2017? Probably not.
WGF? Probably one, a reprint of Fokker E-Iiis and the like, and a second if we're very lucky, Nieuport 17s, Albatros D.IIIs, etc. as well. I don't expect Pfalz D.IIIs before 2018 or 2019.
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