This is a rumor still, so please add the required salt
via The Decapitator
So I now have the exact details of how the new releases system is going to work. Basically all new releases will be on the same day every month, and this day will be the 1st Saturday of whatever month it happens to be. The first anyone will know of the releases will be when they are put up for pre-order exactly 1 week before the release date. So the 'announcement' if you can call it that happens when pre-orders are put on the website on the last Saturday of the month, followed a week later by the actual release.
There will be no more incoming emails as we know them, but will probably come in the form of 'Incoming: Pre-order them now!". White Dwarf will be out on the same day as the new products are on general release, so the first Saturday of the month. White Dwarf subscribers will no longer get their issues 1 week early. Also the Black Box will not be instore until the release day either.
At the minute I'm not sure whether White Dwarf will still have the teaser on the back page, which I'm inclined to think it won't. So just to confirm then that the first time we will know anything about any new releases will be on the last Saturday of the month when the Pre-Orders appear on the website, probably with an email of sorts, 1 week before they go on general release and can be purchased in store.
We will see this start happening after the release of Storm of Magic in July. So unfortunately I wouldn't expect any more Incoming emails until the last Saturday of July when pre-orders will go up for the 1st new release in the first week of August.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, I think this is everything that concerns the new process. If you have any questions then please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them .
Also, something I forgot to mention which is more of an afterthought really. I know GW employees generally don't know of upcoming releases that far in advance, although sometimes there are circumstances where they might have been made aware in order for them to make plans for their stores. When this kicks in, GW staff members will not know anything at all until the same day as me and you, when the preorders go up on the website! Whilst it's entirely possible that an odd store manager may have seen/heard something with regard to an upcoming release, the majority of hobby centre staff/trade account customers will not have been told anything. I know a lot of guys on the forums refuse to believe anything which comes from the mouths of GW employees as a rule, regardless of if it turns out to be true. Pretty much from now you can be 100% sure that they won't know anything about new releases so it's best not to ask in the first place. This is because a) they will do a good job and tell you that they don't know anything and point you in the direction of something already released which you may be interested in. Or b) do a very bad job and declare that 'x' is being released in the next few months and the new codex/models are awesome, followed by 'y' and possibly 'z' if you're lucky. If they do choose option b then be aware that there is a small possibility that it's true, however 99.9% of the time it'll be nonsense. And to save yourself even more ridicule than which you would get currently, please don't announce in a brand new thread that you know something 'because a store manager told you so.'
Put it this way, any store manager worth their salt wouldn't tell you what's coming even if they did know. And starting from pretty much right now, they won't know anything at all anyway as they don't need to make plans for events/releases so far in advance anymore.
