Limited Edition releases are becoming a norm for Games Workshop. We are seeing more and more of them, and with that arises some new problems. Take the Astra Militarum for example; no ebook release and a limited release in hardback that is now sold out in some places. This limits the new codex to only those with ipads for future sales or future armies.
Now I know that all the main armies are fully supported, but other items as well are becoming limited release items. For example the Imperial Knight Transfer sheets are now sold out and were a limited run. We had the void shield generators as well and we know how well that went.
What does this trend mean in the long run? It does mean that some armies will be harder to play or start for new players. It also means that some of these armies will be less likely to be seen on the tabletop, as many of our hobby just don't have the money available at that given moment to purchase the items.
I understand that with all these releases, GW most likely just can't always keep every product in stock, or keep them all going. In the long run with so many of these releases, there is just a ton of books that would be sitting on store shelves or in warehouses. But when there are mini-dex releases that are not available in hardback or in ebook form, something was missed.
Of course if there is enough demand for the products, they will come back. I can already see that a lot of these limited edition models have created a new market for resellers. I saw that the new limited edition bonus model you can get access to you if order $100 off the GW store was on eBay this morning. It was being sold along with the code needed to get your second limited edition model.
So it comes down to not just bitching about things without solutions. I mean would we really want to see products like the Militarum Tempestus not being released simply because it of its limited availability? Its not something you have to purchase to play the Astra Militarum. Only if you really want to dive into Scions are going to be needing to get this book. I think that these releases are OK, if the alternative is not getting them at all. But is that really the best solution? Having limited edition runs around in ebook form seem like the most logical answer for codices or expansions.
For limited run models, it just is what it is. You don't really need specific models to run your armies, and so far limited models have not limited what you can play on the tabletop.
I think the biggest problem right now, is that there is just no norm. We generally dont know what is going on, and what will not be here tomorrow. If there was a normal way that everything was released, and that we all knew that mini-dexes were going to be limited in print we would for the most part be OK with it.
So what do you think of these limited product releases?