Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

As you've noticed, the trend of Infinity products is to remove blisters and consolidate the figures into boxed sets. However, there still is 3-4 blisters being released every month. Five new Infinity products pop up every month.
You may think this is a good thing; after all, variety is great. However, imagine the nightmare that Corvus Belli has keeping every individual item in stock. Imagine the nuisance that each local store undergoes trying to keep Infinity in stock.

Regardless, I was looking at my local game store's stock recently, and being the online retailer they are, they have everything listed with a number of products next to the title:
http://www.scifigenre.com/browse.aspx?sid=OQ10IQLO1PRPJQP&nSubCategoryID=135

Note these values for popular games:

1838 Reaper Miniatures Items

552 Warmachine Items

420 Infinity Items

349 Malifaux Items

343 Hordes Items

221 Warhammer 40,000 Items

212 Warhammer Fantasy Items

Reaper is clearly up there, but their main focus is having an absurd variety of everything. Want a Fire Elemental? They've got it. Oh, you want one with legs? Got that too. Want one with breasts? Yep, that too. Overall, though, they have multiple lines and no game to call their own.
Both Warhammers have the least number of individual products, but that's because they focus heavily on boxed sets.
Malifaux is the newcomer to all this, but they're already making the move to each master being in boxed sets. Their product number doesn't explode as much as it used to.
Warmachine and Hordes are up there, but PP has recently been focusing more towards boxed sets as a whole and making more of their cookie-cutter Warjacks that have drastically different stats for minor aesthetic changes. Regardless, they release maybe 2-3 products a month (if even) and that's between their two lines.

That leaves Infinity. They're on the higher-end of a single game with the variety of products. They still add 4-5 new items per month every month. Great for fans, but it's a problem for LGSs that want to carry the game.

This is a problem, and I expect Corvus Belli will be addressing this in the future. Expect a lot to change.
Or, then again, they could just go the route that Reaper does and make a kabadrillion models.

I wonder where Confrontation sat relatively speaking at the height of their metal line?
I ask because I see Infinity in a similar position, in that I think that a big chunk of their sales are from people that like awesome models but dont play the game.
If that's the case then boxed sets detract from that because a: $40+ limits the "too cool not to buy" impulse purchase and b: frankly the unit box sculpts aren't as hot as the single models for completely reasonable reasons.

I think they walk a bit of a tightrope. They need those awesome single minis to keep peoples attention, they want the game to grow, but FLGSs may not represent the bulk of their sales.

Right now, many FLGSs don't carry the game at all. I'm sure most Infinity players and especially many of you buy them online. It's doubtful FLGS Infinity sales represent a large margin of their sales. I'm unsure about places like Spain, but I understand the in the UK, Warhammer is overwhelming.

For such a relatively young game, their number of SKUs is approaching or have exceeded that of games that have been around longer.

They're also pushing this ITS 4th Season rather hard it seems with the Skorpio exclusive. Their previous exclusive miniature had been an incentive to buy the rulebook. Prior to that, the exclusive model had been to support douchebaggery, but we won't talk about that.

They're clearly pushing the rules and Infinity as a game. However, the model quality has not deteriorated in the slightest in the meanwhile, so the painters will always be able to have their fix. Regardless, if they're going to push Infinity as a game, the abundance of SKUs/products will likely have to go down.

Thanks for reminding me that I need to keep watching AE's stock listings so that I can get a better feel for when they get stuff in stock.

I'm preparing for the Corregidor Starter Box. I will have that as quickly as possible. Mark my words...

Yep they are Consolidating what they can. They are pushing out blisters because they want to maintain the amount of releases for each faction, but pushing out 5 boxes a month is too much. Stocking for Infinity is a really tough beast. I'm often asked by retailers "what should I stock" and I have no clue what to tell them.