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MaxT wrote:

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:

 Oaka wrote:
The ad says both models and products are included. They wouldn't stick an 8th edition codex in there would they?

I’d feel a bit cheated if they did, TBH

Why? They're current valid product, one that'll they'll want to shift stock of. i assumed the Imperial box would have 1 or 2 codex's in, plus some random gak like combat gauges. It certainly won't be 100% models.

Because Games Workshop described the Imperium box as "mysterious models at a price you can’t miss." and "save 50% on getting the models separately"

That's why I'd feel cheated if they included codexes and combat gauges, because books and random tat such as combat gauges are not models.

 Vaktathi wrote:
it's interesting they don't appear available on the US web store, any links for the US get 404'd.

They said it wouldn't be available in the WarCom article:

Supply Drop will only be available in certain territories this time around so, unfortunately, fans in the US and Canada won’t be able to take advantage of this offer this time around. Keep an eye out, though – you never know what the future might bring!

so I wonder if it's just stuff they had laying around in the UK/EU warehouse...

 H wrote:
I don't see why it is "shady." I think it is like a warehouse clearing exercise, which means it is only "necessary" in places where there might be stock that they want to move. The US warehouse likely, since it hasn't seen thing thing offered, is not overstocked to the same degree as the UK one.

I fail to see the "nefarious" aspect here.

Mainly because people don't actually know the specifics of what they're buying and paying for, and similar sales tactics with other forms of gaming have been found to be predatory in nature and ultimately a form of gambling, attracting legislative attention in many nations across the planet.

I expect these boxes absolutely will be a huge savings off MSRP, but if the box doesn't have a significant number of things the purchaser interested in, then it wasn't a terribly great value.

beast_gts wrote:

 Vaktathi wrote:
it's interesting they don't appear available on the US web store, any links for the US get 404'd.

They said it wouldn't be available in the WarCom article:

Supply Drop will only be available in certain territories this time around so, unfortunately, fans in the US and Canada won’t be able to take advantage of this offer this time around. Keep an eye out, though – you never know what the future might bring!

so I wonder if it's just stuff they had laying around in the UK/EU warehouse...

Ah ok missed that.

Well, that's Underworlds gone as well.

Shame, I was actually thinking that half a dozen random warbands could be good as a painting project.

Well. Loot boxes are a new low, but it seems GW has its customer base well analyzed.

Pick a random Wednesday for random things with no warning at all, still sold out in a few hours.

Jackal90 wrote:There is no risk of losing value from buying it like many loot box systems, so it’s only a gamble if you want specific models.

Why would you not want specific models?
If you just want something nice to paint up, you are still going to be more interested in painting some things than others.
If you want some nice bits for kitbashing, you are still going to be a lot more interested in some kits than others.
There are currently 371 products with the keyword "Imperium" in the webstore. If I had zero models and a desire to start some Imperium project, I'd want some very specific ones to start out with. If I already had things, there will be certain things I would not want more of. Not to mention that such a broad category may well give you a bundle of stuff you don't even want for the same project. Even if the bundle was faction-specific I wouldn't want it, as even then there are plenty of sets I either wouldn't be interested in at all, or not interested in having a duplicate off. Especially since the reason I don't want it is possibly the same few other people want it, which leads it to sell badly, which leads it to being thrown out at 50% off, but in a blind buy because even at 50% off they might not find many buyers if said buyers knew what they were getting.

beast_gts wrote:so I wonder if it's just stuff they had laying around in the UK/EU warehouse...

Of course it is. Why else would they do this? Because they love their customers and they love their product and they just want to share it more cheaply with us out of the goodness of their hearts?
Well, at least it appears to have been successful strategy. For GW. And hopefully it worked out well for some customers too.

I swear, has no one on this site ever heard of Loot Crate? This isn't a videogame microtransaction where you buy a loot box that contains a random skin or weapon that can be valued from $X-$Y. This is a bundle box whose contents have a specific value of $X. That's not gambling in the slightest. It's a Kinder Egg without the choclate.

 Vaktathi wrote:
Mainly because people don't actually know the specifics of what they're buying and paying for, and similar sales tactics with other forms of gaming have been found to be predatory in nature and ultimately a form of gambling, attracting legislative attention in many nations across the planet.

But this is not a designed rarity/scarcity product, like it would be with something digital. This is literally product accumulated in a warehouse. So, while there is a surface-level similarity, they are hardly the same thing in my estimation.

When one buys what GW offered, you know you are getting warehouse leftover/overstock and are buying it sight unseen. That really isn't "shady" as far as I can tell, it literally says what it is right up-front. When you are buying some digital commodity, the back-end is highly manipulated to "release" desirable content in a manner that game-theoretically incentives you to buy more. But in this case, since there is a physically product, no instant gratification, and no actual chance for repeat purchases, again, seems to me the similarities are only really superficial.

Buying things sight-unseen is only notionally akin to "gambling." They are not the same thing, in any and every case, as far as I can tell.

When did this stuff even go up? I just gave it a look and it's already no longer available online here. Although I don't think the appeal of a mystery box is worth $225.

 n0t_u wrote:
When did this stuff even go up?

Went up sometime around 12:15 (UK time). I got their email about it at 12:40. Sold out by 12:55.

MaxT wrote:

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:

 Oaka wrote:
The ad says both models and products are included. They wouldn't stick an 8th edition codex in there would they?

I’d feel a bit cheated if they did, TBH

Why? They're current valid product, one that'll they'll want to shift stock of. i assumed the Imperial box would have 1 or 2 codex's in, plus some random gak like combat gauges. It certainly won't be 100% models.

I find it interesting that people are assuming that it might include a codex or two. I find it really unlikely that GW would include a codex or two in this especially seen as we just got a new addition that is making all of the current codexes invalid. It is already likely to be a bunch of garbage that would just poor salt into the wound. GW "Here, have an out of date codex too."

Actually considering it, that might happen.

Nice privateer press mystery box all over again. Except with even worse stuff, because they are avoiding the USA and Canada meaning that it is stuff they already can't sell at a 30 percent markup. aka GW fake exchange rate.

So basically Europe gets the bottom of barrel stuff they want to unload and clear their warehouses. Wonder how much free dust comes in each box.

 Vaktathi wrote:
I expect these boxes absolutely will be a huge savings off MSRP, but if the box doesn't have a significant number of things the purchaser interested in, then it wasn't a terribly great value.

Nah man. I need 8 pots of Moot Green and 4 mould line scrapers!

Grab bags are nothing new! I don't know who in their right mind back in the day wanted to spend $100 or so on a grab bag, but we live in a terrifying new world now.

 H wrote:

 Vaktathi wrote:
Mainly because people don't actually know the specifics of what they're buying and paying for, and similar sales tactics with other forms of gaming have been found to be predatory in nature and ultimately a form of gambling, attracting legislative attention in many nations across the planet.

But this is not a designed rarity/scarcity product, like it would be with something digital. This is literally product accumulated in a warehouse. So, while there is a surface-level similarity, they are hardly the same thing in my estimation.

When one buys what GW offered, you know you are getting warehouse leftover/overstock and are buying it sight unseen. That really isn't "shady" as far as I can tell, it literally says what it is right up-front. When you are buying some digital commodity, the back-end is highly manipulated to "release" desirable content in a manner that game-theoretically incentives you to buy more. But in this case, since there is a physically product, no instant gratification, and no actual chance for repeat purchases, again, seems to me the similarities are only really superficial.

Buying things sight-unseen is only notionally akin to "gambling." They are not the same thing, in any and every case, as far as I can tell.

While I can acknowledge the nuance, and they're not exactly the same, it still feels very much in the same vein, and I don't think the product being physical changes anything there. At best, to my eyes, it's people buying something simply because its on sale for its own sake, except they have no idea what they're actually getting. GW could just as easily have put the overstock items on sale directly. That may just be me however

 porkuslime wrote:
Those of you who went for the Underworlds box, can you please help out a curious Yank and post what you ended up with?

-P

Will do. It’s a game I’ve not played, but have an interest in. Figure it’s got to contain three or more Warbands, so should get my value out of it! Seems it ships within two days, so with luck I’ll have it Saturday at the latest.

angel of death 007 wrote:
Nice privateer press mystery box all over again. Except with even worse stuff, because they are avoiding the USA and Canada meaning that it is stuff they already can't sell at a 30 percent markup. aka GW fake exchange rate.

So basically Europe gets the bottom of barrel stuff they want to unload and clear their warehouses. Wonder how much free dust comes in each box.

Probably a lot of dust. Its worth clicking on the UK store and the various Imperium lines and looking at what's 'temporarily out of stock.'
Unless something really weird is going on, these boxes can't include basilisks, catachans, taurox, aggressors, elimantors, stormtalons, invictors, impulsors, etc, etc.

I'll be shocked if this wasn't heavily curated, and anyone gets recent kits or anything primaris.

I don't see anything wrong with this, and think it is quite different from loot boxes in video games. The fact that it is a physical product and there is a set retail price which is being discounted makes a difference IMHO.

Rather than comparing it to digital loot boxes, which really is gambling, I think it is much closer to the "free" random, wrapped present given to kids when they're parents pay for them to visit Santa.

Random goodie bags like the turtle suprise bags form the 90s with an assortment of toys and sweets, or kinder eggs are also a better comparison.

It's literally just GW's version of this, but DakkaDakka's gotta get their daily dose of hyperbole.

Also, if you don't like the contents would you just return the boxes unopened for a refund?

Unless they have an outer sealed box?

Imperium one will probably consist of the most ancient Guard and Firstborn stuff.

Underworlds will probably be full of Shadespire and accessories.

I don't know why GW don't just open an Ebay Outlet of their own at this point.

Loot boxes are bad. All the best selling your east to build tacticals or whatever on ebay.

 Vaktathi wrote:
While I can acknowledge the nuance, and they're not exactly the same, it still feels very much in the same vein, and I don't think the product being physical changes anything there. At best, to my eyes, it's people buying something simply because its on sale for its own sake, except they have no idea what they're actually getting. GW could just as easily have put the overstock items on sale directly. That may just be me however

Well, again, I think it changes it almost completely really, because it can't be game-theory optimized and limited stock means it can't be impulse re-bought to "chase" anything.

That being said, I think it is a terrible product that has a good chance of being chock-full of "unwanted" junk like out of date Codexs and books, or other things like that. But to me, a terrible product isn't necessarily a nefarious or shady one. At some point, the consumer has to take some responsibility on what they are buying.

 Vaktathi wrote:
While I can acknowledge the nuance, and they're not exactly the same, it still feels very much in the same vein, and I don't think the product being physical changes anything there. At best, to my eyes, it's people buying something simply because its on sale for its own sake, except they have no idea what they're actually getting. GW could just as easily have put the overstock items on sale directly. That may just be me however

it's really nothing like online loot boxes. the trouble with those is that people spend vast amount of money to either get rare/valuable items that there is no other way of getting, or to accumulate enough items to sell/trade for what they really want. that's a totally differnet situation to here, where you can literally go and buy the specific thing(s) you want, if you don't want to take a pump on a blind box. theres nothing exclusive or rare in these, there is nothing you can't just go click and buy straight from the website, its just a chunk of random stuff at 50% off. and the fact that it is physically definitely makes a difference when you can sell on stuff that you don't want.

It's not similar to a loot box because all the items are the same and it's already sold out, so just a certain amount of stock they need to dump. I'm hoping they contain only models so it would be a good deal for bits collections. I worry they may consider things like books, dice, glue and paint to be 'Imperium' themed.

Now, if it came with a 1-in-5 chance of having a Hammerfall Bunker or Invader ATV before the regular release, we could debate the practice more.

 H wrote:

That being said, I think it is a terrible product that has a good chance of being chock-full of "unwanted" junk like out of date Codexs and books, or other things like that. But to me, a terrible product isn't a nefarious or shady one. At some point, the consumer has to take some responsibility on what they are buying.

im not sure it will be, just because it would harm any chance of them doing it again, or anything similar in the future, if its just a load of outdated crap people don't want and can't sell on. i think it'll mainly be models.

I have trouble mustering up any outrage for this one. But carry on, folks.

 Shooter wrote:
im not sure it will be, just because it would harm any chance of them doing it again, or anything similar in the future, if its just a load of outdated crap people don't want and can't sell on. i think it'll mainly be models.

Maybe, I don't know, hard to say.

It might well be though, perhaps they are able to "strip" and/or junk-out old books for the tax write offs? I'm honestly unsure how that works really, but I know something like that is done with other books in other industries.

The proof will be in the pudding, of course.

 Arbitrator wrote:
Imperium one will probably consist of the most ancient Guard and Firstborn stuff.

Underworlds will probably be full of Shadespire and accessories.

I don't know why GW don't just open an Ebay Outlet of their own at this point.

Who said they didn't open a market or atleast those working for GW may have. There are random ebay vendors that show up out of the blue with GW stuff at good prices then vanish. I think in the company structure there are some bad apples who go against the grain. Their employees aren't built in a factory and are not robots so I am sure that somewhere there is stuff that leaks through the cracks.

This isn't a good sign, privateer press did the same thing to unload all the crap that wasn't selling. Watch it be a crate of finecast.