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Mech vs Minions Australia?

sabtas·5/2/2017, 12:25:32 PM·3 votes·19,460 views

Hey, As a huge board game fan who unfortunately isn't made from money and lives in Australia. Was wondering if there has been any updates on the likeliness of distribution in Australia?

The last available information I could find on this was over seven months ago: with complaints about an additional 80% Shipping cost >Riot Kades: > Hey, this is a very fair complaint. I'll be the first to say that the cost to ship from NA to Oceanic regions is obscene. I don't want that cost for you - that's definitely not where we're padding our revenues or anything. The original plan was just to distribute in NA and EU. We chatted about whether to include AUS with that, and I ultimately said yes. Not because I, personally, found the shipping costs reasonable - but because I wanted to let AUS players decide. I'd rather have given you the option.

>Keep in mind, BGG is primarily for English speakers, but League serves a global audience. So we're not, yet, shipping to Korea or Russia or Japan or Argentina. And while the EU store can reach these countries, we haven't yet translated the game to German, French, Italian, Czech, so for many people in those regions (and many, many others), the game is still unavailable. For AUS, the game is still basically unavailable, but AUS is also a unique snowflake in that we speak the same basic language - so we won't need to reprint a new language for you.

>I can't commit to when (or in many cases IF) we'll be able to get the game to other regions, and Oceanic regions fall squarely in that bucket. Part of that depends on demand - though there can definitely be other factors. Every country is different. But until the day we can get local distribution sorted, you could be in the same boat as Japan or Russia or Korea and not even have the option.

>Ultimately, I'd encourage you to only get MvM when you feel it's worth it to you and your situation. There's not intended to be a hard sell, here, and if I can get it distributed in AUS in the future, I will. I'd hate for you to spend through the nose on shipping and 12 months later, you're frustrated that the guy down the street got it for cheaper.

This game looks amazing If I had the money I would definitely purchase it. But at the same time I don't want to miss out on the opportunity if there is no plans for further prints or expansion to other regions such as Australia.

2 Comments

LuckerNoob5/3/2017, 9:35:49 AM2 votes

I feel the need to point out that, while the shipping cost to AUS is high, the initial price is so insanely low (compared to the production standard) that you'd still be getting a fair price.

RiotRiot Catzpaw5/13/2017, 4:05:38 PM2 votes

Kades actually wrote up a post about this very subject on BGG - I'll share his explanation and thoughts here:

"There are two plausible solutions here, though they are both not ideal. The first is for us to create a distribution center in Oceania, the same way we have one in the US and EU. Unfortunately, that's a very large investment and it simply doesn't make financial sense. The second, more common, solution involves partnering with a distributor locally and have them handle the logistics of shipping you your orders. This may still be what we do, as it's what happens with most games/products. The problem there is that we've been able to keep the costs down for you by selling direct or cutting out the middleman. Adding a local partner back in to the mix would mean that we would need to raise the sale price to cover their costs (because a person should be paid for a day's work). So then, instead of a $75 game with $50 in shipping, you're looking at a $125 game with $15 in shipping. Getting it into local stores makes that cost jump significantly again (to cover your FLGS's cut). So, yes, the shipping (and perhaps the whole experience) becomes a lot more palatable when it's $15 instead of $50, but it's still, ultimately, more expensive for players in Oceania. That's been our primary struggle.

And even with the current shipping price - which we recognize is far from ideal - we are subsidizing it by a significant amount with every unit we ship. I'd encourage you to price the shipping of a box that's MvM's size and weight from Chicago to Sydney to get a sense of how much we are subsidizing the shipping; we pay significantly more than $50 to ship you a copy. But we also really hate charging even that much for shipping. The other option we explored, initially, was to not ship to Australia at all until we solved this as we expected some pretty justified blowback around shipping costs; there are still many regions that don't currently have access to MvM. But since there wasn't a language barrier, I felt that giving you an option to order - even at an expensive shipping cost - was better than you having to wait until we solved this problem (if ever) or having to buy it aftermarket.

I apologize for the long-winded response, but I felt it was a really fair question and I wanted to provide as much context here as I could - even if I suspect you'll ultimately be disappointed in my answer."