Rayman: The Board Game

[lyndo64]

Looks like the "Kickstarter exclusive" large figures now are up for sale on the website, I feel ripped off

[Hunchman801]

It doesn't really change anything for me in the end, but I agree that this was very misleading.

[Haruka]

I didn't participate in this Kickstarter although I heard about it back in the reveal. Also, again Rayman Legends...? While I find the idea to be cool, I wouldn't have anyone to play it so it wouldn't justify spending over 300€ (including customs taxes) for the most complete pack and just gather dust. I find a pity that the larger scale figurines are locked into a paywall and people cannot buy those separately.

[Krith99z]

I hate to be so negative, but I am honestly furious about the recent updates regarding the board game. Seeing how FLYOS is handling things right now makes me seriously regret backing this project. I ended up paying roughly 340 USD for the whole package including VAT and delivery, and right now it feels like we got completely robbed.

First of all, the large scale vinyl figures were aggressively marketed as crowdfunding exclusives. During the campaign, we literally had to pledge for the base game just to have the privilege of adding them to our order. Now they are just selling them individually on their regular web store for basically the same price. That completely defeats the purpose of backing the project early.

To make matters worse, the actual quality of the figures we are getting is a massive downgrade. The promotional renders looked great, but the photos of the final product look like cheap, glossy plastic toys with a terrible paint job.

The biggest slap in the face is the shipping and taxes. Us Kickstarter backers got hit with absolutely insane shipping and VAT fees after the campaign ended. But if you go to the FLYOS website right now and put the items in your cart, the shipping is way cheaper and it does not even seem to add any extra taxes at checkout.

It is just incredibly disappointing. Backers took a financial risk to fund this project, and our reward is paying significantly more for downgraded products while our "exclusive" items are handed out to everyone else with cheaper shipping. I am definitely not making the mistake of supporting this company again.

[lyndo64]

First of all, the large scale vinyl figures were aggressively marketed as crowdfunding exclusives. During the campaign, we literally had to pledge for the base game just to have the privilege of adding them to our order. Now they are just selling them individually on their regular web store for basically the same price. That completely defeats the purpose of backing the project early.

I absolutely agree, don't know why more people are talking about this, that is straight up lying lmao

[Hunchman801]

For what it's worth, a Flyos rep addressed the issue a couple days ago:

Hello @everyone,

We’ve been closely reading your feedback since the launch of our new direct sales platform. We hear your concerns regarding the pricing and the presence of Kickstarter exclusives on the store, and we want to clear the air and be completely transparent with you.

Concerning the store pricing:
First of all, a massive THANK YOU for spotting this. Our website is currently in a Soft Launch phase. This is precisely why we rely on our day-one community's sharp eyes to catch these things. The current prices are actively being adjusted on the backend. Our philosophy has not changed: we absolutely want the best deal to always belong to our original backers. Thank you for your patience while we finalize the price tiers.

Concerning the Kickstarter Exclusives:
We completely understand why this caused some concern, and we want to share the two major reasons behind this choice:

Massive demand: Since the campaign wrapped up, we've received countless messages from players who discovered the project too late and were deeply hoping to get their hands on this content.

The economic reality: The geopolitical context over the last two years has caused an unpredictable explosion in the costs of raw materials, freight, and production molds. Offering these items on our store is a difficult but necessary strategic decision to help us absorb these massive cost increases, ensure we don't operate at a loss, and bring joy to latecomers in the community.

We are fine-tuning the store right now thanks to your feedback. Thank you again for being the pillar of this project and for helping us make the launch of FLYOS 2.0 as smooth as possible.

The team is here if you have any further questions!

[Haruka]

For what it's worth, a Flyos rep addressed the issue a couple days ago:

Hello @everyone,

We’ve been closely reading your feedback since the launch of our new direct sales platform. We hear your concerns regarding the pricing and the presence of Kickstarter exclusives on the store, and we want to clear the air and be completely transparent with you.

Concerning the store pricing:
First of all, a massive THANK YOU for spotting this. Our website is currently in a Soft Launch phase. This is precisely why we rely on our day-one community's sharp eyes to catch these things. The current prices are actively being adjusted on the backend. Our philosophy has not changed: we absolutely want the best deal to always belong to our original backers. Thank you for your patience while we finalize the price tiers.

Concerning the Kickstarter Exclusives:
We completely understand why this caused some concern, and we want to share the two major reasons behind this choice:

Massive demand: Since the campaign wrapped up, we've received countless messages from players who discovered the project too late and were deeply hoping to get their hands on this content.

The economic reality: The geopolitical context over the last two years has caused an unpredictable explosion in the costs of raw materials, freight, and production molds. Offering these items on our store is a difficult but necessary strategic decision to help us absorb these massive cost increases, ensure we don't operate at a loss, and bring joy to latecomers in the community.

We are fine-tuning the store right now thanks to your feedback. Thank you again for being the pillar of this project and for helping us make the launch of FLYOS 2.0 as smooth as possible.

The team is here if you have any further questions!

I begin to see this is not the only situation where people have to advance their cash before products are developed and shipped and it's taking forever for those backers to have their products at their hands. I didn't know the Kickstarter Exclusives got available for other people too but perhaps if they wanted to change their mind, they could have at least created a bigger time interval between the availability of those said products so early backers would be less upset about that? Or they could have thought better on the subject before announcing them as exclusive items, especially in a reality where Rayman fans have been looking to the walls for many years without actual merchandising that's not exclusive to game fair events.

I won't quote the company's name here, but I'm going through a similar situation where myself, and many other people, pre-ordered what they wanted an year and half already and we're all still waiting for everything to reach us. One of their arguments for the delay was also the geopolitical context and how that affected production of some items. While I understand this, I can't blame some people to start to lose their patience over a long wait when everyone paid upfront in the original time window they asked... I counted at least four delays and there's probably a fifth coming as I still don't have knowledge of anyone having received the first tracking codes this month.

[RaymanSpeedio]

I begin to see this is not the only situation where people have to advance their cash before products are developed and shipped and it's taking forever for those backers to have their products at their hands. I didn't know the Kickstarter Exclusives got available for other people too but perhaps if they wanted to change their mind, they could have at least created a bigger time interval between the availability of those said products so early backers would be less upset about that? Or they could have thought better on the subject before announcing them as exclusive items, especially in a reality where Rayman fans have been looking to the walls for many years without actual merchandising that's not exclusive to game fair events.

I completely agree with you. It is becoming a really frustrating trend with these crowdfunding campaigns. You pay a premium price upfront, wait for over a year with constant delays, and then the company just falls back on "geopolitical contexts" and "economic realities" to justify breaking their initial promises.

If they needed to sell those figures on their store to not operate at a loss, that just means they completely mismanaged their budget from the start. Punishing the day-one backers who actually made the project possible by stripping away the exclusivity of their items is just bad business. Like you said, they should have at least waited a year or two after fulfilling the backer pledges before putting them up for general sale.

It just leaves a really sour taste in your mouth and makes you not want to back these kinds of projects anymore.

[Pirez]

Kickstarters project are generally due for disappointment. Projects always evolve, generally negatively.

The test of time will be the quality of the received product. Should it be good, I think everything will be water under the bridge eventually.

Did FlyOS cop out? Sure. But at the end of the day Kickstarter serves as a "ooh, I'd most certainly like this product so I need to pay it in advance and maybe it will backfire". As long as I get the board game and it doesn't make cry like an anime fan on prom night, I'd be satisfied. I don't like the concept of exclusivity anyway.

[Hunchman801]

I still remember a colleague of mine who funded the Freedman chair project back in 2013, hoping to get her hands on one of those. Between the unusual appearance of the chair itself and the delays that piled up one after another, the whole chair thing became an office inside joke that gave birth to countless memes.

[dr_st]

If they needed to sell those figures on their store to not operate at a loss, that just means they completely mismanaged their budget from the start.

Not necessarily. And maybe not completely. Sometimes you cannot know all factors in advance, you have to take some risk, and unexpected things do happen.

Punishing the day-one backers who actually made the project possible by stripping away the exclusivity of their items is just bad business.

Is 'punishing' really the right word here? I agree that it leaves a sour taste, but as long as the backers are getting a better deal (like, getting the full package for less than it costs to buy the base game + all extras) - then it isn't so bad. Of course, if the backers ended up paying more for the same product, then yes - it would be a punishment.

Like you said, they should have at least waited a year or two after fulfilling the backer pledges before putting them up for general sale.

That may sound reasonable, but unless communicated from the start would also leave some of the exclusivity hunters dissatisfied. Not to mention that if the goal is to increase revenue to stay afloat financially, one cannot always wait 1-2 years.

I don't like the concept of exclusivity anyway.

Same. I am sure that at least some of the folks buying exclusive pre-order releases, whether via Kickstarter backing, or not, do so partly as a long-term investment, with the intent to hold on to the goods, and maybe, years later when they are rare and scarce, sell them to collectors who missed the original release, for 2x/5x/10x the price.

[Master]

While I find the idea to be cool, I wouldn't have anyone to play it so it wouldn't justify spending over 300€ (including customs taxes) for the most complete pack and just gather dust.

The game does have a single-player mode, whether or not that justifies the spend...that'll be up to you. But it is indeed playable solo if you should so feel the inclination when the game hits retail.

As long as I get the board game and it doesn't make cry like an anime fan on prom night, I'd be satisfied. I don't like the concept of exclusivity anyway.

I agree with the sentiment regarding exclusivity, and I'm not bitter about the items being more readily available. But I do sympathise with those who got hit with what in hindsight would have been very much FOMO tactics. That being said. frankly after all the delay (wasn't this game supposed to have released around this time last year, originally?), I'm glad we're finally seeing shipping dates in the end, and the whole thing hasn't just fizzled out.

[Sabertooth]

Yeah I kinda wish I'd just nabbed the big figures and called it a day. I don't even play board games.

[Haruka]

The game does have a single-player mode, whether or not that justifies the spend...that'll be up to you. But it is indeed playable solo if you should so feel the inclination when the game hits retail.

That will depend on the costs too once it's publicly available for the cheapest package. To play solo I have better options in videogames for their average price tags.