Dear fellow YJ Players - you do not want IA ASAP

Then, perhaps, this was not a good time to have the split?

 

Pretty much this.
If really CB hadn't started planning the release of profiles for the IA yet, then it wasn't the proper moment for this event.

 

So CB ran their numbers and decided that the benefits of launching the JSA "Anime" box (there is the obvious Celti in the bike, Kusanagi + Batou, and two of the basic troopers are Ishikawa and Togusa...) were far higher than any backlash from the YJ - non JSA players who might feel pressed into the underdog's role.

It's their call. But giving them a hard time because of it? The customer's call. A company that goes everything for the money without care for the customer, in the world of miniatures, is either GW, or a fleeting dream.

 

Maybe they should have added IA first like I've seen suggested elsewhere. Then split off JSA in 6 months or so.

 

It is evident that for some people it would never be a "good time" to do the split so why not now, both releases would never be released at the same time anyway and the complains more or less would be the same.

Besides the split would be old story if it was done later than now.

 

Was gonna say the same...but @Henshini, @Mahtamori, @Janzerker and @xagroth nailed it!

Releasing IA first would allow more of a story build up to Uprising, not less. It would provoke speculation about whether it was imminent and what would happen. It would also have allowed for a greater lead time for them to lay the groundwork for the actual split, making it less painful.

And releasing IA first would basically nullify the backlash, or at least attenuate it massively.

 

There's no overestimation, all JSA players before Uprising were Yu Jing players. It's logical that of all JSA players, only the minority of them collected only that sectorial of the main faction. In the exact same way that many of us vanilla players now have unused JSA models, they will also have unused Yu Jing models. It is in CB's best interest to sell both groups of players both sectorials, and many players will do so happily to keep their models playable.

I think releasing part of IA without miniature support is in fact the right thing to do. All it can do is build hype for IA, and if they released some (even partial with some details missing) dossiers then players will proxy/convert for the time being. Of course I don't expect them to release the whole thing as that would definitely harm the release like you've said. Perhaps the closed battle lists will be a step towards this solution.

 

In my opinion it would be overestimation at least, there are plenty of complains on non-existing models for specific loadouts. Imagine outcry of whole profiles.

 

Real life experience suggest releasing a complete list without models to sell is a bad idea,

 

I don't think we're arguing releasing IA without models, but that CB would probably have done better planning for the requisite releases to limit the negative experience of having stuff removed and being told that next release for your faction will happen after everyone else (except Tohaa) has had a new sectorial without first losing one.

 

There is no chance two sectorials for essentially the same customer base would be released at the same time it would make bad sales for both, releasing IA earlier than JSA would neither change the complains nor would be possible without JSA going to the slot of IA and I think this would make the split story line really untimely.

 

The people complaining have literally told you that they would've been ok with the change done this way for the last 3 weeks.

 

That's... not really what I (we?) are writing... Maybe the split and storyline progression was premature?

Also, I do think you're overestimating the amount of purchases that Yu Jing players who already own a large number of JSA models will take with them into the JSA compared to new players who have not bought into the faction at all or who have been dissuaded from JSA due to Yu Jing. That's also not counting the lost sales for Yu Jing miniatures, but that's a lot harder to estimate, though it does mean that this JSA release actually cannibalises the future IA release. Only place where I'd say that's apparent is with Tohaa players and CB's lack of support for that faction.

 

You're misunderstanding the post. Storm says releasing IA first before the JSA split, to placate Vanilla players, then doing the split later in the year in his words

"releasing IA earlier than JSA would neither change the complains"

To which I've pointed out his argument makes absolutely no sense because all the complaining people have been saying they would've preferred it done that way.

This has nothing to do with cannibalising sales.

 

You do realize you are basing your justification of "removing first, add MUCH later" with "CB chose to redesign JSA with a small patch, then they will produce IA"? Right?
Also, IA's rules are ready and tested, only the models are waiting.

He was saying "release IA now, release the new JSA NEXT YEAR" instead the other way around.

 

IT SEEMS (because my Uprising book is not here and it was teased in a video) that IA has been fully deployed by YJ to resolve the Uprising. Remember that CB does these moves based on how they see the worlds/factions develop, not the game.

 

You're writing this as if this is a decision CB took early January. No, go back further, this is something CB should have planned for in 2016, or whenever the design process for first-half 2018 models were started.

 

Things change sometimes.