I know this forum is meant to be for Ubi-made games, but I couldn't think of a better place to talk about something big related to their IP. This was originally something I sent to the support team directly. I think it would be nice to have more eyes on it though; many complaints are being voiced in the Kickstarter page's discussion, but as far as I can tell the R6 community as a whole isn't as privy to this situation.
Please see below for context:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1162110258/6-siege-the-board-game/posts/3751008
The original delivery estimate for this game was June 2022. The most recent update, from the beginning of the month, now quotes September/October 2023 for release. An amount of delay is not unreasonable; obviously, this Kickstarter was released right when the Suez Canal blockage was happening. This should have been taken into consideration in the planning. A few other Mythic Games (MG) titles have been delayed as well, but any amount of priority for 6: Siege has not been made apparent.
Increased costs are now being shouldered by the backers also. When our pledge manager was opened, it seems like the increased shipping costs were already incorporated. Now, there is some additional production cost being requested. If a backer refuses to contribute this extra amount, MG will not deliver that person their copy of the game. To compensate for this, the company is offering additional content. While the new pieces are welcome, this feels like a bit of a bait and switch. I'm now having to pay more for something that wasn't part of the deal when the sale was made. Furthermore, this additional production cost has not been announced. I've been waiting over 2 weeks to see if it would be disclosed, but still no information.
Here are a few numbers that are likely relevant to this situation. The Kickstarter campaign received $1,541,463 USD with a $100,000 goal. That's over 150% of their quoted production and development costs. If they were truly accurate with that estimation, even the steepest price hikes in the recent global economy should already be accounted for. Especially keeping in mind that all shipping costs were already paid, separately from this amount! Recently, MG used a similar strategy for the Darkest Dungeon campaign. MG claimed that “Thanks to this contribution, which was paid by the vast majority of the concerned backers, more than 20,000 Darkest Dungeon backers could receive their game”. 28,842 people backed Darkest Dungeon in the campaign. So up to 8,842 individuals (about 30%) never received their game and thus forfeit their pledge. If the same trend held for 6: Siege, about 3,265 people would not get their copy. Due to some shortcutting, some backers will not even receive the game in the language they paid for. They will instead have to reference a translated PDF rather than use the language printed on the game pieces.
I know Ubisoft doesn't have any immediate control over these issues. Nor is it truly their job to manage the practices of other companies. However, I know the way things have been handled from the MG side have left a bad taste in the mouth of myself as well as my fellow Rainbow 6 and board game fans. I have been incredibly excited for this project ever since its teaser two years ago, and I would like to see it come to fruition in a way that makes everyone happy. If there is anything the Ubisoft team can do to make the Mythic Games accountable, or at least more transparent, about what is happening, that would be greatly appreciated.
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