MMP on Production of ASL stuff

Gunner Scott

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Hi-
Jay White had asked a few questions of MMP at Consim world and I'd thought I'd share them here. I am actually impressed with Brian honesty and not beating around the bush.

Thank you, thank you for finally being upfront about the ASL situation.

Scott



Brian Youse - Oct 27, 2004 6:32 pm (#24275 Total: 24275)

Any ASL-related announcements coming up soon?

Not that i'm aware of.

Has MMP changed their philosophy towards ASL? I'm curious, because there seems to be a lot more of the Other Stuff going on these days.​

Not at all, just hung up on a bunch of big projects. Reprint a 300 page rulebook. Printing a 10 map 13 countersheet game. AOO. Nothing you can knock off quickly or easily.

The "Other Stuff" is MMP too. I am sincerely sorry if that offends anyone but it's not like the whole company screetches to a halt because we're hung up on getting ASL stuff out the door.

Announcing a Battlefield Series doesn't do much to relieve the $200,000+ US in ASL preorders.​

Nope, sure doesn't.

Does MMP recognize that ASLers are 1) a large proportion of their fanbase, and 2) getting a little worried?​

1) yes. that's why we put out the starter kit to increase that size even more. wildly successful product, we're almost out of stock on it as well, although we'll reprint that at the same time as BV to drive our production costs down even more.

2) why? we've got a long term contract - until that happened nothing major was going to get done. Not great business sense to spend time/money on a product and then lose contract. We're not going to lie, that's a reason why we've done things the way we've done things. Now with the contract in place for the next bunch of years we're ok with doing things like reprinting the rulebook and beyond valor which are not going to sell a ton immediately and which will come out of our pockets (although retailer demand for the rulebook has driven that P# high enough to mostly cover costs).

Who knows, if the Sox win the series we may get an even longer contract. 8)

Can we hope to see a certain amount of releases per year, and take 2004 as an exception?​

I would think so, certainly there is going to be a spurt of ASL releases as the ASLRB, BV, AOO, and J6 all move down the path to being printed at roughly the same time. With VOTG being looked at right now, as we speak, by our outside guys for layout (it's their first project with us, i'm sure there will be small hurdles to jump) I expect that our ASL products will become just like The Gamers line with Dean on board - the day it hits it goes to press. In fact, we'll probably start sending it to press a little earlier, maybe within 10 or 20 of P#, especially if the game zooms up the charts as opposed to creeps up the charts.

Assuming we can get the outside layouts for ASL purring along, with me only having to do occasional layout work, with Dean handling the production of The Gamers, and with various guys handling production of the outside (non-ASL/non-TheGamers) games (Paul's series, Devil's Cauldron, Shifting Sands (immediately has my attention after AOO), Fire in the Sky, etc) the only thing stopping game production will be things on the P# list not hitting.

Brian
 

graydo

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I thought it was a good clear statement as well. Best save up a bit for the eventual anticipated "spurt."

dave
 

Jay White

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Note that Brian said they're trying out some layout-folk.

"With VOTG being looked at right now, as we speak, by our outside guys for layout..."

Damn, I hope these guys work out!

-Jay
 

ChrisBuehler

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Scott, thanks for passing that information along!

The bit about not doing anything major until the contract was in place does make a lot of sense from a business point of view.

Chris
 

Loquitor

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now that is what I have been waiting for....good honest reality, specially about waiting on the contract....

How about a little more on AOO......the only real knock I have had against MMP is the lack of information and updates... tell us what is going on

If work is going slow on layout say it but be specific...if it pushes a game back at least 3 months say it..I like dates and timelines......
 
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Jay White

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More juicy info from Brian on consimworld. It'll be a while before we see this stuff, but the talky-talk gets me excited. Good to know what the MMP bosses are interesting in publishing, in the long run...

JW - "Thanks again for the info, looking forward to seeing some serious ASL stuff soon.."

BY - "Me too. Might be the ASL groggie in me, but this is the drudgery of ASL right now. I'm looking forward to a few things after this current run of things come out.

David Meyler's Rotterdam, Mark Pitcavage's Warsaw, the more "unusual" things.

Don't get me wrong, i'm very interested in taking the central railway station, capturing the culvert at Ortona, and pushing crappy Axis Minor tanks versus T-34s. But the weird, unusual, strange stuff always piques my interest.

Chinese scenarios. My favorite. Only problem is you finish one and have to set up another in an hour. "
 

Gunner Scott

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I'm happy that there will be some ASL stuff next year. Looking forward to VotG big time. now if only i can get some sleep.


Scott
 

R.S. Barker

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Thank you for the update ! 8)

I'm very relieved to hear this news and I think this sort of communication will help ease the worries and let the ASl community breathe deeper in regards to their pre-orders and the future of new products and reprints.

^5ss
 

Chas Argent

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I'm happy that MMP got their contract renewed. Definitely a good thing.

That being said, I don't recall anyone from MMP saying anything about renegotiating the contract before it was finalized. I may have just missed that somewhere, but I usually keep up with the public forums the MMP guys frequent.

It would have gone a long way towards explaining some of the production delays, and might have helped garner a bit more sympathy towards the company in the last year.
 

paulkenny

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Loquitor said:
now that is what I have been waiting for....good honest reality, specially about waiting on the contract....

How about a little more on AOO......the only real knock I have had against MMP is the lack of information and updates... tell us what is going on

If work is going slow on layout say it but be specific...if it pushes a game back at least 3 months say it..I like dates and timelines......
Counters are in layout!
 
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