Marketing & Media Specialist
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Hello Pathfinders & Paizo Subscribers,
Unfortunately, Pathfinder Dark Archive (Remastered) outsold our expectations and our print run. Because of this, some subscribers and preorder customers will not receive their copy of Pathfinder Dark Archive (Remastered). This only affects the standard hardcover—Special Edition and Sketch Edition subscribers and preorders will not be affected.
Orders are still currently being processed with the copies of Pathfinder Dark Archive (Remastered) we have in stock and shipments will continue throughout this week. We will notify affected customers once all of the current orders in the queue have been shipped. We have ordered a reprint of Dark Archive (Remastered) which should be in our warehouse and ready to begin fulfilling orders in March.
Paizo Customer Service will reach out to affected customers with more details about their orders—other products in the order will ship now, with Pathfinder Dark Archive (Remastered) shipping later at no cost to the customer. Alternatively, affected customers will have the opportunity to request a refund on their order.
We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding as we work to make this right.
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Hello Pathfinders & Paizo Subscribers,
Unfortunately, Pathfinder Dark Archive (Remastered) outsold our expectations and our print run.
The Darkness RUE! It's...SO DARK! SO ARCHIVEY!
IT's...IT'S OVER TAKING US!
HHHHHHHUUUURRRRAAAAGGGGHHHH!
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And the hits just keep coming.
Paizo Customer Service will reach out to affected customers with more details about their orders—other products in the order will ship now, with Pathfinder Dark Archive (Remastered) shipping later at no cost to the customer. Alternatively, affected customers will have the opportunity to request a refund on their order.
Thank you for this clarification. Knowing the corrective action up front is a much needed salve.
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We have ordered a reprint of Dark Archive (Remastered) which should be in our warehouse and ready to begin fulfilling orders in March.
So pretty safe to assume that, due to this print run selling out so soon, that they'll be no errata set to be put in place for the 2nd print run.
Kind of a good situation for Paizo, but a bad situation for anyone hoping for some fixes any time soon for this book. Errors and possible balance adjustments now probably won't happen for a long while, even with the current errata cycle working as intended.
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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So pretty safe to assume that, due to this print run selling out so soon, that they'll be no errata set to be put in place for the 2nd print run.
Kind of a good situation for Paizo, but a bad situation for anyone hoping for some fixes any time soon for this book. Errors and possible balance adjustments now probably won't happen for a long while, even with the current errata cycle working as intended.
We do not have word on this as far as timeline, but we do really appreciate your patience in it!
I just received the Sketch cover edition and the idea of having a plain couloured frame around the sketch on the cover is really Fantastic !!!
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It is kind of a shame that subscribers were shorted on this; one would have thought there would be an effort to make sure their best supporters were taken care of first :(
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Legit question. With the subscription model, how do you not print enough copies in the initial print run to, at the very least, cover subscriptions?
There are ONLY two explanations that I can think of:
1) Paizo's finances couldn't allow it to print that many books without selling some first (not a good indication of company's health).
2) The new Shop automatically signed people up for a remaster and required an opt-out, instead of an opt-in. Staff in charge didn't realize this, and it screwed everything up by making people pay for something they didn't want -- meanwhile not having the supply to cover everyone that DID want a hardcover.
Will Paizo be transparent enough to explain it?
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Legit question. With the subscription model, how do you not print enough copies in the initial print run to, at the very least, cover subscriptions?
There are ONLY two explanations that I can think of:
1) Paizo's finances couldn't allow it to print that many books without selling some first (not a good indication of company's health).
2) The new Shop automatically signed people up for a remaster and required an opt-out, instead of an opt-in. Staff in charge didn't realize this, and it screwed everything up by making people pay for something they didn't want -- meanwhile not having the supply to cover everyone that DID want a hardcover.
Will Paizo be transparent enough to explain it?
I can confirm that the shop required an Opt-Out, though I got an email letting me know to opt-out if i didn't want it.
The true answer is more likely
3) They ordered enough to cover subscribers, what they assumed pre-orders would be, and extra for regular purchases. Lets just make up a number and say 1000. More people pre-ordered/didn't opt out than they expected, exceeding 1000. When you have to order your stuff in advance, you have to guess at what you'll end up needing. And like Rue said, Dark Archive outsold their expectations.
I used to work in Retail many many moons ago. Stuff like this wasn't common, but it did happen with preorders.
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Legit question. With the subscription model, how do you not print enough copies in the initial print run to, at the very least, cover subscriptions?
There are ONLY two explanations that I can think of:
1) Paizo's finances couldn't allow it to print that many books without selling some first (not a good indication of company's health).
2) The new Shop automatically signed people up for a remaster and required an opt-out, instead of an opt-in. Staff in charge didn't realize this, and it screwed everything up by making people pay for something they didn't want -- meanwhile not having the supply to cover everyone that DID want a hardcover.
Will Paizo be transparent enough to explain it?
I can confirm that the shop required an Opt-Out, though I got an email letting me know to opt-out if i didn't want it.
The true answer is more likely
3) They ordered enough to cover subscribers, what they assumed pre-orders would be, and extra for regular purchases. Lets just make up a number and say 1000. More people pre-ordered/didn't opt out than they expected, exceeding 1000. When you have to order your stuff in advance, you have to guess at what you'll end up needing. And like Rue said, Dark Archive outsold their expectations.
I used to work in Retail many many moons ago. Stuff like this wasn't common, but it did happen with preorders.
But they didn't even print enough copies to cover subscribers. As a subscriber, I was notified there will be no hard copy for me in the first print run.
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But they didn't even print enough copies to cover subscribers. As a subscriber, I was notified there will be no hard copy for me in the first print run.
Paizo has to decide how many to print 3+ months before the street date. They probably looked at the other Remasters and assumed it would be similar numbers. As xNelly said, it was probably a combination of fewer people opted out and higher preorders than expected.
As soon as they realized the problem, they let us know and they hope to have the next set of books here by March.
If I remember correctly, the first print of Starfinder sold out almost immediately too.
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But they didn't even print enough copies to cover subscribers. As a subscriber, I was notified there will be no hard copy for me in the first print run.Paizo has to decide how many to print 3+ months before the street date. They probably looked at the other Remasters and assumed it would be similar numbers. As xNelly said, it was probably a combination of fewer people opted out and higher preorders than expected.
As soon as they realized the problem, they let us know and they hope to have the next set of books here by March.
If I remember correctly, the first print of Starfinder sold out almost immediately too.
Understand all of that ... but what's the point of being a subscriber if your copy can be sold to someone else with an "oh, oops, we're sorry ... we'll get that to you ASAP."
That's what computers are for. If you have 1000 copies of something, and 800 subscribers, you have 200 copies for sale - not 1000 copies that you can sell and short your subscribers on ... and pre-orders are a promise to sell something when it's available, not a promise to short one of your existing customers in favor of a new customer.
Still don't get it, but I guess I don't have to since I'm one of the people in the theoretically captive audience :)
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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We do want to be very clear that this was not something intentional nor was it something that is part of a pattern! Kelseus is right here. We just didn't know it would be so popular, but we're really happy it is! Thank you all for understanding in this, and we're working hard to make sure the Subscribers get theirs first!
How can new customers (non-subscriber, non-existing pre-order) make a pre-order for the second print run? I came on to buy a copy today but found it was all sold out everywhere. Is the second print run going to be big enough to ensure some books sit on store shelves when the dust settles?
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How can new customers (non-subscriber, non-existing pre-order) make a pre-order for the second print run? I came on to buy a copy today but found it was all sold out everywhere. Is the second print run going to be big enough to ensure some books sit on store shelves when the dust settles?
Usually it would. They get discount the bigger the print runs they ask for... thus, we can expect them to not just order the minimum they need, cause that would mean that each book cost them more to print. Bonus point that they do know the minimum they need, so this reprint run will be a bit easier to guess a good amount to get... But yeah.
One "evidence" for eexpecting these reprint runs to have many books, is that every times in the past where they sold out in the first month of a book release, the reprint run made in emergency almost always made these books the longuest ones to "sold out" again. There's a couple books that we have had no errata for a long time because of that. :O (As before, they were not doing errata without the book getting sold out.)
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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How can new customers (non-subscriber, non-existing pre-order) make a pre-order for the second print run? I came on to buy a copy today but found it was all sold out everywhere. Is the second print run going to be big enough to ensure some books sit on store shelves when the dust settles?
Yes, there will be lots of books! Essentially at this time, you just have to wait until we resolve the issue. We're sorry about the wait, but we are going as quickly as we can!
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Maya, I want you to know that we do appreciate your work on the forums.
Dark Archive Remastered appeared in the subscription manager in the March order. Do we need to skip it for the order to be processed properly, or does this mean the new books have almost arrived at Paizo?