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Changes Taking Place at Multi-Man Publishing

Nov 7, 2012

In response to ongoing frustration on the part of gamers Multi-Man Publishing has announced some changes in how they do business. This is good news for fans of Advanced Squad Leader (and other of the company’s titles) as MMP is promising to make life easier for grognards everywhere!

From Multi-Man:

We are announcing a number of changes here at Multi-Man Publishing. In listening to your feedback, we have heard a number of frustrations, which we have taken to heart. After analyzing how we can better provide our customers with quality games and service within our given constraints, we are undertaking two initiatives to improve our process. The first initiative comes in the area of customer relations. We understand that MMP needs to do a better job communicating with our customers, so we have engaged Steven Mitchell as our Communications Coordinator to help us accomplish that goal. Steven will be an active presence on the various wargaming boards and social networks, and he will help us release a monthly status update about our game development and preorders. This will allow us to respond better to your feedback and help us keep you informed about the games you enjoy and the games you hope to enjoy soon.

The second initiative is to improve and streamline how Multi-Man Publishing handles pre-orders and the production queue. The perception exists that games languish on the MMP preorder list forever and that even after a game hits, MMP takes forever to publish any game. While we have made great strides in the past year, there is no question that some games have spent a very long time on our preorder list and that we have at times taken a very long time to publish a game after it hit its P#.

We are taking a number of concrete steps to correct this as outlined in this list and then further explained below:

We will not put a game up for preorder unless development is essentially complete and we have in hand box art and solid rules for the game.
We will publish all games within a reasonable amount of time after they hit their preorder #.
We also commit to a two-year deadline for new preorders.
We are dropping some games from our preorder list (see below).
We are putting VCS-Salerno on a six-month deadline.
We are moving our magazine Special Ops to a once-a-year schedule

We promise that we will not put a game up for preorder unless development is essentially complete and we have in hand box art and solid rules for the game. On game series that we know are well supported, like ASL and OCS, we will not post the game for preorder until all artwork is complete and the game is ready to go to press. Please just think of preorders for these series as a way to offer our most supportive customers a bit of a discount! Whenever we put a game up for preorder, we will post the box art and the rules for review. This will not only serve as a reminder of our commitment to full development for all preorders, but it should also help better inform players about the game in question. We will also post other playtest components when appropriate.
The above will help fulfill another promise: we will publish all games within a reasonable amount of time after they hit their preorder #. We cannot commit to an exact timeframe because there are too many variables involved. Although we cannot afford to sink a lot of money into artwork for a preorder that might not hit its P#, we intend to monitor carefully the progress of our games to ensure that the artwork is being completed as the game hits its goal.
As part of our effort to combat the perception that games languish too long on our list, we also commit to a two-year deadline for new preorders. If a game does not hit its P# within two years of going on our preorder list, we will drop it from our list. We will either redevelop it (if we think that is the problem), or hold it for a more promising time in the future or-if not part of an existing series-return it to the designer. In light of our new commitment to having games ready to go, two years should be plenty long enough for a game to hit its P#.We think that there are various reasons why some of our games have not been able to hit their P#. Sometimes it was the wrong game at the wrong time. Sometimes our marketing efforts may have been insufficient, although in other cases there is not much more the designer could have done along those lines. Part of the problem is that some people are discouraged from preordering by the perception that the game will just sit on the preorder list, both before and after hitting its P#, and we aim to address those concerns directly.
Putting our money where our mouth is (so to speak), we are dropping some games from our preorder list. Make no mistake about it, we think these are great games that we would be proud to publish, but we think we need to make some hard decisions concerning games that are not capable of hitting their P# anytime soon.The easiest games to cut are two reprints, Drive on Paris and Fallschirmjager. Although these games are proven successes, the market to reprint them just isn’t there right now. Maybe later for them. Harder decisions were required for the reprint of A Las Barricadas and its expansion Help Arrives, and for the initial entry in the War Storm Series-France 1940. All three suffer from competing with our other tactical WWII-era games, with ALB’s problems compounded by a seemingly-limited interest in the Spanish Civil War as a topic. Another tough decision surrounded another great game on that topic-Crusade and Revolution. Despite some great artwork and the Herculean efforts of designer David Gómez Relloso, this card-driven game could not garner the preorders we need to publish with confidence in success. We remain confident that this is a great game, and we believe David has another home for this title. Also coming down off the preorder list are What Price Glory and The Setting Sun. We are glad to say that What Price Glory will be going into the next issue of Special Ops as a magazine game, and we hope that we will be able to do something similar with The Setting Sun.
A tough decision that we hope not to have to make concerns VCS-Salerno. This great game has also been struggling on the list despite its beautiful map, the tireless efforts of its designer, and a priced-to-move preorder cost of $31.50. We are putting this game on a countdown to hit its P# within the next six months-or else. If it doesn’t hit by May Day, we will take it off our preorder list no matter how close it is. We don’t want to do that, but we think that limiting the time that games spend on our list is the best thing to do.
Speaking of Special Ops, we are going to move to a once-a-year schedule for a slightly larger magazine-timed to come out at the World Boardgaming Championships in the summer. So, Special Ops #4 will be available around August of 2013. We found that a bi-annual schedule was diverting our efforts away from publishing the games on our preorder list, and we think that an annual schedule will allow us to produce a better ‘zine.

That’s a lot of changes packed into one announcement, but we think all are changes for the better. We are disappointed that we will not be able to publish the great games that we have cut from the list, but we think that cutting them will help us to publish other great games that have a better chance of being successful. We are dedicated to doing a better job of communicating with our customer base. We think we have some of the most dedicated customers in the business, and they deserve no less.

There will be more to announce in the near future, including new games to preorder. So please, preorder a game today and stay tuned for more news.

Multi-Man Publishing

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...