Like every other board game publisher, we here at Ion Game Design have been working angles, trying to get creative, and stressing out completely over the global shipping and manufacturing crisis that has resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic. At each turn, we have had to deploy different skills worthy of a master dilettante, everything from negotiating with vendors and export supervisors to collaborating with other similarly stuck publishers to work out group solutions that might boost our chances of seeing movement in manufacturing plants as well as shipyards. Truly, there are not many stones we have left unturned or unexamined for potentially better response and delivery times. And still most solutions, including looking at manufacturing in North America or Turkey rather than the standard of China, still have their own significant bottlenecks and / or cost increases, if they are even logistically possible at all or taking on new clients for that matter.
The fact remains that we are all in this situation universally and fighting to make and deliver your games as quickly as possible. You can read more about how this issue is impacting publishers across the industry in this Time Magazine article. We definitely have not had it as bad as some publishers… what, with container fires and a freight plane crash (no injuries to persons aboard or on the ground) in third quarter of 2021. But the news still remains that our delivery dates for our most recent games of Galenus, Bios: Mesofauna, Dawn on Titan, and Stationfall are delayed and continue to be so.
The best any of us can do is to update you all regularly with our best current insights. We promise to keep you informed so that you know everything that we do and can plan accordingly just as we are having to do. What keeps us going as we work to resolve these issues as soon as possible and work through so many logistical nightmares to the best of our ability is knowing that there is a game night in your futures where you will get to enjoy these wonderful games we have all worked together to create for you. Your many comments on our crowdfunding updates and social media posts giving us encouragement as well as your understanding don’t go unnoticed either! Thank you for being the absolute best customers we could ask for. You are the reason we are here and we will get through this together!
If you are a customer/backer of Galenus, Bios:Mesofauna, Dawn on Titan, or Stationfall, you can see our latest updates with specific details of the current impacts on our delivery timeline on the product page.