Palladium just announced the death knell for the Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter, as the Robotech license has expired and will not be renewed.
Palladium has owned the Robotech license for 30 years, and it looks like it won’t be renewed anymore. As for the wave two of Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter, unfortunately, it will not be put into production, and Palladium president, Kevin Siembieda, had a message to their backers explaining why.
When the Robotech® RPG Tactics (RRT) Kickstarter funded in May 2013, we cheered, hugged and actually danced down the halls at the Palladium office. Not just because of the amount of money raised thanks to your pledges, but because it meant the realization of our dreams for Robotech®. For Palladium Books, it signified bringing Robotech fans – ourselves among them – something new and exciting to the beloved Robotech® universe.
So it is with sadness and tremendous heartbreak that I announce that, despite our best efforts, we are unable to produce the Robotech® RPG Tactics Wave Two rewards. Moreover, after proudly carrying the legacy of Robotech® in the role-playing games medium for 30 years, our license has expired and is not being renewed.
It truly is unfortunate to hear that Palladium will not be renewing the license for Robotech. But, what led to this and what led to the failure of the wave two Kickstarter of Robotech RPG Tactics?
After delay after delay that we, like you, did not understand, we learned the problem stemmed from the fact that STL files, the 3D sculpts from the sculptors, were not compatible with the tooling process the manufacturer would be using.
The 3D sculpts we had all worked so hard on, and that Palladium had paid $35,000 for, and looked gorgeous, had to be completely recreated – from scratch – by the manufacturer. And Palladium and Ninja Division had to go through the creation, correction and approval process a second time for ALL of the Wave One and most of the Wave Two game pieces. A process that took MONTHS. Each delay compounding your frustration, and ours, as we would announce one revised release date – and miss it – after another.
Due to a software problem, the 3D files were compatible with the tooling process that the manufacturers would be using, and all of the sculpts had to be recreated by the manufacturer. This put a delay in production, but it was only one of the many bumps in the road. Financially the project ran into quite a few problems.
Dimensional Weight dramatically increased the anticipated shipping cost to backers. $131,843.74 for just Wave One. Another $9,016.80 for the boxes alone to ship your rewards in. And $76,401.20 to import Wave One from China into the USA.
Costs were soaring beyond the original cost projections. Ninja Division suggested splitting the Kickstarter rewards into two waves. We were reluctant at first, but ultimately came around to the idea.
The project expenses soared to a total of $1,583,451 according to the pie chart put out by Palladium president Kevin Siembieda. The project only had a $70,000 goal, and it raised $1,442,312 with 5,342 backers, that is an increase of 2,042.86%.
Individuals that backed the wave two Kickstarter aren’t at a complete loss of their money though.
We know it is not what you expected, but we would like to offer you Wave One rewards in exchange for the unrealized Wave Two rewards – but you will have to pay for shipping. We estimate shipping to all 5,000+ backers around the world will cost $120,000-$160,000; and, at this point, Palladium Books just does not have the resources to cover that expense.
For the people that backed wave two you’ll have the ability to pick up wave one releases they still have on hand, but due to the high cost of shipping, you will also have to pay for the shipping expenses on anything you order. If this is something you’re interested in, make sure you head over to their latest update and take a look at everything they have available. But, you are going to want to act fast, it has a deadline of March 20th.
It’s sad to hear that the Robotech license won’t be renewed, and it’s extremely unfortunate that the Kickstarter was not able to produce enough to keep up with the expenses that wave two brought on. But, we’d like to hear what you think. Drop us a line in the comments below and let us know.
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